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Standing Ovations, Cheering and dancing along: It is clear the Sunderland audiences enjoyed the return of the Hairspray UK Tour just as much as I did! With musical numbers like “Welcome to the 60s”, “I Know where I’ve been” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat” this show is guaranteed to have you tapping your foot and humming the tunes all the way home.
Katie Brace makes her professional debut as ‘Tracy Turnblad’ a teenage girl who has a dream of dancing on the Corny Collins show on TV. Opening the show with “Good Morning Baltimore,” Katie showcased her pure talent with vocals, acting and dancing all in one wonderful opening number. After having the pleasure of watching Katie perform this role twice I can honestly say her energy is unmatched. Katie’s performance as Tracy is one of the best leading female performances I have ever had the honour of witnessing. Katie is also playing to her local crowd in Sunderland, so the audiences are full of pride watching a local girl displaying such talent. I can’t wait to see where Katie’s talent takes her next!
The cast of the ‘Corny Collins Show’ who perform “Nicest Kids in Town” which an incredible amount of energy, includes Richard Meek in the role of ‘Corny Collins’ sings every note wonderfully and yet so effortlessly. The insanely talented Rebecca Thornhill as the sly producer of the show ‘Velma Von Tussle’ and her incredible rendition of “Miss Baltimore Crabs” along with Jessica Croll playing her teenage daughter “Amber Von Tussle’ make for a great pairing. Ross Clifton had some brilliant characterisation for his character of ‘Link Larkin’ the budding young Elvis of Baltimore waiting for his big break, I loved his rendition of “It takes two” and his dancing talent is fantastic!
Brenda Edwards had such a fabulous stage presence in the role of ‘Motormouth Maybelle”. Her rendition of the song “I Know Where I’ve Been” was full of strong emotion and incredible vocals. The audience went crazy for Brenda’s voice and we were all left with a tear in our eye, wanting more!
Alex Bourne and Norman Pace as ‘Edna’ and ‘Wilbur Turnblad’ respectively, had the audience in hysterics with their hilarious performance of ‘You’re Timeless to me.’ They received a huge applause before the song was even finished.
Finally, the fabulous pairing that was Rebecca Jayne-Davies as ‘Penny Pingleton’ and Akeem Ellis-Hyman as ‘Seaweed.’ Rebecca as Penny was outstanding with some brilliant one-liners. Akeem’s performance as Seaweed was played honestly and beautifully and his rendition of ‘Run and tell that!’ was incredible.
All these amazing performances were accompanied by a fantastic live orchestra, who were positioned at the very back of the stage. The set was simplistic and therefore did not take away from the action on the stage, along with some fun and effective lighting choices by Lighting Designer, Philip Gladwell.
Overall, I would fully recommend seeing this production of Hairspray for a night of fun and fantastic entertainment. Whether it's on your feet or in your seat, this show is bound to have you dancing the night away!
by Robbie Davies (Robbie's Backstage Bants)