You can’t stop the beat with ‘Hairspray Live!’ telecast

“Executive produced by Kristin Chenoweth!”.

Later on, with the help of her mother (Harvey Fierstein), Turnblad tried to introduce racial integration to the all-white show.

Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande are just some of the stars that appear on the Hairspray Live! soundtrack, which is available for streaming online a week ahead of its release.

But this is no hallucination. NBC’s presentation of “Peter Pan: Live!” dipped to 9.2 million in 2014 but ratings rebounded for “The Wiz: Live!” in 2015.

Tony and Emmy Award-winning Broadway favourite Kristin Chenoweth is now in rehearsal for this year’s eagerly anticipated NBC televised musical Hairspray Live!

48-year-old Lake, who played peppy Tracy Turnblad in the 1998 film, welcomed 2016’s Tracy, Maddie Baillio, alongside actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, who also played Tracy in the ’02 Broadway show based on the film. At its roots, it’s a story about the triumph of outsiders.

She “has a voice that is just wonderful”. Yes, the show is fun and there are some campy parts. These kids [in Hairspray Live!] are going through the same thing, but they understand it because of the politics right now. “We have been so focused on what has divided us”.

Corporate America also chose to get in on the fun, with Toyota, Reddi-wip and Oreo all paying for live commercials and product placements during the show.

But stars stress the arts provide solace in tumultuous times.”This election has shown us how diverse and separate we are”.

That light won’t come without some innovation on NBC’s part.

It began in 2013 with “The Sound of Music Live!” and Carrie Underwood in the role that Julie Andrews made famous.

This year, the network is trying a different approach.

NBC’s musical is a live adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 movie titled Hairspray. Make sure to have all your devices at the ready to watch the broadcast, Criss and (of course) live tweet. “We’ve taken what we learned from the first one and kept refining it and refining it”.

Still, this is her second time at winning big. Harvey Fierstein will provide a new teleplay and Jerry Mitchell (“Kinky Boots”, “On Your Feet”) will serve as choreographer for the live production with music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Smash” and Broadway’s upcoming “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”). “So I have to feel a difference between the north side of town and the south side of town, or else we have no story”.

Helping to make the production as seamless as possible is a crew of about 1,200 people and 18 cameras.

The forecast should bring a sigh of relief to the HAIRSPRAY LIVE! team, although plans were firmly in place in the event that the weather on December 7th chose not to cooperate.

Ads are necessary for the TV industry to do business, said NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt. And it’s all done to suit what this production needs. “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘Boy do we need this show now, ‘ ” says co-executive producer Neil Meron. So far they are drawing big audiences, but Fierstein notes there is a learning curve involved.

Fierstein is agitated: “This whole idea of this “attack on political correctness” really (ticks) me off”, he says. “It’s such hard work”. I’d love to take it even further.

Who would really want to stop this beat anyway? “That one just has me heaving”. “She gave me a shower gel that I used the smallest amount of every day for f***ing ever!” she exclaimed.