Hairspray Live!

Last night NBC aired their annual Live Broadway musical adaptation, Hairspray Live! Following The Sound of Music, Peter Pan and The Wiz.  The first three shows were produced on a soundstage in New York City (well Long Island) with no audience.  The leads in the first two were not great but the producers wisely surrounded them with award winning Broadway vets. Last year's The Wiz was an improvement and a lot of fun. It was nice to see a show that isn't done that often. And the casting was more inspired. They very wisely cast an unknown actress in the central role of Dorothy and surrounded her with names.

Last spring, FOX aired Grease Live! which was a broadcast from the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, and used many outdoor sets on the lot and had a live audience incorporated into the gym and dance sequences as well as on the streets outside. It added an energy that some felt was lacking from NBC's broadcasts. I will admit that sometimes it seemed flat when a big production number ended and there was no applause, just silence and then cut to commercial.

So taking a cue from FOX, NBC aired Hairspray from the Universals Studios in Hollywood and also used the backlot for outdoor shots. Once again, they had a big search for an unknown actress to play Tracy and surrounded her with name talent. Harvey Fierstein recreated his Tony award-winning performance as Edna. Martin Short, Kristin Chenoweth, Derek Hough, Jennifer Hudson, Ariana Grande, Andrea Martin, Sean Hayes, Rosie O'Donnell and games by the original movie Tracy, Ricki Lake and Broadway Tracy, Marissa Jaret Winokur.

Hairspray is one of my favorite musicals of the last couple of decades. I love the score. Its got a great early 1960s sound.  And the show is just plain fun. I love it! I think it was an excellent choice and since its not that old show they were able to have one of its original stars re-create this role.

There were some technical issues throughout with some shaky camera work, sound going out a couple of times, and some odd camera angles, or blocked shots. There was a moment in one of the dance numbers where a couple of dancers were blocking a shot of two leads in an embrace for instance.  But I think that kind of adds to the excitement of doing it live. But then again I don't think I've noticed as many technical glitches as I did in this one. Lots of shadows on performers' faces too. The jail scene between Tracy and Link as one example. A couple times, Tracy was briefly out of her light in the Corny Collins Show stuff.

And I loved the retro commercials. Those were fun.  The Reddi-Whip milk man had me scratching my head. Was that a thing back then? But then I realized they were dong retro style commercials. I loved the Toyota spot best. I have to say it was jarring to see Derek Hough finish a number and then walk directly to the camera and do an Oreos commercial.

Speaking of Derek Hough, I knew he could dance, but he can sing and act too!

I think Maddie Baillio did a great job as Tracy. I loved that they had a talent search to fund an unknown and she did a great job carrying the show. She had great energy, which Tracy needs. I really liked Dove Cameron as Amber too. Garret Clayton as Link was the weak link in the main cast. He looked and moved great. He had some killer moves on the dance floor but not the strongest actor up there.

I LOVED Harvey Fierstein and Martin Short as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad. Their second-act song, You're Timeless to Me, was a high point for me. A couple of sketchy camera shots but otherwise, perfection. Two old pros showing you how its done. THAT'S Broadway to me.

Jennifer Hudson as Motormouth Maybelle? Singing I Know Where I've Been. Amazing! Brought the house down. But I felt she was a little small in stature to be Big Blonde and Beautiful.  Still loved her though.

Kristin Chenoweth was great as always. And they clearly re-wrote her numbers so she could hit those high notes at the end.

Speaking of re-writes, there seemed to be some re-writes form the stage version. There was no Big Dollhouse number and Tracy was the only one to get arrested and go to jail. In the Broadway version all the women wind up in jail.  But one of things I noticed with Grease Live! too was that they were doing a hybrid of the Broadway and movie versions of the show as opposed to doing a straight-up televised stage production.

The production design was amazing. Seriously, I loved the Baltimore street set with the Easter eggs in the names of the shops, Waters Plumbing, Divine Pet Food with a pink flamingo on the sign. Nice! And I totally geeked out when I realized that the two women escorting Tracy and Edna in and out of Mr. Pinky's were Marisa Jaret Winokur and Ricki Lake.  But seriously, I loved the set design. So much goes into these live productions. And this one looked fantastic.

Picky stuff...in opening number, Good Morning Baltimore, it was clearly not morning but nighttime as the scene was done outdoors after sunset in LA. And since when are there mountains in Baltimore? You could clearly see the Hollywood Hills in the background. I know I'm being nitpicky but these are the kinds of things I notice.  Like Billy Eichner as the news reporter with a couple of days scruff. That is a very NOW look. A TV host/emcee/reporter in 1962 would never go on the air looking like that.

Again, I'm being nitpicky. Most people wouldn't notice or care. And does it ruin the experience for me? No. It just takes men out of it when I see something that isn't period in a period piece.

I loved it overall!  And I think this one is the best of the NBC shows so far. Nest year, Bye Bye Birdie with Jennifer Lopez.

The Wiz Live!

My thoughts on The Wiz Live!

I enjoyed it. It was much better than Peter Pan Live! and Sound of Music Live!  I thought it was an excellent choice. The Wiz is not as well known as the other two. People know of it, maybe know the songs but have most likely never seen the show. I am one of those. I had the Original Broadway Cast Recording and loved it. In fact, I got it when I joined the Columbia House record club when I was in the 9th grade.

So that is reason one why I think it was a smart choice. It exposed the mainstream audience to a little performed classic Broadway show as opposed to another production of one of the most produced shows ever (like Sound of Music and Peter Pan).

The second reason, they cast an unknown in the lead role of Dorothy and surrounded her with a cast of names. And she was wonderful, like the wizard! (Get it ? Because the original book is called The Wonderful World of Oz). Great choice. Smart choice. And it paid off. Oh! And brining back Stephanie Mills to play Aunt Em? Yes! My musical theatre geek heart nearly exploded.

Reason number three, diversity, diversity, diversity. An all black cast in an all black musical! Yes. Smart NBC. Very smart. And in this day and age...necessary.

Now, most of what I have read online has been positive. It was an improvement from the last two years but of course not flawless. Personally, I thought that Queen Latifah's songs should have been taken up into a more comfortable area in her vocal range. They were too low for her. Yes, the songs were written for a man, but c'mon. This is a major network show. Change the keys for her.

Some of the negative comments I've read are that its still not as good as a live stage production. Well yes. It is a stage show and its being performed without a live audience so it does lack that aspect. However, its for a television audience. It's sort of a hybrid of a musical theater production and a television show. It was staged and designed for a TV audience, not a live audience. It's been staged on a huge sound stage in a movie studio and staged for the cameras as opposed to a live audience.

There were complaints that there were too many commercial breaks. Agreed. But perhaps necessary so that actors could change costumes or run from one set to another for the next scene. Because while it is a TV production, its live and its of a stage show which means you keep going. No stopping. It has to flow. Unlike a movie where you cut and shoot multiple takes. Its live TV.  All the editing is done in the booth as we are watching it. And that lends to the excitement of a live TV show. So we lose the energy and the heightened performance you would get in front of a live audience. But being live, things can still go wrong.

While nothing went wrong here, there were some camera shots that were questionable. But I think that was more on the TV director and the cutting. Some of those shots in the big numbers should have been wider. But that's being picky.

The costumes, set design, choreography, makeup all so awesome.

And bottom line for those negative Nancies out there who think the show was bastardized or dumbed down or just plain didn't like it because it was not an exact duplicate of the stage production...think about all the people who were exposed to a musical theatre piece that might not otherwise ever go see a show in the theater. Think of all the young kids out there, who will see this and be inspired to pursue acting or singing or dancing.

As I said with Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music two years ago. Yes, there are far better stage actresses who could have played Maria in that. However, bringing in a name like Carrie Underwood brought in an audience that might not otherwise want to see a musical. Carrie Underwood fans, Country Western and Pop music fans. Bottom line, NBC is a major broadcast network and they are in the business of making money. You cast a name in the lead role, you're going to get a bigger audience. It's smart business.

However, this year. They took chances and those chances paid off. The Wiz Live on NBC. Did I like it as much as listening to the Original Broadway Cast album I grew up with? No. But did I like it as TV? Yes.

Two thumbs up to The Wiz Live! Can't wait to hear what they do next year. Let's hope they stick with this formula and not the Peter Pan, Sound of Music formula.