Hairspray at Papermill Review

Hey all -

Just saw Opening Night of Hairspray at Papermill. I don't have time for a full review but just wanted to say a few things.

It was a ball - so so so much fun.

It looked and felt just like Broadway. Same sets, costumes and recreated choreography and direction. The company was full of energy and everyone brought some new bits to the roles (Chris Seiber does some cool new vocal things).

Though there were some opening night sound glitches, the worse of it being a booming bass feedback for a lot of the beginning of "Big Dollhouse," the company acted right through it very professionally.

The audience really let loose in "Welcome to the 60's" when the Dynamites started wailing.

It was electric.

Updated On: 9/22/10 at 11:21 PM

Thank you for your review. I must see this!

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Don't know how often the trains run, but the Papermill is walking distance from the NJ Transit Millburn station.

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I also attended Hairspray at Paper Mill. I was at the evening performance last night and thought I would offer my review of the show.....

Overall I thought the show was great. It looked and sounded exactly like the NY Production. The ensemble cast was great. They really worked hard and it shows!

There weren't any major sound problems except during Welcome to the 60s there was a mic problem but other then that the sound was great.

As for the main principles in the show they were all fantastic.

Susan Mosher was on as Velma and she was great. Although I did miss her as the female authority figure. She is exceptional in that role.

Chris Sieber was very good as Edna but unfortunately some of his deliveries of certain lines fell flat and didn't get many laughs.

Alex Ellis as Penny Pingleton stole the show. She was excellent. I would have to say out of the 3 Penny's I have seen she was the best.

Christine Danelson plays Tracy and overall I thought she did very well. But as I watched her in the role it seems she never tried to make the role her own in any way. She was just copying previous Tracy's. I do have to say her dancing is very good. But like I said her acting choices and even the way she sang most of the songs didn't seem original in any way.

And if anyone was wondering Paper Mill DOES have a stagedoor. Its all the way in the back parking lot. There were a lot of kids waiting for the cast to come out. ALL the cast members were so sweet to everyone. I do have to say Paper Mill needs to put up some sort of barrier for the cast to get out of the door because all the kids that were there kind of rushed the door as soon as it opened to get autographs from anyone that walked out. I think even one girl asked a stage hand for there autograph. lol.

All in all it was a great show that I will definitely see again! If you are a fan of Hairspray it is a must see!

I saw Hairspray at the Paper Mill on Wednesday night. I understand that it is still in previews and actually opens tomorrow evening. It is an excellent show and more than likely one of the Paper Mill's best. This isn't just my opinion. It is the one I consistently overheard from the audience.

As far as the comments that the show is just a copy of the Broadway version, I wish you had attended the director's pre-show meeting. It would have explained a great deal to you. The sets are actually the Tour's sets. The director and choreographer are both from the original Broadway show. Why would you expect them to change something that worked so well on Broadway? I think they did a phenominal job....and that the settings worked well.

When I attended on Wednesday, the audience did get Christopher Seiber's ad libs. He is amazing. Not surprisingly, the audience also loved Motormouth. Natashia Yvette Williams is a total powerhouse and absolutely fantastic.

As far as your comments concerning Christine Danelson, I am not sure what you think she should do differently to make her part more original. I thought her voice was particularly unique and some of her facial expressions comical.

There is no question that Penny absolutely steals the show. I also agree that this one was of the best Pennys.

Kevin Meaney as the male authority figure is hysterical. You should have seen him at the stage door. It doesn't seem he ever leaves character.

It's a good show and I hope to see it again!

I agree he deserves to be well known, but there's nothing bad about regional theatre. Lots of big names do it.

I am assuming that tazber is referring to the fact that Chris Sieber was a member of the "Give the Tonys back to Broadway" madness earlier this summer and poking fun at him a bit. I doubt he was calling into question the value of regional theatre. Might be wrong, but don't freak out.

Tazber, honey, I understood your comment.

"Chris Sieber is not only a great talent, but a class act."

Talented? Yes. Classy? I would have said yes had I not read the things he said earlier this summer following the Tonys (before he deleted them).

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Oy, it took me a while to make the connection. I was about to be all, "DON'T KNOW REGIONAL THEATER," as I am in an especially "God bless regional theater" place these days. Anyway, yeah, adore him on stage, lost quite a bit of respect for him off.

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At risk of sounding petty and shrill, Chris Sieber is among the list of people that I lost respect for during, er, "that incident". I understand and respect the fact that he is most likely a colleague (and possibly a personal friend) of yours, but his action was extremely tacky and outside of deleting it there was never any acknowledgment or apology.

To give it some perspective, MY Facebook page is set to private, so only friends can read it, but even still I make sure not to mention anyone by name or include too much descriptive information when I feel like venting about a colleague - and that's just to MY 200ish friends. Chris Sieber's page was public, with over 2,000 friends who would see that in their wall feed. I can only imagine the conniption our HR person would have had if he worked for my employer.

And, at risk of sounding "weird", I AM still angry about that whole thing. The "Will Swenson Playing Gay" thread might have scraped off a scab and left me feeling testier than usual, but I'm still P.O.'d about it. I wanted to believe in that movement at first, but I started to have doubts. One night I had the opportunity to voice my doubts and not only were they not addressed, they were deleted by sunrise. That was the point where I decided to leave Hunter's group altogether. Not to mention, I thought CZJ was divine in the role.

So, if some of us still want to "harp" on it, please understand that's it's because we started out wanting to support Hunter and his goal, but our initial thoughts or disappointments were never addressed at the time. It made us feel marginalized, much in the same way THEY were feeling marginalized by the "HOLLYWOOD" actors.

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Well, I was disappointed in his comments, but he is a talented guy.

Anyway, no point in beating a dead horse. I'm glad he's doing such a great job in Hairspray and I wish him lots of success.

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Updated On: 9/27/10 at 06:09 AM