‘Hairspray Live!’: What Can We Expect? (PHOTOS)
Executive Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan say that the show may be set in the 1960s but its message of standing together instead of apart is very relevant today. "When we produced the movie we looked at it as a period piece," Zadan says. "Doing the show now, we don't look at it as a period piece. We look at something that is unfortunately contemporary." Meron adds that Tracy Turnblad's dreams have always been something audiences gravitate towards. "It also still gives that aspirational message and I think that's inherent throughout Hairspray."
Kristin Chenoweth wrapped up her one-woman show on Broadway and jumped right into playing villainous Velma Von Tussle. Talking to her on her first day of rehearsals, she says, “I got to see some of the numbers that the kids do and I flipped out. I was so moved and I’m so happy that they’re doing this show. It’s like the universe aligned and the stars have come together at the right time for this show. It’s going to bring a lot of joy!”
Playing Edna Turnblad has already brought Harvey Fierstein (who also wrote the teleplay for this production) a Tony Award but with the production being partially outdoors on the Universal lot, he admits, “I describe it as theater in the round because the audience is all the way around you but with theater in the round [the audience is] not in your face and those cameras can be right in your face. So, you’re acting for camera but you’re outdoors.” He also wanted to differentiate the live production from prior incarnations while still honoring the past. “The movie is the movie. It will always be there. We wanted to get Hairspray Live! more towards what we had created on stage that created that energy and hopefully that’s what we have done but it’s not Broadway. It’s this different hybrid.”
As heartthrob Link Larkin, Garrett Clayton loves the message that Hairspray sends. “It’s a show about being inclusive and it’s not about what you look like or what you dress like. It’s about who you are and I think that to me is a big message.” And while Link and Tracy are drawn to each other, Clayton says he and Maddie Baillio have grown very close, too. “We text every night! We have gotten time to bond and to get to know each other really well.”
Even if you think you know the character of Velma’s daughter, Amber, Dove Cameron says she’s putting her own spin on it. “I was a huge fan of the movie and the musical and all the different ladies who have played Amber. I think they have done an incredible job. I think I definitely have a goal to make Amber a bit more unhinged, a bit more, in a literal sense, crazy [and] wired wrong.”
Hairspray Live!, Premieres Wednesday, Dec. 7, 8/7c, NBC
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