{"id":2411,"date":"2016-12-12T02:56:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2016-12-12T02:56:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:56:48","slug":"billy-at-hairspray-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2016\/12\/12\/billy-at-hairspray-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy At Hairspray Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why is it so hard to find a sexy, charismatic, hunky, non-girlie Link?<\/em>”
\n\u2013\u00a0<\/em>A notable Hairspray<\/em><\/strong> alum, after seeing the live telecast.\u00a0 We have two filmed versions of this show
\nwhere Link oozes all the raw\u00a0masculinity of a young Tatum O’Neal<\/strong>.\u00a0 Strike that – Tatum had more
\ntestosterone than Zac Efron <\/strong>and Garrett Clayton <\/strong>combined.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some people felt it was too soon to do a new version of Hairspray<\/em><\/strong> – after all, the John Travolta <\/strong>film was made in 2007.\u00a0 But this “Live” version was much closer to the Broadway <\/em>musical, due in no small part to the extraordinary talents of the show’s original choreographer, Jerry Mitchell<\/strong>.\u00a0 Since he was not involved in the film version, his vision went unseen…until now.\u00a0 When he introduced me to Maddie Baillio <\/strong>after the live telecast, he said, “Billy<\/strong>‘s known every great Tracy” – and, I daresay, some of the lesser ones!\u00a0 I’d put Maddie near the top (nobody can touch my Marissa<\/strong>).\u00a0 Her vocals were incredible, and her acting really touched me.\u00a0 I would have liked to have seen more exuberance and joy, but when your first major role is carrying a three-hour live television event, you’ve got a lot on your plate!\u00a0 There was plenty of joy on the screen once the two original Tracys appeared.\u00a0 Ricki<\/strong> Lake<\/strong> and Marissa Jaret Winokur <\/strong>showed up in “Welcome To The ’60s” as the two lead Hefty Hideaway <\/em>girls.\u00a0 I wondered where Nikki Blonsky <\/strong>was, the Tracy from the musical film.\u00a0 All anyone would say was a “financial issue” kept her away.\u00a0 I’ve always loved The Dynamites <\/em><\/strong>– the girl group that comes to life from a poster.\u00a0 The live telecast reunited the original Broadway <\/em>trio: Kamilah Marshall<\/strong>, Shayna Steele<\/strong>, and Judine Rich\u00e0rd Somerville<\/strong>.\u00a0 And I’m sure most of you caught the sly nods to the Hairspray<\/em> history, most notably the names of storefronts.\u00a0 I particularly liked Divine Pet Food <\/em>with the flashing neon pink flamingo.<\/p>\n

Of course, this production immortalized the original musical Edna of Harvey Fierstein<\/strong>.\u00a0 In many ways, Jennifer Hudson <\/strong>was miscast – she may have been blond and beautiful, but the only thing big about her is her voice…and her titties!\u00a0 She sang the role like nobody’s business, so I got past her looking like Seaweed’s sister.\u00a0 And how perfect was Kristin Chenoweth <\/strong>as Velma?\u00a0 Her arch, sardonic, laconic portrayal was impeccable.\u00a0 As Andrea Martin <\/strong>proved, there are no small roles.\u00a0 Every line reading had me howling.\u00a0 When she rolled over the bed to get to the window, I almost burst.\u00a0 She’s a national treasure.<\/p>\n

Garrett Clayton <\/strong>sang and danced the role great.\u00a0 But can we please get back to the archetype set by the unsurpassed Matthew Morrison<\/strong>, Broadway<\/em>‘s original Link?\u00a0 Now, THAT was sex on a stick!\u00a0 And whose bright idea was it to have Darren Criss <\/strong>take us out of the show at every commercial?\u00a0 Wrong!\u00a0 There were some technical issues.\u00a0 Some were on the fly – like the giant Ultra Clutch <\/em>can that rolled out with the door open.\u00a0 Chenoweth altered her lines asking what was in there, while trying gallantly to close the door with her foot (the West Coast didn’t see this since the dress rehearsal footage was dropped in).\u00a0 Many scenes were badly lit, and singers often sang in the dark – most notably while Tracy’s walking to school during “Good Morning Baltimore”.\u00a0 I know this was live, but there must be some lights on the Universal <\/em>backlot.\u00a0 At least give Tracy a flashlight!\u00a0 Ultimately, none of that mattered.\u00a0 The real star of the show was the show itself.\u00a0 Marc Shaiman <\/strong>and Scott Wittman <\/strong>wrote a musical that is as tuneful as it is relevant.\u00a0 It sounded great and proved that, as always, you can’t stop the beat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Why is it so hard to find a sexy, charismatic, hunky, non-girlie Link?” \u2013\u00a0A notable Hairspray alum, after seeing the live telecast.\u00a0 We have two filmed versions of this show where Link oozes all the raw\u00a0masculinity of a young Tatum O’Neal.\u00a0 Strike that – Tatum had more testosterone than Zac Efron and Garrett Clayton combined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2416,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions\/2416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}