Royal Caribbean Cruise's HAIRSPRAY to Perform on Tony Awards

[jv92]

LMAO Jordan!

[TheatreDiva90016]

The girl playing Tracy is no where near 40.

She was Shelly in the Hollywood Bowl production last summer.

[broadwayguy2]

Amy Hillner - who played Tracy - is young... and she reads young in person... the camera work and lighting wasn't the most flattering and an ill fitting costume did not help, but she was a great Shelley, matching and passing the level of Leslie Kritzer, Shoshana Bean and Donna Vivino and she is a FANTASTIC Tracy.

[EricMontreal22]

I wasn't exactly impressed, but I felt like they at least had more energy than some of the other performances...

[broadwayguy2]

I will not lie.. not a fan of the direction, choreography or design of the production and this performance demonstrated exactly why, but they have had consistently strong performers as Tracy and Edna and have had some quality people around them, as I pointed out previously, including numerous principals / featured actors who are vets of Hairspray on Broadway, on tour and in Las Vegas. in this short snippet alone you saw Amy Hillner (vet of the 1st national and Hollywood Bowl) as Tracy, Jim J Bullock (Broadway, 1st national and numerous regional stagings) as Edna and Jeff Stanfield (vet of the Networks tour as IQ, us. Link) as Link..

[defyinggravity2]

In other news,the sky is blue.

[broadwayjim42]

If she is young, then the makeup and lighting people should be taken out behind the barn. Damn, she looked ancient.

Although I actually think the fact that she's not exactly zaftig bothered me more.

[someone.else's.story2]

Agreed, the first thing that I noticed was that she looked fairly normal sized. It appeared to the friend I was watching with that they had simply stuffed her with a pillow.

We didn't notice anything about her looking old, though.

[finebydesign]

Wasn't a huge fan of Tracy, she didn't look heavy at all. But the show looks really great and my favorite part of the Tonys.

[DEClarke]

I was kind of impressed by the production value of the performance. Cruise performances are improving!

Complaints: Those were the thinnest Turnbald's I have EVER seen. And how are we supposed to believe that Tracy is in high school. For real?

[songanddanceman2]

I thought they did fine

[TheatreDiva90016]

Again, quit your whining people.

It's a cruise ship production, and she sang it better than most Tracy's I've seen.

[Playbilly]

Maybe she was seasick. Some of the Tonys made me nauseous.

THAT was Jim J. Bullock?! Talk about being too close for comfort...

[broadwayguy2]

Jim J. Bullock as Edna, yes. I can tell you with absolute certainty that Jim J. has the utmost respect for Edna and takes great pride and care in how he plays her. He also has turned in absolutely bang up work in all roles he has played in the show.

Amy's voice is really effortless and she has a fantastic pop sound that reminds me of the original Hairspray demos. Yes, she is thin. She has always always played Shelley previously and been the second cover for Tracy.

broadwayjim, yes. The design does her no favors.. but Amy is in her 20s and she actually does look young.. Now feel free to chase the designers with pitchforks.

[Erica007]

I thought Amy Hillner looked old for the part and also too skinny. Regardless, of lighting and makeup, from the videos I have seen she does not pass well as a high schooler. I did find an interesting YouTube Audition video that she posted that I just had too share.
Amy Hillner - YouTube Audition Video

[TheatreDiva90016]

Again, you are judging someones looks by what they look like on a crappy video.

I have worked with her and she doesn't look a day over 25 at the most.

Stop making me want to shove a fork in your eye.

[TheatreDiva90016]

She's a baby

[Erica007]

I didn't post the video to judge her looks, just thought it was an interesting audition video for Hair. I think she has a tremendous and talented voice and looks like she is in her twenties (as you said, does not look a day over 25) which is not how old high school students are. I know there are plenty of people on Broadway playing much younger roles, she has the chops for it just looked a little old for the part. No need to start pulling forks out.

[Kelly2]

She also, especially in that headshot, looks quite thin. I know most Tracys lose weight during their run due to the physical nature of the show, but she really does look slender. I wouldn't look at her and think "FAT!" and we're supposed to believe that Tracy is ostracized in part because of her weight.

[TheatreDiva90016]

"I thought Amy Hillner looked old for the part and also too skinny"

"I didn't post the video to judge her looks"

"she has the chops for it just looked a little old for the part"


The fork is out. Don't make me use it.

[Erica007]

In your quotes of what I said, you left out the parts where I said how talented she is, what a great voice I think she has and looking too skinny to play Tracy I would think would normally be a compliment. Despite all these other people being enraged about a cruise ship production on the Tony's, I know many talented people who currently work on cruise ships or have and I thought they did a good job. You should save your forks for some of these other people on here.

[broadwayjim42]

None of my comments had anything to do with the quality of her voice or her performance. But from this one, poorly filmed snippet, what came across more prominently was that she physically looked wrong for the role. Too thin...and thanks to shellacked makeup, too old.

Thanks for the other pics though. I did have to crack up a little, though, that while listening to Frank DeCaro's show this afternoon, he mentioned Tracy looking 45.

[yankeefan7]

DEClarke - Cruse line performances are not easy due to the motion of a ship. This is why you see dancing that is "dumbed down" to a degree. I have been on several cruise lines and the best shows we saw were on the Disney Cruise Line. I personally don't like Broadway shows on a cruise line because they cut the show to 1 hr 45 to fit ships activity schedule. If I am going to see a Broadway show, I want to see the entire show and not a edited version.

[yankeefan7]

Overkill - you gave me a good laugh this morning. Obviously, they pick shows that for the most part are lively and family friendly. Cruise lines are not going to pick some heavy drama type of musical for people on a vacation.

[Patash]

Add me to the group that thought the production looks pretty weak, but what does that have to do with anything? As theatre lovers (which most posters here pretend to be) shouldn't posters be thrilled that cruise lines are encouraging masses of middle class Americans to see live theatre? Isn't that the real benefit? If any real theatre expert takes a cruise to see great Broadway productions, he should be locked up. But for the many cruisers who never even think to go to Broadway or even see a major production on a local tour -- having even watered down and edited versions of Broadway shows has to be a good thing.

Meanwhile what part of a company sponsoring the Tonys and therefore being allowed to advertise do some of you not understand?

[PalJoey]

Hitler reacts to the news that a Royal Caribbean cruise ship production of Hairspray will be playing the Tonys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOe6uhlKBOU