Hairspray The Musical Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 14th March 2022 Review
Hairspray the Musical is at The Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh this week (Mon 14 to Sat 19th March) and outside the building it might be a cold and rainy night in March 2022, but inside and on stage we are back in time 60 years to Baltimore 1962 and the world of teenager Tracy Turnblad (Katie Brace), her family and friends.
Tracy Turnblad might take a dress size or two larger than some of her school friends, and despite what some people may say to her, has a positive body image of herself and inside is just the same as any of them, a fun loving teenager living for music and in particular watching the The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance television programme, and her biggest goal in life is to become a dancer on the show. This optimism is obvious from our opening and upbeat song “Good Morning Baltimore” and this optimism of things always having the possibility to get better continues throughout this show, even when Tracy for the first time encounters head on the problems of a nation still very divided by the colour of their skin, but even this is a positive for her, and a growing friendship with Seaweed (Reece Richards) introduces her to the dance moves to maybe make her television show dreams come true.
Sponsor of the The Corny Collins Show is Ultra Clutch the best Hairspray money can buy and, like Tracy, so many of the boys and girls that she knows need every carefully back-combed strand of their hair to be kept in place, held forever a prisoner in a haze of Hairspray.
Hairspray the Musical is a show that always has a strong and very experienced cast and a solid role and story line for the supporting characters, and here Tracy’s parents Edna Turnblad (Alex Bourne) and Wilbur Turnblad (Norman Pace) are perfect, an almost pantomime double act who steal the show often with the scenes that they are in, and their musical duet together is full of warmth and charm.
There are no weak performances in this cast that also includes Rebecca Thornhill as Velma, Richard Meek as Corny Collins, Ross Clifton as Link Larkin, Jessica Croll as Amber Von Tussle, Rebecca Jayne-Davies as Penny Pingleton and Charlotte St Croix as Little Inez. Holding all of this show together of course is an energetic and highly positive performance by Katie Brace as Tracy Turnblad.
Reece Richards as Seaweed is perfect in his role, and he and his on-stage mother, TV show co-host and local record shop owner Motormouth Maybelle make a good on-stage team. Tonight, instead of Brenda Edwards, the role of Maybelle was performed by Bernadette Bangura and it was a seamless stand in, even on what many people consider to be “the song” from this show, the protest anthem “I Know Where I’ve Been”.
With its background story of the growing tensions of racial segregation, Hairspray could easily take a turn down some very dark corners, but skilfully avoids this trap and lets itself become an bright and upbeat production that celebrates not only the music of the era, but also a very positive image of believing in yourself, no matter who you are irrespective of your skin colour, body shape or any of the many other potential negatives that society can place upon people for no reason at all. A big part of the success of all of this on-stage positivity has to go to Mark Shaiman (original music & lyrics) and Scott Wittman (original lyrics) who between them captured the essence of so much of the music of the period (in particular those R & B and early Motown sounds) and allowed it to create the backdrop for a story that is just as relevant now in 2022 as when the story was set 60 years ago.
This is simply a fun evening out, an upbeat show to lift your spirits no matter what sort of a day you might just have just had.
Review by Tanya Lord Wilson (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH
Tracy Turnblad might take a dress size or two larger than some of her school friends, and despite what some people may say to her, has a positive body image of herself and inside is just the same as any of them, a fun loving teenager living for music and in particular watching the The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance television programme, and her biggest goal in life is to become a dancer on the show. This optimism is obvious from our opening and upbeat song “Good Morning Baltimore” and this optimism of things always having the possibility to get better continues throughout this show, even when Tracy for the first time encounters head on the problems of a nation still very divided by the colour of their skin, but even this is a positive for her, and a growing friendship with Seaweed (Reece Richards) introduces her to the dance moves to maybe make her television show dreams come true.
Sponsor of the The Corny Collins Show is Ultra Clutch the best Hairspray money can buy and, like Tracy, so many of the boys and girls that she knows need every carefully back-combed strand of their hair to be kept in place, held forever a prisoner in a haze of Hairspray.
Hairspray the Musical is a show that always has a strong and very experienced cast and a solid role and story line for the supporting characters, and here Tracy’s parents Edna Turnblad (Alex Bourne) and Wilbur Turnblad (Norman Pace) are perfect, an almost pantomime double act who steal the show often with the scenes that they are in, and their musical duet together is full of warmth and charm.
There are no weak performances in this cast that also includes Rebecca Thornhill as Velma, Richard Meek as Corny Collins, Ross Clifton as Link Larkin, Jessica Croll as Amber Von Tussle, Rebecca Jayne-Davies as Penny Pingleton and Charlotte St Croix as Little Inez. Holding all of this show together of course is an energetic and highly positive performance by Katie Brace as Tracy Turnblad.
Reece Richards as Seaweed is perfect in his role, and he and his on-stage mother, TV show co-host and local record shop owner Motormouth Maybelle make a good on-stage team. Tonight, instead of Brenda Edwards, the role of Maybelle was performed by Bernadette Bangura and it was a seamless stand in, even on what many people consider to be “the song” from this show, the protest anthem “I Know Where I’ve Been”.
With its background story of the growing tensions of racial segregation, Hairspray could easily take a turn down some very dark corners, but skilfully avoids this trap and lets itself become an bright and upbeat production that celebrates not only the music of the era, but also a very positive image of believing in yourself, no matter who you are irrespective of your skin colour, body shape or any of the many other potential negatives that society can place upon people for no reason at all. A big part of the success of all of this on-stage positivity has to go to Mark Shaiman (original music & lyrics) and Scott Wittman (original lyrics) who between them captured the essence of so much of the music of the period (in particular those R & B and early Motown sounds) and allowed it to create the backdrop for a story that is just as relevant now in 2022 as when the story was set 60 years ago.
This is simply a fun evening out, an upbeat show to lift your spirits no matter what sort of a day you might just have just had.
Review by Tanya Lord Wilson (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH