Good morning, Yakima! The North American tour of Hairspray launches November 12 in Yakima, Washington. The traveling production, which uses Jack O'Brien's original direction and Jerry Mitchell's choreography, will visit over 60 cities in first season, with an official opening set for November 17 at Broadway San Diego’s Civic Theatre.
The non-Equity tour, produced by NETworks Presentations, is led by Andrew Levitt (aka Nina West) as Edna Turnblad, Niki Metcalf as Tracy Turnblad, and The Voice's Toneisha Harris as Motormouth Maybelle, with Billy Dawson as Corny Collins, Will Savarese as Link Larkin, Emery Henderson as Penny Pingleton, Brandon G. Stalling as Seaweed J. Stubbs, Kaelee Albritton as Amber Von Tussle, Addison Garner as Velma Von Tussle, Christopher Swan as Wilbur Turnblad, and Kaléa Leverette as Little Inez.
Rounding out the ensemble are Caroline Daye Attayek, Kelly Barberito, Helene Britany, Jamonté Bruten, Tanner Callicutt, Ryahn Evers, Michael Corey Hassel, Kaleb Jenkins, Greg Kalafatas, Gabriel Kearns, Caira Asanté Lakota, Stevie LeWarne, Jr., Brendan Morris, Faith Northcutt, Adam Blake Raque, Renée Reid, Sydney Simone, Christopher Swan, Gabriyel Thomas, George Vickers V, Mea Wilkerson, and Emmanuelle Zeesman.
The musical has a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and a book by Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell. It premiered on Broadway in 2002 and garnered eight Tony awards, including Best Musical.
Additional creative team members for Hairspray include tour director Matt Lenz, tour choreographer Michelle Lynch, set designer David Rockwell, lighting designer Kenneth Posner, tour lighting designer Paul Miller, costume designer William Ivey Long, hair and wig designer Paul Huntley and Richard Mawbey, sound designer Steve Kennedy, tour sound designer Andrew Keister, musical supervisor Lon Hoyt. Casting is by Stewart/Whitley.
