Show: Hairspray
Format: Musical
Genre: Comedy
Date: April 16 2018
Location: Empire Theatre, Liverpool
So, Hairspray returns to Liverpool‘s Empire Theatre with a show that has real meaning while entertaining attendees of all ages.
Hairspray
Synopsis Of Hairspray
To give you an idea about the wacky world of Hairspray, it opens to Tracy Turnblad (Rebecca Mendoza) waking up in bed, singing Good Morning Baltimore. During this performance, a rat runs quickly across the stage in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment; you have to be very quick to spot it. The song becomes more eventful when the line “Flasher next door” leads to, well, a man who flashes and dances!
There are colourful costumes and strong dance routines, along with a lot of laughs; Matt Rixon and Norman Pace as Tracy’s parents are particularly amusing, especially during their song You’re Timeless To Me, which was funny and entertaining, getting big laughs from the Empire crowd. Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now was also one of the musical highlights of the show, sung by the three main female characters, reflecting their own issues with their mothers.
Analysis Of Hairspray
The comedy is particularly strong during the scene where we hear I Can Hear The Bells, though the frequent humour shouldn’t disguise the serious message about the unfortunate and obvious racism of the time, which slowly morphs into the main basis of the story. For younger audience members, the idea that blacks and whites could not mix must seem bizarre, but it was sadly true in some parts of America during the 1960s (incidentally, the ’60s costumes are very authentic, as is the record shop setting). The scenery in general was adequate, and as for the props, the Ultra Clutch hairspray, a super-sized tin which acted as a hideaway for a big entrance, was a memorable sight.
Layton Williams was very good as Seaweed, performing very well as both a dancer as a singer. Meanwhile, Annalise Liard-Bailey pulled off the role of Penny Pingleton well, portraying a cute and innocent friend to Tracy. Brenda Edwards puts forth an excellent performance as Motormouth Maybelle; in particular, her rendition of I Know Where I’ve Been was simply outstanding. That being said, all of the singers were very good in this show. And the tunes were boosted by some very funny lyrics. There were occasional audio problems, mind, which made it hard to understand the diction during some of the faster numbers.
Summary Of Hairspray
Hairspray is a feel-good show. Its message is of young people not wanting to be segregated or told what to do. They just want to have fun. All of the characters are strong in their own way. And each has some major comedic moments to shine at various points. The big finale is an upbeat, all-singing, all-dancing scene. And of course, the ending as a whole is positive, leaving the audience with smiles on their faces. If you haven’t seen Hairspray during its previous runs in Liverpool, I highly recommend that you check it out.
