31 December 2022
By James Murphy
Twenty years since the musical adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 cult classic appeared on Broadway, the original production has returned to our shores featuring a cast of Australian stage icons, young leads known to reality talent TV audiences, and some supremely talented international performers who really give a lift to this beehive of a show.
In Baltimore, Maryland from the late 1950s until the mid-1960s, teenage school girls rushed home after class to watch The Buddy Deane Show, a local equivalent to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, a variety show featuring teen dancers and guest musical performances. While American Bandstand continued until the cusp of 1990s, The Buddy Deane show was taken from the air when the hosting television station refused to allow white people to dance with people of colour. Hairspray imagines
an alternative history, where plus sized school-girl Tracy Turnblad (played by The Voice’s Carmel Rodrigues), auditions for The Corny Collins Show, is ultimately successful thanks to dance moves she learns in detention with her African-American schoolmates, then becomes an activist for racial
integration.
With social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok fuelling teenage body dysmorphia and a resurgence of hate speech, the show is as timely as ever. Rodrigues, already known for her voice, possesses clockwork comic timing: her transition from being kissed by Corny
Collins’ resident heart throb, Link Larkin (Sean Johnston) into ‘I Can Hear The Bells’ is an early highlight. Rhonda Burchmore, as the Cruella De Vil meets stage-mum-from-hell Velma Von Tussle follows with her deliciously narcissistic ‘(The Legend Of} Miss Baltimore Crabs’, a comedic moment
only rivalled by the unlikely pairing of Kenny’s Shane Jacobsen in drag as Edna Turnblad and Todd McKenney as her husband Wilbur- a role made famous by screen greats Frank Stiller and Christopher Walken- on {‘You’re} Timeless To Me’. Vocally, Asabi Goodman, as Motormouth Maybelle, and New York-based Javon King as Seaweed evoke goosebumps on ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ and ‘Run And Tell That’; King brings Sam Cooke level
energy and charisma.
As the Dynamites, based on The Supremes, Andrea Fleming, Jazz Madison and Kristin Paulse don’t get much time to shine individually, but their shine is blazing. The Adelaide production is denied (or spared) Rob Mills as Corny Collins, with Jersey Boys’ Bobby Fox more than filling the crooning shoes. Mackenzie Dunn as Penny and Johnston as Link, as early career performers, don’t set a foot wrong, but have so much competition from a cast of show stoppers.
Donna Lee and Todd Goddard revel in the opportunity to don many wigs as male and female authority figures. As with most large scale Festival Theatre musical theatre productions, no expense is spared with sets and costumes, and the ensemble is tightly choreographed.
Hairspray is a must see for Generation Z, an opportunity to contemplate what is more important: appearances or actions.
Five Stars
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