The 2007 'Hairspray' for me was an irresistible delight, from personal opinion one of the better film musicals in recent years and the most fun personally had from any film in a while. Everything about it just clicked.
While perhaps the second best of the live productions of musicals trend in the past few years or so, 'Hairspray' was uneven and somewhat disappointing. Watchable, but not a patch on the 2007 film, it just didn't give me the same amount of joy watching the film. As far as the live musical productions go, 'The Wiz Live' for me fared best, though that wasn't perfect either, but 'Hairspray Live' is marginally better than 'Grease Live' and much better than 'The Sound of Music Live' and especially 'Peter Pan Live'.
Not without its good qualities. Some of the cast do work very well. Harvey Fierstein is surprisingly good and has many delightful moments, take or leave him usually but he works well here. Kristin Chenoweth is highly deserving of her legendary status, she is an amazing vocalist who still sounds great and she is more than comfortable in her acting. Martin Short and Andrea Martin are often hilarious, while Jennifer Hudson sounds amazing as ever. Derek Hough proves himself to be just as good a singer as he is a dancer.
Sets and costumes are suitably colourful. The songs are still great, with a great mix of infectiously fun, toe-tapping and heartfelt. Some of the choreography is suitably spirited.
For all those good things, there are major deficits with 'Hairspray Live'. Not all the cast work with others faring very weakly. Ariana Grande sounds underpowered and while she fares very well in pop music she is completely wrong for musicals, she also has major limitations as an actress. Maddie Baillio is pretty stiff, while at other times overdoing it and struggles especially with the dancing, parts of her singing shows signs of serious strain which is painful to listen to. Dove Cameron is incredibly irritating and on the other side of the spectrum Garrett Clayton is dull. While Hudson sounds amazing, there are occasions where she overdoes it.
Direction is sloppy and there are technical problems galore. Particularly in the sound, which lacks resonance and drifts in and out, and the embarrassingly amateurish camera work that looks bad and doesn't at times focus on the right people or what's going on onstage.
Overall, not bad but vastly inferior to the film and quite uneven. 5/10 Bethany Cox
While perhaps the second best of the live productions of musicals trend in the past few years or so, 'Hairspray' was uneven and somewhat disappointing. Watchable, but not a patch on the 2007 film, it just didn't give me the same amount of joy watching the film. As far as the live musical productions go, 'The Wiz Live' for me fared best, though that wasn't perfect either, but 'Hairspray Live' is marginally better than 'Grease Live' and much better than 'The Sound of Music Live' and especially 'Peter Pan Live'.
Not without its good qualities. Some of the cast do work very well. Harvey Fierstein is surprisingly good and has many delightful moments, take or leave him usually but he works well here. Kristin Chenoweth is highly deserving of her legendary status, she is an amazing vocalist who still sounds great and she is more than comfortable in her acting. Martin Short and Andrea Martin are often hilarious, while Jennifer Hudson sounds amazing as ever. Derek Hough proves himself to be just as good a singer as he is a dancer.
Sets and costumes are suitably colourful. The songs are still great, with a great mix of infectiously fun, toe-tapping and heartfelt. Some of the choreography is suitably spirited.
For all those good things, there are major deficits with 'Hairspray Live'. Not all the cast work with others faring very weakly. Ariana Grande sounds underpowered and while she fares very well in pop music she is completely wrong for musicals, she also has major limitations as an actress. Maddie Baillio is pretty stiff, while at other times overdoing it and struggles especially with the dancing, parts of her singing shows signs of serious strain which is painful to listen to. Dove Cameron is incredibly irritating and on the other side of the spectrum Garrett Clayton is dull. While Hudson sounds amazing, there are occasions where she overdoes it.
Direction is sloppy and there are technical problems galore. Particularly in the sound, which lacks resonance and drifts in and out, and the embarrassingly amateurish camera work that looks bad and doesn't at times focus on the right people or what's going on onstage.
Overall, not bad but vastly inferior to the film and quite uneven. 5/10 Bethany Cox