HAIRSPRAY LIVE! Viewing Thread — Page 14

My thoughts:

I loved Maddie Baillio as Tracy. I thought she was adorable, had a great "stage" presence - didn't seem nervous at all - and she had a wonderful voice.

I loved all of the adults - Harvey Fierstein, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Sean Hayes, Kristin Chenoweth, Derek Hough, Rosie O'Donnell, Jennifer Hudson, Paul Vogt all gave A+ performances. I loved everything about all of them.

Kristin's "Miss Baltimore Crabs" had me teary eyed for Tracy. I have never felt Tracy was SO targeted before until last night. It was so rude and demeaning but in the best way. What a fantastic performance all around for Kristin.

Harvey was fantastic but no surprises there. Also loved Martin Short and I usually think Wilbur is the weakest character.

Derek Hough was the most perfect Corny. While I didn't like that they included "Ladies Choice" in the live broadcast, he was the best choice for who was going to sing it.

The only "negative" I have about the adults is Jennifer Hudson is certainly not big...just blonde and beautiful, so, I wish they added some padding to her or something within her costumes as they used to do for some of the actors on Broadway. Her voice absolutely blew me away.

My favorite number was Welcome to the 60's. Between the two original Tracy's, the original choreography, the original dynamites, the costume changes...I was in heaven. Loved every second of it.

My least favorite was Run and Tell That. I'm not sure why it seemed Ephraim Sykes was so...slow? Off? Different paced? than what I was used to hearing, but, for one of my favorite songs, I was incredibly disappointed by this number.

I was SO thrilled they used the original choreography. Knew there would be some but didn't expect it to be the entire show. Couldn't stop myself from dancing along to You Can't Stop The Beat!

I know people have been complaining about the lighting / sound but in my opinion, it didn't bother me when a mic would randomly drop because that's just stuff that can happen when it's truly live. Yes I said "uh oh" every time something went wrong, but, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the whole night.

I'm still sad they cut out The Big Doll House - I LOVED that number on Broadway.

Cutting Cheno out of the curtain call / bows to pan to Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande was a BIG mistake that I can not forgive. lol. The only technical "glitch" that truly bothered me.

Speaking of Ariana Grande - boy did I hate her performance. Wasn't funny, wasn't dorky....too much makeup. Felt like she was holding back all night long. Seemed like a cardboard cutout. Penny's lines have always been my favorite and she just didn't deliver. Also - they cut my favorite Penny line! "plastic little spastic!".

Another negative for me would be Garrett Clayton as Link. Felt he lacked charm and personality.

I'm not sure how I feel about Dove Cameron. In the beginning it seemed like she was so focused on delivering her lines clearly that she forgot to act. Another cardboard cutout, I thought. However, I think she really improved the second half and I loved her "Cooties".

I loved the use of the huge backlot, though it was blatantly obvious they were trying to compete directly with Grease Live! - however - Grease Live! WORKED so, hey, why not?

I thought Darren Criss was completely unnecessary.

Overall, I thought it was such a joyous night. Hairspray was my first Broadway show and is still my all time favorite musical. I honestly think it was the best live musical on NBC we've seen so far; they took what didn't work in the past and made it work.

ErikJ972 said: ""Why was "Good Morning, Baltimore" taking place at night?"

Because they shot it outside and it was strating to get dark in LA. I work in a school and it's still dark in the moring when I'm on the way there so I just though it was early morning Baltimore :)

I loved this. By far my favorite of the live TV musicals, in fact it's the first one I made it all the way through (never saw Grease live though). There were a few tech problems but it didn't impact my enjoyment of the show as a whole.

I thought the cast was great...except for Link. And it was great to be able to see all the original choreography again.

And what a great message to have on TV after this year's divisive election.

Two thumbs up, four stars, A+



"

When it's dark in the morning for school in Baltimore....it's the winter and coats are needed. In the fall and the spring, it's light out.



You can use more lights to make it seem like morning....even outside. Movies are filmed in the middle of the night often -- especially in cities, to keep distractions down.

I find myself comparing everyone to the original film. The one starring Divine and Ricki Lake. Nothing compares. That film notwithstanding, I still didn't love this tv broadcast.

Harvey, of course is great as Edna. Travolta was so bad, I was not able to watch that film rendition. I was disappointed with Martin Short, as I'm a great fan, and I expected more. Maddie was just fine, I thought. Ariana was wrong for the part of Penny. She looked the part, was an ok comedienne, but she doesn't have a rock voice, and all her songs fell flat, that is, if you could hear them. I thought Chenoweth was fine, and Amber was perfect. Derek was just right for that role, and Link was right for that particular role, which doesn't call for anything more than looking dreamy. Seaweed and Inez were just fine also.

Jennifer Hudson is of course, a phenomenal singer, but again, remembering Ruth Brown, who embodied Motormouth as middle aged, not glamorous, who delivered her song with the right amount of emotion, I thought Hudson delivered her number well, but may have been doing her own concert rather than playing Seaweed's mother.

The beginning of the show dragged for me, but picked up and ended up being entertaining. Made me want to see the original movie tout suite!

I mean, I can kinda picture in Trump America someone turning this on for a sec cause they were curious and didn't know the show, seeing Harvey Fierstein singing, and going "NOPE."

kofler22 said: "Have you read about the ratings? I thought this was going to be a huge hit, closer to Sound of music! What a shame!"

Well, The Sound of Music had three things going for it:

1. The first live TV musical in over 50 years.
2. It was a title everyone knew.
3. Whether people liked the idea of Carrie Underwood as Maria or not, it still got a lot of people interested enough to tune in.

Fully expected the ratings drop. Very little general buzz around this.

I've just gotten around to seeing the highlight videos NBC has been uploading to their YouTube channel as well as the 'Hairspray Live' Facebook page.

I am really impressed with the staging for "Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now". Very well done.

Confession: I am completely in love with Dove Cameron. Total babe.

Theater_Nerd said: "I've just gotten around to seeing the highlight videos NBC has been uploading to their YouTube channel as well as the 'Hairspray Live' Facebook page.

I am really impressed with the staging for "Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now". Very well done.

"

Glad you enjoyed "Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now," cuz I was pretty let down by it. I thought it was pretty stagnant up until the set flew away to reveal the bigger one. And having all three of the girls sing directly into the camera was weird. I'm not sure what the alternative could've been, but this to me was one of the weaker staging/directing choices of the night.

Are people really complaining about it being dark? This is a live show, people. Forget the cost alone - you want another minute of commercials to pay for a couple of minutes of daylight? - I'm sure rigging up a gazillion lights and then working around them would be impossible. And what if it rained? All that for nothing?



And by the way, when we compare it to Grease Live, remember that Alex Rudzinski, the TV director that shared the Emmy with Thomas Kail last year, was the TV director this year. And he even says this production was definitely more ambitious and epic that Grease was last year.

oh, I left out Andrea Martin. oy, not enjoyable.

seaweedjstubbs said:


Glad you enjoyed "Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now," cuz I was pretty let down by it. I thought it was pretty stagnant up until the set flew away to reveal the bigger one. And having all three of the girls sing directly into the camera was weird. I'm not sure what the alternative could've been, but this to me was one of the weaker staging/directing choices of the night.

Do you have any ideas how you would have staged it? I would love to read them.

"Are people really complaining about it being dark?"

When the performers' faces are barely visible, yes, sure, why not?

"I actually loved the night-for-day, especially at dusk in the opening..."

Perhaps we have very different televisions, but that looked like the middle of the night to us, not dusk.

I have to say that while watching the highlight video for "Good Morning Baltimore" I laughed because I was thinking to myself if someone fell asleep at the switch and failed to light the set properly so it could reflect daytime.

It was pretty odd.

Updated On: 12/8/16 at 11:17 AM