The Beav goes to Broadway

Jerry Mathers, best known as Beaver Cleaver in the classic late 1950s sitcom “Leave It to Beaver,” is going to Broadway. He’ll join the cast of “Hairspray” June 5 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

Mathers will be playing Wilbur Turnblad, dad of exuberant teen Tracy Turnblad, in the long-running musical. “Hairspray,” based on the cult John Waters movie set in 1960s Baltimore, concerns a teenager desperate to appear on a local TV dance show.