Amazing dancing and vocals in powerhouse show

HAIRSPRAY, Palace, Manchester, to Saturday.

HAIRSPRAY has always been a great stage show, bright, brilliant and colourful.

In the hands of one-time Manchester (and Coliseum) director Paul Kerryson, the Sixties parody goes back to its roots and becomes a theatre event that hits all the emotional high-points, then finds a few more.

Which perhaps isn’t what you might expect from a story basically about racial integration in Baltimore in 1962.

Young Tracy (Freya Sutton, returning to an award-winning role and not missing a beat) wants to be on the local TV station’s pop show, and hates the way it is run on strict whites-only lines by Velma (Claire Sweeney, in fine form).

Tracy and friend Penny (Monique Young) audition and meet the local black kids, who would rather not appear on TV only on “negro day”.

Tracy determines to integrate the show with the help of the negro day performers led by singer Maybelle (the stunning Brenda Edwards) — in much the same way Penny has “integrated” with Maybelle’s son Seaweed (Dex Lee).

Mixed up with this are issues of Tracy and her mum (a brilliant drag turn from “Benidorm” actor Tony Maudsley) being rather heavy, and her father (Peter Duncan) being a little ineffectual.

Can Tracy still get the local heartthrob, Link (Ashley Gilmour) to love her? Yes she can! And while she’s at it she can do a little jail time, help her mum cure her fear of the outdoors and beat the baddie — namely Velma’s unpleasant daughter Amber (Lauren Stroud).

Productions of the show are always good fun — it’s a high-kitsch, throwback evening with a lovely tongue-in-cheek attitude to its own lack of earnestness, and almost a pantomime atmosphere. But in Kerryson’s hands it also becomes a powerhouse musical.

I said in another review recently that one thing this director does well is to cast fantastic singers and dancers and get them to make a show soar. He certainly does so here, driving the evening along on waves of amazing vocals and dancing.

This new production hails from Kerryson’s former theatre, Leicester’s Curve. You could criticise the sets for looking a little underdone but the cast and dancers are exemplary, with wonderful singing, energetic dancing and believable performances. Catch it while you can.