BIG HAIR, BIG HEART, BIG HIT!

Based on the1988 cult film by John Waters, Hairspray is a multi-award winning musical about accepting physical difference and the right to racial integration. With big, bold and colourful costumes and set, and sensational choreography by Jerry Mitchell, the smash-hit musical comedy combines top-notch entertainment with gentle mockery of 1960s white liberalism's naivety and the injustices in parts of American society. Directed by Jack O'Brien, Hairspray is lively, uplifting, generous of spirit and full of fun.

WHAT IS HAIRSPRAY ABOUT?

It's the early Sixties. Tracy Turnblad, a chubby 16-year old from Baltimore, dream of dancing. She and her friend Penny Pingleton are devotees to The Corny Collins Show, a studio-based TV dance show which pumps out the latest pop songs while sizzling young dancers pull their moves. Somehow Tracy succeeds in winning an audition to be on the show and is determined to beat the favoured contestant, claiming the title of Miss Hairspray 1962.

But Tracy's eyes are opened to the racial segregation and discrimination - the existence of Corny's monthly "Negro Day" only being one example - and the big-hearted, buxom lass with voluminous hair begins a campaign for integration, in her town and in her favourite TV show.

DID YOU KNOW?

The musical's original version first opened on Broadway in 2002. In 2003 it was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning eight of them. It ran for six and a half years, with over 2500 performances. When it opened in London West End's Shaftesbury Theatre, it was nominated for a record-setting 11 Olivier Awards, winning four including Best New Musical in 2008. It played over 1000 performances and grossed over £50 million in the UK, and became the longest running show at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 40 years.