‘Hairspray Live!’ Recap: The Nicest Kids at Universal Studios
We live in dark and confusing times, and sometimes the only way to understand the universe is to look within ourselves and ask some tough questions. Am I living my best life? Am I eating right? Do my friends love me? Am I fighting for my community? And most importantly, can I stop the beat? Personally I have been wondering for a while now if I can stop the beat or not. According to certain experts I can stop the beat, but then there are websites that say I can’t. So in the interest of really getting to the bottom of this question I went to the source: NBC’s broadcast of Hairspray Live! And it turns out the answer is no. I cannot stop the beat.
Quick question: Did you enjoy Fox’s production of Grease Live! earlier this year? I really and truly did, and would go so far as to consider it a landmark achievement in TV history. What a wonderful enterprise that was! Well, guess who else loved it? The producers of Hairspray Live! This live TV version of the Broadway adaptation of the immortal John Waters film (and subsequent musical) felt eerily similar to the grand-scale reimagining Fox brought to Grease, from the period set designs to the use of a famous studio backlot (including on-screen golf carts) and even a handsome emcee leading us into and out of commercials. Ultimately, Hairspray Live! suffered from the comparison, particularly because Grease Live! at least had the element of surprise. But despite some shaky camera work and slightly more rampant flubs, NBC’s latest attempt at a musical event was still very entertaining and often truly wonderful. Let’s talk about it!
We began with an impressive yet confusing tracking shot from the dusky mountains above Universal Studios in Los Angeles to a Baltimore street set, where a homeless woman discovered a can of hairspray in the trash.
I will admit I laughed out loud when she proceeded to spray the can directly in our faces as the Hairspray Live! logo appeared onscreen. We were definitely in for a weird three hours.
We then met the new Tracy Turnblad (Maddie Baillio) who was the kind of gal who wakes up singing. But this moment was one of those camera tricks where it turned out she was actually standing upright, and the bedroom set behind her split apart and wheeled away to reveal she was outside and ready to dance with common strangers!
Man, this outdoor set was gorgeous. With actual sky and mountains in the background, one of the Universal backlot streets was redressed as 60s-era Baltimore and I couldn’t get enough of it. This production clearly spared no expense.
The immortal Harvey Fierstein and Andrea Martin played Edna Turnblad and Mrs. Pingleton, respectively. It was great seeing Fierstein back in the house dress after originating the role on Broadway (and especially after that rubber-faced nightmare John Travolta in the movie-musical), but I am not gonna lie, I am way more into the original film than this musical and for that reason it’s really difficult to not ache for Divine. Exhume Divine! Also Fierstein’s voice has become so raspy over the years I was getting Exorcist vibes the entire show. Still, great performance.
We all know the story by now: Tracy’s an overweight high school student who longed to be on a local TV dance program The Corny Collins Show along with the most popular kids in town. Here Collins was played by Dancing with the Stars brobot Derek Hough, and mean girl Amber Von Tussle (who, fun fact, was played by none other than Vitamin C in Waters’s film!) was played by the Disney Channel’s Dove Cameron. Fellow Disney Channel alum Garrett Clayton played hunky Link Larkin, which had an added meta element in that years ago Clayton was pegged as the next Zac Efron when he appeared in Teen Beach Movie, and now here he is playing Efron’s role from the movie-musical. Fun facts, all of ’em!
Tracy’s dad was played by Andrea Martin’s old co-star from SCTV, Martin Short! Again, hard to beat Jerry Stiller from Waters’s film, but Martin Short is just so wonderful. The main thing you should know is that Hairspray Live!‘s cast was excellent pretty much across the board.
Yes, that’s Kristin Chenoweth taking over for both Debbie Harry and Michelle Pfeiffer as Mrs. Von Tussle; and lil Ariana Grande inherited Amanda Bynes’ spot as Penny Pingleton, Tracy’s repressed, orally fixated dork bestie. The most amusing part of Grande’s performance was how she tried her best not to sing THE F*** out of her songs so as to not upstage everyone. It was a valiant effort on her part. (But come on. There was no forgetting that that was Ariana Grande in nerd drag.)
Whereas Grease Live! had a series of very unnecessary interstitial segments starring Mario Lopez, Hairspray Live! had Darren Criss leading us in and out of commercials. But his segments were stranger in that he had a weird, frightened energy, as though he’d broken onto the lot and was trying to avoid getting kicked out. I was honestly hoping a team of security guards would take him down every time, but it never happened.
Kristin Chenoweth was great as the racist, scheming villain working against Tracy Turnblad and people of color everywhere. I couldn’t help but think these days this character would be appearing on every cable news network defending white nationalism. Timely!
Rosie O’Donnell showed up briefly as a loud-mouthed, Irish accented gym coach, which was very creative casting on the producers’ part! (Honestly it was really nice to see Rosie on TV again. Why can’t she be on a sitcom or something?)
There were several in-show product placements, and the most egregious one was this one for Oreos, as endorsed by Corny Collins. The other main sponsor of Hairspray Live! was Reddi-Wip, and as annoying as product placements can be, I was not mad about EITHER of these sponsors. In fact, I’m gonna put some whipped cream on some Oreos right now.
Again, you know the plot of this thing, but by this point Tracy finally landed a spot on The Corny Collins Show after impressing everyone with some hip choreography she’d learned from her black friends in Special Ed. And within minutes she embarked on a romance with dream-hunk Link Larkin. These things happen!
Did you catch the quick cameos by original Tracys Ricki Lake (Waters’s film) and Marissa Jaret Winokur (the Broadway show)? It was cute! But how should we feel about the omission of Nikki Blonsky, the Tracy from the Travolta movie? Has anyone checked on her? Is she OK??
Sean Hayes appeared as the owner of Hefty Hideaway, but he looked like a refugee from Whoville. Real nightmare fuel.
Oh, here was the true scene stealer though. This beautiful human standing to the side of Darren Criss giving SO MUCH face and ‘tude during one of the interstitials. Who was this superstar?
Oh, the guy who played Seaweed (Ephraim Sykes) was really good and charming and if we’re being real very much upstaged Link Larkin in the dreamboat department. Penny Pingleton fell for him ASAP and that was one of the more grounded and understandable elements of the whole show. The guy could dance!
The teens then took a trip to visit Seaweed’s mother in the more, uh, urban part of town. Jennifer Hudson played Motormouth Maybelle, and yes, Jennifer Hudson DEFINITELY looks like an overweight mother of teenagers. Just kidding, she looks like neither of those things, but I guess that’s where her Oscar-winning acting talent comes in. Though the song she sang to Edna Turnblad about loving their plus-sized selves probably would’ve been more effective if she actually had been overweight. But it didn’t matter, Jennifer Hudson remains a wonder.
One thing the Broadway musical really enhanced about Waters’s original film was how it foregrounded Edna and Wilbur’s romance. They were a comfortable, supportive couple in the original film, but here they were madly in love still and it really was touching. I really liked Short and Fierstein’s rendition of “You’re Timeless to Me.” So good.
So yeah, Tracy staged a protest of the local TV station for not being integrated and was thrown in a paddy wagon, then later an unguarded outdoor (?) jail. Teens!
Billy on the Street‘s Billy Eichner had a brief appearance as a local newsman, but because he delivered his lines at a normal volume and not eardrum-shattering screams, I almost didn’t recognize him? He was borderline dashing too! What a topsy turvy world we live in sometimes.
Probably the emotional high point of the musical is when Motormouth Maybelle (a very small part in the original film) sings “I Know Where I’ve Been” and you better believe Jennifer Hudson nailed it. Lady was born to bring down the house, and she definitely did that here.
I just loved how Link was generally more expressive and dramatic than even Tracy was. Oh, Link. He was going to have an, um, interesting college experience.
And during the finale, of course Penny Pingleton got her glam makeover (“I’m a sexy woman, Mama”) because why would Ariana Grande even bother with this role if not? Extra points for having to do all that choreography in, like, 9-inch heels. In fact, I was blown away by how good these performers were at sprinting around the stage for three minutes yet not being too out of breath to sing or speak. (A few songs seemed lip-synced, but still.)
But the show couldn’t be over without Edna Turnblad making a final appearance busting out of an enormous hairspray can. Obviously that moment worked better as the ending of THIS musical we the audience were watching than, you know, the TV broadcast it was supposed to be part of. Imagine sitting at home and trying to make heads or tails of what was going on during this Corny Collins episode. Who was this middle-aged woman doing swirls on the stage? Why is everyone telling me I can’t stop the beat? What are we even watching?
And that was it! But you gotta love a musical with BONUS FEATURES. The show had ended, but it was time for the two strongest singers to come out and scream-sing a duet while the rest of the cast took a bow. The only notable thing here was that someone in the editing bay was not a huge Kristin Chenoweth fan and cut away from her right before her bow. Other than that, it was a big, Hairspray-themed fiesta. Great job, everybody!
Hairspray Live! was undeniably so much fun. The camera work was a little rough at times and it was plagued by intermittent sound issues (we could hear the crowd outside during quiet scenes; a stage manager whispered “30 seconds!” during a ballad), and some of the actors flubbed a few lines throughout. Nothing too awkward though. And by design the show ends on a sort of small-scale reunion of characters on a TV show whereas Grease Live! took the party outside and devolved into a Fellini-esque carnival celebration. Maybe it’s not fair to compare the two shows, but because they’re so similar I can’t resist: Hairspray Live! wasn’t as good as Grease Live! but it was certainly one of the best live musicals to have ever aired on television, and that’s no small feat. We may not be able to stop the beat, but we can start appreciating how lucky we are to have TV like this. Keep ’em coming, networks!
What did YOU think of Hairspray Live!?
