They’ve got connections. Terrence McNally, who wrote the book to The Full Monty, worked with Hairspray director Jack O’Brien and choroegrapher Jerry Mitchell on Monty, while Bette Midler has connections to the new musical’s composer Marc Shaiman (he was her musical director) and The Producers’ Tony winner Nathan Lane was once directed by Hairspray lyricist Scott Wittman.
Hairspray, which, in Waters’ film form, starred Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono and Waters perennial Divine, is set in 1962 Baltimore, where the girl with the biggest hair and the best moves can obtain fame on the city’s number one dance revue, “The Corny Collins Show.” When lovable, chubby Tracy Turnblad (Marissa Jaret Winokur) defeats the show’s reigning queen, Amber Von Tussle (Lara Bell Bundy), the girl’s evil, bigoted mother (Linda Hart), a former beauty queen, wants revenge. Turnblad’s own parents (Harvey Fierstein as Edna and Dick Latessa as Wilbur), however, are there to make sure Tracy stays on top. In the course of her rise, Tracy falls for, wins and then loses the handsomest boy (Matthew Morrison) on “Corny Collins. She even winds up in jail where she learns love and integration are worth the fight.
— By Christine Ehren
