The touring Broadway musical “Hairspray” arrives in Chicago for about a two-week run at the CIBC Theatre in the Loop this week, bringing with it the story of 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad in 1960s Baltimore who’s just dying to get on the TV dance program “The Corny Collins Show.”
This new, non-Equity tour pairs director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell for a production of the musical based on John Waters’s 1988 film, with music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. “Hairspray” was first on Broadway in 2002.
The current cast includes Andrew Levitt (aka Nina West, from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) as Edna Turnblad, Niki Metcalf as Tracy Turnblad and Gabriyel Harris as Motormouth Maybelle. The songs, of course, include “Good Morning Baltimore” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat” — and are stickier than the titular hair product.
February 1-13 at the CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.; 800-775-2000 and www.broadwayinchicago.com
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