Martin Short & Derek Hough Join Cast of NBC's HAIRSPRAY LIVE!

Martin Short and Harvey Fierstein will be BRILLIANT together.

Martin Short is going to be terrific! YAY! Can't wait to see who else gets cast.

Derek Hough, I know he can dance, but can he sing?

Here he is singing Anything You Can Do with his sister...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vG4Hq2PkrE

Hough is only playing Corny Collins so it's basically a bit part. He can perfectly learn his material, camera blocking and choreography in less than a week. He can easily do all of this while still rehearsing SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

At first I thought Hough was going to be Link, and I was mad. Then I found out he was going to be Corny and I was almost relieved. Still, there are better options out there.

He doesn't carry the show and only has a few short scenes. The longest stage time he has it at the end of the show. Hough is a disciplined dancer who choreographs and dances several dances in 4-5 days during his run on DANCING WITH THE STARS. He's more than capable of beginning Day 1 of rehearsals already off-book, learn his choreography (which I'm sure will be expanded for him) in a day and leave the rest of the time to rehearse and learn his camera blocking during tech rehearsals.

ucjrdude902 said: "I've got on good word a Velma announcement should be coming in the next week.

From my understanding they want at least 75% of the cast locked in before Upfronts.



I wonder if they goin announce who will be link, seawweed, penny, Amber, and lil Inez. Would love to see Bebe neuwirth as Velma

I'm really liking the casting for this so far.



Btw, Hough is a professionally trained theatre actor and was in a few West End shows before his time on DWTS. My friend saw him as Ren in Footloose in London back in 2006 or 2007 and said he was great. I'm sure he'll do fine as Corny.



I do wonder if they are going to push back the opening of Singin' in the Rain though. Isn't it planned to open in January of next year? So they would already be in previews in December. Or at the very least in rehearsals.

NBC deserves credit here. Believe they realize just having live musical is no longer enough.

BrodyFosse123 said: "Hough is only playing Corny Collins so it's basically a bit part. He can perfectly learn his material, camera blocking and choreography in less than a week. He can easily do all of this while still rehearsing SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.





"



did you forget that this year the NBC broadcast is in Hollywood? are you suggesting he's going to fly back-and-forth for over a month? not feasible, considering how frequently both the Broadway production and the NBC broadcast will rehearse...

JM226 said: "I really hope it's Christine Baranski. I can't think of better casting than that.



uhhh... Baranski will be 64 yrs. old at the time of the broadcast. that means Velma would have been 46 - 48 yrs. old at time of Amber's birth. not likely.



"

I forgot you have to be the exact age of the character you're playing. My bad.

Updated On: 4/27/16 at 03:29 PM

"At first I thought Hough was going to be Link, and I was mad. Then I found out he was going to be Corny and I was almost relieved. Still, there are better options out there."

I feel similarly... mostly indifferent. Like, oh, Mario Lopez is going to be Vince... OK, I guess.

I'm actually more interested to hear that NBC is giving Martin Short and Maya Rudolph a variety show. What are doing, Bob Greenblatt?