Hairspray Live! Promises Retro Fun With Little Risk

In an era of deeply divided attentions, every formerly reliable ratings bonanza–from this year’s Oscars and Emmy broadcasts to the NFL–has lost luster. No wonder networks are leaning so heavily on retro staples. For the fourth consecutive year, NBC will revive one of TV’s hoariest genres, the on-air musical, with Hairspray Live! (Dec. 7). Viewers will be allowed to simultaneously experience two of television’s core appeals: risk and comfort. Anything could happen–within the stodgiest framework around.

Even with a cast of luminaries including Harvey Fierstein and Jennifer Hudson, Hairspray is a somewhat novel pick for NBC, having debuted on Broadway in this century. The network set the pattern four years ago with Carrie Underwood and Audra McDonald in the 1959 Broadway version of The Sound of Music, followed by Peter Pan–a reprise of NBC’s hit 1955 live broadcast–and The Wiz, from 1975. Fox mined similar terrain with January’s Emmy-winning Grease: Live.

All these projects share a rigorous propriety. There’s surely a Sound of Music or Peter Pan that could titillate or provoke, yet the most innovative element of either telecast was Christopher Walken’s bizarre but passable turn as Captain Hook. Still, brilliance can sneak through. Last year, The Wiz, NBC’s best-executed production, introduced a cast of excellent black performers, including newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy, into what had been a largely white slate. But it avoided anything harsh or ideological, losing the urban-dystopia trappings of both the original musical and the Diana Ross film. NBC’s Wiz opted for cuddly in place of edgy, with actors repeatedly breaking into hugs just as the show cut to commercial.

Hairspray also lends itself to a production more retro-cute than revolutionary. Fierstein will reprise his Tony-winning role as Edna Turnblad, mother to plucky Tracy (Maddie Baillio) whose love of R&B drives the integration of a Baltimore sock hop. But even those still hung up on the social upheavals of the ’60s have nothing to fear from his gender-bending portrayal. In adapting John Waters’ 1988 film, the musical shies away from his usual gruesomeness–and the more transgressive turn of Divine in the same role–toward the innocent, the didactic and the light.

Today’s best TV relies on irony, edge, wit and sophistication–essential ingredients of proper spectacle. But with a tame script, a host of Broadway pros onstage and behind the scenes, and NBC’s devotion to family entertainment values, Hairspray is unlikely to break any more new ground than its predecessors. Each of them had a hook: the deglammed but still extant star power of Underwood, the high-wire flying of Allison Williams. As with The Wiz, this year’s hook is an unknown in the lead role–and as with Peter Pan, at least a few are watching to see if someone falls.

But of course they won’t. Rehearsed to the hilt, these productions offer less tension each year as increasingly wizened troupers hit their marks (and notes) without fail. Those looking for edge in the source material will find little solace in next year’s NBC extravaganza: Jennifer Lopez in 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie. It’ll be the safest risk on television.