As its final musical moment will have you believe, “Hairspray” is a musical about the celebration of equality in Baltimore in the early 1960s. It’s supposed to be a happy triumph for the underrepresented in society, the ones who have always fallen through the cracks because of their size, skin color or some other factor that shouldn’t matter but still does.

Sporting a newsboy cap and a green pullover, Ron Himes evokes a sense of modesty unexpected of the director of the Wash. U. Performing Arts Department’s production of Hairspray, Broadway’s hugely successful musical sensation, now playing at Edison Theatre.