The line of hopeful Hairspray ticketbuyers mid-day Aug. 16 at the Neil Simon Theatre
No, it's Hairspray! After a new block of tickets for the hit musical comedy went on sale yesterday,Hairspray saw a $1.7 million box office take on Aug. 15, according to a press spokesperson. The Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman-Thomas Meehan-Mark O'Donnell musicalization of the John Water film opened that evening to positive reviews from the New York and national press.
Hairspray began previews July 18 at the newly renovated Neil Simon Theatre. Two days before the Aug. 15 opening, the Hairspray original cast album was released by Sony Classical. Marissa Jaret Winokur (Grease!, Hair) and Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) headline the company as Plain Jane Tracy Turnblad and her plump mother Edna, respectively. Also featured are Kerry Butler (Bat Boy) as Tracy's ditzy best friend Penny Pingleton, Dick Latessa (Cabaret, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) as loving father and husband Wilbur Turnblad, Matthew Morrison (Footloose) as teen dreamboat Link Larkin and Clarke Thorell (Saturday Night, Titanic) as dance revue host Corny Collins.
Also in the cast are Laura Bell Bundy as the evil seed Amber Von Tussle, Linda Hart as her villianous mother, Velma, Mary Bond Davis as soulful DJ MotorMouth Mabel, Corey Reynolds as Penny's love interest, Seaweed, and Danelle Wilson as Seaweed's little sister, Little Inez. The ensemble includes Eric Anthony, Shoshana Bean (Godspell), Joshua Bergasse, Eric Dysart, Adam Fleming, Jennifer Gambatese, Greg Graham, Danielle Lee Greaves (Rent), David Greenspan (The Wax), Katy Grenfell (The Life), Jackie Hoffman (Obie Award for The Book of Liz), Hollie Howard, Katharine Leonard, Kamilah Martin, Rashad Naylor, Judine Richard, Peter Matthew Smith, Todd Michel Smith, Shayna Steele (Rent), Brooke Tansley and Joel Vig.
"Hairspray," which, in Waters' film form, starred Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono and Waters perennial Divine, is set in 1962 Baltimore, where the girl with the biggest hair and the best moves can obtain fame on the city's number one dance revue, "The Corny Collins Show." When lovable, chubby Tracy Turnblad defeats the show's reigning queen, Amber Von Tussle, the girl's evil, bigoted mother, a former beauty queen, wants revenge. Turnblad's own parents, however, are there to make sure Tracy stays on top. In the course of her rise, Tracy falls for, wins and then loses the handsomest boy on "Corny Collins. She even winds up in jail where she learns love and integration are worth the fight.
Hairspray's score includes the following numbers: "Good Morning, Baltimore," "The Nicest Kids in Town," "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now," "I Can Hear the Bells," "(The Legend of) Miss Balitmore Crabs," "It Takes Two," "Welcome to the '60's," "Run and Tell That," "Big, Blonde and Beautiful," "The Big Dollhouse," "Good Morning, Baltimore (Reprise)," "Timeless to Me," "Without Love" "I Know Where I've Been," "Cooties" and "You Can't Stop the Beat."
To order tickets ($65-$100), call (212) 307-4100 or visit http://www.ticketmaster.com. The Neil Simon Theatre box office is located at 250 W. 52nd Street. Hairspray is on the web at http://www.hairsprayonbroadway.com.
Prime Hairspray tickets can also be had through the Broadway Inner Circle, the same service which also offers seats at The Producers and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Those run at $200 with a $40 service fee and are not available at the box office. Broadway Inner Circle is on the web at http://www.broadwayinnercircle.com.
