Without Love (song from Hairspray)

"Without Love" is a song from the musical Hairspray. It is a quartet song performed by Tracy, Link, Penny, and Seaweed.

Synopsis

The following takes place in the 2007 musical film: While singing about how they have all broken down societal barriers in order to love one another, the two boys free the girls from their entrapment, and together they head off to the Corny Collins Show.

The lyrics of this song proclaim through many creative analogies that without love, life is seriously lacking. Tracy says "Without love, life is like my mother on a diet" and Link says that it is "like rock and roll without a drummer." The couples swear their lifelong allegiance to each other because none of them ever want to be "without love."

Critical reception

CinemaBlend writes in a movie review that "we’ve lost some of the original picture's romance to the PG rating, so songs like “Without Love” don’t work as well".^[1] The New York Times named the song has "one of the film’s musical high points", explaining that "the two young couples express their yearning with the help of some ingenious and amusing special effects".^[2] The Washington Post said "Marc Shaiman's music is virtually wall-to-wall bliss, and some of the lyrics, written with Scott Wittman, particularly in the romantic quartet "Without Love," remain surprising and clever no matter how many times you've listened to them."^[3] RecordOnline deemed it an "affirmative anthem",^[4] while The Column named it a "energetic and comic number".^[5] The Daily Texan described it as "perhaps one of the musical’s most iconic songs".^[6]

References