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‘Hairspray’ co-writer Mark O’Donnell dies at 58

The Tony Award-winning writer behind such quirky and clever Broadway shows as “Hairspray” and “Cry-Baby” has died. He was 58.
Nikki Blonsky in the 2007 film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Hairspray.”
Nikki Blonsky in the 2007 film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Hairspray.”New Line Cinema
/ Source: The Associated Press

Tony Award-winning writer Mark O'Donnell, behind such quirky and clever Broadway shows as "Hairspray and "Cry-Baby," has died. He was 58.

O'Donnell's agent at the Paradigm agency, Jack Tantleff, says the writer collapsed Monday in the lobby of his apartment complex on Manhattan's Upper West side.

O'Donnell won the 2003 Tony for best book of a musical for writing “Hairspray” with Thomas Meehan. The pair earned Tony nominations in 2008 for doing the same for “Cry-Baby.”

O'Donnell was picked to help write the musical version of the 1988 John Waters movie “Hairspray” because producer Margo Lion felt he “could appreciate Waters' voice but was idiosyncratic enough to inject his own personality into the piece.”

Waters’ 1988 film starred Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teen in 1962 Baltimore who becomes a regular on a local dance show and is inspired to fight racial segregation. Though it was only a modest commercial success, it gathered a cult following before being adapted into a 2002 Broadway musical that won a total of eight Tonys, including O'Donnell's and the award for Best Musical.

The Broadway musical was adapted into a 2007 musical film starring Nikki Blonsky as Tracy and John Travolta in drag as her mother, a role originated by Divine in Waters' 1988 movie.