Her character’s boyfriend, Ephraim Sykes’ (of Broadway’s “Hamilton”) young Seaweed, however, was an effervescent delight. Ariana Grande, as repressed nerd Penny Pingleton, was particularly flat - landing zero jokes in a role that’s 100 percent jokes. Both were charismatic and sang pleasantly, but they lacked the boldness of their Broadway predecessors Marissa Jaret Winokur and Matthew Morisson. This time, instead of casting one or two pros, NBC packed “Hairspray Live!” with brilliant Broadway vets like Harvey Fierstein, Kristin Chenoweth, Martin Short, Andrea Martin and - as of last season’s “The Color Purple” - the exceptional Jennifer Hudson.įor lovers of this special little show about a heavyset teen girl in Baltimore whose dream is to dance on local daytime TV, watching Fierstein so capably return to the role of Tracy Turnblad’s mom, Edna, which he originated on Broadway 14 years ago, was an early Christmas present.Īdmittedly, the stage giants cast a heavy shadow over the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young actors such as Maddie Baillio as Tracy and Garrett Clayton as Link Larkin. In TV productions of “Sound of Music,” “Peter Pan,” “The Wiz” and “Grease,” the standouts were all of Broadway stock: Laura Benanti, Audra McDonald, Christian Borle, David Alan Grier, Aaron Tveit and Vanessa Hudgens. It began as a cult-favorite John Waters movie about TV, later became a Broadway musical about TV, then a movie-musical about TV and finally a TV-musical about TV. “Hairspray,” despite not being as well-known as a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical or “Grease,” was a perfect choice for this new live-broadcast tradition. NBC’s “Hairspray Live!” was, after a rocky start, as bright and spirited as the Peacock’s tail feathers.Įven NBC, whose last two live presentations, “The Wiz” and “Peter Pan,” were halfway decent and horrendous, respectively, couldn’t mess up this hilarious, heartfelt ‘60s pastiche by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Please, I beg you, make this the last TV musical!īut cranks like me couldn’t stop the beat. Stop casting Carrie Underwood and Christopher Walken!ĭon’t add atrocious new songs to “Grease”! ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ review: Bonkers movie strips series of sanityīefore Wednesday night, my feelings about the live-TV-musical trend echoed the chorus from an infectious song from “Hairspray” called “Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now” - “Stop! Don’t! No! Please!” 'Pictures From Home' Broadway review: Nathan Lane gets laughs in lifeless play 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' review: Weird MCU film makes zero sense 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey' review: These filmmakers are psychopaths
I'm sick of Broadway audience members behaving like jackasses
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