Like the movie on which it’s based, Hairspraybounces through the story of how a stubby, chubby gal, who swoops her hair skyward, finds acceptance and love. Tracy (vivacious Alyssa Goudy) even becomes a “Miss Hairspray” TV star. But the most important part of her role is integrating races in the studio and beyond in 1962.
Two things drive Tracy: her dream of dancing on Corny Collins’ daily show in Baltimore and of attracting her dream guy Link (smooth blond Dick Baker). Her foremost competition on both scores is the Barbie-doll-like Amber (Antoinette Gagliano), backed up by her mom Velma, the show’s producer (low-down Nancy Denton, who snarls even in song). They’ve certainly already got the eye of Collins (David P. Brown, grinning and bearing up).
Tracy gets a lot of encouragement from her parents: huge, Harvey Feinstein-looking laundress Edna who always wanted to design clothes (played wonderfully byTimothy J. Fitzgerald) and a slight, spryer father, Wilbur (Joseph Giglia, sparkling). Their musical claimm “You’re Timeless to Mem” is a traditional-type show stopper. Tracy’s best friend is the shy beanpole type Penny (Allison Pickens, sweet), who eventually blossoms via an interracial romance.
Jabriel Shelton, Princess Jackson, and dance captain Sean London Young are the leading, exciting African American dancers who help immensely Tracy’s fight for integration. Inspiration comes from potent singer Syresia Banks as Motormouth Maybelle, who’s scored as owner of a record shop and even headed Corny Collins’ “Negro Day” each month. Singing “I Know Where I’ve Been,” she’s absolutely authentic.
Ensemble members take their cue from the energy of Goudy’s Tracy, that never lets down or wastes a moment under Brad Wages’ breathtaking directorial pacing, and the result is as professional a musical comedy as can be.
Costumes and lighting color the activity, that’s also underlined by the music produced off-stage but on the mark by Rick Bogner and his musicians. On stage, Christopher A. D. Parish’s sets fill the large stage like a film combining live and animated characters against a brightly drawn background or in silhouette. It’s all Sixties’ stylish, to the top knot of Tracy’s hairdo!
