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Home , Bob Martin (comedian), Bombshell (Smash), Dame Edna Everage, Divine (performer), I Can Hear the Bells, Jan Hooks

AUDIENCE GUIDE 2018-2019 | Our 59th Season | Issue 2

IN THIS ISSUE Authors and composer Synopsis , a

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.

Hairspray

The Corny Collins Show reminds us of the importance is a full story of youthful

Enjoy! enthusiasm optimism and change is that possible and that there is brighter future for everyone. At the heart of this hilarious, socially yet important show is ensemblean of teenagers. Skylightis toproud present17 area junior high and high school students performing our in production. Everything about you smile. It has a heart of gold, with its messageof acceptance, understanding and kindbeing to one another. dancer ondancer local TV show dance similar to She uses her newfound power to integrate TVthe network the win and affection of town’s the heartthrob. Hairspray of individuality and the acceptance of one another: a timely thoughtshareto today. - -

size teen Tracy December 30, 2018 -

- is set in in 1962. It is based theon 1988 movie is a bold, beloved blockbuster

Turnblad, who wrestles with body image issues and bullying, then undergoes a transformation from social outcast to sudden star shewhen becomes a . Hairspray storyis the of plus It features music Marc by Shaiman, who also wrote lyrics with , with a book Mark by and O’Donnell about integration.” The Broadway adaptation won Tonyeight Awards 2003,in including Musical.Best Hairspray created by legendary, Waters,makerJohn called “a who it strong case against bullying.It also offerspositive a message being about yourself and owning the talents you possess. great score, a diverse cast and high energy dancing. It addresses the need for harmony racial makingwhile a Hairspray musical depth with and heart. takes It on important community issues with wit, a Thisavailableguide is online at skylightmusictheatre.org Book Thomas by Meehan and Mark O’Donnell November 16November Music by Lyrics Marc by Shaiman and Scott Wittman Marc Shaiman: Music and Lyrics; Scott Wittman: Lyrics

This production is generously

Season Sponsors

Scott Wittman Marc Shaiman was born in 1959 in Hairspray is just one of Scott Newark, New Jersey. When he was Wittman’s many successful efforts as only 16, he left school to pursue a a director, lyricist, and for career in . Shaiman began Broadway, concerts, and television. his professional career as ’s vocal arranger, eventually Born in 1954 in Nanuet, New York, he becoming her musical director and co- got an early career start in New York producer of many of her recordings, City directing a show for a Greenwich including The Wind Beneath My Village club. He soon directed Wings and . concerts for such artists as Bette He also worked on Saturday Night Midler, , Raquel

Live as an arranger/writer and Welch, and Lypsinka. portrayed Skip St. Thomas, the pianist for The Sweeney Sisters, played by and , which In addition to Hairspray, Wittman earned him an Emmy nomination. conceived, wrote lyrics for, and directed : Fame Becomes Shaiman has worked on over 50 Me and conceived and directed

movies including Broadcast Matters of the Heart, a solo concert by News, , When Harry Met Patti LuPone in 2000. Sally, , , , Sleepless in Research/Writing by , Wives Club and Shaiman and Wittman worked with Terrence McNally on Catch Me If You Justine Leonard for ENLIGHTEN, : Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Can, a musical adaptation of the Skylight Music ’s Education Program film. The musical His work on Hairspray with Scott Edited by Ray Jivoff opened in April 2011 Wittman earned the team a Tony [email protected] Award, a and a They also worked together on Charlie Grammy. They also collaborated on and the Chocolate Factory the and the Musical, which premiered in in television series, . 2013. The show was reworked for a Broadway production in 2017. It ran In 2007 he was honored with almost months before closing in ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award for January 2018. his outstanding contributions to the

music of film and television. In 2013, Wittman and Shaiman co- wrote the score for , a Shaiman married Lieutenant musical about Marilyn Monroe within Commander Louis Mirabal in 2016. the context of the NBC television show Smash. A soundtrack was They have homes in New York and 158 N. Broadway where he continues to released later that same year. His Milwaukee, WI 53202 write and compose. current project is the upcoming Mary (414) 291-7811 Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt www.skylightmusictheatre.org and Lin Manuel-Miranda.

AUDIENCE GUIDE | HAIRSPRAY Book Thomas Meehan and Mark O’Donnell

Thomas Meehan (1929-2017) was a key collaborator on some of the most memorable productions in recent Broadway history. Always a prolific writer, Meehan in his 70s wrote or co- wrote three shows that each ran over 2,000 performances on Broadway: (1977), 2,377 performances; (2001) written with , 2,502 performances and Hairspray (2002), written with Mark O'Donnell, running for 2,642 performances. Meehan won or shared for all three shows. Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan He wrote the books for other musicals shared the 2003 Musical and the including (1979), Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ain’t Broadway Grand (1993), Bombay Meehan joined forces with Mel Brooks Book of a Musical for their work on Dreams (2004), with Meera Syal; to write the screenplay for 1983’s To Hairspray, and they wrote the 2007 (2007), again with Be or Not to Be, a remake of a 1942 . The pair also worked Mel Brooks; Cry Baby (2008), an movie spoofing Nazi Germany. Four on another John Waters musical adaptation of the John Waters film with years later, they collaborated on adaptation, Cry-Baby, for which they Mark O'Donnell; : The Musical (1987), a sendup of sci-fi received a 2008 Tony nomination. (2010), with ; Limelight: The films. The pair made Broadway history Story of (2012) and with the musical version of Brooks’ Born in Cleveland, , O’Donnell (2014) with . 1967 film The Producers. The show received his BA from Harvard College opened in 2001 to sold-out houses, in 1976. He was a member of The Nice work for a kid from Ossining, New rave reviews and shattered Tony Harvard Lampoon, and was the writer York, where he was born in 1929. history when it won a record-setting 12 and librettist for three musicals for the Meehan graduated in 1951 from statues. (Even fell one short Hasty Pudding Theatricals group at in Clinton, N.Y., and of that accomplishment in 2016.) Harvard. then served as an Army intelligence Meehan and Brooks later adapted the officer for two years. He joined the musical into a film, thus transforming a His plays include That's It, Folks, staff of in the mid- movie into a stage play and back into Fables for Friends, The Nice and the 1950s where his work was noticed by a movie. Nasty, Strangers on Earth, Vertigo composer-director-producer Martin Park along with the book and lyrics for Charnin. It was the beginning of a life- In reaction to Meehan’s death in 2017, the musical Tots in Tinseltown. He and long friendship and creative Mel Brooks wrote on : "Stunned Bill Irwin wrote Scapin, a 1997 play partnership. by the news that my friend/co-writer adapted from the original by Molière. Tom Meehan has died. I’ll miss his In the mid-1960s, Meehan earned an sweetness & talent. We have all lost a His books include Elementary Emmy nomination for writing for That giant of the theatre." Was the Week That Was, a forerunner Education, Vertigo Park and Other Tall of today’s satirical TV programs about Tales, Getting Over Homer and Let Similar to Brooks, Hamilton creator Lin current events such as The Daily Nothing You Dismay. He contributed -Manuel Miranda released a statement Show. He won an Emmy in 1970, the to The New Yorker, The New York on Twitter stating: "RIP to Thomas co-writer of Annie: The Women in the Times, The Atlantic, Esquire and Spy. Meehan, one of the best around.” Life of a Man, a TV special that starred He was also a writer for the 1981-1982 actress , the wife of Mel season of . Brooks. O'Donnell was a longtime editorial advisor to the Yale Record and taught In 1972, Meehan, and a popular comedy-writing seminar at composer wrote Yale University.

Annie, a musical adaptation of the comic strip . The He died in 2012 after collapsing at his apartment in . He was 58. show is now a classic. They all won Tony Awards for that show.

2018-2019 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE John Waters – Creator of the Original Hairspray

and his subject matter more shocking, John Waters Presents Movies That his audiences grew bigger. By the Will Corrupt You. early 1970s he was making features which he managed to get shown in Waters has continued to set all his midnight screenings in cinemas. films in Baltimore, keeping true to his particular skewed vision and Success came with delighting audiences with his tales of (1972), a deliberate exercise in ultra- eccentric characters who revel in the bad taste. Waters made Polyester excesses of tastelessness and trash. (1981) starring and as a discontented housewife. As with Besides his film and television work, many Waters films, the storyline is an Waters has authored several books, absurd take on family life in suburbia. including Shock Value: A Tasteful The movie featured a gimmick called Book about Bad Taste (1981) and "Odorama", which allowed viewers to Crackpot: The Obsessions of John smell what they saw on screen at Waters (1983). He also had a traveling John Waters is a man of many talents. various points in the movie using exhibit of his photography called He is a screenwriter, , stand-up scratch and sniff cards. Change of Life, which featured still comedian, journalist, visual artist, and images from some of his early films. art collector. Sometimes called the Waters’ next project was making a "King of Bad Taste" or the "Pope of movie about his childhood obsession Although he maintains apartments Trash,” Waters has built a reputation with , a in and , for shocking his audiences. He rose to Baltimore after-school teen dance and a summer home in Provincetown, fame in the early 1970s for his films, program. Waters considered calling Waters still mainly resides in his characterized by graphic depictions of the film White Lipstick, but settled on hometown of Baltimore, . An behavior that violates socially Hairspray. openly gay man, Waters is an avid acceptable norms. supporter of gay rights and . Set in the early 1960s in Baltimore, Waters was born in Baltimore, the film's heroine speaks out about a For more info on John Waters, this is Maryland in 1946 and grew up in a pressing issue, integration. Waters a website devoted to the life and work suburb, Lutherville. His boyhood friend cast Divine as both frumpy housewife of John Waters: Glenn Milstead, who later became the Edna Turnblad and station owner https/www.dreamlandnews.com/ performer known as Divine, also Arvin Hodgepile. Hairspray was only a lived in Lutherville. Divine would moderate success in its initial film become an integral part of Waters’ release. But, it gained larger film career. audiences on home video and became a cult classic. Even as a child, Waters was drawn to the spooky and bizarre; he was Hairspray’s success drew a wider fascinated by the characters of audience to Waters’ subsequent films: Captain Hook from Peter Pan and the Cry-Baby (1990), featured Wicked Queen from Snow White. He as the title character, a teen became interested in puppets and delinquent from the wrong side of the created shows that kept birthday party tracks. (1994), starred audiences spellbound, often earning Kathleen Turner as a suburban mom up to $25 per performance. His gone . As with many of his grandmother gave him a movie films, Waters made interesting casting camera for his 16th birthday and in the choices. The legendary kidnapped mid-'60s he began making silent 8mm heiress appears as a and 16mm films. His counter-culture member of the jury in Serial Mom and friends were his cast, and always with then went to roles in Pecker (1998) and Divine as his star whose persona Cecil B. Demented (2000). grew more outrageous with every role. Waters stepped in front of the camera Waters screened the films in rented for 2006's , in which Baltimore church halls to underground he shares many stories from his long audiences drawn by word of mouth career. That same year, he hosted a and handbill advertising. As his film series on the Here! Channel, a filmmaking became more polished pay-for-view cable network, called

AUDIENCE GUIDE | HAIRSPRAY Synopsis

Act I

line of queen-sized dress patterns". It is June 1962 in Baltimore. High apartment in years, Tracy convinces her to come with her and act as her Edna and Wilbur reaffirm that they will School student Tracy Turnblad wakes never be parted from each other up and goes to school, (Good Morning agent. Edna gets a makeover and Tracy becomes the spokes-girl for Mr. (You're Timeless to Me). Baltimore). After school, Tracy and her best friend, Penny rush home to Pinky’s Hefty Hide-Away (Welcome to the 60's). That night, Link sneaks into the jail to watch the local teenage dance find Tracy. Meanwhile, Penny's show, The Corny Collins Show (The mother, Prudy, punishes Penny for During a game of dodge ball at Nicest Kids in Town). "going to jail without her permission" school, Amber knocks Tracy out, and and Seaweed comes to her rescue. Link rushes to help her. Penny and Edna, Tracy's shy and overweight Both couples declare their love Seaweed meet and are instantly mother, is ironing when Penny's (Without Love). mother, Prudy arrives to pick up her attracted to each other. Seaweed invites all of them to his mother's laundry and to find Penny. Host Corny After escaping from their respective record shop (). Collins announces that there will be prisons, the couples meet at auditions for the show and Tracy begs Motormouth Maybelle's Record Shop. her mother for permission to audition. At the shop, Tracy rallies everyone to They plan to integrate The Corny Edna, fearing that Tracy will be march against the station, as blacks Collins Show, inspired by ridiculed due to her weight, refuses. are not allowed on the show except Motormouth’s song about the long Tracy, Penny and Amber, the star for the monthly “Negro Day.” Link is fight for equality (I Know Where I've dancer on The Corny Collins Show, all reluctant, fearing it would compromise Been). argue with their mothers (Mama, I'm a his record contract. Big Girl Now). Corny starts the Miss Teenage During the protest, led by Motormouth, Hairspray competition with a song (It's After getting permission from her Velma calls the police and everyone is Hairspray). Amber shows off in a bid father, Wilbur, Tracy auditions for the arrested (Big, Blonde and Beautiful). to win votes (Cooties). show and bumps into heartthrob, Link Larkin (). Velma Just before the results are announced, Von Tussle, the producer of the show, Tracy stuns Amber as she takes over rejects Tracy and Little Inez because the stage joined by Link, Penny, of, respectively, their size and race Seaweed, Edna, Wilbur, Little Inez, (Miss Baltimore Crabs). Corny and Motormouth. Tracy is declared the winner. Amber and At school, Tracy is sent to detention Velma protest the results, but are for her "monumental hair-don't". She dismissed as Tracy proclaims The meets Seaweed J. Stubbs, the son of Corny Collins Show is "now and the hostess of "Negro Day" on The forevermore" racially integrated. Corny Collins Show, Motormouth Maybelle, who teaches her some new Mr. Spritzer runs onstage thrilled with Act II dance moves. the public's response to the telecast and announces that the governor has pardoned Tracy and given her a full The next day at the Sophomore Hop, After the march, the ladies are locked college scholarship. He offers Link a Tracy demonstrates her new dance up in the penitentiary (The Big recording contract and Velma the steps (The Madison). Corny gives Dollhouse). The governor pardons position of vice president of Ultra Tracy a place on the show. Link sings Velma and Amber. Wilbur bails out Glow, beauty products for women of It Takes Two to Tracy, to Amber's everyone else, except for Tracy who color, much to her chagrin. dismay. Velma is determined to ruin must remain in jail through another Tracy (Velma's Revenge). one of Velma's manipulations. ( - Reprise). Prudy arrives at the station and, seeing how happy Penny is with At the Turnblad house, Edna is Seaweed, accepts her daughter for receiving calls from Tracy’s new fans. Back at the Har-De-Har Hut (Wilbur's who she is. With the station in joyous Mr. Pinky, the owner of a plus-size novelty store), Edna sympathizes with celebration, Tracy and Link cement dress shop, calls for an endorsement. her daughter's dream, recalling that their love with a kiss (You Can't Stop Although Edna has not left their she had dreamt of making her "own the Beat).

2018-2019 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE A Time Line of Baltimore and National Events

1955 1961 In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Protesters at Glen Echo Amusement Parks refuses to give up her Park in Baltimore are arrested. seat to a white man in defiance of local laws. 1962 In Baltimore, Dr. Martin Luther King Baltimore department stores speaks to 3,5000 people at Willard W. allow blacks to try on clothes. Allen Masonic Temple urging continued non-violent demonstrations Federal court orders Baltimore opposing segregation. to desegregate public swimming pools. President Kennedy orders federal Hairspray is set in Baltimore, marshals to escort James Meredith, Maryland, John Waters’ hometown. 1956 the first black student permitted to Waters understood the unique Governor McKeldin ends separate enroll at the University of Mississippi. character of the city and captured its listings for black and white applicants sometimes tacky, always exuberant, for state jobs. unself-conscious quality.

1957 In the early 1960s, when Hairspray The Buddy Deane Show first airs on takes place, more than half of the WJZ-TV in Baltimore. population of Baltimore was African- American and the city was heavily Congress enacts the 1957 Civil Rights segregated. Act, designed to enforce the right to vote in federal elections. North Avenue, the location of Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop in President Eisenhower sends federal Hairspray, was originally the northern troops to enforce the right of nine 1963 boundary of the city. The Black black students to enroll at Central H.S. At the March on , Rev. population was not allowed to cross in Little Rock, Arkansas. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I this boundary after dark. Have a Dream,” speech on the steps 1948 1958 of the Lincoln Memorial. President Truman orders the Most Baltimore movie theaters open to integration of the U.S. military. black customers. Northwood Movie Theatre admits black patrons after eight years of protest. 1954 The U.S. Supreme Court declares that “separate educational facilities are President Kennedy is assassinated. inherently unequal.” Baltimore is the first Southern city to integrate schools 1964 after the Supreme Court decision. The Buddy Deane Show is cancelled.

City dime-stores open lunch counters U.S. Congress enacts the 1964 Civil to black customers. Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations and employment.

1960 John F. Kennedy is elected President.

Nikita Khrushchev was the Premier of the Soviet Union. His “shoe-banging incident” (pictured right) occurred at the U.N. General Assembly on October 12th when he pounded his shoe on his desk to protest a speech by a Philippine delegate.

AUDIENCE GUIDE | HAIRSPRAY Some other references in the show

TV star Jackie Gleason- Debbie Reynolds was a movie star was one of the “Away we go!” known as “America’s biggest Hollywood stars when she Sweetheart.” Her movie roles include began an affair with her Cleopatra Singin' in the Rain (1952), Bundle of co-star, . The scandal Joy (1956; with then-husband Eddie caused Taylor and Burton to be Fisher) and The Singing Nun (1966). condemned for "erotic vagrancy" by the Vatican. Eddie Fisher was the most successful recording artist during the first half of Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, the 1950s, selling millions of records they were married in 1964 and starred and hosting his own TV show. He together in 11 films. They led a jet-set divorced his first wife, Debbie lifestyle, spending millions on furs, Reynolds, to marry Reynolds' best diamonds, paintings, designer clothes, friend, Elizabeth Taylor, after Taylor's a yacht and a jet. husband, film producer Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash. They divorced in June, 1974, and remarried in October, 1975. The second marriage lasted less than a Metrecal was a brand of year, ending in divorce in July, 1976. diet foods popular in the early 1960s. It eventually lost popularity because it was linked to deaths.

Movie poster for Peyton Place, Singer and movie star a popular film based on the best seller by Grace Metalious First Ladies Jackie B. Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower Connie Francis

2018-2019 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE The Real Corny Collins Show

The Buddy Deane Show was a teen meant that black youths appeared on dance television show, hosted by the show on one Monday each month. Winston "Buddy" Deane that aired on Among Buddy Deaners, this day was WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from known as "Special Guest Day." Among 1957 until 1964. It aired for two and a black kids in Baltimore, it was called half hours a day, six days a week. The "Black Monday." In Hairspray, it's show was, for a time, the most popular called "Negro Day." local show in the . Although much of Hairspray is true to Teenagers who appeared on the show the events of The Buddy Deane Show, every day were known as "The the similarity ends at the climactic Committee.” These young people moment when Tracy and Seaweed became local celebrities as hundreds and their integrated group storm a of thousands of teens watched the nationally televised broadcast of The show to learn the latest dances, copy Corny Collins Show and dance on the their personal style, and follow their life air. The bold move results in their stories and interactions. ultimate victory: The show is officially integrated. Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on the show. Its It didn't have the same happy ending main rival was ’s American in real life. On January 4, 1964, nearly Bandstand, which aired out of five months after the first, and only, . WJZ-TV “blocked" the day that black and white kids danced broadcast of American Bandstand in together on TV in WJZ's studios, the Baltimore and aired the Deane show went off the air. “The dance program instead, reportedly because show was "the victim of an 'insoluble' Bandstand showed black teenagers integration problem," said Deane. dancing on the show. At the time, John Waters was a teen The Buddy Deane Show was living in Baltimore and was an avid completely segregated. “When my Buddy Deane Show fan. When asked show went on, management decided whether Hairspray’s happy ending they would follow 'the local custom' of sugarcoats the complicated and segregation, and we were going to controversial ending of the real story, have separate but equal," Deane told Waters said, "I feel that by making the Tony Warner, author of Buddy's Top movie, I brought The Buddy Deane 20: The Story of Baltimore's Hottest Show back -- no one would know TV Dance Show and the Guy Who about it otherwise. Besides my movie Brought It to Life. was never supposed to be the truth. It's not even the dream version. It's Real Life Dynamites-The Royalettes “Separate" meant that the Committee the John Waters version. It's a were a girl group from Baltimore.They consisted entirely of white dancers. comedy about integration.” formed their group in high school. Their "Equal" was a bit more of a stretch: It hit was It’s Gonna Take A Miracle.

AUDIENCE GUIDE | HAIRSPRAY