A Lincolnshire "Hairspray:" Total, Inevitable Integration

Opening this week at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago's far north suburban collar community of Lincolnshire is one of the first post-Broadway productions of "Hairspray," one of this decade's biggest hits and longest running Broadway shows, based on a hit movie and the basis for yet another. The phenomenally popular Marriott has made a large niche for itself over the years by demonstrating how to make big Broadway shows from traditional proscenium houses work in a theater-in-the-round house.

Well, let me tell you that, having seen both versions, director-choreographer Marc Robin makes a very strong case for the inevitability of "Hairspray" in the round. With a lyric like, "And the world keeps spinning round and round" ringing in your ears, with well-scrubbed kids shining at you from just a few feet away, with the ability to see all those wigs and gowns and all those social dance styles from a 360 degree vantage point, just like real life-well, who needs a picture frame around that?

This production feels extraordinarily right, is riotously funny and poignantly moving at times, and is a thorough, sure-handed delight from start to finish. Wednesday's opening night audience rose as one to give the production its standing ovation-and by that, I mean that every single person present stood up at the exact same moment, something I have never seen before, ever! 

And what a cast! I counted 28 performers in this production, a large number for any show in any theater these days, but one which is dazzling to witness during the puzzle-piece final sequences here. And this cast is just what "Hairspray" demands. With integrated triple-threat talent, some are characters actors and some are romantic leads, but they are jumbled together, white and black clearly delineated but gradually becoming one, dancing and singing and acting, laughing and crying and learning about life in the unsettling 60s, as does the audience. 

Headed by Marissa Perry, repeating her Broadway role as zaftig high school social reformer and TV dance-show fanatic Tracy Turnblad, the cast's other "big girl now" is Chicago veteran star Ross Lehman as Tracy's mother, Edna. Perry hits all her marks and clearly knows every in and out of this script and score, making social upheaval seem as natural a development as ratted, high hair on a height-challenged teen. "Good Morning Baltimore" was exciting to hear, and her "I Can Hear the Bells" was lovely and inspired. Lehman is droll, and careful to not overplay the drag aspect of his role. His Edna undergoes quite a transformation from the overweight hausfrau of the early scenes to the liberated glamorous stage mother and entrepreneur we see by the end. Mother and daughter play extremely well off each other, indeed. "Welcome to the 60s" was a joy! 

As father Wilbur Turnblad, Gene Weygandt is almost invisible in the early going, as his milquetoast role requires. But Weygandt achieves a difficult feat in gradually becoming more and more the equal of Lehman's Edna, so that by the time of their second act soft-shoe duet, "Timeless to Me," they are a perfectly matched romantic image of blue-collar love. It is a moment of true musical comedy joy to watch this number unfold, to watch these two expert performers show the kids in the show how it's done. Do not miss the magic they make together.

The production features two actors who pretty much steal every scene they're in. Six time Jeff Award winner E. Faye Butler wraps her sassy, world-weary style and her remarkable singing voice around the numbers "Big, Blond and Beautiful" and "I Know Where I've Been" as Motormouth Maybelle. And Scott Calcagno comes out of nowhere to create an incredible palate of strange Baltimore characters, hilariously portraying the school principal to the uttermost point imaginable, and then going one step further. He is a comic genius of the first rank. 

Georgia-born, Cincinnati-trained Billy Harrigan Tighe is a handsome young singer and dancer in the role of Link Larkin, Tracy's lovecrush turned flesh-and-blood teenager-perfectly cast. His Negro counterpart here, Josh Breckinridge as Seaweed J. Stubbs, is a remarkable dancer and looker as well-another Cincinnati product. The young high school senior Jazmine Reynolds more than holds her own with these adult professionals as Little Inez. And Chicago's well-known Heidi Kettenring goes from schoolgirl tragic to bombshell heroine as Penny Pingleton, Tracy's friend, hitting some remarkable high belt notes along the way.

Two Chicago journeyman performers find new life as character actors here. The sometimes glamorous Catherine Lord is hilariously unattractive in a succession of roles like Penny's mother, Prudy. And Bernie Yvon plays TV host Corny Collins as a man on the verge of middle age-a liberal, song and dance Dick Clark who's had one cheesesteak too many.

As the evil mother-daughter Von Tussle blondes, who try and derail Tracy's plan to integrate "The Corny Collins Show" and bring white and black kids together, Hollis Resnik (Velma) and Johanna Mckenzie Miller (Amber) have to play a lot of pettiness and nefarious conservatism, the only real weak elements in the book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. And Resnik is further saddled with the only weak song in Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's otherwise catchy, rock and soul score, "Miss Baltimore Crabs." Resnik is fine, though she would chew more scenery if only there were more to chew. Miller is playing against type, and makes a valiant, consistent attempt at it, but she comes across as neither quintessentially beautiful nor really threatening, merely spoiled and slightly annoying.

Music direction by Ryan T. Nelson really shines here, as does the music supervision and conducting of the nine-piece orchestra by Patti Garwood. Sets, lights and properties are fine (by Thomas M. Ryan, Diane Ferry Williams and Sally Weiss, respectively), but it is the costumes by the prominent design team of Michael Bottari & Ronald Case and wig design by Gerard Kelly which really shine, with wit, flash and period/retro authenticity. The sound design by Robert E. Gilmartin IV is flawless. 

Ands those well-scrubbed young performers who play the youth of Baltimore, who embody the community marching forward into the inevitable, integrated future, sing and dance their well-trained hearts out. Caitlainne Rose Gurreri, Danielle G. Herbert, Brandon Koller, Christian Libonati, Benjamin Mapp, CessaLee Martinez, Vanessa Panerosa, Malika Petty, Danielle Plisz, Max Quinlan, Matt Raftery, Ryan Reilly, Laura Scheinbaum, Leslie Taylor and Travis Turner can be very proud of what they have achieved in this production. 

They are likeable, beautiful, and yet in their eyes you can see that they are to some degree pawns of the adults of their city, separated by inheritance, and not by choice. The joy of freedom that erupts during "You Can't Stop the Beat" starts small, builds, regroups, build again, and then explodes in one of the best finales that Broadway has produced. Yes, everything ends happily for the leading characters, but it also ends happily for the community in which they live. And that, really, is what "Hairspray" is all about. When heroes come, even with unlikely shapes and unusual mothers, barriers get knocked down, and life gets better. And never judge anyone by appearances. You will have a great time at "Hairspray," I am sure. You may even find parallels to your own personal battles. I certainly hope so.

"Hairspray" runs September 23 through December 6 at the Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive in Lincolnshire. For tickets, call 847.634.0200 or visit www.marriotttheatre.com.  

Photos of Marissa Perry, Billy Harrigan Tighe and Ross Lehman courtesy of Peter Coombs and the Marriott Theatre.

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