Review: HAIRSPRAY Being Big, Groundbreaking and Beautiful in Israel

The highly anticipated hit musical of the Israeli summer Hairspray finally premiered and revealed a most professional and joyous production that was definitely worth waiting for.

Set in the early 60's, 16 year old Tracy dreams of performing on a popular Baltimore television dance show despite being held back by people telling her she is too overweight, among other things, to be on TV. She doesn't give up and decides to try her luck when against all odds she succeeds and manages to do so big time.

This huge and yet private, non-repertory production, produced by Maor Maimon and directed by Shuki Wagner, truly outdid itself compared to past musicals that were presented in Israel, both professional ones and not. Starting with the mesmerizing sets, designed by Bambi Friedman, which were rich, original and perfect, even though there was a small set mishap with the moving jail bars in the beginning of the second act, a most understandable event that is bound to happen especially given that this was the first show for this cross-country touring production in the north. On the other hand, the many sound issues that involved false mic timings were not as understandable.
The costumes, designed by Maya Meidar Moran, were magnificent even though not all of them truly presented the styles of the 60's. The same could be said about the wigs but in their case not only did some of them look unflattering but there was hardly any connection to the hairspray theme when only a few of the wigs had related styles.
Given all these creative aspects, even though they didn't entirely bring the 60's to the stage, in terms of musicals this groundbreaking production finally brought the 21st century to Israel and just for that it deserves high praises.

As if that weren't enough, the cast was incredible and showed great energy and talent throughout the entire show. Ronny Merhavi is the perfect Tracy with her phenomenal acting, beautiful song interpretation and the way in which she clearly lives each and every word she sings or step she dances. Yiftach Mizrahi plays Corny Collins and not only is his voice delightful, clear and deep but he acts brilliantly and with great focus as he doesn't step out of character for a single moment. Joining these great talents is Hila Maaravi Almog who plays many characters, including Prudy Pingleton, the gym teacher and the matron guarding the Big Dollhouse, and was spectacular in each and every single one of these roles with not only her remarkable acting and humor but also with her strong and greatly controlled voice. On the other hand, Rudi Bainesay plays Motormouth Maybelle, translated in Hebrew to Big Mouth Maybelle, but in contrary to that name she lacks the confidence and sass expected from such a powerful character, for which she almost makes up for with her beautiful voice when she sings the inspiring song "I Know Where I've Been".
As for the very much talented ensemble, it's one thing that other than for the major roles none of the actors that represented the African American characters had dark skin, even though there was a nice attempt to hide that fact with wigs, but when it comes to casting The Dynamites group they must have powerful and soulful voices, preferably with the ability to riff, and unfortunately this wasn't the case here.

One of the great things in this production is how it stayed loyal to the original Broadway production regarding the book (even after translation), sets, props and a bit of the choreography, dazzlingly led by chorographer Omer Zimri. Additionally, the new musical segment that was added to the song "Run and Tell That" in the recent NBC broadcast of "Hairspray Live!" was also partially incorporated, a very welcome addition. That's why it was quite disappointing when the songs' lyrics were very much lost in the Hebrew translation, translated by Daniel Efrat, when a good example for that is how the song "Without Love" was entirely changed into a song called "Love". True, the songs were still extremely fun and flowing and Efrat can clearly write beautiful songs, but one of the major things that made Hairspray such a great musical is Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman's lyrics and without them it's like a production of Hairspray without tall hair wigs.

Nonetheless, this production is exceptionally entertaining, professional, rich, innovative and full of talent, and may there be many more like it in the future.

I usually don't include personal experiences in my reviews but I have to share a conversation I overheard during the intermission between a mother and her young daughter who is probably no more than 10 years old. The first thing that caught my attention to that conversation was when the mother asked excitedly: "Doesn't this make you want to get on stage and perform?" If that weren't enough to make me proud of that mother and her support of her daughter and the arts, she then said: "Did you know that in the past there was great racism against African Americans in the USA and that they were segregated?", to which her daughter answered with the most innocent wonderment: "What? Really??", a response that brings both chills about the past and pride about the present. After agreeing, the mother kept on telling her about all the different ways in which the racism was expressed and I could not be more proud of both that mother and this musical, therefore if the famously great amount of money, time and effort that were invested in this production were worth anything it's that little girl and what she learned that evening with the help of her wonderful mother thanks to it.

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