HAIRSPRAY Teams with 'Mumsnet' for 'Happy Mondays' Starting 1/5

Mumsnet.com, the UK's leading family website, announced that, from Monday 5 January, kids will go free to the musical "HAIRSPRAY" at the Shaftesbury Theatre. On Mondays, for every full paying adult buying a ticket, Mumsnet will give a child's ticket completely free. This offer is available at www.mumsnet.com/offer or by visiting www.hairspraythemusical.co.uk. 

Carrie Longton, co-founder of www.mumsnet.com, said, ‘Mumsnet is delighted to be sponsoring Happy Mondays, where children can go and see "HAIRSPRAY" the musical for FREE. Mumsnet supports anything that makes family life easier, and being able to take two adults and two children to see the ultimate feel-good family show for the price of just the adult tickets has got to be something worth singing about.' 

Adam Spiegel, from UK producers of "HAIRSPRAY", Stage Entertainment, said, ‘Kids are the next generation of audiences, so it's important to give them great initial experiences of going to the theatre.  We are proud that "HAIRSPRAY" is such a family-friendly show with a great message, and now, with the invaluable support of Mumsnet, we look forward to welcoming more children than ever into the theatre.' 

The smash hit musical "HAIRSPRAY", which stars Michael Ball as ‘Edna Turnblad', Leanne Jones as ‘Tracy Turnblad', Ben James-Ellis as ‘Link Larkin' and Ian Talbot as ‘Wilbur Turnblad', opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in October 2007 and won ‘Best Musical' at the 2008 Olivier Awards, the Evening Standard Awards, the Whatsonstage.com Awards and the Critics' Circle Awards. The show also re-couped it's entire £3.5 million capitalisation in a record-breaking 29 weeks, and is credited as playing a large role in the regeneration of the Shaftesbury Theatre's surrounding district. "HAIRSPRAY" is produced in the West End by Stage Entertainment with Margo Lion, The Baruch/Viertel/Routh/Frankel Group and New Line Cinema in association with others from the Broadway producing team.  

"HAIRSPRAY" opened at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York in August 2002 to rave reviews and public acclaim. "HAIRSPRAY" subsequently swept the board at the 2003 Tony Awards, winning 8 including ‘Best Musical', the Drama Desk Awards, winning 10 including ‘Best Musical', and the Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning 5 including ‘Best Broadway Musical'. "HAIRSPRAY" also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for ‘Best Musical' and the Drama League Award for ‘Outstanding Musical Production'.  The show has also played two hugely successful US tours as well as seasons in Toronto and Las Vegas, and further afield in South Africa, Brazil and Scandinavia. 

"HAIRSPRAY" has a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. The musical is based on the New Line Cinema film, written and directed by John Waters. The musical is directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. The scenic design is by David Rockwell, the costumes by William Ivey Long, the lighting by Kenneth Posner and the sound by Steve C. Kennedy. With orchestrations by Harold Wheeler and arrangements by Marc Shaiman, the musical direction is by Lon Hoyt. The West End production of "HAIRSPRAY" is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team.  Performances times at the Shaftesbury Theatre are Mondays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Thursday and Saturday matinees at 3.00pm. Tickets, priced from £22.50 - £62.50, are available from the Shaftesbury Theatre Box Office on 0207 379 5399 or by visiting www.hairspraythemusical.co.uk.