PureDWTS Power Rankings Special – The Hairspray Live! Edition
Let it be known that this is the first time in PureDWTS history that my power rankings actually have nothing to do with DWTS 😛 But since some of you (bless your hearts and your desire to listen to me ramble on) requested it on Twitter, here it is – the first-ever non-DWTS edition of the power rankings!
So last night was Hairspray Live! on NBC – Vogue has spoiled all of us by and posted some post-show pix and media over at PDH if you want to check it out. Overall, I liked the production – I didn’t love it, but I think a lot of that had to with the fact that I found myself mentally comparing it to the 2007 movie version of Hairspray quite a bit, and there were parts that I thought the movie did better, and parts that I thought the live show did better. This particular production seemed like it stayed more faithful to the play than the movie, although I did see them borrow from the movie at a few points, too.
So how am I going to parlay the power rankings into a pseudo-quasi review of the show? I’ve decided to look at the 11 main cast members and just analyze them (they’re really the only ones who had enough screen time for me to really judge). I’m going to take into account how the character was handled within the context of the plot, as well as how that particular actor handled the role – and since nobody’s going home like on DWTS, just think of those at the top being the ones that handled it the best, and the ones at the bottom being the ones that fared the worst. So away we go…
1-2.) TIE: Derek Hough as Corny Collins and Jennifer Hudson as Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs – I think these two are a prime example of what can be done when you take a relatively secondary character and just play THE SHIT out of it, to the point where you kinda steal the show from the main characters. Surprising almost no one here (but likely quite a few folks who either didn’t know much about him, or people who were skeptical about him), Derek could not have impressed more as Corny – the dancing was there, the singing was there, and the acting was there. I cannot recall another actor playing Corny that has been as athletic as Derek, and that likely helped a lot – Corny’s such a dynamic character, that you need someone that’s able to spin, pose, belt, pull faces, and point & wink without breaking a sweat and without getting winded. That’s all that cross-training and stage experience coming into play 😉 While I actually found a lot of the choreography to be a bit kindergarten-y for D (but probably plenty difficult for everyone else), he was still dancing the crap out of it, and seemed to steal my eye in any scene where they had him doing any sort of dancing. Amber & Link may have been the “stars” of the Corny Collins show, but Corny himself was the one truly worth watching. As for Jennifer – daaaaaaaaamn, girl. I think anyone who is able to bring not one, not two, but THREE cast members to tears while belting out “I Know Where I’ve Been” in a style that would make even Whitney Houston jealous deserves a standing ovation. Maybelle is a character that doesn’t get a ton of screen time in the grand scheme of Hairspray Live! – but I’ll be damned if Jennifer didn’t make the most of every second she got on screen. I actually really liked how she played Maybelle more as a feisty young mother and business woman fighting for a better life for her kids, since most of the actresses that have played her seem to play her as a bit older, and more subdued & wise. All I could think about after the show was how many roles on Broadway she would just SLAY – Big Mamma Morton in Chicago, Teen Angel in Grease, Justice in Rock of Ages, anything in Ain’t Misbehavin’, the list goes on. She’s got real chops when it comes to stage work, and I’d love to see her really establish herself on Broadway. If I had to give one of them the edge over the other, I’d probably say Jennifer because she had a bit more gravitas in her performance – Corny doesn’t have too much serious material to work with. But both were standouts to me in a great way 🙂
3.) Kristin Chenoweth as Velma Von Tussel – This was once instance where I preferred the Hairspray Live! actor to the 2007 movie actor – I liked how Kristin played her a bit more zany and humorous, while I found Michelle Pfeiffer’s Velma to be a bit more…cold and serious. She was also one of the few that seemed to have a good on-screen chemistry with those she was supposed to be playing off of – she did ok with Dove (which I think is more a result of Dove being a bit off her game), but I loved the banter she had with Derek on the Corny set…you can tell those two are good friends off-screen. But chemistry goes a long way, and I actually was very entertained when I watched those two play off each other onscreen. Also liked that she got creative with the vocals – “Miss Baltimore Crabs” had me chuckling. Kristin’s such a seasoned stage pro, though, that I didn’t expect anything else – killed it, and made me laugh 🙂
4.) Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad – To be fair, I feel like Edna is the role in Hairspray that usually stands the greatest likelihood of “stealing the show”, just by virtue of the novelty of it – it’s always played by a male actor in drag (with a LOT of padding), so right off the bat, the audience usually finds him/her hilarious. And Harvey was no exception – from Edna’s first line in that gruff, gravelly voice of his, I was entertained. But god bless Harvey, he makes one pretty hideous woman 😛 The makeup kinda reminded me of one of the makeover challenges on Rupaul’s Drag Race, where the queens are tasked with making over a regular guy into a drag queen in a limited amount of time – but it all just added to the overall campiness of the character, so it worked. And I liked that he played Edna a bit louder and sassier than Travolta did in the 2007 version – I feel like Harvey’s Edna was a lot more “Baltimore”, while Travolta’s was more demure, quiet, and “Midwest”. Also loved the chemistry he had with Martin, and they both seemed to capture well the quirky affection Edna & Wilbur have for each other. Good casting 🙂
5.) Ephraim Sykes as Seaweed Stubbs – I think Ephraim probably fared the best of the newcomers/unknown actors in this production – he’s another one that seems to be a triple threat (singer/dancer/actor) and didn’t struggle with onstage chemistry issues like several of the other newcomers. He seemed to mesh well with Maybelle & Tracy, tried to vibe with Penny (but I blame the lack of spark more on Ariana), and stood out well in the dancing sections. Maybe didn’t stand out for me as much as, say, Lil Inez or Maybelle, but I was pleased nonetheless. No complaints here 🙂
6.) Shahadi Wright Joseph as Lil Inez Stubbs – If you told me to pick one character from the show to give more screen time to, you wouldn’t even have finished your sentence before I said “LIL INEZ!!!” enthusiastically. That little girl was giving me LIFE last night – adorable, energetic, and dancing her little heart out in “You Can’t Stop the Beat” in her little yellow dress. Seriously, go re-watch that number – she is out-dancing most of the adults. So it was kinda disappointing that they opted not to give her more screen time, like they did in the 2007 movie – in that version (spoiler alert), she actually is the one that ends up winning Miss Teen Hairspray when Link pulls her out onto the dance floor during the broadcast, and she gets a ton of phone votes by people impressed by her dance moves. I would have loved to have seen that in this version, if only to see Shahadi dancing more – plus I feel like this version ends just a bit too perfectly for Tracy, who ends up with the boy, the scholarship, the Miss Teen Hairspray title, etc., when all that really mattered to her was integrating the Corny Collins show. Shahadi went above and beyond with the little screen time she was given – I just wish we could have gotten more. But I daresay that girl has got a bright future ahead of her – real star-power, that one.
7.) Martin Short as Wilbur Turnblad – I only have one kinda strange gripe about this one: I almost feel like Martin is too “cool” to play Wilbur. The thing about Wilbur, Edna, & Tracy is that they’re all square pegs – none of them really fit in, except with each other, and their weirdness is what bonds them together and makes them a family. I think that’s why Christopher Walken worked so well as Wilbur in the movie – he was quirky enough that he carried off the offbeat-joke-shop-owner-with-a-daughter-and-a-wife-who-don’t-quite-fit-in-too role off well. Martin Short has just reached a point that he’s so charismatic and at-ease with his humor that he seems a bit too normal to play Wilbur – there just wasn’t enough quirk there for me, although I did love his chemistry with Harvey. I think Ty Burrell would have made a great Wilbur – he’s got enough of that nerdy vibe for me to buy him in that role. But Martin did well, and there’s very little he does that I don’t enjoy.
8.) Maddie Baillio as Tracy Turnblad – It could just be that Tracy is the type of role with very little variation from actress to actress (same overall “look”), but while I don’t think Maddie did BAD, I don’t think she really did anything that really set her apart from other Tracy’s (like Ricki Lake & Nikki Blonsky). Vocals were good, dancing was ok (she looked maybe slightly better than Dove – so generally not terribly confident or at-ease on the floor), acting was alright. I think she tried to establish chemistry with Link, but he was just so damn flat that it all kinda fell apart. I’m left without a whole lot to say about Maddie – she did good, but I don’t think she did outstanding. I will give her props for coming into a huge national production as a relative unknown and doing as well as she did, but when we think back to all the actresses that played Tracy, I’m not sure I’ll remember her name.
9.) Ariana Grande as Penny Pingleton – I will say this: of all the characters that had to sing while doing heavy choreography during the show, Ariana was one of the only two actors who were actually managing to do both without appearing winded or their singing suffering (the other being Derek). I would venture a guess it’s because she’s a highly trained vocalist who has probably gotten quite a bit of instruction on breath control. And yes, she was probably the second-most talented vocalist in the cast, after Jennifer, and she sounded great – had she only had to sing, she would probably be much higher on this list; but she did actually have a pretty substantial speaking role, and the acting we saw was…tepid. I feel like she basically just rehashed this character she did on SNL (which someone on Twitter told me was basically her character from Victorious, too) and seemed too busy being awkward that it actually sabotaged any chemistry she might have had with Seaweed; Ephraim was giving good chemistry and trying to vibe off of her, but it seemed like Ariana got so caught up in being weird that she almost seemed afraid of him. I much preferred Amanda Bynes’ take on Penny in the 2007 movie, where she managed to be awkward and dowdy while still having a good, flirtatious chemistry with Seaweed. She’s an ok dancer, but if I were her, I’d stick to singing for now, and leave the acting and dancing to someone else.
10.) Dove Cameron as Amber Von Tussel – I had never heard of Dove prior to last night, and if someone hadn’t told me otherwise on Twitter, I would have guessed she was was primarily a singer that had little to no experience with acting or dancing, because she didn’t seem particularly confident in either one of those skills during the production. Not much in the way of varying facial expressions, and seemed to be doing the dance moves pretty cautiously and timidly. Her interactions with other characters seemed a bit wooden, too – Kristin and Maddie were giving her plenty to work with, and Dove only seemed to kinda engage. Someone on Twitter mentioned that she may have been really nervous, because she’s usually quite a good performer, so I’m not sure what the deal was – she’s a very pretty girl, and she actually sounded great when singing (especially during “Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now”) but beyond that, I didn’t find anything about her performance to be remarkable. Maybe she just needs to get used to live performances?
11.) Garrett Clayton as Link Larkin – Honest to god, I cannot think of a single memorable Link moment from last night’s show. Perhaps it’s a combo of kinda robotic acting and a bit less of a front-and-center role than in the movie, but I almost feel like Link just got reduced to a stock character in this iteration of the musical – he was just there to kinda fill in the space of the dreamy male love interest for the female protagonist, and that’s about it. In the 2007 version of the movie (where Zac Efron played him), I feel like they at least made an effort to give Link more of his own identity – he was trying to become a rock star and had more performance numbers, you see him change his thinking about segregation, he makes a big move at the Miss Hairspray pageant that makes a statement, etc. In this version…he just seems to be following either Amber or Tracy around like a lost puppy, and there’s only a passing mention about him trying to get his “big break” on the Corny Collins Show. So to be fair – Garrett may not have had a ton of material to work with, but I found his acting to be unremarkable and kinda one-note. He just kinda seemed to be going through the motions, and didn’t really do anything to make the role his own. And I’m not sure he could have had any less chemistry with Maddie if he tried – they felt more like two people on a mismatched blind date than teenagers in love. Just…something really off about their vibe together. I feel really bad saying that, considering they’re the two main characters, but I would argue that they had more screen time than the rest of the cast in order to establish chemistry…and they just couldn’t do it.
Other random thoughts about the show that don’t really fit anywhere else:
*Thinking through the celebrity cameos, I completely forgot about Rosie O’Donnell – probably because casting her as the slightly-butch gym teacher just seemed like wayyyy too much of a gimme. I would have rather had Ricki Lake play that role, instead of throwing a wig on her and shoving her in the background of one of the musical numbers to be forgotten. Seeing her scold Tracy for her too-high hair could have been delightfully ironic 😉 Sean Hayes as Mr. Pinky? Didn’t even recognize him until 5 minutes after “Welcome to the 60’s” ended and it dawned on me. Would have rather seen Anderson Cooper play that one.
*Seemed like they were kinda rushing the curtain call and ended the show 5 minutes early…why? I have no idea, but it did make the ending feel a tad abrupt.
*The thing that has always bugged me about the original Hairspray script is the way that Penny’s mom has a sudden about-face in the finale about her daughter dating a “colored boy” and is suddenly thrilled to bits about it, after the very thought of such a thing nearly gives her the vapors earlier in the script. While it’s a lovely (idealistic) notion to think of a family member letting go of a long-held prejudice simply because they see a loved one happy, it’s not realistic at all – I think that anyone that has grown up with a racist in their family can tell you that those tendencies don’t just change on a whim. I think the 2007 movie handled it more realistically – Penny’s mom sees her on TV, kissing Seaweed, and falls out of her chair in shock…and that’s it. Better to leave it at that than either try to claim she suddenly came to accept it gracefully, or showing her dragging Penny home by her pigtails to beat her with a bible.
*Seemed like there were a few issues with the orchestra drowning out the vocals, particularly in “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and whatever the song was that Jennifer & Ariana sang during the curtain call. I’m told that this was also an issue people noticed with Grease Live…maybe one of the caveats in filming on a huge back lot that has both indoor and outdoor sets? Hard to adjust orchestra volume?
So those are my thoughts…what are yours? Did you enjoy the show? Did you have a favorite character? What would you have done differently? Let’s hear it! 🙂
I liked this one more than The Sound of Music and Peter Pan NBC live musicals but not as much as The Wiz or Grease Live (though last night’s show was much closer to the latter two in terms of quality). I think they tried to copy Grease Live a little too much ,though, and those aspects kinda paled in comparison.
I watched Disney’s Descendants (the other project with the Cheno-Cameron mother/daughter duo) and both Teen Beach Movies (Garrett Clayton had a major role in those) leading up to this show which is why I was surprised that Dove suffered last night. She had great chemistry with Kristin in that movie (weird as the plot was) and was great at playing the “mean girl”. I don’t know what happened but I didn’t get that last night. Garrett Clayton was the same in this as he was in the TBM’s but I was under the impression he was SUPPOSED to act kinda bland and cheesy in those and that it was an intentional acting choice for his character. I don’t know if his acting in this was intentional or just the way he acts but it didn’t work for me.
For a show about dancing the movement seemed very tepid for the most part. It looked like most of the cast was trying not to forget the steps and it took away from the performance of certain numbers. While I enjoyed Derek as Corny I think having him in the role and making it much more dance-heavy than in the past (at least from what I’ve seen) highlighted this problem, because the kids who were supposed to be the “stars” of the show were noticeably worse than him and it diminished the impact of those scenes. I appreciate that they cast people who actually looked like teenagers in the teen roles, but I think I would have rather done the Dawson casting thing and replaced them with actors who could handle it better, with Derek as Link Larkin and then Darren Criss as Corny Collins as a nice tie-in to him hosting the musical for the audience at home (I know Darren was doing a run of another show while the cast was rehearsing but he’s been in LA for the past month and Corny isn’t that big a role-especially if they’d kept Ladies’ Choice as a Link number-so they could have made it work.
I agree about Penny’s mom. Andrea Martin did great but the ending they used just didn’t ring true. Hairspray is one of the few musicals where I like the movie edition better than the stage one, and a big reason behind that is because the stage version is just too cheesy and over-the-top, with that about-face being one of the worst parts of it.
I think the best way to sum the acting up is I liked all the adult actors but not the kids except Ephraim and Shahadi (and maybe kind of Maddie). I liked that they cast Tracey with an unknown actor (I mean, it would have been really ironic for them NOT to) and I wish they’d done so with some of the others, especially the other kids.
WELL DONE, Court. I couldn’t agree more on every single thing you wrote! Derek and Jennifer Hudson stole the show for me. I also loved Harvey and the guy who played Seaweed! I have to say I wasn’t that impressed with Ariana, Maddie, Garrett, Dove, or Rosie. With that said, I loved the show (but, not as much as I loved Grease Live). Anyway, well done.
Courtney, thank you so much for taking the time to do this post! I really appreciate it. I have the same top three actors and I think this production showed how live television is really different from anything else. I think Derek’s being used to DWTS being live was a great asset and perhaps some of the younger cast struggled with that. Personally I was kind of upset with some comments on Twitter comparing members of this cast to actors on the 2007 movie, because I think it is an unfair comparison. Here you just have one take to do it right. If we could see the first take of every scene in the movie, that would be a more accurate comparison IMHO.
I remember Jennifer Hudson once had Whitney in tears with her rendition of I will always love you. She is THAT good.
And Derek needs to do Broadway, movies and his own TV show ASAP.
Thanks again for the post.
First off, Courtney, thank you so much for doing these power rankings! Awesome as usual!
I find myself in almost complete agreement with your rankings. The only thing I might change is making it a three-way tie between Jennifer, Derek and Kristin. Jennifer, as always, blew me away…what a powerhouse! Derek, because he truly embodied Corny and he has a great voice! (Side note, it was great to see so many DWTS pros and former partners posting positive things about him, not to mention other celebs; it goes to show how well thought of he is, IMO). And Kristin, because she just OWNS every scene she is in! I just love her!
Some random thoughts on others; Harvey was exactly what I expected and that wasn’t a bad thing! Ephraim and Shahadi were outstanding. Ariana, was good, but not as good as I expected. Martin was a great foil for Harvey’s character. Dove surprised me as she seemed nervous and didn’t come across that great; I watched The Descendants on Disney a while back and thought she did well, so I was disappointed in her performance. Garrett reminded me of Jana (had to throw in some DWTS); he was forgettable! Maddie was good and that’s about it: I felt that she was over-shadowed by other bigger and better performances.
I was a bit put off by the slip-ups on the technical side: I certainly appreciate how difficult it must be to stage something like this, but I would have thought they would have ironed out a lot of these. I really wish they would do something about the music overwhelming the voices: sometimes I was struggling to understand the words even when I knew the song. And I commented to Court last night on Twitter about how rushed the ending seemed and for no good reason as they seemed to end early. I felt like the curtain calls were short and did no one any favors.
Overall, I would rank this performance as NBC’s best live and I’d put it just a tad behind Grease Live, mainly because I have always preferred Grease to Hairspray.
I am not a Hairspray fan to begin with, but had to watch to see Derek and to give a live performance a chance to “impress” me. Jennifer Hudson made me cry when she sang because I felt like her heart and soul were right out there, exposed for all to see.
Hit the darn button inadvertently again, sorry. Derek brought the house down, in my view. He raised the energy of the whole production when he was in a scene and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. I agree with your rankings pretty much, especially the 1-2. I thought Inez was fabulous, too. Overall, I liked Hairspray but thought it started out pretty slow. The technical issues were a little distracting, too. I didn’t like all of the casting, but I felt the same way about Grease, too. Congrats to Derek Hough for showing a whole lot of people what we knew all along- he is one talented man! His career will be jet-propelled after this.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Court! Gotta agree with your rankings. It seemed to me that the show was a true First Night with Garrett, Dove, Ariana and Maddie still finding their way in their roles. I expected that of Maddie as a newcomer but was a little surprised at the others. I have to hand it to Derek, not just because I’m a die-hard fan, but because his smooth, campy energy as Corny really helped keep the show moving along. Can’t agree more with the lack of chemistry issues, which were significant stand outs to me. All in all, a good show — I was surprised at how quickly the 3-ish hours (my local station also cut it off about 10 minutes early) went.
Thanks Courtney! Agree Derek & JHud stole the show!
I think Hairspray Live! was great and so much fun to watch! NBC definitely stepped up their game after Grease Live! on FOX.
of course some were better than others but I still think the whole cast & crew did an awesome job!
my favourite was Derek! he stole the show and was a super charming and dapper Corny Collins! singing, acting & dancing on point and he looked amazing in all his shiny suits! I agree that there’s never been another Corny who was as athletic as Derek! I think the other Cornys didn’t dance at all!
Derek’s dancing was fantastic as always and all those spins and extra moves he added to his Corny portrayal made him shine everytime he was on screen!
I also think that the dancing was too easy for him and he had to hold himself back. I even read an interview where he said something along the lines of having to keep in mind to not just start dancing like crazy how he as Derek himself would do and how he kinda has to tone it down or adjust it to his character Corny.
he still made the dancing look super good and definitely danced the heck out of the choreography he was given! I also agree with you guys that he looked better than the kids on the show (which is no surprise lol).
my only complaint is that they didn’t give Derek more opportunities to show off his dancing skills but I suppose giving him Ladies’ choice was their way to do it (but this was still pretty basic choreo for Derek’s standards lol).
Derek was perfect as Corny Collins but it’s true that he could have also been Link because he looks that young and he would have killed that part too! I heard quite a few people saying Derek should have been Link instead of Garrett.
Julia, I think Dove’s performance was not as good as what you saw in Descendants because it was live and she only had one take to nail it whereas she had several shots in the latter where they of course picked the best one. the live factor was probably the reason why some were maybe not as good as what they’ve shown in other projects (which were pre taped and where they could reshoot things until they’re satisfied).
Overall I’m so happy that Derek got to shine on a whole new level in this major production and show everyone how talented he is! I was smiling like an idiot everytime he was on screen and felt like a proud mother watching her son lol (although I’m like 10 years younger than him lol).
and it’s great that he made so many new friends! I would love to see him in future projects with the likes of Ariana, Kristin, Jennifer & co!
and from what I’ve seen on social media he gained a lot of new fans who are now obsessed with him 😉
I hope he will land even more great jobs now, the big producers in Hollywood would be stupid to not snap him up!
I also found myself also comparing the live show with the 2007 movie. They did stay true to the stage show with the exception of adding “Ladies Choice” that was added when the movie came along…so I’m curious as to why they chose to change it fromantic a song sung by Link to a song to sung by Corny.
Jennifer Hudson was amazing, just like I thought she would be. I hope more Broadway is in her future.
Derek was fantastic as Corny. I like that they chose to showcase his dancing, and I think they caught him practicing his numbers on snap chat and I think even the behind the scenes while the commercials. I love after the curtain call seeing him early dance with Inez and him acknowledging Ricky but they cut away .
I like that they included two of the 3 previous Tracy’s. It was a nice little moment to see Ricky, Marissa, and Maddie all together.
Kristen, Harvey and Martin were great as well. I was surprised that Dove seemed to struggle last night because I’ve liked in other things she has done.
Overall I did enjoy the show and it kept me entertained for the three hours.
Thanks for doing this Court.
All points well taken. Particularly agree about Martin Short, of whom I am also a fan. I don’t know why they didn’t do something with his appearance even, to bring out something quirky. I also don’t understand how they put Ariana in boots with a heel and a platform that did not exist in 1962. That really bugged me.
A review I read had a lot to say about all the activity ancillary to the performance — the actors running off to, and riding away in, golf carts; that host yammering; the various audiences; the social media area — scripted spontaneity. I think I would have preferred it without the side show.
Yeah, Derek did an interview where he said he had to change how he danced a particular sequence because he was dancing it as Derek instead of as “Corny”. The interviewer asked him what that meant and he said he’s “too dancy” and Corny is more like a man dancing with a martini glass in his hand. 🙂 Which I thought was a very interesting way of looking at it.
As for the sound in parts, I think it had more to do with the microphones and the sound mixers than it did orchestra level. There were several parts where you could tell the mix was off – you could hear the harmony singers but not so much the melody, if that makes sense. But this production was MASSIVE with all the locations on the backlot and the studio – I can’t even imagine how difficult it is to keep up with all of that. There’s video of Derek right after that commercial he did full out running to the next location – talk about stamina. And another good reason why it shouldn’t be totally compared to either the movies or the stage version.
I could never stand Ariana Grande until seeing her in BTS videos the last few days with Derek and other cast members – she seems very sweet. There’s this video of her and Derek dancing together in the gym when they aren’t on camera and it’s the cutest thing I’ve seen. He seems to be teaching her a jive or cha cha – hard to tell cuz they’re goofing around. He does one of his signature moves and she apes it and almost falls over. Very cute.
The Chenowith…my lord I love her. And I’ve always loved JHud, but dang. She can do anything. Now I can see why Derek did NOT want to sing after her. Who would? 🙂
“Ladies’ Choice” was basically created for the movie to show off Zac Efron, so I don’t think it mattered so much that it was switched over to Derek performing it. It wasn’t in the original stage production, and Hairspray Live! stayed much truer to the Broadway version than the musical version.
I think one of the reasons that some cast members seemed to lack energy compared to others is almost a comparison between stage acting and screen acting. The cast members in the top 5 are all actors/actresses who have had experience on the stage in front of a live audience. Their expressions and performance were more of the style you’d see on the stage, i.e. practically overacting everything so the back row can see you, compared to some of the ones at the bottom who haven’t necessarily had to act in that manner (Ariana excluded).
As for production, my biggest gripe isn’t that there were errors. It’s more that the errors are the same ones that they had last year. Last year during “The Wiz,” they had some of the same audio mix issues where the instrumental track blurred out the vocals. You’d think that after four of these, they could correct the mix during tech runs.
I think Garrett Clayton is really sweet and good looking but I found his performance underwhelming. I would have preferred Ross Lynch as Link, who is used to performing live in concerts and can dance well (even if he doesn’t have the exact physique du rol for the character). But I think Ross would have matched Derek’s energy and would have had great chemistry with Maddie.
First, let me thank you, Courtney, for writing this power rankings special. Enjoyed reading your thoughts. I thought it made sense because there were two DWTS celeb-alums–Ricki and Marissa. And there was Derek, of course.
We have an almost identical rankings, except that I couldn’t decide on a tie between Derek and JHud or a three-way tie for Derek, JHud and Kristin on the top spot, LOL! I also put Harvey and Martin at a tie, but a rank lower than Ephraim. I also felt that Garrett as Link wasn’t convincing as the resident dreamboat of the Corny Collins Show. You said it; he was flat. Good singing voice, though.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. Loved the costumes and the set. It made me laugh and teary in some parts. It kept me smiling throughout the day (live streamed it at 9am, my time zone). It was just a bit sad that some of the mics weren’t working in some parts and that the ending seemed rushed.
Love love love that you did this, Court! I did this show in high school and it’s my favorite one I’ve been in.
LOVED Derek as Corny! They couldn’t have cast a better actor/dancer/singer. He’s a triple threat! JHud killed it as well. She seems to shine regardless of what she does. Just add this to her list of incredible performances.
Dove, Maddie, and Garrett fell flat for me. I’m not sure if it’s just because I was in the show once, but I feel like Link is suppose to have more depth than what Garrett portrayed. Dove didn’t do anything for me either. Amber should be snarky with an edge to her- Dove couldn’t capture that edge in my eye. When she insulted Tracy, it felt insincere, almost like she didn’t really wanna say it. Tracy is just a character that seems the same regardless. Same vocal range is required for all productions I’ve seen (film or theatrical). I feel like no one can really shine as Tracy because she’s one dimensional.
Thanks again for doing this, Courtney! I found this one very very interesting ?
Outstanding job with the Power Rankings by Courtney!! So happy to see that both Derek and Jennifer are listed as tied at the top! Totally agree!! Derek brought his character of Corny Collins to life, and I’m thrilled that the world got to see him in a new light as he showcased his extraordinary talents of singing, dancing, and acting! He shone on that stage performing in front of a live audience, and he truly is a super star! And Jennifer Hudson’s voice and her performance…beyond words, just tears. What a truly magnificent production!