Did You Catch These Hairspray Live Mistakes?

From lyric flubs to lighting cues, here are a few things that went wrong

By Jean Bentley Dec 08, 2016 5:23 AMTags
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NBC's Hairspray Live was its most ambitious live musical attempt yet. Where The Wiz Live went bigger and more colorful than before, Hairspray took creative inspiration from Fox's super-successful Grease Live and used multiple soundstages and part of the Universal Studios Backlot to bring the production to life.

But with a big swing like that, you're bound to have a few missteps, and Hairspray Live also seemed to have more gaffes than any of the network's previous live musicals. Not that they in any way disappointed us or hindered our enjoyment of the production—in fact, they reminded us just how much work goes into making live television look seamless.

Here are the mistakes we spotted—from lyric flubs to accidentally audible stage directions. Did you catch any more? Point them out in the comments.

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"Good Morning, Baltimore"

Star Maddie Baillio did an incredible job in her national television debut—she sounded fantastic the entire time (girlfriend has an out-of-this-world singing voice), but she dropped a few lyrics in the opening number. Whether it was due to audio issues or the fact that she was also literally running around and dancing her face off, we're not sure, but it was definitely noticeable. It's not easy doing the things Beyonce does on a daily basis, is it?

NBC

"Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now"

Anyone else catch the lighting completely go dark while the camera had a close-up on Maddie? Bizarre, but it was quickly fixed.

Criss-Cross

Is it just us, or did behind-the-scenes host Darren Criss say his name wrong during his very first segment?

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NBC

Audio Issues Galore

In addition to the opening number, there were also mic problems during Criss' interstitial after "Miss Baltimore Crabs" and when the Dynamites sang in "Welcome to the ‘60s."

"You're Timeless to Me"

Toward the very end of Martin Short and Harvey Fierstein's duet, you could hear the voice of a director of some sort say "30 seconds." It might've been a while since we've seen the show, but that definitely wasn't part of the song.

Did you catch any other mistakes?

Hairspray Live will re-run on Monday, Dec.26 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)