REVIEW: HAIRSPRAY Is Bright, Uplifting and Heartwarming As It Shares Its Message Of Inclusion And Never Giving Up On Your Dreams

Sunday 12th February 2023, 6:30pm, Lyric Theatre

HAIRSPRAY THE MUSICAL is given a Sydney Revival over two decades after Jack O'Brien (Original Director) and Jerry Mitchell's (Original Choreographer) original multi Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Laurence Olivier Award Winning production opened on Broadway. Marc Shaiman (Music and Lyrics), Scott Wittman (Lyrics) and Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan's (both Book) musical adaptation of John Water's 1988 cult film remains a bold crowd pleaser as it promotes a positive message of inclusion and acceptance that remains just as relevant in the 21st century.

The title of the show is drawn from the big hairstyles that dominated fashions in 1962 Baltimore Maryland, and more particularly the hairspray that was essential to keeping curls in place and boosting the backcombing and teasing to create beehives, bouffants and flicked up bobs. The protagonist of the piece is Tracy Turnblad, performed by Caitlin Spears on the night reviewed (Carmel Rodrigues is the billed performer), a high school teenager who refuses to let society's prejudice against people of size and people of colour stop her from going after her dreams of dancing on television alongside her newfound African American friends. While Tracy opts to essentially ignore those that judge her on her size, showing that being nice and caring is better than being thin, blonde, bitchy and morally corrupt, the bigger message comes from the work being set in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. While the 1954 ruling of Brown v. the Board of Education started integration in American schools, Patterson Park High School had been following the trend of other high schools that tried to restrict the learning opportunities of the African American communities by sending their students to "Special Education" classes and detention and it is through being sent to one of these on a "hair don't" violation, that Tracy realises there is something bigger to fight for than her own desire to dance on screen. She realises that her new friends should also get the opportunity to dance on the local popular television show, The Corny Collins Show but the show's producer, Velma Von Tussle (Rhonda Burchmore) is too bigoted and corrupt to allow that to happen without a fight.

David Rockwell's set design starts with the retro television screen shaped proscenium and extends to set elements that quickly explain the different spaces, from the Turnblad's shag carpeted home to the television studio with overhead lighting and microphones, the Women's prison comprising of segments of bars and Motormouth Maybelle's (Asabi Goodman) record shop that serves as a welcoming safe haven for not only the African American kids but also Tracy, Link (Sean Johnson) and Penny (Mackenzie Dunn). William Ivey Long's costume design opens with an array of the street fashions of the era with pastels dominating the palette for the 'white' ensemble and neutrals and browns for the African American ensemble. Tracy is kept as an 'every girl' so that her role as a spokes-girl for Mr Pinky's Hefty Hideaway and her Miss Teenage Hairspray competition reveal stand out as significant moments. The designs for Tracy's mother Edna (Shane Jacobson) are equally bold statements as the housebound self-conscious mother is encouraged to leave the home and embrace a more public life and reconnect to her dream of designing "queen size" dress patterns. Tracy's father Wilbur's (Todd McKenney) play to her father's career as a joke shop owner and gimmick gadget inventor with a delightful bright playfulness which stands in contrast to Edan's usual cotton housecoat and slippers.

The whole cast of this production are strong. Caitlin Spears infuses the right balance of sass and confidence while having an optimism and her vocals are strong throughout. As her best friend Penny Pingleton, Mackenzie Dunn ensures that she fully utilises all stage time with expressions of Penny's ditzy devotion to her friend without drawing focus to obviously, content to be Tracy's cheerleader without wanting to be in the spotlight herself. Her commitment to Penny's gum chewing is a wonderful running gag as are her reactions during I Can Hear The Bells.

Shane Jacobson expresses Edna with an appropriate earnestness, caution and compassion as her efforts are all for her family, protecting and supporting them while she has spent years denying her own ambitions. He infuses a delightful energy that builds as Edna gains more confidence and his interactions with Todd McKenney as Wilbur are brilliantly comic. With this work being more of the women of the musical's story, Wilbur is a smaller role but McKenney makes the most of his stage time and his tribute to Edna, "Timeless To Me" is charming in the jokester's weird way.

New Yorker Javon King takes on the role of Tracy's new friend Seaweed J. Stubbs, the dancer who teachers her the moves that get her noticed by Corny Collins (Bobby Fox). King gives Seaweed a smooth sass and confidence that ensures that he stands in contrast to Link Larkin (Sean Johnston), the boy that wants to be the next Elvis and is the focus of attention from the white schoolgirls. Ayanda Dladla portrays Seaweed's younger sister Little Inez with a bold confidence that echoes Tracy to a degree. Asabi Goodman presents their mother, record store owner and "Negro Day" television host Motormouth Maybelle. She ensures that Motormouth Maybelle has a gravitas and presence in contrast to Edna but she's willing to share her strength, unlike Velma Von Tussle who only seeks to cut down other women. Goodman presents the musical's 11 o'clock number, "I Know Where I've Been" with poignancy and power ensuring the significance of the sentiment in terms of history and the work still to be done with regards to equality and integration is made clear.

As the villains of the piece, Rhonda Burchmore and Brianna Bishop revel in the mother/daughter roles of Velma and Amber von Tussle. Bishop captures the essence of every bitchy blonde that has lorded it over school halls in the western world. Burchmore leans into the corrupt and reprehensible character of Velma with a glee to ensure that the judgmental woman's true colours shine through the von Tussle's signature yellow clothes and caked on makeup.

On the surface, HAIRSPRAY is a bright energetic and uplifting musical with great songs and dance from the 1960's. Beneath the veneer it is so much more as it encourages people to consider that so long as you dare to dream, you may just be able to achieve it and if many people have the same dream and determination to see it happen, progress may happen. It also reinforces that acceptance, individuality, kindness and openness is much better than judgment, prejudice, vilification and deceit.

Hairspray the Musical | Australia (hairspraymusical.com.au

Photos: Jeff Busby

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