Hairspray (2007 film) the 1988 John Waters film upon which the stage musical is based, became interested in adapting the stage show as a musical film. Development work began in late 2004, while a similarly film-to-Broadway-to-film project, Mel Brooks' "The Producers", was in production. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the executive producers of the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Chicago", were hired as the producers for "Hairspray", and began discussing possibly casting John Travolta and Billy Crystal (or Jim Broadbent) as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively. Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, authors of the book for the stage musical, wrote
Michael Ball (singer) fright in his early career, and a little about his personal life. He performed a number of summer concerts, including the Hampton Court Music Festival on 14 June 2008. From 6 April 2008, Ball took over "Michael Parkinson's Sunday Supplement" on BBC Radio 2 every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Ball won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also won the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, his first Olivier Award. Ball's solo album "Past and Present" was released on 9 March 2009 by Universal Music. The