Big hair, big ambitions, and a big social issue in Broadway's 'Hairspray' by Howard Shapiro
Hairspray just sticks to you. It's loaded with original tunes you can actually sing. It depicts and projects a '60s sensibility - screwy, a little naive, and pivotal. It's an old-fashioned musical; no zillion people sing in staccato about how they all just got off the train, in a burst of poignant urbanity. In Hairspray, people sing about cooties. (Stop scratching.)