“Fantastic, Wonderful, Enjoyable”
“The quality…was just amazing…it was as good as going to the Marlowe”
“A Magical Show”
 

Fulston Manor School, Performing Arts Department wowed audience members with the upbeat production of the Broadway musical Hairspray. Family and friends of cast members, as well as staff, turned up to support the shows that took place on Wednesday 20th & Thursday 21st April, followed by a matinee performance to local primary school students and staff on Friday 22nd April.

 

The plot of ‘Hairspray’ follows the life of Tracy Turnblad in 1960’s America in the racially segregated town of Baltimore. Jess Webb played the larger-than-life teenage girl whose dream is to dance on TV, on ‘The Corny Collin’s show’. Jess portrayed a flawless interpretation of Tracy, a worthy ‘star of the show’ with her beautiful voice and confident acting. The host, Corny, is a bubbly yet sarcastic character who Eleanor Wood played to a tee.

After the announcement of a 9 month leave of absence for one of the dancers from the show, Tracy hotfoots to the auditions being held at the TV studio and lands the place as one of the, ‘nicest kids in town’, much to the anger of evil dance queen Amber von Tussle played by Abbie Woolston, and her mother Velma von Tussle the show’s producer, played by Aaliyah Maguire.

 

Tracy, with the help of her friends, decides that enough is enough and that she wants the Corny Collins show to be racially integrated. Motormouth Mabel is a key part of this, fronting the campaign with Tracy. Played by Ruka Akorede & Kirstie Goodier, Mabel is a strong woman who stands up for what she believes in and both Ruka and Kirstie portrayed this role brilliantly. They gave outstanding performances, singing every note and nuance with meaning and power.

Tracy succeeds in integrating the show, in the process wins over her mother, Edna Turnblad, played by Robert Morrison, who followed in the footsteps of John Travolta, playing the female role, and scoring her man Link Larkin, played by Jacob Wiebe-Williams.

 

The whole show was an absolute pleasure to watch, and well worth the hours and hours of work put in by Mr Bowden, Mrs Baker, Miss Monaghan, Miss Hadok-Quadrio, and the cast, whose teamwork and camaraderie shone through. Not forgetting Harry Patching (Sound) and George Watling (Lighting) whose tireless work and expertise helped make the show such a success, or the live band. The band, formed mainly of student musicians, made the accompanying music to every song seem effortless and gave it a professional edge to the whole show.

A HUGE thank you and many congratulations to the cast, crew and musicians for three outstanding performances and for contributing to our best production yet!
Photographs from our production of Hairspray are available on the schools website.