Did nobody here watch Hairspray Live? I don’t see a thread yet and it’s been almost 24 hours.
I thought they did very well, although there were a few sound-level problems. The unknown they cast as Tracy was pretty good and Ariana Grande made a much better Penny than I expected her to pull off.
I was a bit surprised they got some things past Network Standards (does that even exist anymore?). The line in Miss Baltimore Crabs about Velma screwing the judges, “The Blacker The Berry”, and Martin Short grabbing Harvey’s boobs.
Garrett Clayton is very pretty (I may need to check out King Cobra, after all), as is Derek Hough.
Overall, I enjoyed it at least as much as The Wiz Live last year, if not more.
I thought it was well cast and well produced, but it seemed flat to me. After a good deal of thought I decided it was because the audience wasn’t interacting. They applauded at each commerical break, but I didn’t hear laughter or the kind of spontaneous reactions you hear in live theater.
There were several standout moments, but it just didn’t feel “live” to me.
I enjoyed it… although the fact that there’s already a quite good, quite recent movie version lessens the impact a fair bit, as I constantly found myself comparing it to the movie.
Most of the performers were quite good, particularly Corny and Seaweed. I wasn’t crazy about Harvey Fierstein, because of how much he just can’t sing. Jennifer Hudson absolutely killed it.
I preferred the movie version, in part because I cannot stand Harvey Fierstein(?)'s voice. Even a little. I actually prefer Travolta.
And as much as I love Chenoweth (enough to schedule a vacation in New York to see her in “On The 20th Century”, I liked the movie performer better as Miss Baltimore Crabs.
I’m not saying that the TV version was bad or anything, but I wish they’d done something like Wicked casting Kristin and Menzel or…well…anything that didn’t just have a movie made of it fairly recently.
Flubs are essential. It’s a, oh gosh, Live Performance! Because of it’s nature, it can’t be perfectly executed. Part of the charm, if you like. But I love the fact that they have the guts, and viewing audience to pull live theatre off. They won’t all make it, but bless them for trying. Personally, I’m waiting for Bye Bye Birdie whenever that happens.
What also impressed me was the change in set design philosophy. In the NBC earlier shows, it was clearly a theatrical stage. For this is was more of a movie set, and designed so that the different scenes did not seem stagy. I think they learned from Grease, which did a brilliant job of staging that was designed for the camera.
Did any catch the businesses on the main street set? There was the Divine Pet Shop with a pink flamingo sign. There was also a sign for Waters something-or-other.
I didn’t even know the show existed until Ms. Cups asked if we could watch it.
The only issues I saw were the can, some lighting issues and I think 2 times where the camera was visible. Speaking of, how great was the camera work? Having one camera snake its way through some of those dance numbers was a great use of engineering.
Good callout to the show’s past with Harvey/Ricki Lake/The other Chick…
They’re getting there. It was definitely an improvement over previous attempts at Live shows, both on NBC and FOX.
What they started to figure out with Grease, and moreso with Hairspray, is that you can’t chop a live show to pieces with commercials and maintain the energy. That was The Wiz’s fatal flaw for me. Too many commercials, and a cast struggling to rebuild energy with every single song.
There were still plenty of commercials here, but they were better placed, and not quite so many of them. I think the “backstage” exit to commercial conceit helps as well. But I agree with **kunilou **that it would be better yet if we could get live reaction to events during scenes and songs, not just when we’re going to commercial break. Live theater includes audience reaction, and stage shows are written with pauses and beats to accommodate cheers and laughs, and it’s an energy suck when they’re not there to fill the space.
Maddie Baillio was simply wonderful, and I’m so happy for her. I got teary when they cut to her high school and had a few words from her old teacher. I know if that was me on tv, I’d feel like that affirmation was the very best review of the whole experience.
Ariana Grande was shockingly good. I wasn’t expecting much from her, but was very impressed.
Harvey Fierstein was really painful to listen to, but I could mostly overlook it for tradition’s sake.
The doors in the can were pretty loose…they kind of were a little open even when the can was in place and were swinging a bit as they were moving it into place.
