'HAIRSPRAY' IS A LUXOR HIT

The '50s are out and change is in the air.  Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion - to dance.  She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, 'The Corny Collins Show' and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity.  But, can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do?  Only in 'Hairspray'!  Welcome to the '60s!

This musical comedy 'Hairspray' stars Katrina Rose Dideriksen as Tracy Turnblad, and Harvey Fierstein, as her irresistible stage mother, Edna. The musical features an original score by Marc Shaiman (who co-wrote the music and lyrics for the acclaimed animated musical, 'South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut') and Scott Wittman.  Their songs take Tracy from the soundstage of a 60's teen television dance show to the streets of Baltimore to a downtown rhythm and blues record shop.

Harvey Fierstein is the Tony Award-winning star and author of the landmark play, 'Torch Song Trilogy'.  His film credits include 'Independence Day,' 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' 'Mulan,' 'White Lies,' 'Safe Men,' Sidney Lumet's 'Garbo Talks,' Woody Allen's 'Bullets Over Broadway,' and the screen version of his hit play, 'Torch Song Trilogy'.  He has guest starred on several television series, including 'Ellen,' 'The Simpsons,' 'Murder, She Wrote,' 'Miami Vice,' and 'Cheers,' for which he received an Emmy nomination.  Mr. Fierstein received a Tony Award for his book for the hit musical 'La Cage aux Follies'.

OK, so the new musical "Hairspray" doesn't offer a cure for cancer, or the nose-diving Dow for that matter, but if the infectious jubilation currently spriting from the stage of the Neil Simon Theater were bottled and sold across the country like, say, hairspray, consumer confidence would not be a problem. Certainly this sweet, infinitely spirited, bubblegum-flavored confection won't be lacking for buyers any time soon.

The retro R&B score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman is full of toe-tapping, tongue-in-cheek gems.  Relative newcomer Katrina Rose Dideriksen and a positively beatific Harvey Fierstein, in drag and very much at home center stage, are perfectly matched as a daughter-and-mother team fighting for the rights of people of color and the dignity of girls of girth.  And, the production has been lavishly festooned with endearingly goofy touches supplied by virtually everyone involved, from book writers Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, who have cooked up a deft blend of sweetness and silliness, to director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell, who keep pelvises twisting at a peppy pace throughout, to set designer David Rockwell and costume king William Ivey Long, happily camping out on the borderline of kitsch. In short, "Hairspray" gives Las Vegas a musical to keep tapping for a very long run.

The show is, of course, based on the New Line picture from the cult-film Bard of Baltimore, John Waters.  But, Waters' peculiar formula, a combination of intentional camp and presumably unintentional amateurishness, has been much improved upon by the show's creators, even as they merrily follow the outlines of the movie's teenage daydream plot.  Dideriksen, a delightful ball of fire who sings in a determined nasal squeak, plays Tracy Turnblad, a big little girl in 1962 Baltimore who wants to be famous, and wants to be loved by the dreamy Link Larkin (Austin Miller), heartthrob of "American Bandstand" clone "The Corny Collins Show," and wants to integrate both the show and -- Hey, you guys, why not? -- America, too.  The one thing she doesn't really want is to be slimmer.

Her comfortably big mama Edna (Fierstein) is afraid Tracy's feelings will get hurt on the road to social revolution, but soon enough she's doffing her housecoat and donning a Pucci print for the barricades, in one of the first act highlights, "Welcome to the '60s," a girl-group number that seems a playful nod to this musical's most obvious stylistic progenitor, "Little Shop of Horrors." ("Hairspray" makes amusing allusions, visual and textual, to various other Broadway tuners of the period, including "Bye, Bye Birdie," "Sweet Charity" and "Gypsy," and it is the rare show that is good enough to get away with such in-jokes.)

Their allies in the fight for freedom from the twin tyrannies of racism and size-ism grow to include Link, played with bright, appealing earnestness by Miller; Motormouth Maybelle (Fran Jaye), the hostess of the once-a-month "Negro day" on the "Corny" show; Corny himself, personified with flawless period unction by Kevin Spirtas; and Tracy's mousy friend Penny Pingleton (Susan Mosher), who supplies one of the show's daffiest jokes when Penny falls in love with Maybelle's son Seaweed and instantly switches her vocal style from generic Broadway to white-soul diva heading for the vocal stratosphere.  In lonely but determined opposition to all their rhythmic righteousness are Tracy's rival for Link, Amber Von Tussle (played to the snotty hilt by Katharine Leonard) and her maniacal mama Velma, whom Susan Anton imbues with a fiercely prim nastiness.

The characters are, of course, often as cartoonish as some of Rockwell's inventive sets, which slip and slide smoothly on and offstage against a clever backdrop that scales up from a toy to majestic size. Cartoonish, too, is the zippy, dippy plot.  But, the flawless cast - this is as perfectly in-tune a musical comedy ensemble as you'll find anywhere, including Broadway - never descends to mugging.  They find a miraculous way of serving up the show's doses of corn with just the right sprinkling of facetiousness, and its goofy gags with the right sprinkling of sincerity.

Certainly, the show's message of racial harmony is a bit past its sell-by date, and it's when the book toils through this material that it begins to sag a bit in act two.  One might also wish the black characters were given more focus, or that Motormouth Maybelle's uplifting racial-pride song, "I Know Where I've Been," didn't feel so dutiful.  But, the musical earns some indulgence by linking this scarcely ground-breaking salvo against prejudice to the one concerning our culture's ongoing fear of fat.  There is indeed something radical and refreshing about putting a plus-sized girl and her double-plus-sized mama at the center of a big Broadway musical.  That small but pointed moral gives a bit of ballast to the otherwise featherweight proceedings.

And, at the heart of the show, is the message that all the best musical comedies make a strong case for: That there's no moment of despair or irritation or inspiration or adoration that can't be improved upon by being set to songs that tease out a smile or set the toes twitching. Shaiman, known mostly for film scores, has a marvelous gift for pop melodies and catchy choruses, as well as a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of Motown song styles.  The score sounds gloriously - like something Holland-Dozier-Holland might have whipped up if Broadway had been musically integrated back in the early '60s.  For the rocking and rolling finale, "You Can't Stop the Beat," Shaiman pays tribute to Phil Spector with equal affection. The lyrics by Wittman and Shaiman are skillful and funny and fresh -- occasionally very fresh: An Elvis-style tune crooned by Link, "It Takes Two," rhapsodizes the pleasures of coupledom thus: "Lancelot had Guinevere/Mrs. Claus has old St. Nick/Romeo had Juliet/And Liz, she has her Dick."

Book writers O'Donnell and Meehan liberally lace their book with bawdy humor, too -- perhaps a little more than is ideal for a show that's otherwise great for families. But you wouldn't want to miss the pleasure of hearing Fierstein growl out a double entendre in that unmistakable adenoidal foghorn of a voice.  Although his Edna is not the dominant character in the show, Fierstein is gently ceded pride of place by the rest of the cast, including the amiably shticky Dick Latessa as her cavalier, and he takes the spotlight with the silken panache of a veteran star returning to the place where he belongs.

Wearing housecoats like evening gowns and evening gowns like housecoats (a final bravo for Long's brilliant parade of period costumes), Fierstein's deftly hilarious star turn intoxicates the audience from the moment he steps onstage. He's effortlessly adorable - and so, for that matter, is the show.

"Hairspray' is produced by Margo Lion, Adam Epstein, Steven Baruch, Tom Viertel, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, James D. Stern/Douglas Meyer, Sports and Entertainment Limited & The Gordon/Frost Organization, and Rick Steiner/Frederic H. Mayerson, in association with Allan S. Gordon, Clear Channel Entertainment, and Dede D. Harris/Mort Swinsky. 

Scenery Designer David Rockwell is the founder of the Rockwell Group, an architectural firm known for creating dramatic environments.  Recent projects include the new Kodak Theatre for the Academy Awards; the W New York Hotel; the Cirque du Soleil Theatre in Orlando; the restaurants Next Door Nobu and Ruby Foo's; the Children's Hospital at Montefiore; and Chambers, a New York City hotel.  He designed the sets for the recent Broadway production of 'The Rocky Horror Show'.  Mr. Rockwell is Board Chairman of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids (DIFFA).

John Travolta and Queen Latifah have signed on to star in New Line Cinema's upcoming feature film adaptation of the 'Hairspray'.  Travolta will play Edna Turnblad (Harvey's role) and Queen Latifah will play Motormouth Maybelle in the film which is being directed by Adam Shankman and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron who were the executive producers on 'Chicago'.  A nationwide casting search is currently under way to find a newcomer to play the lead role of Tracy Turnblad in the film, with production schedule to begin this fall for a potential 2007 summer release.

Winner of 8 Tony Awards in 2003 including:

Best Musical
Best Performance by a leading actor in a musical
Best Performance by a leading actress in a musical
Best Performance by a featured actor in a musical
Best Direction
Best Original Score
Best Book
Best Costume Design

'Hairspray' is playing at the Luxor Theatre, Luxor, Las Vegas.

Monday 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday Dark
Thursday - 7:30 p.m.
Friday 7:30 p.m.
Saturday 7:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.
Sunday 4:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $65-$85.

To purchase your tickets online now, click here, www.luxor.com, or call 800-557-7428 or 702-262-4400 to speak with the box office.

 

Published on Mar 13, 2006