CREATIVE GENIUS: A LOOK AT THE MEN BEHIND HAIRSPRAY

Creating a musical is a lot like baking a cake. You have to have all the proper ingredients in order for the final product to be edible. Take away one element, and the whole thing just won’t taste right. The same goes for musicals. In addition to the performers, you have to combine songs, choreography, costumes, sets, lighting and sound in just the right way. Here’s a closer look at some members of the creative dream team behind the musical Hairspray who provided all the best “ingredients” to craft this deliciously funny show.

Stephen DeRosa, J.P. Dougherty, Keala Settle, Serge Kushnier, Alan Mingo Jr. & Chandra Lee Schwartz with the company

Music & Lyric/Arrangements
What would a musical be, after all, without music? As we explored in the last issue of Broadway Buzz!, Rodgers and Hammerstein pioneered the use of songs to advance the plot and build character in a musical. What was new and innovative for them has become standard practice. So the first ingredient in a musical must be the music and lyrics.

Marc Shaiman is one of the preeminent composer/lyricists, arrangers, musical directors and music producers in the entertainment industry. His work on the score for Hairspray has earned him both a Tony® and a Grammy®. He’s also an Emmy Award® winner for co-writing Billy Crystal’s Oscar Medleys and he has been nominated for five Academy Awards® for The First Wives Club, Sleepless in Seattle, Patch Adams, The American President and the highly acclaimed animated musical, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

Sharing Mr. Shaiman’s task of creating memorable and catchy lyrics for Hairspray is Scott Wittman. Mr. Wittman is recognized for directing the west coast premiere of the musical Eating Raoul, as well as the L.A. production of Livin’ Dolls, for which he received both the Dramalogue and L.A. Weekly awards for Best Director. He was the conceiver/director for Patti LuPone on Broadway and the director for the off-Broadway show Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous.

Book
Songs are critically important to a musical, but the performers typically have spoken lines as well. The lines that are not sung are referred to as “the Book.”

Aside from writing the Book for Hairspray, Mark O’Donnell has written the plays That’s It, Folks!; Fables for Friends; The Nice and the Nasty; Strangers on Earth and Vertigo Park. Mr. O’Donnell’s plays are widely produced, most notably at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. His humor, cartoons and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Spy, The New Republic and Esquire.

Thomas Meehan is no stranger to the Broadway stage or the Tony Awards® podium. Aside from co-writing the Book for Hairspray, he won the 2001 Tony Award® for co-writing the book for The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical. He received his first Tony Award® in 1977 for writing the Book for Annie, his first Broadway show, and has since written the Books for the musicals I Remember Mama, Ain’t Broadway Grand and Annie Warbucks. In addition, he is a longtime contributor of humor to The New Yorker, an Emmy-Award®-winning writer of television comedy and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs and To Be or Not to Be.

Choreography
A great musical must have great dancing and movement. It takes a skilled choreographer to make it all visually appealing for the stage.

To prepare for Hairspray, choreographer Jerry Mitchell watched tapes of “American Bandstand” broadcasts and met with two dancers from “The Buddy Deane Show,” the Baltimore version of Bandstand and the inspiration for the film Hairspray. Mr. Mitchell’s other theater credits include the Broadway productions of The Full Monty, The Rocky Horror Show and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; the national tour of Jekyll & Hyde; and the critically acclaimed Paper Mill Playhouse production of Follies. He choreographed the ABC special Geppetto, was staff choreographer for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and received an Emmy® nomination for his choreography for “The Drew Carey Show.”

Costumes
The costume designer is responsible for creating wearable art. The costumes must be functional for the actors, yet they must also serve to transport the audience into the world of the characters in the show.

Hairspray costume designer William Ivey Long is the winner of three costume design Tony Awards® - for The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical; Crazy For You; and Nine. He received Tony® nominations for the recent revivals of Cabaret, Chicago, The Music Man and Lend Me a Tenor. His other Broadway credits include 45 Seconds from Broadway, Contact, Swing!, Smokey Joe’s Café, The Tap Dance Kid and the recent revivals of Annie Get Your Gun, Picnic, 1776 and Guys and Dolls.

Direction
The “baker” of a musical cake is the director. He or she is responsible for adding just the right amounts of each ingredient, stirring them all together and serving the audience a memorable show.

Cleveland audiences with no doubt remember Hairspray director Jack O’Brien from his work on the Broadway musical The Full Monty, for which he received a 2001 Tony Award® for Best Director. That same year, Mr. O’Brien also received a nomination for Best Direction of a Play for Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love. He has earned two other Tony® nominations - for Two Shakespearean Actors and for the 1976 revival of Porgy and Bess. On Broadway, he directed the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees and Lincoln Center Theater’s The Little Foxes. At San Diego’s Globe Theatres, where he has been artistic director since 1981, Mr. O’Brien has directed more than 60 productions.

And the creative mind that started it all…
Creative consultant John Waters is the writer-director of the film version of Hairspray that inspired the musical. Mr. Waters literally transformed the American cinema with his radical sensibility that gave us Pink Flamingos, the phenomenon of midnight movies, and Baltimore, Maryland as a film capital. As America’s ultimate independent filmmaker, he rejoices in shocking and charming audiences throughout the world. Mr. Waters is the writer-director of the films Cecil B. Demented, Pecker, Serial Mom, Cry-Baby, Polyester, Desperate Living, Female Trouble, Multiple Maniacs and Mondo Trasho.

Mix all of these together and out comes the delightful Hairspray, a musical created by an ideal balance of talent both behind the scenes and on the stage. But don’t take our word for it. You simply must go and sample this musical at the State Theatre for yourselves!