Hairspray

The society took us back to 1962 Baltimore, and a “star” came out of the shadows and shone brightly throughout the show. Chelsea Whatley, as Tracy Turnblad, the overweight High School student desperate to appear on television in The Corny Collins Show gave us a first-class performance, looking confident and assured, throughout, in her once in a lifetime role and, looked as if she was enjoying every single moment. This was a big character part carried off with absolute perfection. Well done. This show is very much youth orientated and TADAMS had amassed a full-blown bunch of young people to perform this show with their enthusiasm, pizzazz, energy, and they used all these attributes to perform the many energetic dance routines – of which there were many! There are numerous parts to play in this show and the cast did themselves proud portraying the assorted characters. Gravel-voiced Gavin White, in drag, was impeccable as overweight Mum Edna Turnblad, and his wise-cracking stage asides were timed to perfection. Joined by Brian Boardman as adoring husband, Wilber, this pair brought the house down with their comedy duet You’re Timeless To Me. Darren Handy was perfect as teenage heart-throb, Link Larkin, with whom Tracy falls in love, and Billy Naismith was loud and proud as Corny Collins, the TV show compere. Tracy’s devoted friend, Penny Pingleton, was very nicely played by Carley Mackie who meets Seaweed J. Stubbs, a dancer, enthusiastically played by Neil Hutton. In the world of TV, we met two “spiteful” ladies – a mother and daughter team, producer Velma Von Tussle (Claire Rioch) and Eilidh Robertson as her offspring Amber. But, despite being “nasty”, we did enjoy their performances! Jenna Davidson was completely unrecognizable as big, blonde and beautiful Motormouth Maybelle who gave us a sassy, vibrant, larger than life performance, particularly in her big number I know Where I’ve Been. Also adding their talents was Lynne Binnie as a prim Prudy Pingleton, and Tasha Smith as fiesty Li’l Inez. There was boundless energy throughout this performance from the company and, by the time the show’s big hit number came along, TADAMS, you did not stop the beat!

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