Review: HAIRSPRAY at Gammage Auditorium

HAIRSPRAY returns to Gammage Auditorium offering audiences a welcome revisit to the original Broadway staging of one of the most frequently produced musicals of the 21st century. Ben Brantley’s 2002 NY Times Broadway review said HAIRSPRAY is "as sweet as a show can be without tooth decay." Two decades later, still no cavities.

Based on the 1988 John Waters’ film of the same name, HAIRSPRAY tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, an optimistic and determined teenager in 1962 Baltimore who dreams of joining (and almost immediately joins) The Corny Collins Show, a local, live, dance TV program. She quickly becomes a trailblazer for integration by challenging the show's discriminatory practices.

Tracy’s optimism and relatability as a protagonist along with the high camp template of the Waters’ movie are the workings of an irresistibly fun musical. It was and is the post-modern musical comedy prototype: old-fashioned without seeming old-fashioned. With social relevance, lovable characters, and a crack cocaine score by Marc Shaiman, HAIRSPRAY set a high bar early for 21st Century mainstream Broadway.

Jerry Mitchell’s choreography is reason enough to clone the original staging (followed surely by William Ivey Long’s Tony winning costume design.) Mitchell’s clever elevations of 1960s dance craze moves are inventive, amusing, just nice to watch.

Cloning the original isn’t all taffeta and curls, though. The talented cast hits all the marks, hits all the notes,  but it intangibly feels way beyond opening night. While the cast energy is high, almost across the board the performances feel rehearsed and self-aware. The quirkiness has been rounded off. The commitment to the camp is fading. It feels too much like LEGALLY BLONDE and not enough like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. 

Andrew Levitt as Tracy's mother, Edna, is the highlight of the production in a performance delightfully evocative of Divine, the drag goddess who played Edna in the 1988 film. While Harvey Fierstein’s most iconic line reads as Edna are inescapable, Levitt’s lean into Divine's performance is heart-felt and heartwarming. Alongside Levitt, Ralph Prentice Daniel charms us and her with his sincere performance as Wilbur, Tracy's endearing father.

The hero of HAIRSPRAY is Shaiman’s score. A full-scope look at his career shows him to be an absolute machine. Genre-hopping, equally gifted at the sincere as the tongue-in-cheek, the exact person a producer needs when he wants to “send up” a musical style or trope. HAIRSPRAY is an opportunity Shaiman to do what he does best: elevate and translate pop melodies and sensibilities into Broadwayable numbers. Paired with incredibly clever lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, the songs are the backbone of the show.

This tour offers a nostalgic delight for HAIRSPRAY enthusiasts. It's a solid production of a beloved and ever-watchable new classic. See it through June 25th in Tempe's Gammage Auditorium.

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