REVIEW: HAIRSPRAY—One More Productions @ GEM Theatre
- TheShowReport
- Feb 24
- 5 min read
This sweet, infinitely spirited, bubblegum-flavored confection won’t be lacking for an audience anytime soon. Arriving in an aerosol fog of advance publicity, it more than lives up to its promise.
Feb 19 – Mar 29, 2026—GARDEN GROVE
There’s plenty of spritz left in the can at HAIRSPRAY, the endlessly jubilant musical about a Baltimore teen who fights bigotry with her big hair and bigger heart, with a cast ensemble so perfectly symbiotic to their roles and each other that, before the first song has ended, they have already swept the audience into an intoxicating communal embrace.
The material itself seems to contain some sort of mood-boosting elixir, and One More Productions’ Director Damien Lorton answers the call, delivering the show’s high spirits with infectious exuberance, tapping toes and standing ovations in this bouncing beach ball of a musical, now playing through March 29th at Garden Grove’s GEM theater.
HAIRSPRAY is in fact an uncommonly well put-together musical, with Victor Crisafulli’s set featuring a bright, 1960s aesthetic and Alayna Riley’s colorful costumes providing the eye-pleasing gloss for Director Lorton and Choreographer Ryan Perry Marks’ endlessly locomotive production. Providing the gas is the delectable R&B-based score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, every bit as intoxicating as it was the first time around.
A plus-size girl who isn’t afraid to voice her opinions, Evie Becerra is dizzyingly hyperactive as the opulent but scintillating Civil Rights activist-in-the-making Tracy Turnblad, who refuses to let a few extra pounds get in the way of her dream career as a sock-hop dynamo.
And our effervescent, Rubenesque heroine has the brisk determination of a baby bulldozer, shaking things up as she fights for integration and equality, and winning the heart of budding heartthrob Link Larkin (a suitably swivel-hipped and beguiling Hayden Mangum) less through goodness and warmth and more through firm force of will (“I Can Hear the Bells,” the fantasy ballet in which Tracy seduces and weds Link to the sound of rhythmic chiming is performed with winking brio and remains a comic highlight of the first act).
Bringing a big smile, beautiful voice, and impressive dance skills to the stage, Ms. Becerra takes the role and truly makes it her own. She can not only blast out that bright nasal bleat that is Tracy’s signature sound like nobody’s business, but also trill out those sweet soulful flourishes in her big ballads effortlessly.
In fact, everyone in the cast delivers outstanding performances, from Reese Chavez as the hopelessly awkward, endearingly irrepressible and hilariously loopy Penny Pingleton (who is later transformed instantly from gawky hanger-on to white soul sister under the seductive tutelage of Seaweed J. Stubbs, danced with smooth moves and exciting buoyancy by Kyle Hill) to Debbi Ebert as the booming and totally unmissable record shop owner, Motormouth Maybelle, singing in glossy richness.
The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the production follows teenage Tracy's dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show. Since everyone works at Tracy’s level of happiness, she wins a role on the show and becomes a celebrity overnight, and uses her new-found publicity to fight for the rights of people of color and the dignity of girls of girth.
All of this is, if you remember, is recycled from the original 1988 John Waters film, which, if you remember, made Ricki Lake a star. Then, in 2002, it hit Broadway from a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Five years later, another film arose – this time starring a very very funny John Travolta as Edna and Michelle Pfeiffer.
The show has no lack of sarcasm, sexual innuendos, puppy-love, adolescence, rebellion, dry humor, and hot-button issues (race, class, weight, religion), inciting laugh-out-loud moments as big as Tracy’s hair. And it’s all set to doo-wop, R&B, funk and rock ‘n’ roll, conjuring up musical memories from scores of boomers remembering those tumultuous teen years. It’s like a jukebox with no B-sides. Push any button and a little slice of joy comes spinning out.
Continuing the tradition started in 1988 in the original film and eternally immortalized by Divine, a beatific Peter Crisafulli plays Edna Turnblad, delightfully infatuating in the trappings of faux-femininity. (Her) husband, Wilbur Turnblad, is played by a wonderfully dry, awkwardly mischievous Tim Klega (a paragon of easygoing charm). Together, the two make quite an unlikely pair: tall and short, full bosomed and glabrescent, insecure and über nerdy—in other words, highly entertaining, while exuding love and loyalty to each other.
Corny (Dalton Johnson, personified with flawless period unction) is well named as he presides over a posse of Popular Kids known as his Council, the featured teenage dancers on the show, specifically Link (Hayden Mangum), Amber (Ess Arensdorf), Tammy (Lexi Norlander), Fender (Zack Schiffer), Sketch (Matthew Rangel), Shelley (Kari Wilhelm), IQ (Ezion Garcia), and Lou Ann (Madison Becker). Tracy longs to be on the Council.
Nickie Gentry as the vividly hissable Velma von Tussle excellently plays the Corny Collins TV show’s strong-minded, brutally insulting body fascist and racist producer. And in lonely but determined opposition to all their rhythmic righteousness are Tracy’s rival for Link, Velma’s selfish daughter, Amber Von Tussle, played to pretentious hilt by Ess Arensdorf.
The retro R&B score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman is full of toe-tapping, tongue-in-cheek gems. And the production has been lavishly festooned with endearingly goofy touches supplied by virtually everyone involved, from book writers Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, who have cooked up a deft blend of sweetness and silliness, to Director Damien Lorton and Choreographer Ryan Perry Marks, who keep pelvises twisting at a peppy pace throughout, happily camping out on the borderline of kitsch.
Actually, nothing compares to seeing HAIRSPRAY spring to vivacious life right in front of you—no quick cuts or rest for these performers. From the intricately nested staging to the impossible wigs and colorful costumes, HAIRSPRAY is the kind of up-tempo fun that leaves you tapping your toes and grinning like a goofball.
ONE MORE PRODUCTIONS @ THE HISTORIC GEM THEATRE PRESENTS – HAIRSPRAY. Based on the NewLine Cinema film Written & Directed by JOHN WATERS; Book by MARK O’DONNELL & THOMAS MEEHAN; Music and Arrangements by MARC SHAIMAN; Lyrics by SCOTT WITTMAN & MARC SHAIMAN; Original Choreography by JERRY MITCHELL; Original Direction by JACK O’BRIEN; Directed and Musically Directed by DAMIEN LORTON; Choreography by RYAN PERRY MARKS; Scenic and Prop Design by VICTOR CRISAFULLI; Sound Design by SHANNON CALLAHAN; Lighting Design by ARIA ROACH; Costume Coordination by ALAYNA RILEY; Conductor/Pian NICK BRAVO with a 5-piece band.
The cast stars Evie Becerra as Tracy Turnblad, Hayden Mangum as Link Larkin, Peter Crisafulli as Edna Turnblad, Debbi Ebert as Motormouth Maybelle, Reese Chavez as Penny Pingleton and Dalton Johnson as Corny Collins. Also featured are Nickie Gentry, Ess Arensdorf, Anna Martin, Kyle Hill, Tim Klega, Jon Michell, Lauryn Taylor-Piazza, Bailey Alyssa Curtis, Liana Perry, Elliana Mariel Nathaniel, Madison Becker, Alex Shearer, Ezion Carcia, Kady Lawson, Lexi Norlander, Matthew Rangel, Zack Schiffer, Kari Wilhelm, Precious Montgomery, Natalie Sargent, Jordan Simpson, Norman Thatch and Mike Worley.
Performances for HAIRSPRAY Run February 19 – March 29, 2026. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Box Office, by phone at 714.741.9550, or by visiting www.theGEMoc.com. The GEM Theatre is located at 12852 Main Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840.
CHRIS DANIELS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT REVIEWER
THE SHOW REPORT
Photo Credits: One More Productions
4.5/5
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