The questions 'Hairspray' brings (really)
Lori and her family was nice enough to take me along to see Hairspray at the Signature Theatre last week, and it was my first time seeing the show in any form, stage or screen. The production was good, as quick and upbeat as all the reviews said to expect. Carolyn Cole did a strong Tracy, and the Von Tussles had a quality level of villainous-ness. To get local PBS personality Robert Aubry Davis as Edna was also a kick. Early reviews hit him pretty hard. He was no Harvey Fierstein, but it seemed like he had improved. Scene-stealing, though, were Lauren Williams as best friend Amber and Nova Y. Payton as Motormouth Maybelle. Forget that character's rhymes. Payton's I Know Where I've Been won biggest.
But what really worked for me — and I'm not sure how intentional this effect was — were the questions the show left. Can there be negative space around a bright, happy-ending musical about social progress? I think with John Waters, yes. Even after jumping to Broadway and now into productions around the country, more complicated issues survive in what you take away. Why are the black characters less developed and more sexualized than the white ones? Is the special ed section a send-up of those students or the system that segregates them? While the cast is integrated to near split, why is the audience almost entirely white? What does the casting of Edna mean now? To cast Divine as a sympathetic mom in a family movie in 1988 means something different than putting a large local male celebrity in a huge dress in 2012. How well do the choices of the late-'80s and early '00s work years later?
Lori says she and her mom walked away with similar questions. I like that in a show — takes you effectively in one direction (perhaps in a brightly colored, sing-a-long way), but leaves other directions open.
