Tori Kocher as Tracy Turnblad

The Center for the Arts kicks off its 2018 season with Hairspray the Broadway Musical, co-directed by Denise Parton and Brittany Griffin. Performances run Jan. 5–21, 2018.

Based on the 1988 film by John Waters, Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad, who has never been part of the “in” crowd.  After winning a coveted spot on the local TV dance program, The Corny Collins Show, she becomes a teen idol virtually overnight. Tracy quickly becomes a trendsetter and uses her popularity to help change the show’s segregation policy.

With Belmont University’s Tori Kocher as Tracy Turnblad, Hairspray the Musical is chock-full of toe-tapping ’60s-style production numbers and downtown rhythm and blues.

“After the show was cast, we had to cancel our rehearsal for Saturday, Oct. 28 because of the White Lives Matter rally that was scheduled to be held downtown,” Parton shares. “At one time, different races could not even dance together, like in Hairspray. We think we have come so far, but have we really?”

Griffin states that her “favorite line in the show can be found in the hit song ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat.’ It says, You can’t stop today, as it comes speeding down the track. Child, yesterday is history and it’s never coming back. Cause tomorrow is a brand-new day and it don’t know white from black. I feel this is the message of the entire show. The old way of segregation and treating those different than you as less than, because you don’t understand them, needs to be left in the past with history. Murfreesboro experienced this on a personal level Oct. 28. Thankfully we stood together in love and kept the hate away. This show is a celebration of that.”

Hairspray will take the stage at the Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20; and at 2 p.m. on Jan. 7, 14 and 21.

For tickets and more information, visit boroarts.org.