Many of us are familiar with the story of Hairspray. We watched the movie with Ricki Lake and then the one with John Travolta. If we’re lucky we’ve seen it on Broadway. For those who have yet to see it, Hairspray is about a teenage girl named Tracy Turnblad, a slightly awkward and overweight teenage girl who wins a spot dancing on a local TV show in Baltimore in 1962.
Her appearance on the show leads her to launch a campaign to integrate the all-White program and becomes a local celebrity in the process. If it sounds interesting, and believe me, it is, you have a chance to check it out tonight live on NBC. If that intro didn’t convince you, here are some other reasons why you might want to check out tonight’s production.
Kenny Leon is directing
Kenny Leon is legendary in the industry and known as Broadway’s leading African American director. With credits like A Raisin in the Sun (the one starring Diddy, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald), Fences (with Viola and Denzel), and August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, he is the man. Not to mention the fact that he won a Tony Award for Raisin with Denzel Washington and LaTanya Richardson Jackson. And after the success Leon had directing The Wiz Live last year, it only makes sense that NBC would tap him again to do it again with Hairspray Live
