HAIRSPRAY tour - Buffalo (4/12)

[zamedy]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:13am

So I just got back from seeing Hairspray at Shea's Performing Arts Center here in Buffalo and I have to say, I was quite impressed. This was the fourth time I have seen this show (twice when the national tour came thru in 2005 and once on Broadway). I had lower expectations going into the show tonight, knowing it is a scaled down version with the non-equity tour. I am delighted to say I was pleasantly surprised by how GOOD the show turned out to be.

BROOKLYN PULVER (Tracy) was AMAZING! She's played this part for two years and clearly has it down cold, yet is clearly not bored with it either. She made Tracy someone you wanted to root for and embrace. And the audience did. Great voice. Great Actress. And she looked sincerely humbled at her curtain call when the audience went nuts for her.

JERRY O'BOYLE (Edna) did a great job as well. I actually liked his Edna better than Paul Vogt's version that I saw on Broadway. Some of the jokes fell flat, and I thought they could have received a better laugh if they were delivered differently.. but who am I to say. His "(You're) Timeless to Me" with DAN FERRETTI got one of the biggest laughs of the night. The audience ate it up (although I wish they would have done the encore like they do on Broadway).

ANGELA BIRCHETT (Motormouth Maybelle) did the part justice. Her rendition of "I Know Where I've Been" was very good. You felt it. Better than the understudy for Darlene Love I saw on Broadway.

SHARON MALANE (Penny Pingleton) was fantastic! I think this was only her third show in the role. Just about every one of her jokes got a laugh. Great pipes, too. She and her Seaweed (DONELL JAMES FOREMAN) made a perfect couple.

The best part of the show was that amazing finale, "You Can't Stop The Beat." I actually forgot how amazing it is to see this number performed live. And the encore they did after the curtain call brought down the house! This cast had so much energy, and everyone were clearly having a great time... and so was the audience! My grandma, who is picky when it comes to musicals, loved it! And as we were leaving, I overheard several grown women saying they wanted to come back and see it again. A great night indeed.

Next week... I'm seeing it on Broadway again, for Darlene Love's last performance. I'll post a review for that, too. There's just something about Hairspray that is irresistable to me. You truly cannot stop the beat!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:15am

I'm seeing Shannon's last performance and will be seeing the tour in DC this week.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:19am

I'm glad you liked it. :) Sharon has actually been playing Penny since February. I love the tour cast!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:22am

Is Sharon the 2nd or 3rd Penny for this production?

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 6:22pm

THE BUFFALO NEWS LIKED IT TOO!
HERE'S THEIR REVIEW!
ENJOY!
=========================

Rollicking ‘Hairspray’ leaves the house rockin’
By Anne Neville NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 04/12/08 6:54 AM

Rousing dance numbers are part of what draws audiences to “Hairspray,” which begins a three-day stop at Shea’s tonight.
In 1962 Baltimore, the hair was high, the determination was strong and the love of music and dance broke down the barriers of racism and prejudice when a rollicking “Hairspray” hit Shea’s Performing Arts Center Friday night.

The iconic play, the offspring of a 1988 John Waters film, delivers social messages about self-esteem and racial equality, set to a bouncing, infectious score that reflects doowop, gospel, blues and other roots of rock. The first of many candy-colored sets shows Tracy Turnblad, the effervescent and athletic Brooklynn Pulver, in her bright pink bed, delighted to be facing a day full of promise. With her as a charming, uninhibited guide, the audience is swept into a world where mean queen bees and bigoted adults have no power over teens with open minds and dancing feet.

The costuming is a visual delight, with women in full skirts or plaid kilts under cardigans and men in striped Banlon shirts, madras and chinos.

Edna Turnblad, who is first seen in an enormous housedress and slippers, has been portrayed by a man since Divine took the role in Waters’ film. A quick announcement before the show named this actor as Michael Walker.

Edna could be a caricature or a joke, but Walker played her as an appealing, caring mom who has nearly been defeated by her own fears. When she finds out that her little girl, Tracy, wants to appear on Corny Collins’ TV dance show, she says poignantly, “They don’t put people like us on television except to be laughed at,” but her irrepressible daughter is having none of it.

It’s not that Tracy’s life is perfect — in fact, she’s always in detention for teasing her hair so high that it obstructs other students’ view of the blackboard, and she has to shop at “Mr. Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway.” But in detention, she meets Seaweed J. Stubbs, played with agile charm by Donell James Foreman, and learns that he and other black kids can only dance on the Corny Collins Show one day a week — “Negro Day.” Tracy sets out to integrate the show, at the same time running for “Miss
Hairspray of 1962” against the snotty Amber von Tussle (also played by an understudy, Katie Donohue) and her manipulative mom, who produces the Corny Collins Show.

The path to allowing all the students to dance together leads Tracy and her comic, gum-chewing pal, Penny Pingleton (played with wit by Sharon Malane) to the record store owned by Seaweed’s mother, Motormouth Maybelle, a rhyme-talking, truth-telling woman who knows her value. In one of the show’s best tunes (and there are many), she gives Edna a self-esteem boost with “Big, Blonde and Beautiful.” As Maybelle, Angela Birchett amazed with some towering, powerful notes at the end of “I Know Where I’ve Been.”

This comedic singing and dancing spectacle is spiced up by a sprinkling of bawdiness. Edna and her goofy but devoted husband Wilbur (played by Dan Ferretti) were unexpectedly touching in the romantic “(You’re) Timeless to Me,” until Edna began giggling at a bit of suggestive banter.

The rousing “You Can’t Stop the Beat” ended the high-energy show with a blast and sent the crowd into the night happy and humming.

Theater Review

“ Hairspray”

*** out of 4

[Joshua488]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 7:41pm

Sharon Malane is the second Penny for this production.

The article names Katie Donohue as an understudy, but she is actually the new Amber; she was just bumped up from the role of Lou Ann.