The Tony Award-winning musical heads out on tour this year, stopping in Boston in October.
The lively, Tony Award-winning show “Hairspray” visits the Opera House this October for a two-week run. Based on the 1988 film by John Waters, “Hairspray” features 1960s-style dance music and “downtown” rhythm and blues and highlights themes like race, freedom of expression, and individuality.
It’s 1962 in Baltimore, and self-proclaimed “pleasantly plump” teenager Tracy Turnblad dances her way onto a popular teenage dance show. She makes new friends in unlikely places, and some enemies, too—namely the show’s producer who doesn’t want to cast Tracy because of her size, and who won’t hire Black dancers, either. Tracy sets out to help integrate the show.
The lively musical first hit Broadway in 2003, winning eight Tony Awards that year, including Best Musical, and featuring hit songs like “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” “Good Morning Baltimore,” and “Welcome to the ‘60s.” It was remade into a movie in 2007, starring Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Queen Latifa, Amanda Bynes, and Christopher Walken.
The new Hairspray touring company features Andrew Levitt, aka Nina West (from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) as Edna Turnblad. Niki Metcalf stars as Tracy Turnblad, and the production is directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.
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