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
The Woman in Black (play) play opened in the West End at the Lyric Hammersmith in January 1989, then moved to the Strand Theatre in February 1989 and subsequently transferred to the Playhouse in April 1989 and finally the Fortune Theatre in August 1989. Direction was by Robin Herford, the Set Designer was Michael Holt and the Lighting Designer was Kevin Sleep. The original London cast (1989) was Charles Kay as Arthur Kipps and John Duttine as The Actor. In publicity literature, the actress in the title role is surreptitiously listed as 'Vision', but was originally Bristol Old Vic Theatre School-trained Nicola Sloane. The current