The big, bold musical about one girl’s inspiring dream to dance, Hairspray the Musical, winner of a staggering 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book is back and on tour to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle so grab your tickets right now! It is a sing and dance-a-long fabulous, family-friendly musical, piled ceiling high with laughter, romance, and deliriously tuneful songs. Don’t stop the beat! You can’t stop the beat!
Journey back in time to 1960s Baltimore and meet the pleasantly plump Baltimore teen, Tracy Turnblad who has but one desire in life, she absolutely must dance on the popular Corny Collins Show! But when her dreams finally come true and Tracy is transformed from awkward social outcast to sudden Mega Teen Star, thigs go from amazing to chaos in days! Tracy uses her newfound powers of popularity to destroy the previous reigning Teen Queen, she gains the attention of her heartthrob, the lovely and luscious, the oh so adorable, Link Larkin… but it’s not enough for Tracy. As her final act of teen omnipotence, she petitions the TV station to get Black teenagers as full-time dancers on The Corny Collins Show… well in big city Baltimore, things may have just gone too far! The 50s are out, change is in the air! And chaos is about to wreak havoc all out across the city.
“If life were everything it should be, it would be more like HAIRSPRAY IT’S IRRESISTIBLE!” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“BRAND NEW, PERFECT AND MORE TIMELY NOW THAN EVER” – Pam Kragen, The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Hairspray uplifts audiences and moods and reminds us that we all want the same things in life – a chance to dance, to be accepted by our peers, and maybe just a little more hairspray.” – BroadwayWorld
“Hairspray” is still a breezily welcome reminder that “You Can’t Stop the Beat” of progress. – The Oklahoman
“Fresh, winning, and deliriously TUNEFUL!” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Hairspray the musical has music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, this all-new touring production reunites Broadway’s award-winning creative team led by Director Jack O’Brien and Choreographer Jerry Mitchell. In 2003 Hairspray won an incredible 8 Tony Awards from 13 nominations and it also won 9 Drama Desk Awards from the 14 that it was nominated for, as well as the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Musical in 2007. The London production was nominated for a record-setting eleven Laurence Olivier Awards, winning four, including Best New Musical.
The musical is based on John Waters’ 1988 film of the same name, and in turn was used to base the 2007 film version of Hairspray starring Zac Efron and John Travolta. Grossing $27.5 million during the first weekend of production, the highest opening for a musical film until Mamma Mia! opened in 2008, while Hairspray’s lifetime grossing amount set a record of $118.8 million making it one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time.
Hairspray review – unstoppably joyous musical lights up the West End, review for The Guardian by Arifa Akbar, June 2021.
“All the elements are there, in bundles. Marc Shaiman’s sunny score (with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman) has instantly infectious songs such as Good Morning Baltimore and Welcome to the 60s. Jack O’Brien’s direction is full of verve, David Rockwell’s set design is psychedelic and splashy, Jerry Mitchell’s choreography high-octane. The show weaves elements of gospel with cabaret, pantomime, musical hall comedy and classic West End show musicality. This runs its own risk of disharmony and entertainment overkill, but it unites those forms, excelling at them all.”
