Harvey Fierstein, Jennifer Hudson Star in HAIRSPRAY LIVE! — Page 3

In addition to the MANY things NBC can learn from Grease Live, they should realize that adding in new songs just doesn't work. (ie. the Carly Rae Jepsen disaster ballad)

Listening Marc?

Well, the advantage here is that the original composing team is on-hand to write any new song. Not someone decades removed and ill-equipped for the style.

Liza's Headband said: "Um, I think we all called it when we saw the how brilliantly executed the GREASE Live broadcast was... "



yea yea, that's what I meant. #WEcalledit

Never let that girl near another musical ever again! She's a horrendous wreck!

Agreed, re: Carly Rae as Penny. Her brilliant acting and dancing outweighs her "non Broadway" voice - adored her as Ella and Frenchy. Would love to see her take on "Little Shop of Horrors", too.

IdinaBellFoster said: "I assume they'll use "The New Girl In Town" and cut "Cooties".



I could also see them writing a new ballad for Tracy in place of the "Good Morning Baltimore (Reprise)".



"I think they could cut it takes two and replace it with ladies choice I can't for December 7th I am so excited for it

The broadcast may be 3 hours but there are commercial breaks which brings the actual program airtime to roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes for a 3 hour broadcast.

I really hope they don't "pad" it I felt that was the biggest issue with PETER PAN, they added so much nothing and it dragged on and on.

Mr. Nowack said: "I really hope they don't "pad" it I felt that was the biggest issue with PETER PAN, they added so much nothing and it dragged on and on.



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Assuming the broadcast is still three hours, and I have no reason to expect otherwise, they would still need to "pad" it to some extent so that they had at least 2 hours and 10 minutes of material.

Part of the problem with doing shorter musicals, like GREASE and PETER PAN, is that it then requires wonky padding and uneven additions. What is the typical running time of HAIRSPRAY on stage?

Somebody said they thought they should cut Cooties, but I don't understand why that would make sense. Unless they're replacing it with another song for Amber. A song needs to be there.

I can see a new short song for Prudy Pingleton (especially if they cast Jackie Hoffman). That could be fun. Beside that, I don't think that the others characters need new song neither for the story or the character development.

Updated On: 4/26/16 at 06:36 PM

Like FOX did with GREASE: Live!, NBC will be broadcasting HAIRSPRAY: Live! from Universal Studios so they'll be incorporating outdoor and soundstage locations unlike their past broadcasts which were all done from one single indoor soundstage. This time around, they'll be incorporating the audience as extras in scenes unlike GREASE: Live! which used the audience as spectators in certain scenes.

Thank you, Besty! Krakowski's schedule is a lot more flexible now that she is on UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT (if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it, Krakowski is one of the great masters of spinning a line or even a word into comedy gold), which runs on Netflix and produces a lot less episodes than 30 ROCK. I know she tried to become involved in a show a handful of times during the 30 ROCK years but the irregular and long shooting schedule simply didn't make it feasible. They also announced recently that due to Ellie Kemper's pregnancy (the lead of the show), production for season 3 will be delayed. So that leaves Krakowski with an unexpected opening in her schedule. SHE LOVES ME runs through July, and they would probably start rehearsals for this around August, right? In terms of scheduling, I imagine she'd be available. It's hard to think of someone better suited for the role. She's also worked with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, they re-wrote the lyrics to "Zip" for her cabaret act a few years ago, she was a hoot performing it and I believe they would write new lyrics for her every day to reflect current events--she would read the lyrics off of her iPhone, it was great.