Hairspray!

Back in 1988 John Waters, the self-proclaimed King of Schlock, made a movie about growing up in 1962 Baltimore called Hairspray and all anybody could talk about was the casting of Divine as the mother of a young chubby teenaged girl because Divine was a drag queen and shit. In 2002 the movie was made into a Broadway musical and won a bunch of Tonys.

Well the musical is in Omaha this week and yes, there's a drag queen (Nina West) playing the mother again and that's all I'm gonna say about that because it's irrelevant. 

Hairspray is a story about a young girl named Tracy Turnblad (Niki Metcalf), a teen who is overweight and has big hair and wants to audition for the local dance show, the Corny Collins Show. She is rejected because of her size and because the producer, an evil blonde woman, Velma Van Tussle (Addison Garner), is saving any accolades for her equally evil blonde daughter, Amber (Ryahn Evers); But Tracy keeps trying, meets the black kids in detention, becomes determined to integrate the show by making "Negro Day" every day, gets arrested, and eventually succeeds in integrating the show and getting the dreamy boy. Thats the story. But the music is the highlight and the singers are all more than capable of pulling it off.

From the beginning notes of Tracy in bed singing Good Morning Baltimore to Tracy and the cast ending the show with a crowd pleasing You Cant Stop the Beat this one will have you tapping your toes and clapping along and admiring the big voices.

There really isn't a dud song on this show. The sets are colorful, the clothes are timely, the humor is dead on and the talent is ready to take it on.

The relationship between Edna Turnblad and her adoring spouse, Wilbur (Ralph Prentice Daniel) is one of the perhaps overlooked things going on up on the Orpheum stage. The show stopping song and dance number after intermission featuring Edna and Wilbur, "You're Timeless to Me" was performed in front of a curtain as to not distract from its humor, love and absolute brilliance. It alone deserved a standing ovation for Andrew Levitt and Daniel.

But wait there's more. Motormouth Maybelle (Asabi Goodman), the local black record store owner, whose place serves as a hangout for the kids, has something to say when the idealistic youngsters plot to integrate the TV dance show. As an older black woman she's been there done that. kids. and it's harder than it looks. At that point Motormouth Maybelle belts out "I Know Where I've Been" and I wanted to throw my hands in the air and holler Amen! Goodman sings that song in a way that would have made Aretha proud. 

Then comes the closing number. The kids succeed, the villains are vanquished, and its Negro Day every day. "You Cant Stop The Beat" brings the show to a rousing close that the packed house was digging like a Maryland crab. The standing ovations were well deserved for everybody in the cast. I loved every second of it.

Now the bad. The sound system at the Orpheum sucks and I dont know why. The songs are easily heard but the words are often indecipherable, and it often gets to the point where it's just yeah love the beat but I have no clue what they are singing. Opening night bugs? Perhaps. Hope it gets dealt with. 

Finally, this state has just gone thru what other states also have gone thru. Homophobia, trans gender care bans, abortion bans, resegregation of schools, guns everywhere and we have a governor who thinks he's the state's Pastor and not the Governor. Though Hairspray has a drag queen star that has nothing to do with sexuality, some in this state would have voted to ban this type of play had time not run out. There were young kids in the audience and a drag queen performance ban would have kept them out or worse there would have been arrests. The kids I saw loved it. It would be a shame to proceed on this stupid course of drag queen bans.

1962 Baltimore, 2023 America. We are regressing and THAT is not funny in the least.