Into the Coliseum, the home of English National Opera to celebrate the opening of London Theatreland comes a popular musical which ran in London from 2007 to 2010.  Hairspray is set in 1962 in Baltimore, Maryland before the civil rights movement and before concern about the CFCs from aerosols damaging the atmosphere. 

Another musical set in Baltimore was Kiss Me Kate with its beautiful song “It’s Too Darn Hot” not advancing the plot and so preventing that show being defined as one of the first musicals. 

Hairspray is a feel good tale about a lovely and plump girl and her transsexual mother.  No!  Wrong! Michael Ball is playing Edna Turnblad and she/he isn’t trans, just a chap in drag, whose voice dips deliciously, every now and again.  Could he be auditioning for Mrs Doubtfire, if and when, it comes to London?  

In the programme for Hairspray, Michael Ball says he played Javert in Les Miserables last year but “was a little bit sad that I wasn’t asked to reprise Marius – I’m sure I could still play a juvenile lead with good lighting!”  I’m positive that was one of Mr Ball’s jokes but as a reality check, like all of us who have put weight on over the years, Jean Valjean couldn’t be expected to carry the present day Michael Ball through the Parisian sewers without an Auchan shopping trolley!

But entering into the spirit of Hairspray, convincing us that big girls with big hair can be sexy, I can report that the pounds are falling off Lizzie Bea since she was cast as Tracy Turnblad and photographed for the promotional material.  The producers will need to get dozens of doughnuts delivered a day to keep up her chunky image. 

Lizzie Bea has a lovely voice and the first song of the show “Good Morning Baltimore” is sheer joy.  TV host Corny Collins (Michael Vinsen)’s television show only features white singers and dancers apart from designated Negro Day on the last Tuesday of every month. Tracy will try to introduce her black friends from detention at school, to the programme competition.   Tracy’s Nemesis is Amber von Tussle (Georgia Anderson) and Amber’s mother Velma von Tussle (Rita Simons) is a producer doing everything to promote her daughter.  These two are the nearest Hairspray gets to villains. 

Link Larkin (Jonny Amies), partially based on Elvis Presley, is the object of affection for both Tracy and Amber although I couldn’t quite see why?