NBC has turned live musical productions into a television event and after the success of The Sound of Music and The Wiz (Peter Pan was a bit of a letdown commercially), they have announced that the next musical to get the peacock network’s stage will be Hairspray.
Hairspray originated as a film by John Waters in 1988 starring Divine and Ricki Lake and became a Tony Award winning Broadway musical in 2003. The musical was turned into a 2007 film starring John Travolta and Michelle Pfeiffer.
The musical tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, a “pleasantly plump” teenager (played in the 1988 film by Lake), landing a spot on a TV dance show in her hometown of Baltimore. The musical, while taking place during the 1960s, deals heavily with themes still very relevant today including race relations and celebrity body image.
While casting has not been decided for the live NBC version, that has not stopped the internet from vocalizing who they think should be brought on board as Tracy’s larger than life mother, Edna Turnblad (played in the 1988 film by Divine and by Travolta in the 2007 musical version of the film).
A petition has popped up on the website Change.org asking NBC to cast Rupaul’s Drag Race runner-up Ginger Minj in the maternal part.
“The idea of this petition is simple: Without a doubt in my mind, the most perfect person to play the role of Edna Turnblad in a Live version of Hairspray would be drag queen extraordinaire and former Drag Race contestant Ginger Minj,” said Brandon C. Sites, who started the petition.
The petition lists reasons why Minj would be the best person for the job.
“Back on Season 7 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, they had a John Waters-inspired challenge during Episode 9,” Sites said. “During this challenge, Ginger Minj took part in a musical number for a song called ‘Eggs’ which served as a parody of another John Waters’ classic – Pink Flamingos. It was one of the stand out moments of Season 7. Even John Waters gushed about how Ginger Minj had been able to channel Pink Flamingos star Edith Massey.”
The petition currently has 180 signatures.
Hairspray Live is expected to air on NBC sometime in December 2016.
