It’s 1962 and her indispensable can of Aquanet is just the first of a long list of things Tracy Turnblad is ready to shake up. The overweight teen dreams of dancing on the local television station’s Corny Collins Show, a dream she sets about turning into reality while navigating racial conflict, raging hormones and generational tension as easily as she dodges the flashers and rats on the streets of her native Baltimore.
Nary a strand is out of place in the Cabrillo Stage production of “Hairspray,” the musical adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 cult classic. The original film is based on real-life events that transpired on the Buddy Deane Show, a provincial American Bandstand rip-off broadcast in the Baltimore area that was dramatically integrated when black and white teens stormed the show and danced together, to the chagrin of station officials.
The theater company delivers a delightful, candy-coated, campy romp with several infectious doo-wop numbers and some sweet dance moves. Monica Turner, in her first Cabrillo Stage production, is a bouncy, bright-eyed Tracy; her nemesis, the bobble-headed teen queen Amber Van Tussel (tragically afflicted with “acne of the soul”), is done well by Christina Robinette; and the object of both girl’s affections, Link Larkin, is played as a perfect hunky square by Blake Coelho.
It’s Tony Panighetti in his fourth Cabrillo College show (and second in drag—audience members might recognize Panighetti from his turn as Jerry/Daphne in Cabrillo’s production of “Some Like It Hot”) who steals the show as Edna, Tracy’s mama grizzly. She and another Cabrillo regular, Doug Baird as her husband Wilbur, croon with tenderness, “I can’t stop eating/ Your hairline’s receding and soon you’ll have nothing at all/ so you’ll wear a wig while I roast a pig/ Hey, pass the Geritol!” in the duet “You’re Timeless to Me,” the surprise highlight of the show.
HAIRSPRAY runs through Sunday, Aug. 14 at the Cabrillo Crocker Theatre, 6500 Soquel Dr, Aptos. Tickets $16-$38, CabrilloStage.com.
