Harvey Fierstein will recreate his Tony Award-winning drag performance as Edna Turnblad in the upcoming NBC-TV broadcast of Hairspray Live! Fierstein is also adapting the script for TV. He played the role for two years on Broadway. John Travolta took the role in the film version.

He'll be joined in the Dec. 7 live TV broadcast by Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson, who will play Motormouth Maybelle. She won the Oscar for playing Effie in the film version of Dreamgirls, and is currently on Broadway playing Shug Avery in the revival of The Color Purple.

Producers of the upcoming live broadcast of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Hairspray began the search for a young actress to take on the starring role of Tracy Turnblad with open auditions on April 24 in New York City.

Also joining the creative team will be television director Alex Rudzinski, who received extraordinary reviews for his television direction of Grease Live! Rudzinski was also the TV director for Dancing With the Stars 2005-14.

Based on the 1988 John Waters film of the same name, Hairspray won 2003 Tony Awards for Best Score (Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman), Best Book (Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell), Best Actress in a Musical (Marissa Jaret Winokur), Best Actor (Harvey Fierstein), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dick Latessa), Best Costume Design (William Ivey Long), Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. Jack O'Brien directed the original, which featured choreography by Jerry Mitchell.

A screen adaptation of the musical, which was also produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, premiered in 2007.