Hairspray The Musical

Based upon the film written and directed by John Waters, starring Brian Conley
New Theatre, Oxford, 12-18 Oct 2010

October 12, 2010
Hairspray is without doubt the most fun that you can have with Brian Conley in drag and Les Dennis in ill-fitting trousers. If inane grins and tapping toes amongst the audience are a measure of musical success, I don’t think it could score any higher. The songs are infuriatingly catchy, the productions values are incredibly high, and the mood is incessantly joyous.

Hairspray is quite easily one of the cheesiest things I have ever seen. In my entire life. Baltimore, where the musical is set, looks pretty different in The Wire, it has to be said. But it is utterly aware of its campness, playing up to the fact constantly. In a musical where Brian Conley plays the main character’s mother, I think campness can hardly be a surprise.

The basic story is that Tracy Turnblad is considered too fat to dance on TV. She makes friends with some black people, they make a stand and then everyone is allowed to dance together. The politics are handled with the sensitivity of a sledgehammer. A notable line was “We’ll set off sparks like Rosa Parks”. Had this been the type of show to have an important, ‘serious face’ message, it would have been cringe-able (new word courtesy of The Apprentice). But the contagious sense of joy means that whilst the message of equality and ‘oneness’ is conveyed, it is made far less clunky by show tunes and jazz hands.

All the cast are excellent, but special mention has to go to Brian Conley and his ‘daughter’, Laurie Scarth, for their unflagging energy and infectious enthusiasm. It seems unfair to put a spotlight on mistakes, but the highlight for me had to be the duet between Les Dennis and Brian Conley as husband and wife, where we experienced lost slippers, giggles, and highly disturbing bodily contact that I think will give me nightmares for weeks.

My main warning: Go to this with your children and they will want to be in musical theatre when they grow up. Correction: Go to this and you will want to be in musical theatre when you grow up.
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