My personal review of Hairspray; Shaftesbury theatre.

[Luke]

In brief; it was a wonderful night and actually the best show i've ever seen!
In depth we saw the understudy for Tracy Turnblad in the shape of Charlotte Riby rather than the main Leanne Jones; however this is only judged on the promo stuff i've seen Leanne jones doing, but I actually preffered the vocals and charisma of Charlotte Riby! And why she's just the understudy is beyond me, whereas Leanne Jones seems to be a bit more ofa a "Ha ha" slapstick type Tracy, Charlotte Riby seems to play the part of Tracy in a more appropriate way, you actually adore her in it!
We also saw the understudy for Motormouth Maybelle; so Sandra Marvin instead of Johnnie Fiori, many people even in the theatre commented how Johnnie Fiori is a bit of a "gaspy" singer; whereas Sandra Marvin was amazing..and there literally wasn't a dry eye in the grand circle when she did the big gospel number "I Know Where I've Been" with some monumental notes, she received a standing ovation.
Ellinor Cornet as Penny was fabulous; she was sweetly innocent but had a really powerful voice. Adrian Hansel as Seaweed was a firm favourite of mine; he got really into character and had the voice of an angel!
Incidentally I really disliked Ben James-Ellis and his portrayal of Link, his American accent kept slipping and he is quite a flat singer!
Tracy Bennet as Velma Von-tussel was quite amazing, even if I did manage to offend her at the end of the show! She was really really well suited for the role, and Rachel Wooding who played her on-screen daughter, Amber, was amazing and had SUCH a powerful voice. She was really quite amazing.
Ian Talbot who played doting dad, Wilbur Turnblad was just incredible. He was so warm and compassionate; yet had the crowd in stitches for most of the time!
Then we have the big momma herself; Michael Ball! Well, what can I say..he was fabulous. We all said how through the show you forget he is actually a man, you actually believe he is a woman and he has such a mumsy type vibe from him. And he & Ian Talbot are far too convincing as man and wife! Michael's vocals were incredible, the way he used those dulcet tones on the bigger notes was amazing and blew me away, in particular "Welcome To The Sixties", and i loved how every now and then in dialog, usually on a more "feminine" line,Michael would drop out of character and speak in the deep man voice which had the audience screaming in laughter.
With the exception of one or two, the cast we're so sharp. The score was incredible and the cast really pulled it off so well.
The closing number is always what makes the night though, and "You Can't Stop The Beat" is the biggest closing number ever, with Sandra Marvin stripping off a police uniform, and Michael Ball bursting out of a giant hairspray can to sing n dance with his husband, and for the cast to ask the Von-Tussles to "shake their fanny muscles", it was amazing. And the dance routine was spectacular. It received a standing ovation, and then for the You Can't Stop The Beat Encore; after the Good Morning Baltimore Reprise when they shout Cmon everybody lets dance, I can safely say there was not a seated person in the whole theatre..everyone was in the isles!
It was an amazing show, and to top it off we met most of the cast! Ian Talbot was lovely; and was so warm. Michael Ball had to rush but not before autographs etc, Ben-James Ellis was quite "fixed" in the form he didnt really hold conversation or put in any effort with the fans AND had the same face for each photo! I said a little too loudly; "Ah it's just Tracy Bennet" when she came out as a friend thought it was Michael ball coming, to which the lady herself replied "My god that was some introduction"
And we met Charlotte Riby, who was lovely and actually had a conversation with us as not many fans seemed to be interested in her [i.e it was FULL of screaming 13 year old girls who wanted ben!] but she was lovely and very sweet n funny and in person extremely beautiful; young lady, who really deserves SO much more recognition! She was so very humble for someone who just put a performance on like she had!We actually spent a fair bit of time outside with here upon thinking, she was just lovely and so easy going and no "superstar attitude" in comparison to certain other cast members that night!
It was quite a spectacular night in all, GO SEE IT IF YOU CAN!

[Mags]

Sounds like you had a thoroughly, enjoyable evening Luke..

I like Michael Ball, he is so talented and always appears to be a happy-go-lucky type of chap

It was good that you got the chance to meet the stars after too..

[Luke]

Well some of the cast anyway, there were not as many people waiting by the stage door as I expected!
And Michael Ball is a true gem who stood in the pouring pouring rain with no brollie just so he could have a chat with this little old lady who was in a wheelchair and see what she thought of the show!

[PoshPuss]

It's the one musical that is is def on my WANNASEEIT list!
I've seen Michael in concert twice i'm a huge fan, coz his family are from my town.He's going fab vocals. We chose Love Changes Everything for M&D's wedding blessing exit theme. Yeah, he's really lovely guy!