HAIRSPRAY to Close in the West End Mar. 28; U.K. National Tour to Launch Mar. 30

The award-winning musical "HAIRSPRAY" will close at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London on Sunday 28 March after a run of 2½ years, over 1,000 performances and a total audience of over 1 million. The show opened to unprecedented critical acclaim on 30 October 2007 starring Michael Ball, Mel Smith and Leanne Jones. 

The production went on to recoup its entire capitalisation in a record-breaking 29 weeks. At the 2008 Olivier Awards, "HAIRSPRAY" won ‘Best Musical', as well as ‘Best Actor in a Musical' for Michael Ball and ‘Best Actress in a Musical' for Leanne Jones. The show also won ‘Best Musical' at the Evening Standard Awards, the Whatsonstage.com awards, the Critics' Circle Awards and the Variety Club Showbiz Awards. The show has grossed over £50 million during its run and becomes the longest playing show at the Shaftesbury Theatre in over 40 years.

Says Bill Taylor, CEO of Stage Entertainment UK (producers of "HAIRSPRAY" in London): "After two and a half wonderful years, many awards and hundreds of thousands of happy Hairspray audience members we have decided to bring the production to a close at the Shaftsbury Theatre on Sunday 28 March prior to a UK tour. Every show, even a big, glorious hit show like this one, has a natural life and for now it's time for Hairspray to leave London. Margo Lion and the Broadway producers of Hairspray join Stage Entertainment in thanking every member of the company who has been involved in making it such a success and every audience member who joined us at the Shaftesbury Theatre over its record-breaking run. 

We open a huge national tour in March, featuring some familiar faces, meaning fans of the show, old and new, everywhere will still get the chance to enjoy the Hairspray experience!"

For the final eight weeks of its London run, "HAIRSPRAY" will star Brian Conley as ‘Edna Turnblad', Micky Dolenz as ‘Wilbur Turnblad' and Chloe Hart as ‘Tracy Turnblad'.

The first national tour of "HAIRSPRAY" will open at the Wales Millennium Centre on 30 March 2010,, before dates in Glasgow, Southampton, Wolverhampton, Leeds, Manchester, Plymouth, Liverpool, Sunderland, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Birmingham, Bradford and Edinburgh.

"HAIRSPRAY" is produced in the West End by Stage Entertainment with Margo Lion, The Baruch/Viertel/Routh/Frankel Group and New Line Cinema in association with others from the Broadway producing team.

"HAIRSPRAY" opened at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York in August 2002 to rave reviews and public acclaim. The show subsequently swept the board at the 2003 Tony Awards, winning 8 including ‘Best Musical', the Drama Desk Awards, winning 10 including ‘Best Musical', and the Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning 5 including ‘Best Broadway Musical'. "HAIRSPRAY" also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for ‘Best Musical' and the Drama League Award for ‘Outstanding Musical Production'. The show has also played two hugely successful US tours as well as seasons in Toronto and Las Vegas, and further afield in South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, China, Korea and Scandinavia.

"HAIRSPRAY" has a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. The musical is based on the New Line Cinema film, written and directed by John Waters. The musical is directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. The scenic design is by David Rockwell, the costumes by William Ivey Long, the lighting by Kenneth Posner and the sound by Steve C. Kennedy. With orchestrations by Harold Wheeler and arrangements by Marc Shaiman, the musical direction is by Lon Hoyt. The West End production of "HAIRSPRAY" is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team.

Performances times at the Shaftesbury Theatre are Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3.00pm. Tickets, priced from £22.50 - £62.50, are available from the Shaftesbury Theatre Box Office on 0207 379 5399 or by visiting www.hairspraythemusical.com.