HAIRSPRAY Music by Marc Shaiman: Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman: Book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Based on the John Waters 1988 Film. Neil Simon Theatre, Broadway - 15 August 2002 - 4 January, 2009 (31 previews; 2641 perfs) Shaftesbury Theatre, London - 30 October, 2007 - 28 March, 2010 (1000 + perfs) STORY ACT ONE It's early June, 1962, in blue-collar Baltimore. Surrounded by "45s" and teen magazines, Tracy Turnblad wakes up in her family's apartment over the Har-De-Har Hut, her father Wilbur's jokeshop. Teenager Tracy is a large girl with a high hairdo, abundant joie de vivre and rhythm in every inch of her body. Her obsession is the Corny Collins TV show on WZZ1, the after-school dance program that has made stars out of The Nicest Kids In Town. Everyday, Tracy and her shy best friend Penny rush to Tracy's house right after school to learn the latest dances and moon over Link Larkin, the show's resident dreamboat. Tracy's mother, Edna, a hardworking woman of vast proportions and enormous heart, takes in laundry to make ends meet. Penny's mother, Prudy Pingleton, disapproves of the "coloured" music, but to Edna, it's just good old black-and-white TV. On the Corny Collins Show, the reigning queen is the oh-so-perfect Amber Von Tussle, whose mother Velma happens to be producing the show. They are all excited about a coming nationwide prime-time Corny Collins spectacular live from the Eventorium, sponsored by Ultra Clutch Hairspray. The girl on the show who gets the highest popularity rating will be crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray, and Amber wants that crown almost as much as Velma wants it for her. The daily show is segregated except for once a month, when Motormouth Maybelle co-hosts "Negro Day." Velma complains that Corny spinning so much "race" music will lose them their sponsor, while Link asks Amber to go steady and gives her his Corny Collins Council ring. One of the girls on the show will be dropping out for a suspicious nine months, and auditions are announced for a replacement. Tracy and Penny are dying to go. Edna, Prudy and Velma each try to control their daughters, but the girls rebel. Tracy and Penny are late for the audition, due to a "stupid bus crash," but when Link bumps into Tracy, she hears a symphony. The girls on the Council, led by Amber, pick Tracy apart, and Velma won't even let her dance. Back in school and in detention again for outlandish hair-do, Tracy meets all the cool black kids in school, especially Seaweed, who teaches Tracy some fabulous moves that she uses at the Sophomore hop. DJ Corny Collins singles her out, and so does Link. All they had to do was see her dance. Next time we see her, she's on the show. Over Amber's objections, Link sings Tracy a love-song on the air on which Tracy brazenly joins in and they end it with a kiss. Not only does Tracy eclipse Amber, she also suggests that every day be "Negro Day" right on the air, much to Velma's fury. Tracy gets home to Edna, and the offers are pouring in. Mr. Pinky fromThe Hefty Hideaway ("quality clothes for quantity gals") wants her for his spokesgirl and "fashion effigy." Tracy wants Edna as her agent, but Edna is reluctant to leave the house. Tracy insists she get with the decade. Thanks to Mr. Pinky, the Turnblads are transformed from frumps to fashion-icons, extra-large deluxe. At school, Tracy is attacked by Amber in a game of dodgeball ("So tragic, I forgot to cry."), but Penny, Link and Seaweed come to her aid. Seaweed invites them all to a platter party at the record shop run by his mother, Motormouth Maybelle, in the black section of town. Tracy thinks that's so cool, but Seaweed says not everyone sees it that way. At Motormouth Maybelle's shop, Seaweed is joined in his song by his sister, Li'l Inez. Black kids and white kids are all dancing together when one by one, Amber, Velma, Edna and Wilbur arrive. Amber and Velma try to make Link leave with them, but he stays and they go. Tracy schemes with Maybelle to integrate the show, starting tomorrow on Mother Daughter Day. Maybelle will bring Li'l Inez,
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