Produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and hosted by Darren Criss, it is a performance of a new adaptation of the 2002 Broadway musical Hairspray.

When, against all odds, Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight and meets a colorful array of characters, including Link, the resident dreamboat; Amber, the ambitious mean girl; Seaweed, an African-American boy she meets in detention; and his mother, Motormouth Maybelle, owner of a local record store.

[2] Main[3] Minor roles Council members[3] The Dynamites[3] Motormouth Kids[3] Various ensemble[3] Cameos Musicians Dancers The musical numbers from the track list of the soundtrack.

The project was revealed by NBC's entertainment head Bob Greenblatt during a Television Critics Association press tour in January 2016.

He explained that the production would not try to emulate the 2007 film (also produced by Zadan and Meron),[11] but that he would have been thrilled if John Travolta reprised his role in it.

[12] Kenny Leon returned in his role as director from The Wiz, and was joined by Alex Rudzinski—who co-directed Grease: Live for Fox.

[13][14] The musical was adapted for television by Harvey Fierstein from the original book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan.

was produced from the Universal Studios backlot; Greenblatt explained that a "fair amount" of the show would be staged in outdoor settings, and thus "have a real exuberance in the open air."

[14] 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 Live!.

[22] Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote: "NBC lassoed some talented performers with fine singing voices but sacrificed cohesion by cramming the evening with too much interstitial fluff.... Only Jennifer Hudson, who played Motormouth Maybelle, found the real strength of this Tony-winning musical, delivering a knockout rendition of 'I Know Where I've Been'..." He noted that Baillio "did pretty well, though no novice is going to compete with voices like those of Ms. Hudson and Kristin Chenoweth..."[23] Sonia Saraiya of Variety wrote that it "took a few musical numbers to settle into a rhythm.

She stated that Dove Cameron and Ephraim Sykes were "consistently fun to watch", Chenoweth and Hudson "were the biggest scene-stealers.

[26] In his 2019 essay collection Mr. Know-It-All, John Waters called the special "OK—but the weakest" of Hairspray's various iterations, expressing reservations about some of the casting decisions, as well as lamenting that neither he nor any surviving cast members of The Buddy Deane Show, the real-life basis of The Corny Collins Show, were consulted for the production.