Witty and enchanting, with clever spunkiness and songs that have a pop that won’t stop, the much-touted musical ‘Hairspray’ comes to Boston to live up to its considerable hype. ‘Hairspray’ produces such sensations of giddiness you would swear that fumes from the ceiling-scraping coiffures had drifted up into the audience. This touring production shimmies into a stint at the Colonial Theater until Nov. 1st.

Originating from the 1960’s nostalgia of John Waters’ 1986 film, the story takes on yet another stylized layer in its 21st century incarnation thanks to the considerable addition of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s Tony Award-winning score, which is nothing less than a Motown-inspired dream. The result is a show drenched in vibrant color with energy to match and a decidedly light-hearted social conscience.

Set in early 1960’s Baltimore, ‘Hairspray’ tells the story of Tracy Turnblad (Carly Jibson), a bubbly teen with a beloved bouffant. Tracy has three simple desires: to dance, dance and tease. When a spot opens up on the local after-school teen dance show populated by a perky gaggle of Crest kids including pelvis-swiveling crooner Link Larkin (Austin Miller) and his Gidget-goes-bitchy girlfriend, Amber Von Tussle, (Jordan Ballard) Tracy jumps at the chance. Her mother Edna (Bruce Vilanch) is convinced that her daughter’s weight will stand in the way. ‘They don’t put people like us on television,’ Edna says.

It’s not just the pleasantly plump who experience discrimination from local Baltimore TV. Tracy soon learns about the evils of segregation when she meets Seaweed J. Stubbs (Terron Brooks) and his mother Motormouth Maybelle, a local disc jockey (Charlotte Crossley), who have been fighting to integrate the dance show without success. But when Tracy gets her big break, proving that the world is ready for her jelly, everything begins to change.

Will Tracy and company be able to enlighten the town with their barrier-breaking hip shaking? Will Tracy capture the heart of the hunky Link? And who will wear the coveted crown of Miss Hairspray 1962? The answers to these questions may not be surprising. What’s unpredictable, though, is the way Hairspray handles them with more creativity and brilliance than seems possible.

Thanks to devilishly clever staging and set design, and the fantastic cast, there are moments of pure musical theater genius lurking around every corner. One example comes when Tracy meets Link for the first time. He accidentally bumps into her and she drifts into a hilarious dream sequence, ‘I Can Hear the Bells,’ which involves everyone onstage for her extended musical swoon: slow-motion and step-touching to a sweet teenie-bopper melody.

In a show that goes from one highlight to the next, a standout number comes late in the first act with the ‘Welcome to the 60s’ as the new star Tracy takes Edna out of the house and on the town for the first time in years. The show’s magic is on full display when the streets of Baltimore come to life, as Edna trades in her housedress for spangles and marabou feathers and learns to live again as a result of her daughter’s improbable dream. When you hear a song for the first time and can swear you’ve been humming it all your life, there can be little doubt that here lies contemporary musical theater at its undeniable best.

Jibson, 19, shines as Tracy and displays sharp timing and a bell-clear voice that can resonate for days. And honestly, very few things can compete with Bruce Vilanch in drag, who comes from his Hollywood square for some quality showboating.

The rest of the fabulous cast brings style and comic deftness to their roles, especially Ballard’s pitch-perfect ditz and Brooks’ smooth-talking Seaweed. Joanna Glushack is also hilarious as a slew of saucy female authority figures as is Todd Susman as Wilber Turnbald, low-key joke shop owner, doting father to Tracy and adoring husband of Edna.

Acknowledging the best of times / worst of times contradictions of the era, the choreography is a considered concoction, at once over the top but with subtlety that captures the segregation of Baltimore. The issue of racial tension could go awkward and uncomfortable places in a musical as frothy as ‘Hairspray,’ but the commentary, too, hits the right if uncontroversial notes.

‘Hairspray’ belts its message of tolerance on all levels and accomplishes a feel-good familiarity that is rare, yet seems effortless. And at the end of the day, in the beginning of the 1960’s, the 1960’s of ‘Hairspray,’ at least a case is made that dancing could just maybe make the world a better place.

‘Hairspray’ Colonial Theatre 106 Boylston St., Boston Through Nov. 1; Tuesday-Friday, 8pm, (Added performances Mon, Oct. 27 at 8pm and Thursday Oct. 30 at 2pm); Saturdays, 2:00pm ‘ 8:00pm; and Sundays,2:00pm ‘ 7:30pm. $25 Student rush tickets available one hour prior to curtain.