While Julie was here, we spent a couple of evenings watching the movie "Hairspray." We got halfway through it the first night, and were practically comatose, so we finished it the second night. We both felt the second half was better than the first.
I hadn't seen it before, though remember that it was a John Waters (starring Divine) cult classic years ago, and then somehow became a Broadway hit, then a well-regarded movie.
Everything in this movie is, no pun intended, larger than life. Nikki Blonsky is a charmer as Tracy Turnblad. Her parents are John Travolta as her mother, Edna, and the increasingly weird (is that even possible?) Christopher Walken as her dad, Wilbur. The cast is filled out with such standouts as Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes and Brittany Snow.
It's hard to take your eyes off the screen as wild scene follows wild scene. LOTS of music and dance sequences. Traci is an overweight teen with a boufant flip who dreams of getting on the Corny Collins Show, Baltimore's teen dance show, which features a weekly "Negro Day."
She achieves her dream, and competes for the title of Miss Teenage Hairspray (sponsored by Ultra-Clutch spray...As Corny famously says, "you look like you could use a stiff one.")
Tracy's rival is Amber Von Tussle, blonde diva from the Corny Collins Show, and former beauty queen Velma Von Tussle's (Michelle Pfeiffer) daughter.
(It was good to see Snow again. I remember her fondly from a show Red and I used to watch, "American Dreams." I thought she was a fine actress in a fine show at the time.)
Tracy's focus shifts when Negro Day is cancelled, and she takes part in a march for equality. Everything crescendos at the pageant, which is hilarious.
At the end, when Travolta's Edna overcomes her shyness to take to the stage and strut her ample stuff, I was so hoping he/she would strike a couple of Saturday Night Live poses. It would have been so right. Sadly, I waited in vain.
The bottom line is that we really enjoyed the show, which only got better as it went on.
L and I saw the stage production. It was absolutely fantastic - much better than the movie.
Posted by: Stryder | February 06, 2008 at 10:26 AM