In 1962, Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad was a girl who knew what she wanted: Come hell, high water or heel-dragging mothers, she would become a star dancer on The Corny Collins Show, and she would help bring an end to racial segregation.
Created by legendary cult filmmaker John Waters, Ms. Turnblad is the unforgettable central character in Hairspray – a musical that began as an oddball 1988 film starring Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono, and went on to become a Tony-winning Broadway show and a 2007 film starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah and Zac Efron.
This summer, it is also one of two outdoor shows at Theatre Under the Stars at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.
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And while the show's spirited soundtrack spans from doo-wop to rock and roll to early Motown, the musical also has a serious message that harks back to the Civil Rights era and the riots over race-based injustices.
"And it couldn't be more fitting today as we look at riots in Baltimore in 2015. This musical is set in 1962, which is a mere six years before the Baltimore riots of 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. And at the time I was doing my research, suddenly the Baltimore riots erupted – and yet again, in reaction to the injustice of a young black man's death," director Sarah Rodgers says, adding that, every time she hears actress Cecilly Day sing I Know Where I've Been, it brings tears to her eyes. "It's heartbreaking. But it's also extremely timely that we are doing this musical this summer."
Also on offer at this year's TUTS is the family-friendly Oliver!, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist, about a little London orphan who falls in with a gang of pint-sized pickpockets and lands in serious hot water.
The favourite annual event began nearly 70 years ago, and now people who saw TUTS shows as kids are returning with their own children and grandchildren for an evening of musical theatre under the stars.
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"It's absolutely magical. We begin Act I in bright daylight, and as night falls, the atmosphere changes, and you see the fireflies twinkling in the stage lights as the blankets come out and people start to cuddle up together," says Ms. Rodgers, who has even seen an entire family of raccoons trundle across the stage during a scene.
"It's a theatre experience in Vancouver unlike any other – and one of Vancouver's rare long histories."
Theatre Under The Stars is at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park until Aug. 22 (tuts.ca).