The NBC live musical production of Hairspray has a date, Wednesday Dec. 7 at 8 pm. The past three productions–Sound of Music in 2013, Peter Pan in 2014 and The Wiz in 2015 were all broadcast on a Thursday. Due to NBC carrying football on Thursdays in the Fall, the latest production will air on Wednesday instead.
The network reveals some of the creative folks who will bring Hairspray Live to life:
NBC is assembling an all-star team of Broadway’s finest and most talented creatives for its upcoming production of “Hairspray Live, the network’s latest stage musical following the phenomenal success of The Wiz Live.
“In keeping with our desire to bring the best of Broadway to our live musicals, we’ve assembled the Broadway dream team of Tony Award winners for Hairspray Live,” said Robert Greenblatt, Chairman, NBC Entertainment. “We’re thrilled to have director Kenny Leon, who knocked The Wiz Live way out of the park, and Jerry Mitchell, the original choreographer of Hairspray and who is the director of two smash hit musicals running on Broadway right now.
“We also have one of the most celebrated Broadway hyphenates, Harvey Fierstein, back writing the adaptation for TV. No one knows Hairspray better than him since he played the role of Edna Turnblad more than a thousand times and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Along with our incredible producing team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and arguably the best songwriting team in musicals, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Hairspray Live is in the best possible hands.”
I wonder if the technical wizardry FOX brought to Grease Live will change Zadan and Meron’s approach to Hairspray Live. The comparisons will be inevitable, especially considering the productions take place in roughly the same time period.
