Hairspray Eyes Autumn West End Bow at the Shaftesbury

Broadway hit Hairspray, winner of the 2003 Tony Award for Best Musical, is London-bound at last. It will open at the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre in late autumn, according to a report in The Daily Mail.

The Adelphi Theatre was booked and casting for a London production was underway, not long after the show's Broadway bow, but plans were put on hold until now, with the film version of the musical starring John Travolta due for U.S. release on July 20.

Hairspray is based on cult director John Waters' 1988 movie of the same name, which starred the late Divine as Edna Turnblad and Ricki Lake as her teenage daughter Tracy, whose dream it is to dance on the Corny Collins TV Show. An affectionate satire of early 1960s social mores and a celebration of the dance craze culture of that era, the story charts "pleasantly plump" Tracy's transformation from social outcast to overnight sensation. Ascended to the ranks of local celebrity in her home town of Baltimore, she must use her newfound power to vanquish the reigning teen queen, win the affections of heartthrob Link Larkin and racially integrate the Corny Collins Show's audience—all without denting her spectacular bouffant hairdo.

With music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan and direction by Jack O'Brien, the show became an immediate Broadway smash when it premiered at the Neil Simon Theatre in the summer of 2002, where it continues to run.

The Shaftesbury is currently dark, following the early closure of the Boney M musical Daddy Cool and pending the imminent arrival of Fame in May. Fame is currently booking to September 1 only, thus clearing the way for Hairspray, of which casting and further details have yet to be announced.