Guest Review of Hairspray

Guest Review of Hairspray

The location: Baltimore. Its vibrant streets are lined with men donning two-button suits and women with their hair curled to new heights. Teenagers tote around personal radios as they hurry home to their 20-inch television screens. Gas costs just 28 cents per gallon, and John F. Kennedy comfortably resides just a couple hours away. It’s not 2016, but 1962, and it’s where the Loyola Blakefield Player’s production of “Hairspray” finds its home.

Based on John Water’s 1988 film of the same name, “Hairspray” takes place in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, where chirpy teenager Tracy Turnblad dreams to dance on the popular TV program, “The Corny Collins Show.” After its Broadway debut in 2002, the musical earned three Tony Awards–including Best Musical–and was adapted into another widely-successful film in 2007. Filled with discussions of racism and body image, the winsome show is actually a commentary on the social injustices that plagued 1960s American society.

Sporting a bob of adorable curls, Eva Isadora Hellerbach took to the spotlight as the effervescent Tracy Turnblad. Through her naivety-laced voice and spirited body language, Hellerbach effectively portrayed Tracy’s dewy-eyed view of a community scarred by segregation and discrimination, maintaining her smile even when things looked grim. Whether skipping through the sunshine-bathed streets of downtown Baltimore or sighing sweet refrains from behind the iron bars of a forlorn jail cell, Hellerbach’s endearing performance caught the eyes and ears of everyone in the room.

Tracy did not endure her tribulations alone, however, as she had the support of all the diverse people she met along the way. Starring as Tracy’s pigtailed, gum-chewing, socially-inept best friend Penny was Morgan Dryer. Dryer’s comedic performance perfectly portrayed an awkward high school girl: the ungainly movements, the adenoidal speech, and the agonizingly obvious crushes. Her moments onstage–albeit rare–were the high points of the entire show. On the flipside, Rae’l Ba’s performance as saucy R&B record producer Motormouth Maybelle was anything but awkward. Using her voice of pure gospel gold, Ba ardently asserted that not only should black people love themselves for who they are, but curvier, heftier people too, noting on the show’s fundamental themes.

While the stage was alight with perky revelry, others worked behind the scenes to bring this jocund show to fruition. Wigmaster Peter Pfedeort crafted several wigs that paid homage to the unique style of the 1960s, from Tracy’s dual-chromatic bob to Maybelle’s towering cone of glistening blonde curls to the cluster of russet ringlets he used for his own role as Tracy’s mother Edna. Choosing to go with a more subtle approach, lighting designer Alex Wall did not rely on ostentatious colors or eddying gobos to add pizazz; instead, Wall’s austere choices set a blank canvas for the actors to paint the stage with their own exuberance and time period flair.

Loyola Blakefield’s production of “Hairspray” is a jubilant tribute to bygone times and to classic musical comedy. All who come are bound to be singing 1960s-style show tunes in their sleep for days to come.

 

by Claire Vervack of Liberty