NBCGood morning Baltimore, Maddie Baillio is your new Tracy Turnblad! NBC has cast the Texas native as the spunky teenager at the heart of Hairspray Live.
Baillio joins the already cast Jennifer Hudson, Martin Short, Derek Hough and Harvey Fierstein in the live staging of the beloved musical set in 1960s Baltimore, Maryland. The up and coming singer and dancer has no professional theater experience and won the role at an open casting call, beating out about 1,000 hopefuls. She's a sophomore at Marymount Manhattan College.
Baillio was named the 2014 Great American Songbook Youth Ambassador and in 2015 she performed with Michael Feinstein at various venues including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Hairspray Live is NBC's fourth live musical event, The Sound of Music, Peter Pan and The Wiz predate it. For Hairspray Live, Alex Rudzinski will join Kenny Leon, who also directed The Wiz, to helm the production. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will serve as executive producers. Fierstein, who is playing Edna Turnblad, a role he made famous on Broadway, will also provide a new teleplay. Jerry Mitchell of Kinky Boots and On Your Feet fame will serve as choreographer. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman of Smash fame, who also worked on the movie and stage musical of Hairspray, will provide the music and lyrics.
Hairspray Live airs Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)