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HAIRSPRAY (THE FILM) Send This Review to a Friend
I recently returned to see the Broadway show “Hairspray” and found it in slick working order. There have been cast changes through the years, but the show itself is the star no matter who’s in it, and new audiences still enjoy its spirit and the fun it provides. Now, even while the Broadway show remains an attraction, the film version has arrived. I was wondering whether the big name star casting would make it top heavy, but it turns out that the casting is terrific, the film is packed with energy and is opened up with zest and intelligence. Apart from everything else, it is worth going just to see John Travolta, a long way from “Saturday Night Fever,” gussied up as the hefty mom Edna Turnblad. Peeking through all of the make-up flab are those seductive Travolta eyes.
Travolta avoids any hint of performing it as a drag role. He is simply a man playing a woman, and he gets the character down pat with an appealing dose of sweetness, whether emoting or wiggling endearingly while dancing. The other good news is that Nikki Blonsky makes a lovable Tracy, Edna’s chubby daughter who is dying to be on the popular Corny Collins TV dance program in Baltimore during the 1960s. The other thread running importantly through the musical is Tracy’s determination to break down segregation and integrate the program, which has a separate “Negro Day,” a major part of the plot that gives meaning to the entertainment.
The other casting that works splendidly involves Michelle Pfeiffer superbly going for broke playing the bitchy Velma Von Tussle, who wants to keep the show lily white and guarantee that her stuck-up daughter Amber (Brittany Snow) is the star. Christopher Walken is now amusing as Edna’s husband Wilbur, Queen Latifah brings pizzazz as record store owner Motormouth Maybelle, Zac Efron is high school heartthrob Link Larkin, Amanda Bynes is amusing as Penny, who has to break away from the clutches of her up-tight mom (Allison Janney), and Jerry Stiller, always a pleasure to see on screen, is clothier Mr.Pinky. There is a further abundance of talent handling the array of parts and dancing slots.
Director and choreographer Adam Shankman, working from Leslie Dixon’s screenplay, has opened up the work imaginatively and generates a fast-moving pace from start to finish. The opening “Good Morning Baltimore” number sets the pattern, with Tracy moving all over the city as she sings heartily. Film can do all sorts of things that can’t be done on stage, and the smart editing helps to keep the pace swift.
The path of “Hairspray” has been phenomenal. It began with John Waters’ deliberately campy 1988 film, with drag queen Divine playing Edna and Stiller her husband. Then it morphed into the successful still-running Broadway musical. By the way, watch for Waters pulling a Hitchcock and quickly appearing early in the film as a flasher.
A New Line Cinema release.
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