Howard County Summer Theatre's 2012 Production of Hairspray to open on Friday July 6, 2012

Howard County Summer Theatre proudly announces performances of its 38th annual summer musical, John Waters’ “HAIRSPRAY.”

The show will be presented at Mt. Hebron High School located at 9440 Route 99, Ellicott City, MD 21042. Show dates are July 6, 7, 11-14 at 7:00 p.m. and July 8 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $16, with a discounted price of $12 for seniors and children under 12. Tickets are available online at www.ticketleap.com, or from Music and Arts in Chatham Mall in Ellicott City. If available, tickets will also be sold at the door. Our tradition includes sharing a portion of our proceeds with local charities. Proceeds from this year’s show will benefit Prepare for Success, Healthy Families/Howard County, and Operation Smile.

The show is based on the 1988 film “Hairspray” by Baltimore’s own John Waters and features upbeat and lively songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman that will have you ready to jump out of your seats to dance and sing with the cast. Popular musical numbers include familiar tunes such as Good Morning Baltimore, I Know Where I’ve Been, and the show-stopping You Can’t Stop the Beat. “Hairspray” won 8 Tony awards in 2002 including Best Musical and Best Original Score for Shaiman and Wittman’s incredible songs. It also spawned a 2007 movie starring John Travolta in the role of Edna Turnblad and Zac Efron in the role of Link Larkin. “Hairspray” opened on August 15, 2002 and closed on January 9, 2009 after 2,642 performances.

Hairspray is set in Baltimore, MD in early 1962 when Baltimore was still a very segregated city. Tracy Turnblad wakes up to another wonderful Baltimore morning and dreams of becoming a dancer on the Corny Collins show. As a not-so-svelte teenager, Tracy isn’t the prototypical teen for the Corny Collins show, but she has all the right moves and catches Corny’s eye. She notices that the show is populated by ‘The Nicest Kids in Town’ who all happen to be white. In her quest to integrate the show, she meets Motormouth Maybelle, Seaweed Stubbs, his sister Little Inez and a host of other “colored” people for the 1st time and realizes that their differences are dwarfed by how much they have in common and their love for good music and inspired dancing. As happens so often in musicals, characters fall in love, troubles get in the way, and hilarity ensues!

The cast includes Howard Summer County Theatre veteran Steven Namie as Edna Turnblad (Tracy’s Mom) and Caitlin Grant as Tracy. The show is directed by Tom Sankey, and choreographed by Amanda and Laura Tschirgi, Kassi Mattera, and Brittany Gutierrez, with Chris Hettenbach doing the musical direction.

For additional information contact Chuck Bagley at 410-740-6877 or via e-mail at cabagley1@yahoo.com