HERE IS A REVIEW:
Hairspray
by Robert Nesti
EDGE National Arts & Entertainment Editor
Thursday Oct 26, 2006
To paraphrase its final lyric: you can’t stop Hairspray, the high-energy musical hit that has been splendidly re-configured for the in-the-round setting of the North Shore Music Theatre. It wasn’t that way the last time it traveled through Boston, where it seemed lost in the Opera House despite being a replication of its current Broadway version. What, it turns out, was missing was intimacy, which is precisely what it gains in Barry Ivan’s imaginative NSMT staging. It may have a strong physical resemblance to the original production (the costumes and wigs have been replicated) but this Hairspray seems to float in its own Ozone-filled cloud.
Of course most everyone (if you’re gay, that is) knows the source material - the John Waters 1988 film that tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, a weight-challenged teenage girl, who wants to find her place on a Baltimore teen-dance show (similar to American Bandstand.) That in the process she integrates the racially-divided city (at least on the Corny Collins Show) was part of Waters’ wonderfully subversive take on 1960s culture.
It remains the director’s most accessible film; but still one that contains his subversive sense-of-humor. From exaggerated racist Moms to pot-smoking hippies, Waters mined the decade for satiric targets. Who can forget Pia Zadora ironing her hair? She, rather her character, is missing from the musical adaptation, which seems to play down Waters admittedly softer edge for something even more commercial Broadway filled with sassy one-liners. What bookwriters Thomas Meehan and Mark O’Donnell skillfully do is keep some of the film’s best aspects, such as casting Edna Turnblad (Tracy’s mom) as a man-in-drag, while underscoring its themes of self-acceptance and racial integration. To this add Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s wonderful pastiche score that not only skillfully evokes 1960s pops music, but tells the story in some wickedly funny lyrics. On stage Hairspray is a candy-coated message musical that’s not far removed from those of its time period - think Bye, Bye Birdie.
Under Ivan’s sure hand, this Hairspray never lets up, save for a wonderfully calibrated soft shoe number between Tracy’s parents, Edna and Wilbur. The song - Timeless to Me - is an old-fashioned charmer that Paul Vogt (as Edna) and Dick Decareau (as Wilbur) build to a slyly timed comic finish. Vogt has a droll comic delivery that often wisely evokes Divine, the film’s Edna; and his facial expressions and basso vocal delivery are priceless. Decareau is equally endearing. In fact what makes Hairspray so much fun is how perfectly Waters’ wacky characters transfer to the stage: Motormouth Maybelle, the black DJ who speaks in verse; Mr. Pinky, the owner of Hefty Hideaway where Tracy and Edna shop; Amber and Velma Von Tussle; the vicious mother-and-daughter duo; and Penny and Seaweed, the interracial teenage couple right out of a American-International picture from the period. Ivan’s stages the musical numbers with big flourishes that are perfect for the material. Even short bits, such as the coda to Welcome to the Sixties, is given a big, Dreamgirls-like finish. His abundant and clever choreography offers a hilarious primer of 1960s dance styles delivered with breathless enthusiasm from the ensemble.
What also makes this production so much fun is how highly-charged this cast is. Inga Ballard , as Motormouth Maybelle, has commanding stage presence and a big-Gospel-styled belt that’s perfect for her Second Act Broadway spiritual I Know Where I’ve Been. Of the teens David Larsen’s Link moves well and has comic Boy Band appeal; unfortunately for him, he also had a case of laryngitis (it seemed) on opening night that forced him to hold back on his vocal delivery. Nonetheless he persisted, charmingly. Dashaun Young as Seaweed is a gifted, supple dancer with a smooth, vocal style; there’s a lovely, dim-witted lunacy to Sarah Elizabeth Nischwitz ’s Penny; and a cunning nastiness from Dana Zihlman Harshaw’s Amber, the musical’s most-flagrante hair hopper. Todd DuBail’s funny take on a Dick Clark-like teen show host is right-on-target; and David Coffee Mr. Pinky is pure John Waters in the best sense.
And then there’s Bridie Carroll’s Tracy. From the moment she appears singing Good Morning, Baltimore with the kind-of determination that would make Mama Rose proud, Carroll embodies the role. Her wide-eyed enthusiasm has enormous appeal, and she sings with a firm belt that perfectly evokes Tracy’s big personality. She also can dance (her rendition of a dance she calls Peyton Place After Midnight is hilarious,) making her ideal in this hugely demanding role. Carroll is nicely matched by two equally funny comic performances: Valerie Fagan in a variety of roles, (lascivious gym teacher, hysterical mother, sadistic warden) and Deb Lyons as Amber’s ambitious, racist mother Velma. Her comic style is Drag Queen Big, like Lypsinka, which makes her rendition of Miss Baltimore Crabs such a hugely theatrical moment.
Howard C. Jones’s set design is comprised mostly of simple pastel panels, evoking such period television shows like Hullabaloo, that circle the stage, complementing a checkerboard floor. It is richly abetted by William Ivy Long’s original Broadway costumes and wigs (some 55) that give the show its imaginative period look. Its period sound comes courtesy of the first-rate ensemble, under Dale Rieling’s direction.
About the only thing that’s missing are some of the clever stage effects from the Broadway version that set the show’s mischievous tone immediately. Instead Ivan underscores Hairspray’s story line in ways that makes the second act feel more unified than it did earlier. He makes Hairspray seem more like a musical of its period than a pastiche of one, and it’s in this change in emphasis, plus the immediacy of the performers, that makes this evening such a winner. "That was fun, fun, fun, and more fun," said a woman on her way out. It couldn’t be better expressed.
Updated On: 10/29/06 at 03:49 AM
