Hairspray

 

                                              Christopher Swan & Andrew Levitt

HAIRSPRAY, winner of eight 2003  Tony Awards, is appearing at the Miller Théâtre, formerly the Merriam Theatre, through Sunday, May 22, 2022. A rollicking musical. Hairspray is a toe- tapper that won’t let you sit still in your seat. It takes you back to the ‘60’s, perhaps a time of innocence, but the flames of racial inequity burned then as they smolder today. With the help of her two best friends Penny Pingleton (Emery Henderson ) and  Seaweed J. Stubbs, ( Jamonte D. Bruten)  Tracy Turnblad tries to make the Corny Colin Show a place where everyone could dance together, not just on Negro Day. 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad ( Niki Metcalf ) wants to skip school to dance on the Corny Colin Show. Edna, her mama, (Andrew Levitt aka Nina West) says "no". Two other teens, Amber, and Penny, also have disagreements with their mothers, resulting in “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now,” that each girl sings to her mom. The moms participate in the number.  Andrew Levitt has portrayed Nina West as a drag queen since 2001. He  is very nimble on his feet as he sings and dances across the stage. He appears in a variety of costumes throughout the evening among them a stunning evening gown. The show is filled with humor, both with comical situations as when  two teenage girls are swooning  over the same guy as well as with  one liners imparted with perfect timing by a variety of actors. The entire cast is extraordinarily talented. Edna and Wilber Turnblad’s rendition of “You’re Timeless to Me” brought the house down with applause and Motormouth Maybelle’s ( Sandie Lee ) interpretation of “I Know Where I’ve Been “ received thunderous applause as well. As for me, I sang  “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” all the way home to New Jersey.

This Is The Week That Is

1812 Productions, Philadelphia’s only all Comedy Theater Comedy, is once again presenting its much-acclaimed satirical news review, This Is The Week That Is. Changing daily to meet the ever-changing headlines, the show is part scripted, part improv but 100% pure delight. The humor is at times droll and at times hysterical but always entertaining. After an opening scene in which the multi-talented Artistic Director Jennifer Childs feigns exasperation with her cast for staying home on zoom instead of appearing live onstage, Sean Close, Donnie Hammond, Frank Jimenez, Pax Ressler Jackie Soro and Lexie Thammavong all enter the stage and join  in an opening number with Lexi introducing the concept of “copium.” Dating Game Billionaire Edition and The Price Is Right with Billionaire contestants follows. A commercial break appropriately appears after the two game shows with copium explicitly  explained in a bottle of perfume. The evening progresses with one skit after another.  This is not just your every-day 16^th year This Is The Week That Is. This is a very well-thought-out sophisticated production of knock-your-socks-off comedy. Pandemic-The Musical is brilliant. It has five musical numbers, each one both comical and poignant, including a solo of a face mask singing and dancing, an  Into the World (Woods) duet, and a grand finale of cue tips singing and dancing to Right Up Your Nose. As part of the This is the News That Is segment,  Donnie Hammond renders an outstanding performance as Ketanji Brown Jackson in her Senate Confirmations Hearings. Larger than-life videos of Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz are played asking her grueling questions to which she grabs a microphone and raps responses. Of  course, this production would not be the same without an appearance of Patsy from Schunk Street sitting on her stoop. Patsy speaks and interacts with the audience before the closing number. I have seen 15 of the 16 “weeks that is” and this production has the whit, pizzaz, sophistication and panache of all of them rolled up into one. For more information or tickets visit www.1812productions.org.