In 1988, writer and director John Waters brought a whole new groove to the musical romantic comedy scene with his original movie Hairspray. Centering on rebellious sweetheart Tracy Turnblad, the movie focuses on the segregated social dynamics in 1960s Baltimore. In 2002, the story was adapted for Broadway, and following enormous success was brought to the silver screen again in 2007. Since then, Tracy’s story had faded into the background of pop culture, until Dec. 7, when NBC broadcasted its very own Hairspray Live! on live television across the country.

Hairspray Live! is the latest show in a growing fad of live televised musicals. NBC’s previous musicals include The Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live! and The Wiz Live!, while Fox just recently joined the scene in January with Grease: Live. With the popularity of televised musicals only increasing, the trend doesn’t appear to be faltering. In fact, NBC already has its next live musical in the works, featuring Jennifer Lopez as the star of Bye Bye Birdie Live!. When taking into account the popularity of such shows, it would be fairly easy to assume that each one took audiences by storm. Hairspray Live! will certainly go down as a successful show, as it should. But it shouldn’t be overlooked that multiple times throughout the show, the beat just stopped.

There were two main aspects of the show that made it truly worth watching — the sets and Jennifer Hudson. The sets were absolutely gorgeous. Although it’s a tech aspect that audiences have the tendency to overlook, it was abundantly clear the production team of Hairspray Live! took the time to build their sets with painstaking detail and precision. Many of their sets were actually outside, utilizing the space of the Universal Studios lot to keep the setting more realistically to scale. The production team’s dedication to the sets definitely stood out, and was a highlight of the show.

And then there’s Hudson. She absolutely stole the show as Motormouth Maybelle, bringing the heat with her heart-stopping rendition of “I Know Where I’ve Been.” While newcomer Maddie Baillio gave an impressive performance as Tracy, and Kristin Chenoweth unsurprisingly shined as Velma Von Tussle, it was Hudson who really captured the audience’s hearts on Wednesday night. The only fault associated with her was that there wasn’t enough of her, as I found myself frequently scanning each scene for any sign of the powerful soul singer.

While the majority of the show proved to be impressive, there were definitely some moments that simply lacked power. For example, the opening number “Good Morning Baltimore” seemed to drag on, which was a disappointing first impression for the show to have. Likewise, Garrett Clayton delivered a slightly tiring performance as teen heartthrob Link. While Link is not an entirely dynamic character to begin with, it seemed as though Clayton struggled to fully embody the character, relying on predictable stereotypes and soft smiles to get him through the performance.

Realistically, Hairspray Live! is meant to be good-humored, light-hearted fun, which it achieves with ease. Despite a couple rough patches, NBC once again proves that televised musicals are a phenomena of the present that aren’t going anywhere.

2.5/4 Shells