Photo by Keith Stewart
Pictured is Sara Reinecke as Tracy Turnblad, the teenage girl who has aspirations to make it on to the Corny Collins Show.

June 17, 2015

By Dan Hagen
NP Theatre Critic

The dress rehearsal for the Little Theatre’s second show of the season reminded me just how well Hairspray works as a musical.
The John Waters story about outsiders (persecuted for their pounds and pigmentation) who are trying to get inside a local TV dance program in 1964 provides a perfect excuse for dance after dance. You realize that the large cast must be exhausted by the end of director Kevin Long’s brisk, high-energy show, although their smiles never show it.
Colorful costumes by Sherri Milo are shown off to good effect against a terrific set by Noel Rennerfeldt.
From the moment Tracy Turnblad (Sara Reinecke) emerges from her dramatically vertical bed to sing the life-affirming anthem Good Morning Baltimore, the comic book colors of the set catch and please the eye. I particularly enjoyed the big vari-colored light panels surrounding the stage and the angled, Seuss-like buildings.
Double kudos go to Lee Ann Payne as actor and choreographer. The Equity performer (Reno in 2014’s Anything Goes) brings stage presence and assurance to the role of mean mom Velma Von Tussle, glorying like Cruella De Vil in the memory of her triumph as Miss Baltimore Crabs.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.