Hairspray - Michael Ball extends contract
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
MICHAEL Ball will continue in the cross-dressing role of Edna Turnblad in the hit musical Hairspray until the end of its current booking period – October 25, 2008.
Previously Posted: Within days of opening at the Shaftesbury Theatre, the musical Hairspray has extended its booking period by seven months – until October 25, 2008.
Previously Posted: Joining Michael Ball, Mel Smith and newcomer Leanne Jones in the UK premiere of Hairspray, will be Tracie Bennett as vicious Velma Von Tussle.
Bennett is probably best known as Coronation Street‘s Sharon Gaskell, the Fairclough’s foster daughter, a role she played from March 1982 to January 1984 and again from January to November 1999.
However, her West End credits include Les Miserables, High Society, Cash on Delivery and the Savoy’s 1995 revival of She Loves Me for which she won an Olivier.
The cast will also include Rachel Wooding (We Will Rock You) as Velma’s daughter Amber, Paul Manuel as host Corny Collins, Adrian Hansel as Seaweed and Johnnie Fiori as Motormouth Mabel.
A film adaptation of Hairspray is currently on release in the UK.
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Previously Posted: Comedian Mel Smith will make his musical debut playing Wilbur, ‘husband’ to Michael Ball’s Edna, in the UK premiere of Hairspray, which opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on October 30, 2007 (previews from October 11).
A writer, performer and director, Smith and his comedy partner Griff Rhys-Jones created and starred in the long-running television sketch show Alas Smith and Jones. They also founded Talkback Productions which was responsible for Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show and I’m Alan Partridge.
Smith has also appeared in Not the Nine O’Clock News; directed the feature films The Tall Guy and Bean; and adapted and starred in the touring production of An Hour and a Half Late, the English language premiere of Une Heure et Demie de Retard by French playwright Gerald Sibleyras.
Previously Posted: According to reports, West End favourite Michael Ball is to take on the cross-dressing role of Edna Turnblad in the UK premiere of Hairspray, which opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on October 30, 2007 (previews from October 11).
Ball made his West End debut in 1985 when he originated the role of Marius in Les Miserables. This was followed by The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love and more recently, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Woman in White.
Later this month, he will make his English National Opera debut at the London Coliseum in the revival of Robert Wright and George Forrest’s 1953 Broadway musical Kismet.
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And in another first, Ball will perform a full-length concert at the Royal Albert Hall on August 27, as part of this year’s BBC Proms.
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Speaking about the role of Edna, Ball told the Daily Mail newspaper: “The secret is to play Edna as a woman and not as a man in drag. You behave like a woman and you convince people and find the pathos, the way Dustin Hoffman did in Tootsie.”
In Hairspray, Edna’s daughter Tracy will be played by newcomer Leanne Jones.
Previously Posted: This autumn, the musical Hairspray will finally receive its West End premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre where it opens on October 30, 2007 (previews from October 11) and is initially booking until October 25, 2008.
Based on John Waters’ cult 1988 film, the Broadway production of Hairspray is still running at the Neil Simon Theater where it premiered in August 2002. The following year, it won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. And although a West End transfer was anticipated on two previous occasions – in 2003 and again in 2005 – neither materialized.
Set in 1960s Baltimore, Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart. But Tracy has a passion – to dance. And when she wins a spot on the local TV dance programme, ‘The Corny Collins Show’, she becomes an overnight success – no longer an outsider but an irrepressible teen celebrity.
The stage adaptation has a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Whitman and Shaiman. As yet, no casting has been announced for the London production which will be directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.
A new film version starring John Travolta (in the cross-dressing role of Tracy’s mother), Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Christopher Walken and Alison Janney is scheduled for a July release in the UK.
Fame, which is currently playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre, completes its limited summer season on September 1, 2007.
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