Hairspray
Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman
Directed by Paul Kerryson
Drew McConie- Choreographer
Ben Atkinson – Musical Director, re-orchestrations
The Pavilion, Bournemouth
Thursday 2ndAugust 2018, 19.30
CAST:
Matt Rixon – Edna Turnblad
Brenda Edwards – Motormouth Maybelle
Graham MacDuff – Wilbur Turnblad
Rosie O’Hare – Tracy Turnblad
Jon Tsouras – Corny Collins
Reece Richards – Seaweed (understudy)
Dan Partridge – Link Larkin
Gemma Lawson – Amber von Tussle
Annalise Liard-Bailey – Penny Pingleton
Adam Price – Male Authority Figure
Genevieve Nicole – Female Authority Figure
Lucinda Lawrence – Velma Von Tussle
Raquel Jones – Little Inez
Marion Fagbemi – Dynamite Judine
Brianna Ogubawo- Dynamite Shayna
Amana Jones – Dynamite Kamilah
Emma Warren – ensemble / Lou Ann
Kirsty Ingram – ensemble / Tammy
Courtney Brogan Smalley – ensemble / Brenda
Ross Clifton – ensemble / Brad
Ben Darcy – ensemble / IQ
Brian O’Muri – ensemble / Fender
Ziggy Tyler Taylor – ensemble / Gilbert
Abz Kareem – ensemble / Duane
Shay Barclay – Swing & dance Captain
Abiola Efunshile – Swing
Anton Fosh – Swing
Lindsay McAllister – Swing & Resident choreographer / Resident director
BAND:
Richard Atkinson – MD / Keys 1
Rickey Long – Deputy MD / Keys 2
Paul Fawcus – sax, clarinet
Matt Yardley – trumpet
Matt Parry -trombone
Ashley Williams – guitar
Adam Higgs – bass guitar
Damian Fisher-drums
June 2018 picture, so should be the current cast
This version has been touring since last year, originating from Leicester’s Curve Theatre – an increasing source of interesting productions. It’s a big cast, and Bournemouth Pavilion seems the end of the current run. I’m amazed how short the run here is. A sign of the times where runs get shorter and shorter. A while ago, something like this would have played at the Pavilion for six or eight weeks during the summer season, not a mere week, and deservedly so. When I was doing limelights, some shows ran for three months.
The normal answer is that we get far fewer “overnight tourists” seeking evening entertainment nowadays, but this glorious summer Bournemouth beach has been as crowded as it used to be in the late 1960s.
Hairspray is based on the John Waters’ movie (1988) and the musical dates from 2002. Then there’s a further2007 movie based on the Broadway musical, with John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Waters used “found” music, with a selection of early 60s classics, so the Wittman / Shaiman music for Broadway 2002 was original and new, and it’s what is used from then on, hence the subtitle Hairspray– The Broadway Musical.
The award-winning (Best Musical, Best actor, Best actress in a musical) West End, UK production was in 2007. This is the fourth or fifth UK production to tour since then. There were those major cast changes from May 2018 for the summer tour (which renders many online photos wrong).
The setting is 1962, which is a kind of paradise before the Fall in America – the fall being the Kennedy assassination in November 1963. That era is an enduring source of great music, and also films. Grease was the UK’s all-time most popular film for years, though I imagine Mamma Mia has taken its place. Then there was American Graffiti and a host of other films. Baltimore is the location because John Waters was born there, and he based the TV show at the centre, The Corny Collins Show,on the real Buddy Deane Show.
The plot involves auditioning for the Corny Collins Show’sdance sequences, and Amber, whose Mom, Velma, produces it is the automatic white blonde choice. Enter Tracy Turnblad, who is short and plump and wants to be on the show, and her friend who is too thin and gawky, then they discover the black kids from their school are excluded for being black. The story is how Tracy gets on the show, gets Amber’s boyfriend, Link Larkin and campaigns for the show to be integrated … for which they all end up in jail.
The Pavilion reminds me of doing lights on those summer shows. The dancers back then were uniform height (tall) and build (slim). Well, that is until we switched mid-season to the Tom Jones Show and they brought in a complete new dance troupe who were six inches shorter. Mr Jones looks tall on screen. He’s not. The shorter dancers were required to make him look tall. The world has turned for the better and The Little Shop of Horrors was one of the first to have differently-sized people, all of whom were brilliant dancers. Then we add the integration angle.
The demo: Brenda Edwards as Motormouth Maybelle centre, Tracy to her left.
It’s a terrific production. Seamless set changes, vibrant costumes, every one on stage a great singer and dancer. The lead black guy, Seaweed (Penny Pingleton’s boyfriend) was an understudy, Reece Richards. You would never have known. This sort of tour needs that support strength in depth. With such a large cast sheer chance dictates that you’ll often lose one to illness or injury (which is why ballet companies carry reserves).
The “white dancers” carry Velma, the show’s producer (Lucinda Lawrence)
The two biggest mid-show ovations were for the two named over the title; Matt Rixon as Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother, and Brenda Edwards as the black record store owner, Motormouth Maybelle.
Matt Rixon as Edna
There is a scene and song with Edna as the magnificently tall Mom, and her small and slight husband, Wilbur (Graham MacDuff). Wilbur shows a novelty trick … it went wrong and we were into impro and corpsing each other … brilliantly done and so popular that I had to wonder whether it was really in the script, but they also both reacted to audience noises and laughter with comments. With the gloss of a musical, I think we all enjoyed that touch of informal humour. They then duetted on (You’re) Timeless To Me. In many ways it’s the most conventional (or old-fashioned) song in the entire score, but it worked so well.
Brenda Edwards is an astonishing singer and was duly applauded hugely for a terrific gospel version of I Know Where I’ve Been (sung by Queen Latifah in the 2007film).
Rosie O’Hare as Tracy, Dan Partidge as Link Larkin
They’re all so good. As musicals are a different circuit to mainstream theatre, I don’t think we’d seen anyone before. At the end the standing ovation was the whole of the stalls, and it must be hard for (say) Rosie O’Hare as Tracy to switch from that massive appreciation when she enters her next theatrical role … applause like that at the end is major rock concert.
SOUND
I thought the sound in the balcony at the Pavilion was very poor for Awful Auntie last week. A full musical like this with live band should be way better. We were front row circle. I’ve heard superb sound at the Pavilion (Brian Wilson, Art Garfunkel, Van Morrison, Bootleg Beatles, Lulu, The Manfreds) and truly dreadful sound (The Waterboys, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings), so it’s the people controlling sound. However, I usually choose The stalls, not the Circle.
The instrumental overture was actually way too loud. Then it normalized. In musicals there is a tendency to boost the vocals in proportion to the instrumental backing as you do want people to hear lyrics which may be helping carry the story. Even with the pristine sound at Chichester, I sometimes feel vocals are over-boosted. From the balcony I thought especially in the first half that the relation to backing was wrong. The backing too quiet and muffled (after the overture) and the vocal very loud indeed in comparison and strident and harsh. I suspect it’s the building and that the sound in the rear stalls where the mixing desk is, was way better. Mixing guys no longer seem to walk the hall to check during the show anymore. It sounded much better in the second half, but then we had the conventional song Timeless To Me sung by two men and then Brenda Edwards who has a deep and rich voice. The stridency was accentuated on the trebly girl vocals.
Overall, a tremendous show, Total energy throughout. They didn’t seem to want to stop at the end, on the closing You Can’t Stop The Beat and the Bournemouth audience went wild for them.
****
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