This is the cast’s first day rehearsing on the outdoor set, after being stuck in a couple of soundstages for the last month, so there are plenty of new wrinkles to deal with… like a mechanical rat that crosses Tracy’s path as she darts between parked cars. The audio playback blasts the opening snare-and-kick-drum beat - another familiar nod in the score to the Spector/girl-group era - and Maddie, as Tracy, steps out of her vertical bed, fully clothed, to face the day. 7, but no one wants to see Hairspray Live! turn into a splatter film.ģ:06 p.m. Everyone’s hoping for a little spontaneity on Dec. Co-director Kenny Leon steps in to warn the threesome to stand back as they sing, and never lean against the railing, which, unlike the marquee they’re standing upon itself, has not been tested and secured for human weight. The three Dynamites in question ascend this ramp and stand on top of the marquee, adjusting to the perch where they’ll deliver a key verse. A ladder is wheeled over to the marquee of a theater exterior that is advertising a “tonight only” appearance by the Dynamites, a girl group trio that recurs throughout the show.
A little less than a month out from the air date, Billboard stopped by the massive production for a set visit. And especially after last year’s The Wiz raised the bar for these live musicals (and Grease Live, which aired on rival Fox, kept it there), Hairspray Live! may mark the first time one of these has transpired with most viewers tuning in expecting to love it, not just to live-hate-tweet it.Ĭan it live up to those love-tweeting expectations? The signs are good, and not just the battered storefront window signs the production designers cleverly devised for the show’s outdoor streetscape. The production is aiming its appeal at theater fans, bringing in names associated with the original Broadway production like leading “lady” Harvey Fierstein meanwhile, NBC also hopes to capture the pop diehards with the casting of Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson in key roles. 7), following in the annual pre-Christmas tradition of the network’s three previous live musicals, The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, and The Wiz. Hairspray Live! airs on NBC on Wednesday (Dec. but for idealistic Tracy, it’s morning in America. And like every Tracy before her, she will open the live television translation of Hairspray by standing up in a bed that is sitting on its end, all the better to step out of and be instantly transported to a morning street scene that is, in her naïve eyes, glorious with possibility.
Baillio is a Tracy Turnblad for a new generation (albeit not a very, very new generation, since the Broadway show only opened in 2002, and a movie version followed in 2007). “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,” sings Maddie Baillio, by way of introduction, echoing the kind of wordless Ronnie Spector trademark that was written into the Hairspray score.