Review: Hairspray

HAIRSPRAY SIZZLES WITH HAPPY ENERGY

Helsinki City Theatre’s major investment this autumn, the musical comedy Hairspray , had its European premiere last Saturday on the theatre’s main stage. It has been advertised in advance as a big hit of this season, and it has quite strong hit ingredients, as I have rarely seen the audience show a standing ovation at the premiere of a musical.
The musical, which premiered in the United States three years ago, has already garnered a lot of different awards, including eight Tony Awards, one of which was for Best Musical. Written by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Mann , Hairspray is based on John Waters’ film of the same name from the late 80s. Making musicals based on films is one clear way of creating contemporary musicals.
Another typical feature is the magnitude of everything, whether it is the number of performers, the music, the sets or the use of theatrical technology. In musicals, nothing is really small, not the twists and turns of the story, not the emotions or the characters. And in order to be able to meet these demands for greatness on stage, the creators of the musical must have both skill, sparkle and heart. And the team behind Hairspray has them. However, I also seem to sense that this time everything is deliberately overdone from the story onwards to the point where it becomes a tantalizing parody of the entire grand musical style.

Skillfully entertained

Hairspray has already been created by the trio that worked together in the musical Miss Saigon last year: Swedish director Georg Malvius, Scottish Ellen Cairns , who designed the set and costumes, and Estonian Jüri Nael, who choreographed. Swedish lighting designer Palle Palmé and sound designer Kirsi Peteri have been good additions. And of course, we should not forget Mikko Koivusalo, who translated the text into modern colloquial language.
The events of the musical take place in 1962 in Baltimore, USA. Chubby high school girl Tracy Turnblad dreams of getting into a popular youth dance show on a local TV channel. Surprisingly, he succeeds in doing so and rises to become a real teenage star in the process. As an energetic girl, she also wants to promote equality between blacks and whites. And even though sometimes people even escape from prison after a racial segregation demonstration, the ending is happy. Tarcy wins the Miss Hairspray pageant and the heart of her crush Link Larkin, and racial equality also takes a small step forward.
In other words, the musical’s fairytale-like story also has a touch of sociability. In its own way, it promotes the equality and non-discrimination of people, regardless of any differences in appearance, whether they are in skin color or the amount of kilograms.
Above all, however, Hairspray is a mega-scale show that bombards the viewer almost to the point of breathlessness with short scenes and dance and song numbers that follow each other quickly. Only a couple of times does the 60’s spiritual music composed by Marc Shaiman have the patience to calm down a little slower and more atmospheric.
One such song that almost sends shivers down your spine is Caron Barnes ‘ interpretation of Motormouth Maybelle as Soul Song I Know Where to Come, in which she sings about the self-esteem of a (black) person. And despite its comicism, the delicate and beautiful duet Sä oot iätön, sung by Tracy’s mother and father, Mikko Kivinen and Pertti Koivula , will not leave you cold.
As a rule, however, the music performed wonderfully by the orchestra led by Lasse Hirvi is upbeat, joyful and meant to be danced. After all, many of the plot twists and turns happen in the dance show for young people on TV.

Nael’s time-inspired choreography is spectacular and fast-paced musical dance. It requires dance technique, a sense of rhythm and, above all, completed practice. Especially since most of the time the songs are performed by dancing. All of this can be found in Hairspray’s performing group. It is a pleasure to watch the dances and listen to songs that sparkle and sound like they should in a musical.

Sparkling performers

The entire Hairspray performing group sparkles and captivates. They have embraced the delicious exaggeration seen in Malvius ‘ direction and especially in Cairns ‘ set and costumes, which, however, does not slip into vulgarity. Everything is done fully and seriously, but not really. The characters are made believable enough from the ingredients that are available.
At the centre of the events and as a catalyst, Katja Aakkula’s Tracy Turnblad is an energetic and optimistic pill of joy. Mikko Leppilampi as Link Larkin , who dreams of stardom, is both macho and sensitive at the same time.
The second couple of the story is the stunningly singing and dancing Hanna-Liina Vösa and Gary Revel Jr. Vösa is Tracy’s sissy best friend Penny, who through falling in love hatches into an electrifying young woman, and Revel is her black boyfriend Seaweed Stubbs, who teaches her all the things that can be expressed through dance.
Tracy’s role as a fat mother is made for a man. It aims to create more comedy. Even though Mikko Kivinen skillfully plays the role avoiding too much caricature, I’m not sure that the same impact and cordiality would not have been achieved without the addition of. Even if it fits the whole style.
Two people who have a significant impact on the events are also the host of the TV show, Corny Collins, and the producer of the show, Velma von Tussle. As the only villain in the musical, Leena Rapola’s von Tussle is a charmingly ruthless former Miss Äyriäinen, while Petja Lähde’s host is an absolutely adorable show guy.