Main Stage

Hairspray

October / November 2011
Oct. 22, 23, 28, 29, 30; Nov. 4, 5, 6

Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. In 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, plump teenager Tracy Turnblad's dream is to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show.[1] When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight. She then launches a campaign to integrate the show

It is the winner of Eight Tony Awards out of thirteen nominations, including Best Musical.

Ben Brantley of the New York Times said “this show is as sweet as a show can be without promoting tooth decay. It succeeds in recreating the pleasures of the old-fashioned musical comedy without seeming old-fashioned by taking the infectious hooks and rhythms from period pop and R&B and translating them into the big, bouncy sound that Broadway demands.”