Review: HAIRSPRAY at White Theatre

HAIRSPRAY, a co-production of the White Theatre and the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City, is the kind of old-fashioned, joyous, musical theater experience that recalls a PAJAMA GAME, or a DAMN YANKEES kind of show that is just pure entertainment.  Additionally, HAIRSPRAY has a point to make and a super cast with which to make it.

The show opens with the delightful and bouncy “Hello Baltimore,” followed by the just as upbeat “The Nicest Kids In Town.”  Tracy Turnblad (Olivia Hollan) is not one of the “cool kids” at her high school in 1962 Baltimore MD, but she is a huge fan of The Corny Collins Show where all the “cool kids” dance up a storm every afternoon after high school.  Black kids were, oddly excluded from the fun except for one show a month, despite the fact that much of the music danced to was performed by members of the black community.

Tracy, a teenager on the plus side of the ledger, wants more than anything else to join the “cool kids” and dance on TV with her dream guy Link Larkin (Zane Champie). Suddenly her chance appears out of nowhere.  One of the “cool kids” announced she would take a “nine-month” sabbatical from the show.  Can anyone suspect why?

Stacy’s Mom, Edna (Guy Gardner) is afraid that Tracy will be disappointed at the audition and discourages her from trying.  Dad Wilber Turnblad (Mike Saxton) has another opinion.  He believes Tracy deserves a chance.   Wilbur, himself, has never been terribly successful, but he soldiers on as proprietor of a joke and novelty shop.

Tracy auditions with a Black girl from the neighborhood named Little Inez (Sophia Carey). Both are rejected by the comedy villain of the piece, the outrageously, bewigged Velma Van Tussle (Liz Golson). Velma is the producer of Corny’s Show and Mom to Amber Van Tussle, the queen of the “Mean Girls” at school and a chip off the old block.

Back at school, Tracy is sentenced to detention for the capital crime of a too high hairdo stiffened by too much HAIRSPRAY.  While serving her time, Tracy makes the acquaintance of another miscreant, Black dancer Seaweed Stubbs (Lucas Lowry). Seaweed is also brother to Little Inez and son to the hostess of “Negro Day” on the Corny show, Motormouth Maybelle (Brietta Goodman).  Seaweed teaches Tracy some new dance moves.

Corny sees Tracy as he emcees the Sophomore Hop at the school and gives her a place on his show.  After Tracy’s TV appearance, the show’s sponsor, a HAIRSPRAY manufacturer, realizes that Tracy is exactly the representative his product needs.

Meanwhile, back at the Turnblad residence, the telephone has been ringing off the hook as a result of Tracy’s appearance.  Edna, who always dreamed of making a line of plus sized clothes, is contacted by Plus-sized shop owner Mr. Pinky for Tracy’s endorsement.  Tracy begs her Mom to act as her agent and for the first time in years Edna is seen in public dressed to the modern nines.

Together, they campaign to have the Black kids included on the show as a regular feature. Meanwhile, Tracy’s little friend Prudy (Jenny Hines) forms a relationship with Seaweed and they become a couple.     

I’m old enough to remember America’s oldest teenager Dick Clark and his American Bandstand every afternoon beaming daily into our homes not from Baltimore Md, but from Philadelphia, PA.  I’m also old enough to have a daughter who used tons of hairspray to become four or five inches taller than she actually was. I remember needing pints of turpentine to remove all the hairspray from the inside of her bathroom door.

It turns out that HAIRSPRAY is pretty much based on fact.  Research shows that between 1958 and 1963, Black teenagers in Philly were mostly banned from American Bandstand.

HAIRSPRAY earned eight Tony Awards in 2002.  With a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, HAIRPRAY ran for six years on Broadway.  It was based on an earlier movie from John Watters and a later film version.  The original Broadway version starred Harvey Fierstein as Edna.  A later film version starred John Travolta in the same role.

The White Theatre production is directed by Damron Armstrong with choreography by Christopher Barksdale-Burns and music directed by Barbara Jurgensmeier. 

Audiences cheered throughout the performance I saw. This cast is very very good and the evening is plain old entertainment.

HAIRSPRAY continues at the White Theatre through February 23.  Tickets are available at www.thejkc.org/white-theatre/ or at the box office by telephone at 913-327-8054.

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