Hull New Theatre – until 23rd November 2024
Reviewed by Dawn Bennett
5*****
If you want a fabulous night out when every single member of the cast can act, sing and dance brilliantly Hairspray is the musical for you!
Hairspray is the story of 1960’s Baltimore in the USA, where cheesy TV shows are the norm and racial segregation is rife. Tracey Turnblad (Katie Brace) lives with her Mum, Edna, (Neil Hurst) and Dad, Wilbur, (Dermot Canavan). Along with her best friend Penny Pingleton (Freya McMahon) Tracey watches The Corny Collins (Joseph Bristow) television show and dreams of dancing on it and she worships from afar the star of the show Link Larkin (Solomon Davy). When auditions are announced Tracey goes along to try out for the show but director of the show Velma Von Tussle (Kirsty Sparks) has other ideas and along with her daughter Amber (Allana Taylor) make sure that Tracy doesn’t get the job. And when Little Inez (Katlo) also wants to audition Velma is horrified as black people and white people do not dance together on The Corny Collins Show. Tracy wants to change this and sets about trying to do it with Penny Pingleton, Link Larkin and Seaweed (Shemar Jarrett) with very funny consequences.
Hairspray does show how bad racial segregation was in America in 1960’s and how by giving people a voice that things can be changed and this is brilliantly done in this production.
Outstanding performances for me were Neil Hurst (Edna Turnblad) who along with Dermot Canavan (Wilbur Turnblad) they worked so well together especially when they sang, You’re Timeless to Me which was hilarious and very cheeky!
Katie Brace made a brilliant Tracy Turnblad she had a fabulous singing voice and was made for this part.
Kirsty Sparks absolutely nailed the part of Velma Von Tussle she played the characters nastiness and downright rudeness spot on and was great to watch.
Michelle Ndegwa who played Motormouth Maybelle … wow what a voice!!
The band, under Musical Director Richard Atkinson, were outstanding. The songs from Good Morning Baltimore to You Can’t Stop the Beat and the rest of the songs in this show are brilliant, catchy and work, along with the story line, to make a fabulous show.
All of the fabulous cast deserved the standing ovation that they got last night, there are very limited tickets left for this week in Hull and they really do deserve to have full houses for every performance so go and see it if you can!