I celebrated my 66th birthday on Friday.  That evening, my wife Lisa and I attended the opening night of “Hairspray” at the Leeds Center for the Arts.  Wow!  The play was truly outstanding.  I’ve attended many plays in my lifetime, including “Cactus Flower” with my favorite actress Lauren Bacall and “Damn Yankees” with Jerry Lewis, and appeared in several others.  If this production isn’t at the head of the class, then it won’t take long to call the roll.  The cast, the music, and the dancing were incredible.  The storyline, set in Baltimore in 1962, was also appropriate given the civil unrest occurring in our society today.

I grew up in Winchester in the 1950s, when African-Americans sat in the balcony and white people sat downstairs in the Leeds Theatre.  To see so many people of different races sitting downstairs brought tears of joy to my eyes and put a lump in my throat.  I highly recommend going to see “Hairspray.”  It brings hope to a world that needs it right now.

Graham Johns

Winchester