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 (bishop) Michael Ball (bishop) Michael Thomas Ball (born 14 February 1932) is an Anglican bishop and the co-founder of the Community of the Glorious Ascension. He was the Bishop of Truro from 1990 to 1997. Ball was born on 14 February 1932. Ball was educated at Lancing College and Queens' College, Cambridge. His first teaching post in 1955 was in General Science at Pocklington School, East Yorkshire, where he was also house tutor at Lyndhurst, the junior boarding house. He left in 1960 to found the community mentioned below, which in fact was first situated in Kelham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. He