Jennifer Hudson And Harvey Fierstein Join NBC’s ‘Hairspray Live!’ Cast

It’s pretty much a given in modern days that if it’s December, NBC will be airing a live musical — a tradition that began in 2012 with the Carrie Underwood-featuring The Sound Of Music Live! As announced earlier this year, the peacock network will follow last year’s telecast of The Wiz Live! with Hairspray Live!, which is set to air on Wednesday, December 7 at 8 p.m.

Jennifer Hudson has been cast in the role of Motormouth Maybelle in the production, while Harvey Fierstein, who is writing the Hairspray Live! teleplay, will reprise his part of Edna Turnblad that he originated on Broadway in 2002.

Hudson and Fierstein are both currently firmly entrenched in Broadway, as the former is starring in The Color Purple at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, while the latter wrote the book for the Tony-winning Kinky Boots playing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

Drag legend Divine was the first actor to play Edna Turnblad, in John Waters‘ original 1988 film version of Hairspray. John Travolta took on the role in the stage musical’s 2007 film adaptation. Meanwhile, Ruth Brown played Motormouth Maybelle in the ’88 film, and Queen Latifah was on hand for the part in ’07.

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