Hairspray Live! stage show but cut and only used in the film, was not added. (An instrumental version of the song is, however, heard very briefly as a bit of background music.) In addition to adapting the book, Fierstein reprised his performance of Edna Turnblad from the Broadway musical; Greenblatt felt that his performance of Edna was "iconic", and that his involvement with "Hairspray Live!" made it "come full circle". NBC cast the lead role of Tracy Turnblad through an open call in New York City, hoping to repeat the "phenomenal discovery" of Shanice Williams for "The Wiz". The role went to
Play Ball: Stories of the Ball Field Play Ball: Stories of the Ball Field Play Ball: Stories of the Ball Field is an 1888 autobiographical collection of baseball stories from Major League Baseball player King Kelly. Kelly had come to Boston one year earlier to play for the Boston Beaneaters. The book was organized and put together by "Boston Globe" journalist John J. "Jack" Drohan. Howard W. Rosenberg's 2004 biography of Kelly dispelled any notion that Boston reporter Jake Morse had been the ghostwriter, by quoting Drohan's involvement with the book at length, including unearthing the following sentence about Drohan from the 1889 book "The Story of