Continuing on my top 10 musicals, here’s the next on the list.
Hairspray (2007)
“Come and see Hairspray,” they said. “Get dressed up,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. Wow. From the first song through to the last, every note in this show is absolutely solid. There is no other show that has left me quite literally dancing out of the theatre at the end, desperately hoping that my day could involve bursting into song and busting out a dance routine.
My one foible? That damned corpse. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the giggle fit that Edna and Wilbur have during “Timeless To Me”? Fake. Because if you are going to build in a corpse, having the other cast member have a perfect punchline to the joke the first actor has set up gives it away every time. And for me, it spoils it, takes down the fourth wall in an unkind way, and negates the following scene. Apart from that, it’s a perfect musical – the goodies beat the baddies, everyone is happy and everyone wins. Most musicals for me are about the feelings they leave you with. Sometimes they leave you flushed with powerful emotions. Others are just plain fun and energy boosting. This one? This one leaves me high as a kite.