“Hairspray Live!” worked best of NBC’s recent live musicals because the show captured the excitement of live performance.
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NBC’s “Hairspray Live” was a nice holiday gift for Baltimore.
Some people may think that Hairspray! has been overdone, especially since the production has seen a reboot in the form of both a broadway musical and a feature film.
It’s a fun show, but not one of the greats of musical theater.
Hairspray Live! is on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Viewers will be able to catch Hairspray Live! on Hulu too. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who served as executive producers on the previous live productions are returning to executive produce “Hairspray Live!”. The song is one of the musical’s most adored, and it offered up an opportunity to spotlight two actresses who played huge parts in making Hairspray the cult classic and Broadway smash it is today.
Veteran Broadway actor Harvey Fierstein is used to performing live and will reprise the role that won him a Tony award in 2003.
The marquee cast incorporated pop stars – Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson – Broadway pros – Kristin Chenoweth, Harvey Fierstein, Ephraim Sykes – a bright newcomer in the lead role (Maddie Baillio as Tracy Turnblad) and a horde of other big names including Derek Hough, Andrea Martin and Martin Short.
Hairspray Live! takes place in a colorful 1962 Baltimore and tells the story of plump teen Tracy Turnblad, whose only dream is to be featured on afternoon dance show “The “Corny Collins Show”.
Projects about racial tensions seem to do well these days, and this one certainly tackles this issue in about as benign a manner as would seem possible. Here’s the easy way to do it: How To Watch NBC’s Live Stream From Anywhere. That is an open question.
“Do we really want to go back to a time when the black kids and the white kids had a rope down the middle of the gymnasium and they weren’t allowed to touch?”
It began in 2013 with “The Sound of Music Live!” and Carrie Underwood in the role that Julie Andrews made famous.
Taking a cue from Fox’s Grease Live!, which Rudzinski directed, NBC spread this production around the Universal backlot, throwing an audience into the mix.
Maybe someday, after having exhausted these perennials, the networks might even get around to producing a live “Hamilton”.
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Those in the United Kingdom can catch Hairspray Live! on ITV2 on December 9, and fans in Australia can tune into SBS on December 10.
