‘Hairspray’ brings nostalgic fun with timeless message

Audiences at the CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale are welcomed to the ‘60s this summer for the musical “Hairspray.”

The roughly two-hour-long show follows Baltimore teenager Tracy Turnblad as she attempts to join the cast of Baltimore’s hottest dance television program, “The Corny Collins Show,” while reckoning with the impacts of segregation on the local Black community amid the civil rights movement.

Shea McMahon takes center stage as Tracy, bringing a confident presence and excellent vocals that match the charismatic, larger-than-life character. In the song “I Can Hear The Bells,” where Tracy fantasizes about her life with “Corny Collins Show” heartthrob Link Larkin, played by Scott Wysocki, McMahon convincingly embodies the spirit of a teenage girl who can only dream about her favorite show and crush.

Ryan Nolin masterfully performs as Tracy’s mother, Edna Turnblad, whose fashion and mindset are “stuck in the ‘50s,” according to Tracy. Nolin provides plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout the show and brings a sentimental side through songs like “(You’re) Timeless to Me,” alongside Don Dowdell, who plays Edna’s husband, Wilbur.

When an unexpected opening for a dancer on “The Corny Collins Show” arises, Tracy jumps at the opportunity to join the cast, despite being a social outcast because of her weight. Dance castmate Amber Von Tussle, played by Olivia Schneider, and her antagonistic mother, Velma Von Tussle, played by Christina D’Orta Muens, quickly become Tracy’s enemies and will lie and cheat to keep Amber as the show’s female lead.

The Von Tussles even warn Corny Collins to keep the show moving in “the white direction” to avoid influence from Black artists, with the show allowing Black dancers and music only once a month on “Negro Day.”

Tracy, along with her trusty best friend Penny Pingleton, played by Sarah Minto, soon befriends her Black classmates, such as Seaweed J. Stubbs, played by Andrew J. Culbreath, and learns dances and more about the struggle for civil rights.

Malika Batchie-Lockhart impeccably embodies Motormouth Maybelle, Seaweed’s mother, record producer, and “Negro Day” host, who leads her family and friends toward racial justice. Motormouth Maybelle joins Tracy and co. to protest for racial equality in Baltimore, but soon faces trouble.

Batchie-Lockhart gives it her all and takes command while singing, especially in the second-act song “I Know Where I’ve Been,” which seriously examines the fight for desegregation and racial equality as a road the group must travel despite pushback from authorities.

Around the same time the musical is set in, in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested alongside at least 55 others in Birmingham, Ala., for “parading without a permit,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative, while peacefully marching against segregation. While in jail, the pivotal civil rights leader penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Later that summer, MLK Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial before 250,000 demonstrators during the March on Washington.

Along with tremendous performances by the entire cast, the sets and lighting transport audiences to the ‘60s, with a bright-pink frame surrounding the stage that looks like both a vintage television and a set piece from an actual dance show. David McQuillen Robertson is the show’s scenic designer, Sean Cosgro is the props designer, and Kevin Purdy is the show’s lighting designer.

John Waters wrote and directed the original “Hairspray” film in 1988 as a sort of autobiographical film based on his childhood growing up in 1960s Baltimore amid the civil rights movement, which he participated in through demonstrations against Alabama governor George Wallace, according to The Wrap.

Waters’s “Hairspray” was later adapted into the Broadway musical of the same name, with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman, which introduced the upbeat songs “Good Morning Baltimore” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” which the current Oakdale cast charges energetically through as the show’s finale.

“Hairspray” at the CM Performing Arts Center runs on weekends and Friday, July 17, through Aug. 9. For more information and tickets, visit www.cmpac.com, or call (631) 218-2810.