Hairspray, the musical with a big heart and even bigger hair, has won the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, the fourth and final win for the show this evening.
The musical triumphed over fellow nominees The Drowsy Chaperone, The Lord Of The Rings and Parade to take the much-coveted prize. The win completes a clean sweep of the theatrical awards season as it has already been named Best Musical in the Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Best New Musical at the Whatsonstage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards.
Originally premiered on Broadway, where it won eight Tony Awards, Hairspray opened at London’s Shaftesbury theatre in October 2007. Based on the cult 1988 John Waters film, the story is set in 1960s Baltimore and follows irrepressible teen Tracy Turnblad as she tries to claim a place on her local television dance show, the Corny Collins Show. Encountering both sizeist and racist attitudes, our big-hearted, big-haired heroine attempts not only to win the dance contest, but to bring integration to Baltimore in the process – and also win the heart of the lovely Link Larkin.
The show's writers – Mark O’Donnell, Thomas Meehan, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman – were on hand to collect the award. Afterwards they commented: "England is the land of legend, so I am living in pure fairytale land. It almost seems unfair; it’s such a wonderful experience to put on this show. We are like wedding crashers, we have already had our candy in a way. It’s a wonderful cast, an extraordinary company that we have here, it's thrilling to see the show in such a strong production."
Already tonight the show’s stars Leanne Jones (Tracy) and Michael Ball (Tracy’s mother Edna) have picked up the awards for Best Actress and Actor in a Musical, while Tracie Bennett, who plays Tracy’s nemesis Velma Von Tussle, claimed the award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In total, the musical was nominated an unprecedented 11 times in this year’s Laurence Olivier Awards, and with this final award has converted four of those nominations into wins.
Hairspray is directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, both of whom were among the nominees tonight. CB
