Monday, 7 December 2009

Hairspray

Catch your breath later...

The musical "Hairspray" does everything right

Rarely do people who regard pop music as a serious matter - which it is - agree on one thing. But even if one may disagree on whether it is Bushido or the band Silbermond that has a more negative influence on today's youth or whether electronic music from Cologne or American song-writing will save the world: most music lovers will agree that modern musicals are of the devil.

It is the squarest cultural form, boiled down to the most minimal consensus, for which one can give tickets only when having to avoid the embarrassment of not having any gift at all. Surely many viewers of musicals have been able to add a new meaning to their personal definition of the term "awkwardness". This will be especially true for those viewers, who together with their happily smiling relatives, have been forced to listen to singing cats, purring phantoms or blaring steam trains. All of which originate from Andrew Lloyd Webber's composition kitchen.

To contemporaries living in Cologne and scared off by such singing and dancing theatralities, the Musical Dome must seem even more provoking than the local mosque to Islamophobes. The screaming-blue building is situated right next to the main station by the Rhine. Since 1996, the view on the city-panorama is being spoiled by the building's polyester roof. However, exactly this horrific building has to be entered in order to admire an explicitly well done musical: in London it is already seven years that the "Hairspray"-production, based on John Waters' movie of the same name, has continued to be successful.

Baltimore, 1962: motown beats and beehive-hairdos dominate the urban landscape. The chubby however dance-crazy Tracy Turnblatt seeks to enter TV-host's, Corny Collins', talent show in which white teens dance to black music. Of course, the obese girl is not welcome. Tracey teams up with a group of black youths, learns what being an outsider really means, and finally against all odds they participate in the show together. "Hairspray" works so well for many reasons: it refuses accustomed to featherbrained excesses of early 60ies-style decoration - all this pompous and over-the-top style is already found in John Waters' original film. At the same time, just like the movie this production accomplishes a perfect symbiosis of a humanist message and entertainment. There is hardly time left to catch one's breath. Constantly, but without losing any of its warmth, the production goes over the top in its hilarity.

Then there is the music. Contrary to the film, which uses original songs of the time, the authors Shaiman and Wittman produced their own song-material. These songs work. Or better: through their dance renditions the brilliant performers let them appear as steaming 60ies originals. The viewer almost becomes envious while following the goings-on on stage: choreographed dancing rarely looked so loose, full of relish, and sweaty.

The German version's main attraction is of course its cast: a warm and charming performance by Uwe Ochsenknecht as Tracey's mother going way beyond the usual man-in-a-frock humour. Especially the supporting actors (foremost Jana Stelley as Penny Pingleton) dominate and add pace to the play. No fear: by seeing "Hairspray" you will not become a brainwashed musical-fan to whom even singing cats might seem tolerable. However, in this case everything has been done right.

Eric Pfeil