Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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61 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Slickly Botched, August 13, 2002
By A Customer
The disclaimer is that this is a review of the cd, not the score, which is wonderful. The problem with the recording is that it was produced by the composer, Marc Shaiman, who has mostly worked with incidental film music. This score needed a producer familiar with theatrical sound because the score is easily the best thing about seeing the show live. What we get in this recording in a slickly produced (overproduced) pop record that favors the lead vocals while treating the accompanying music and vocals as background (in the truest sense of the word). The urgency and fun of the music is lost here, and this recording lands with a hefty thud when it should have sparkled to life. Oh, and the percussion is really loud, too, perhaps to try to give the recording a Wall of Sound-like quality. It just ends up being distracting and overwhelming. Hopefully, the show will be recorded live, or it will eventually be remastered. For now it's a lame souvenir of a theatrically vibrant score.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So infectious there should be a vaccine..., February 27, 2004
"Hairspray" is a terrific modern musical. It could be this generation's "Grease", only with a better plot. In fact, if you like "Grease" AND you enjoy "Little Shop of Horrors", this is a guaranteed future favorite for you.
The story, such that it is, involves Tracy Turnblad, a chunky but peppy white female who aches to dance on a local "American Bandstand"-type show in Baltimore circa the early 60's. Not only does she not fit the "typical" teenager on the show, but she finds it astonishing that blacks cannot dance on the show with whites.
Her mother, played by the inimitable Harvey Fierstein, naturally underestimates her daughter's tenacity. She believes that Tracy will never get on the show, and doesn't want to see her crushed by unattainable goals.
As you'd expect, she gets on the show, and dancing integration is achieved, but the music used to get you there is flat-out, full-blown, grin-from-ear-to-ear FUN.
It is brilliantly derivative of pre-British invasion rock music, melding rockabilly with Detroit soul. It sounds like EVERY song you can remember. Seriously. They're all here.
In the same way that a fond memory tends to get better with time, the score distills the best parts of that era's music, and pretty much puts it ALL on the stage. Spector-ish epics, raucous Motown, steamy Stax, teen idol Presley...I could spend days counting off the references. There should be an index.
The voices are above-average Broadway fare...WAY above-average in parts, and suit their characters just dandy.
Perhaps the musical would be better served if the entire score was presented, as people who have not yet seen the show are missing out on some great stuff that happens between these tunes.
Having just seen the show on Broadway, listening to the CD brings back the terrific time I had in the theater, but I think even the most jaded, uninitiated listener will cave into the unbridled enthusiasm of this project, notably the finale, "You Can't Stop The Beat." There's enough energy in that song to power the entire Tri-state area for a week.
I loved this show.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful musical, January 26, 2004
An effective feel-good show: music has a good beat and the costumes and choreography are second only to the dazzling attires and complex movements of the very charming Flower Drum Song revival.A must-see on Broadway and a must-buy soundtrack for amazon.com customers!
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by Marc Shaiman 
