 HAIRSPRAY
Music by Marc Shaiman: Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman: Book
by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Based on the John Waters 1988 Film.
Neil Simon Theatre, Broadway - August 2002
Story
ACT ONE
It's early June, 1962, in blue-collar Baltimore.
Surrounded by "45s" and teen magazines, Tracy Turnblad wakes up in her family's apartment
over the Har-De-Har Hut, her father Wilbur's jokeshop. Teenager Tracy
is a large girl with a high hairdo, abundant joie de vivre and rhythm
in every inch of her body. Her obsession is the Corny Collins TV show
on WZZ1, the after-school dance program that has made stars out of The
Nicest Kids In Town. Everyday, Tracy and her shy best friend Penny rush
to Tracy's house right after school to learn the latest dances and moon
over Link Larkin, the show's resident dreamboat. Tracy's mother, Edna,
a hardworking woman of vast proportions and enormous heart, takes in laundry
to make ends meet. Penny's mother, Prudy Pingleton, disapproves of the
"coloured" music, but to Edna, it's just good old black-and-white
TV.
On the Corny Collins Show, the reigning queen
is the oh-so-perfect Amber Von Tussle, whose mother Velma happens to
be producing the show. They are all excited about a coming nationwide
prime-time Corny Collins spectacular live from the Eventorium, sponsored
by Ultra Clutch Hairspray. The girl on the show who gets the highest
popularity rating will be crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray, and Amber
wants that crown almost as much as Velma wants it for her. The daily
show is segregated except for once a month, when Motormouth Maybelle
co-hosts "Negro Day."
Velma complains that Corny spinning so much "race" music will
lose them their sponsor, while Link asks Amber to go steady and gives
her his Corny Collins Council ring. One of the girls on the show will
be dropping out for a suspicious nine months, and auditions are announced
for a replacement. Tracy and Penny are dying to go. Edna, Prudy and
Velma each try to control their daughters, but the girls rebel.
Tracy and Penny are late for the audition, due to
a "stupid
bus crash," but when Link bumps into Tracy, she hears a symphony. The
girls on the Council, led by Amber, pick Tracy apart, and Velma won't
even let her dance. Back in school and in detention again for outlandish
hair-do, Tracy meets all the cool black kids in school, especially Seaweed,
who teaches Tracy some fabulous moves that she uses at the Sophomore hop.
DJ Corny Collins singles her out, and so does Link. All they had to do
was see her dance. Next time we see her, she's on the show. Over Amber's
objections, Link sings Tracy a love-song on the air on which Tracy brazenly
joins in and they end it with a kiss. Not only does Tracy eclipse Amber,
she also suggests that every day be "Negro Day" right on the
air, much to Velma's fury.
Tracy gets home to Edna, and the offers are pouring
in. Mr. Pinky from The Hefty Hideaway ("quality clothes for quantity gals")
wants her for his spokesgirl and "fashion effigy." Tracy wants
Edna as her agent, but Edna is reluctant to leave the house. Tracy insists
she get with the decade. Thanks to Mr. Pinky, the Turnblads are transformed
from frumps to fashion-icons, extra-large deluxe.
At school, Tracy is attacked by Amber in a game of
dodgeball ("So tragic, I forgot to cry."), but Penny, Link and Seaweed come to her
aid. Seaweed invites them all to a platter party at the record shop run
by his mother, Motormouth Maybelle, in the black section of town. Tracy
thinks that's so cool, but Seaweed says not everyone sees it that way.
At Motormouth Maybelle's shop, Seaweed is joined in his song by his sister,
Li'l Inez. Black kids and white kids are all dancing together when one
by one, Amber, Velma, Edna and Wilbur arrive. Amber and Velma try to make
Link leave with them, but he stays and they go. Tracy schemes with Maybelle
to integrate the show, starting tomorrow on Mother Daughter Day. Maybelle
will bring Li'l Inez, with Tracy and Edna blocking the door behind them.
Link chickens out, afraid that controversy will cost him his big break
on the nationwide special, and he leaves. Tracy is heartbroken, but unwilling
to back down. Edna feels she could "never appear on camera...at [her]
current weight," but Maybelle insists that, like her, Edna is big,
blonde and beautiful. Edna agrees, but as they reach the studio, their
civil rights demonstration turns into a full-scale riot, and both protesters
and protestees are loaded into a police paddy wagon.
ACT TWO
Almost every female character is in jail, waiting
to be sprung from the Big Dollhouse. After Velma and Amber are pardoned,
Wilbur posts bail for everyone else (by mortgaging the Har-De-Har Hut),
but-thanks to some legal shenanigans by the Von Tussles to keep her
out of the Miss Teenage Hairspray contest - Tracy is moved to solitary "refinement"
Back at home, Wilbur is working on a giant joke can of
hairspray, while Edna bewails Tracy's fate, and her own forgotten dreams
of being a fabulous fashion designer. Even Mr. Pinky wants all his glamorous
outfits back. She's feeling old and worn-out. But Wilbur knows just what
to say.
Link slips into jail past a sleeping guard to whisper
to Tracy through the bars of her cell that he's through with Amber (who
was just using him to look popular). He wants Tracy to be his girl and
wear his Corny Collins Council ring. Meanwhile, Prudy's mother has tied
Penny up in her room, but Seaweed comes to set her free. The four teens
sing as Link cuts through the bars of Tracy's cell with a blowtorch made
from a can of hairspray and a Zippo lighter.
They run to Motormouth Maybelle's, where they plan
their next move - the integration of the Miss Hairspray contest. Tracy
is afraid of what it will cost her friends and family, but for Motormouth,
it's too late to turn back. At the Baltimore Eventorium, armed guards
surround the Miss Teenage Hairspray spectacular, as Corny and The Council
Members sing their big opening number. A scoreboard of votes for Miss
Hairspray shows Amber and Tracy are neck-and-neck. A man wheels on
a giant can of hairspray, but Velma recognises him as Wilbur and thinking
this Trojan Horse houses his "jailbird" daughter, calls the
riot police away from the entrance to guard it.
It's time for the contestants' new dance competition.
With Tracy still at large ("at VERY large") Amber dedicates her number
to Tracy, the Loser. Amber is claiming the prize as Tracy bursts in, followed
by Link, Penny and Li'l Inez. The armed guards turn out to be Seaweed,
Motormouth and the kids from the "wrong side of the tracks." Finally
entering through the FRONT door, everybody joins in Tracy's dance and
The Corny Collins Show is officially integrated, live and nationwide.
The giant can of hairspray explodes to reveal Edna making her coast-to-coast
television debut in a fabulous ensemble of her own creation. The dancing
crowd then turns on Velma and Amber, inviting even them to admit You
Can't Stop the Beat. |
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