While I was on holiday in New York in 2002 I went to see the Hit Broadway Musical Hairspray.

Background:

This stage musical is based on the 1988 film Hairspray directed and written by John Waters. This film was set in 1962, Tracey Turnblade (Ricky Lake) a oversized teenage wins a place on a TV dance show and decides to use this as a forum to speak out about racial integration. This film had music but was not a musical version. A re-make of this film is planned for 2007 and rumours say it will be starring Queen Latifa and John Travolta.

The stage musical has been brought to life with colour and song making it a joy to behold. It is a great musical comedy, The 60's have been re-created by the amazing make-up and costume team, these is a foot tapping, heading nodding musical which has you on your feet and dancing down the isle of the theatre by the end of, so start practising those dance moves.

Characters:

Tracy Turnbalde is a big girl, with even bigger hair; her big dream is to appear as a dancer on the 'Corney Collins Show', her dream comes true and Tracey becomes a teenage celebrity over night. Tracey then decides to use her newfound fame to help brake down the colour barriers of racial segregation.

Penny is Tracey's skinny, four eyes friend, she appear to be ashy girl but when she opens her mouth to sing 'wow' what a set of lungs she has. Penny encourages Tracey to enter the dance contest much to the disapproval of her very over protective mother.

Link is part of The Corney Collins Show dancers and is this musicals heartthrob! He catches Tracey's eye straight away but will she win his heart?

Amber is the princess of The Corney Collins show and is hoping to be crowned Miss Hairspray.

Seaweed J Stubbs is a cool, confident black teen whose mother hosts Negro day on TV.

Little Inez is Seaweed's younger sister and she holds the same dream as Tracey to perform on The Corney Collins Show.

Edna Turnblade is Tracey's mother and in keeping with the film this role is played by a man, the costume team have done a great job in creating some fabulous drag costumes for this character. Edna brings humour and warmth to the show.

Music:

The show starts with Tracey's opening number "Good Morning Baltimore", through this number she sets the scene and lets the audience know about her dreams. Baltimore is the town in which she lives, it is also a real American town and home to The Buddy Deane Show - the real life show that The Corney Collins Show has been based on.

"Mama I'm a big girl now" is a fantastic song broken up into 3 sections of Tracey and Mum, Penny and Mum & Amber & Mum. This song is a catchy number that lets the girls are tell their mothers that they have to let them get on with it and that they are ld enough to make their own decisions in life.

"Welcome to the 60's" is the ultimate 60's number of the show introducing an array of costumes and hairstyles from the era, this number has your tapping your feet and wanting to jump up and dance.

Tracey auditions for The Corney Collins show and this is when she meets Link for the first time, with her song "I can hear the bells" she wins the audiences hearts as we see her fantasy of being Links girlfriend.

Tracey and Little Inez both audition for the show and are rejected Tracey because of her size and Little Inez because of her colour, and so Tracey's quest begins.

When Tracey returns to school she has been put into Special Ed class, this just adds to her humiliation until she be friends Seaweed J Stubbs and he teaches her some funky dance moves that will her to re-audition for the show and to be entered for the Miss Hairspray contest.

" You can't stop the beat" is the finale to the 60's musical extravaganza and it has you literally dancing down the isle of the theatre, as the audience are encouraged to take to their feet and do the twist themselves!

All the numbers in this show are upbeat and sassy with a real 60's vibe about them, they all add to the story. So if you want to find out if Tracey gets to dance on The Corney Collins Show? If she wins Links heart? And if the colour barrier can be broken down? Then you know what to do - see the show.

Set & Costume:

The costume brings so much to this production, bright colours and 60's style, big hair in fabulous styles pilled high upon the actors heads, how the wigs didn't fall of while they were performing the high paced dance routines I'll never know. The stage has been designed with red curtains in the shape of a flicked out 60's hair do and the costumes have been designed to show the journey of all the characters for Tracey in particular going from rags to riches.

Awards:

Hairspray has done extremely well in New York; here are just some of the wards the production has won:

Tony Award for Best Musical
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Male Actor in a Musical: Harvey Fierstein
Tony Award for Best Female Leading Female Actress in a Musical: Marissa Janet Winokur
Tony Award For Best Featured Actor in a Musical: Dick Latessa
Tony award for Best Direction of a Musical: Jack O'Brien
Tony Award for Best Original Score: Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman
Tony Award For Best Book of a Musical: Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan
Tony Award For Best Costume: William Ivey Long
Tony Honours for Exclusive Excellence in Theatre: Paul Huntley, Wig Designer

New York Drama Critics Award of Best Musical

Drama League Award For Most Distinguished Production of a Musical.
Drama League Award Fro The Most Distinguished Performance of the Year: Harvey Fierstein.

Clarence Derwent Award For Most Promising Female: Kerry Butler

Theatre:

Prices: have you ever heard of the last minute lottery? Neither had I, some theatre hold a Last Minute Lottery for show tickets, ask at the box office of the theatre of the show you want to see and they will give you all the information. Hairspray holds a last minute lottery 4 hours before the show starts. When you arrive you are given a piece of paper to put your name on and you can chose to put X1 or X2 tickets, the slip of paper is then put into a barrel and 45mins later the draw begins. If your name is called you have just got your self a top price seat in the front row of the theatre for $25, this is some saving as ticket process are high on Broadway. They give away 25 of these seats for every performance.
Their were three of us on our trip and two of our names got called out, mine being one of them, so we all got cheap tickets, although we were prepared to pay more after hearing such good reviews about the show.

If you don't have time to queue in the lottery then prices range from $40 - $110.

I have heard rumours that the show maybe coming to the UK!