Strong casting pumps up 'Hairspray'

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"Hairspray" is a hefty spritz of fun. The Tony Award-winning musical, which kicked off its national tour with a short, just-concluded run at Baltimore's Mechanic Theater, maintains the gaudy glitz and the helium-giddy energy of the Broadway original and even adds some nuances of its own.

Based on the cheerfully subversive 1988 John Waters movie, "Hairspray" is a musical about integration and body acceptance set to a boppy 1960s pop beat. The music and lyrics are by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who perfectly capture the sock hop ebullience of the era's music, while remaining true to Mr. Waters' gross-out humor and inspired oddness.

The show is set in 1962, that candy-colored time between Elvis and the Beatles when hormone-crazed teens were throwing over Connie Francis and Pat Boone for what was then called "race music." Teens are mashed potato-ing to R&B by black artists, but black teenagers are still relegated to one day a month on the local TV dance party program,"The Corny Collins Show."

Tracy Turnblad (Carly Jibson), a plus-sized gal with even bigger hair who wants to change the world one dance step at a time, dreams of a time when "every day is Negro Day." But first, she has to infiltrate the cliquey, snooty world of the teen dancers on the show -- presided over by the egotistical and mean Amber Von Tussle (Jordan Ballard) and her equally craven mother Velma (Susan Cella).

Tracy is carried along on a bubblegum cloud because of her natural buoyancy, but also because she has great parents. Edna (Bruce Vilanch, a man openly playing a woman), a hefty hausfrau who takes in laundry and hasn't left the house since Ike was in office, and Wilbur (Todd Susman), purveyor of the joke shop the Har de Har Hut, have always encouraged Tracy not to let bigness get in the way of big dreams.

And Edna and Wilbur are role models in romance as well. We may see Edna in her faded housecoat and ankle socks, but Wilbur sees Marilyn Monroe. Bruce Vilanch is certainly game to play Edna, but he is still tentative and uncertain, using the man-in-a-dress gag the way Uncle Miltie did. Mr. Vilanch has expert comic timing and an agreeable singing voice, so perhaps as the tour goes on he will gather confidence and presence.

Without a strong Edna, "Hairspray" shines the hot pink spotlight on Tracy, and the 19-year-old Miss Jibson glows in the role. She's a bouncy ball of energy and spirit, possessing one of those quintessentially '60s gulpy, hidden-giggle voices reminiscent of Teresa Brewer or Lesley Gore. Miss Jibson ups the ante by adding a touching vulnerability to Tracy, making her a powerhouse with soul. Miss Jibson is accompanied by a cast of young talents who pull off Jerry Mitchell's exhilarating, pattern-crazy choreography with enviable vitality and style.

William Ivey Long's costumes are a glorious orgy of bad taste, echoed by David Rockwell's set design -- a riot of hot pinks, screaming yellows, Howard Johnson turquoise, and shag carpeting. Mr. Rockwell's set also includes Formstone row homes, that quintessential Baltimore wall covering of faux stone.

"Hairspray" is essentially a dance musical, but beyond its pastel facade beats a show about being proud of who you are. Not the most original sentiment, but one perhaps today's audience needs to hear.

***1/2

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS