Hairspray at The Lyceum Theatre Sheffield Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Jenny Bray

Hairspray the musical has won 8 Tony awards, 4 Olivier awards and multiple other awards worldwide. The musical is an adaptation of the John Water’s film that originally came out in 1988 and was remade in 2007, so must be popular although I have to confess I have never seen it before, either on screen or show. However, I’d heard that it was a bright and fun show so was looking forward to it. The rather flamboyantly named characters in the show add to knowing the show isn’t going to be too serious.

The show is set in Baltimore in 1962 and centres around Tracy Turnblad (Katie Brace) aspiring to be on the Corny Collins show, which has local talent as its dance troupe, although she doesn’t quite fit the typical mould for it as she isn’t as slim as those who have made it on the show. Her best friend, cute and innocent Penny Pingleton (Freya McMahon), is with her all the way. It was a time where colour segregation was real and white people dominated the television shows! Corny (Declan Egan) is keen to diversify his show but is held back by the extremely racist and stuck up, Velma Von Tussle (Joanne Clifton) who is adamant that no blacks will appear on the show and that all the performers must be all American, pretty, thin things, which include her daughter Amber (Allana Taylor) being pushed into the limelight. I hadn’t realised that there was the racism storyline running its way through the standard all American girl follows her dream despite setbacks and the standard girl wants boy plots. Link Larkin (Olly Manley) is the subject of Tracy’s affections, as one of the clean cut performers she has seen on the show.

The outfits are bright, bold and fun (some may say garish) representing 60s clothing. The girls wear swing dresses in various bright colours and the boys mainly wear very bright suits. The choreography was well co-ordinated, lively and enhanced the show perfectly with many members of the cast seeming to be dancing the majority of the show.

The stage setting is fairly simple the majority of the time, with a big screen at the back that has different scenes projected on it, including roads, the inside of shops and the studio where the show is filmed. Some other pieces of set, such as Penny Pingleton’s bedroom and bed, are wheeled on and off to add to this. However, there are occasions where it is more complex, most notably during ‘Mama, I’m a big girl now’ when 3 different sets of mothers and daughters are on stage in different, non-interlinked settings, and it cuts between them for different parts of the song. This was cleverly done and worked really well.

The band are at the back of the stage, hidden for the majority of the time by the big screen that has scenery projected on it. However, for some scenes this is lifted and we can see them.

The Lyceum is in the centre of Sheffield and is easy to find. If you park in the Charles Street Q Park, remember to get a voucher from the theatre for the first hour free.

It was nice to see that for many of the actors this show is their debut. I could tell that they were genuinely enthusiastic and pleased to be there. There were 6 people playing different parts tonight. I’m not sure whether this was a knock on from one person being off or some sort of sweeping illness of the cast. It didn’t impact the show though.

There were a few stand out points for me, for very different reasons; the vocals of Sasha Monique, as Motormouth Maybelle, were amazing when singing ‘I know where I’ve been’ which is soulful and powerful. The antics of Tracy’s parents, both Neil Hurst as her Mum, Edna and Dermot Canavan as her dad, Wilbur. There were a couple of points where Neil ended up in fits of giggles as much as the audience were with his cheeky innuendos.

Parts of the show reminded me of Grease, but with more complex storylines around both larger sized people and black people, with the latter confined to ‘Negro Day’ once a year! These were expertly done to represent how it was without bringing in the politics of the day.

This at first appears to be a superficial musical but it also has deeper storylines running through it without bringing it down and remaining light hearted and fun. It’s a sad reminder of how different things were back then but is still uplifting, captivating and funny with some very catchy songs. The high energy and enthusiasm of the cast is evident and enhances viewing pleasure. The entire show is full of back to back catchy songs. I definitely left on a feel good wave with the rest of the audience, after the final song ‘You can’t stop the beat’ which I recognised but didn’t realise was from this show.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost from £15 to £60.50

Hairspray The Musical is on at Sheffield Lyceum between 14th and 19th October 2024.
For more information or to book tickets visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk or call the Box Office on 0114 249 6000
Sheffield Theatres, 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA