'Hairspray Live' gets December slot on NBC
NBC made its hopes official Thursday: Hairspray will be the network's next live musical.
Hairspray Live will premiere Dec. 7 (8 p.m. ET/PT), with some big theater names being added the production: director Kenny Leon (The Wiz Live, Holler If Ya Hear Me), original choreographer Jerry Mitchell (La Cage Aux Folles, Kinky Boots) and writer Harvey Fierstein, who won a Tony for playing Hairspray's Edna Turnblad on Broadway. Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy), who worked on the original script, will adapt it for the TV production.
They join executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and original songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.
NBC hopes 'Hairspray' is its next musical
“In keeping with our desire to bring the best of Broadway to our live musicals, we’ve assembled the Broadway dream team of Tony Award winners for Hairspray Live," NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to have director Kenny Leon, who knocked The Wiz Live way out of the park, and Jerry Mitchell, the original choreographer of Hairspray and … the director of two smash hit musicals running on Broadway right now."
He continued: “We also have one of the most celebrated Broadway hyphenates, Harvey Fierstein, back writing the adaptation for TV. No one knows Hairspray better than him since he played the role of Edna Turnblad more than a thousand times and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Along with our incredible producing team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and arguably the best songwriting team in musicals, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Hairspray Live is in the best possible hands.”
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In January, Greenblatt said NBC was working towards locking in deals to make Hairspray the network's next live musical.
Zadan and Meron produced NBC’s three recent holiday musicals, including The Sound of Music Live, Peter Pan Live and The Wiz Live, along with big-screen adaptions of Hairspray, Footloose, The Bucket List and Chicago, an Oscar winner for best picture.
The Hairspray Live cast will be announced at a later time.
Fox joined TV's musical revival in January with a high-rated live production of Grease.