I was so lucky to be invited to The Opera House this week for the Press Night launch of the smash hit musical Hairspray!
I have to admit, Hairspray isn’t a musical I really know. I’ve never seen the film and didn’t know much about it, however I love musicals and was really looking forward to it! Also, I was over the moon to invite my best friend to come along with me, as its her all time favourite musical.
Me and my friend were amazed with our seats, we were in the stalls and we could feel the excitement all around and almost took the stage!
Hairspray the Musical is set in the 1960’s in Baltimore, America. An unlikely plus-sized teen, Tracy becomes famous over night after landing a role in her favourite TV show. With the help from her new African-American friends, Tracey uses her fame and influence to campaign for racial integration.
Tracey Turnbald, played by Rebecca Mendoza was absolutely brilliant. Not only was she a great singer and dancer, but she was so funny. She brought a lovable character to the stage, who was naive but hard working. Her facial expressions where fantastic, especially when she was swooning over Link Larkin! It’s hard to believe this was her professional debut.
The audience was blown away when Motormouth Maybelle sang! She has a huge, powerful voice and she was pretty spectacular. She was portrayed by Brenda Edwards, an X Factor star.
One of my favourite scenes has to be when Tracey’s Mum and Dad sang ‘You’re Timeless To Me’. The whole audience, and the cast on stage couldn’t stop laughing. The jokes were hilarious, the dancing and singing was funny! Such a feel-good scene!
I think special mention should go to the character Seaweed, played by Layton Williams from Bad Education. His singing and dancing was out of this world, he did back flip after back flip with ease. I was really impressed!
It was great that for most of the show you could see the live orchestra. The were set up at the back of the stage as if it was a live TV show.
My favourite musical is Les Miserable, so there is no way I can compare the two. This has laughter, colour and sequins all the way throughout the show. I’ve never seen a show like this before and it was fantastic! This is definitely a favourite now.
From start to finish, the show was full of Big Voices, Big Colour and of course Big Hair! Brilliant!
Hairspray is on a The Opera House now until 7th April, get tickets here.
Out and about mummy 