Hairspray

»A person's shell does not determine their value.«

Baltimore, the early 1960s: Tracy, a schoolgirl, has long dreamt of dancing on the big stage of the local TV talent show – but does she have the nerve?  Her looks aren’t particularly photogenic, she isn’t at all skinny – she doesn’t in the least meet the TV show’s ideal of beauty. But it is her open, sincere, and natural manner that impresses the jury. Tracy sticks up for her fellow companions especially when they are treated badly. Together with her best friend Penny she takes up the cause of social justice: She wants that there be more black dancers in the show. After personal ups and downs, street demonstrations and other turbulence there is a happy ending: she gets the prince and the crown while her extravagant hairstyle in TV starts a new trend. The pigheaded bad guys are beaten, and the show is lastly integrated – notably only one small step on the way to more social justice.

Based on the cult film classic by John Waters from the year 1988 (also known in the 2007 adaption in which John Travolta plays Tracy’s mother), the musical in the 2000s won the hearts of audiences throughout the world. Now HAIRSPRAXY is coming to Bonn. In his staging Erik Petersen (THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, WEST SIDE STORY) lets the story take place in a realistically portrayed shopping center from the 60s. To the rhythm and blues numbers, musical stars Enrico de Pieri, Mathias Schlung and many others relate the story of their successful struggle for social justice and of their belief in the free formation of personality.