This winter NBC is taking us back to the 60’s with a live tv musical production of Hairspray. The show will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron who in addition to producing last year’s musical The Wiz Live, also produced the 2006 film version of Hairspray. Now Zadan and Meron are opening up about the reasons why they decided to go back to Hairspray noting the nation's growing problems regarding race relations.
Craig Zadan recently spoke to Playbill about why they decided on Hairspray as this year’s winter musical:
“The subject matter of the race relations is so relevant right now. The multicultural cast is so appealing.
Neil Meron also chimed in discussing the various version of Hairspray, adding:
“Also, it's seeing it in a new form that people seem to be enjoying now and also the timeliness of what the musical is. It's one of these shows that people embrace in any sort of format. Hopefully, audiences will have a fun time and will be moved and we'll be able to present a whole new cast to a whole new generation. There are still some young people who haven't seen it. This is going to be a new look at it.”
NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt recently spoke to reporter about Hairspray and the new tradition started with the Sound of Music Live:(via Variety):
“We’ve learned a lot -- the first one we were flying by the seat of our pants and not sure if we could pull it off technically. It gets easier as you keep doing them. We’ve spawned a new genre.”
What do you think about this year’s musical? What musical do you want to see for 2017? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
