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NBC goes 'live' again with high-haired, campy Hairspray

Maddie Baillio in Hairspray Live!
Maddie Baillio in Hairspray Live!

It's December, and that means it's time once again for NBC to roll out its annual live production.

This time around it's Hairspray Live! Note the exclamation point. The bouffant-studded event airs at 7 p.m. Wednesday and stars a bevy of A-list talent.

The cast includes the inimitable Harvey Fierstein reprising his Broadway role as Tracy's kind, plus-size mom, Edna Turnblad. Jennifer Hudson will star as Seaweed's mother and local record shop owner Motormouth Maybelle; Ephraim Sykes plays Seaweed J. Stubbs; Martin Short will portray Edna's husband Wilbur Turnblad; and Derek Hough is set to portray TV host Corny Collins.

Kristin Chenoweth will be Velma Von Tussle (Amber's mom and the TV station manager), and Ariana Grande will play Tracy's BFF Penny Pingleton.

Rounding out the cast, the roles of spoiled mean girl Amber Von Tussle and resident dreamboat Link Larkin will be played by Dove Cameron and Garrett Clayton. Sean Hayes will portray clothing boutique owner Mr. Pinky, and Rosie O'Donnell has a cameo as the gym teacher.

Newcomer Maddie Baillio will portray our "pleasantly plump" heroine, Tracy Turnblad. Baillio, a sophomore at Marymount Manhattan College, was hired over a thousand other women at an open casting call.

Here's some Hairspray background.

The saga begins with the 1988 John Waters romantic musical comedy that starred, among others, Ricki Lake as Tracy, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller and drag queen Divine as Edna.

Set in 1962 Baltimore, the film follows Tracy's quest for stardom as a dancer on a popular local TV show and her subsequent fight against racial segregation.

The film earned a modest (even disappointing) $8.3 million at the box office, but gained immortality as a cult hit on home video.

The film was adapted into an ultra-campy Broadway musical in 2002 with Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy and Fierstein as the indomitable Edna. (Divine died of an enlarged heart in 1988 at age 42, three weeks after Hairspray was released.)

It's Tracy's dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show and once she wins the role, she becomes an overnight celebrity and meets a gaggle of colorful characters. It is then that she begins her campaign to integrate the whites-only dance show, making the musical a commentary on societal injustice in the 1960s.

In 2003, Hairspray was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won eight, including Best Musical. It closed in 2009, having run for more than 2,500 performances.

In 2007, the film was remade and starred Nikki Blonsky as Tracy and John Travolta as Edna. The impressive cast included Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Brittany Snow, Allison Janney and Queen Latifah.

The film, which toned down the campiness of the Broadway production, has gone on to earn more than $202.5 million worldwide, making it a huge international success and putting it on the short list for NBC's live productions, which have been offered annually since 2013.

Last year, NBC produced The Wiz Live! to generally positive reviews. However, Peter Pan Live! in 2014 with Allison Williams and Christopher Walken was not received well. The Associated Press called it "a disjointed mess."

In 2013, The Sound of Music Live! starred America's sweetheart, Carrie Underwood, who's adorable and can sing, but failed to impress critics with her wooden acting. One critic labeled it "painfully lifeless and amateur."

Nonetheless, The Sound of Music Live! was a ratings success, seen by 18.6 million viewers. Add DVR viewing and it hit 21.8 million.

The production of Hairspray Live! will be on the Universal Studios back lot in Hollywood and begin just as the sun goes down. Much of it will be outdoors and feature audience members playing people from Baltimore and part of The Corny Collins Show.

The audience reception of NBC's live musicals has kept the live and/or musical experiment going despite the disappointment of Peter Pan. Fox responded with a live production, Grease: Live with Julianne Hough, and the recent musical Rocky Horror Picture Show. The latter, however, was taped with the actors lip-syncing their parts. It fizzled.

On the horizon is an ABC attempt at a musical version of 1987's Dirty Dancing (it won't be live) and the NBC live broadcast of Aaron Sorkin's Broadway play, A Few Good Men Live! in 2017.

Style on 12/04/2016

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