HAIRSPRAY
US, 2007, 117 minutes, Colour.
Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Zac Efron, Alison Janney, Jerry Stiller, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, Paul Dooley.
Directed by Adam Shankman.
In 1988, John Waters’ Hairspray was an exuberant comedy that tickled the funnybone of most audiences, delved into the gauche days of the early 60s and live television programs as well as raising some serious social issues. Waters used his home town of Baltimore as the setting for the average American city.
Then came a musical version with music by Marc Shaiman and it proved to be a great success on Broadway and has begun to travel.
In the meantime, here is a happy film version of the musical. Exuberant would be something of an understatement.
We are back in Baltimore 1962 (with a lively song about the city to open the show) and being introduced to Nikki Blonsky as high school student, Tracy Turnblad, like the little teapot, short and stout, but not really minding it a bit. She loves life. And her dream is to dance on the local Corny Collins Show, twisting, bumping and grinding in a pre-Grease kind of way. School is spent getting into trouble from cantankerous teachers and being sent to detention where she meets the black students, all dancing, and welcoming her to their moves. And then it is home with her best friend, Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) to watch, cheer and dance in front of the TV. Except that Penny’s puritanical mother (Allison Janney) definitely does not approve.
Tracy is lucky to have a nice and rather large mother who does local laundry and ironing and has not been out of the house, due to embarrassment at her size and her love of eating, for more than ten years. She is an encouragement to her daughter. Her nice and quiet father runs a novelty shop downstairs. Much has been made of the fact that John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad in a fat suit – and he does it particularly well, relying on his own voice, but bringing a modest niceness to his performance and getting the chance to dance again, especially with that best of actor-dancers, Christopher Walken as Wilbur Turnblad. (Even more dancing with them would have been welcome).
Meanwhile at the TV station, steely blonde manager Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is pushing her daughter Amber (Brittany Snow) to be the Dancing Queen, pressurising the all-smiling, all-singing and dancing Corny Collins (James Marsden doing a surprisingly agreeable turn). Zac Efron is Link, the star dancer on the show, who falls for Tracy.
There are some nice cameos from John Waters as a flasher, Jerry Stiller, the original Wilbur, as a shop manager and Rikky Lake (the original Tracy – who then went on to host her talk show) as an agent, along with Adam Shankman, the choreographer who directed the film.
We know where the plot is going. It’s the enjoyment of seeing how it gets there, especially as Tracy teams up with the blacks who are allowed to have a day a month on the show as Negro Day, under the compering of Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah). Some funny situations and protest marches remind us that these were serious days for civil rights and race relationships.
Plenty of songs, plenty of lively twisting dancing, genial characters and snarly villains. Indeed a happy show.
1. An enjoyably cheerful musical? Memories of the '60s? Nostalgia? The echoes of Grease? The use of John Waters’ film, the Broadway musical adapatation? The spirit of John Waters (and his appearance as a flasher) – in contrast with his bad taste films (though some touches here!)
2. 1960s, Baltimore, the atmosphere of the city, the homes, white homes, black homes? Shops? School and detention? Streets? Television, the TV studios?
3. The authenticity of the locations: homes, park, the entertainment park, television station? Decor, costumes and mood? The strength of the cast?
4. The songs and performance, Tracey and Baltimore? Corny Collins and the program? Velma and her ambitions and compromising Tracey’s father? Her mother and father? Maybelle? The dancing throughout the film - lively choreography, echoes of the time? John Travolta and Christopher Walken? The musical score? The detention sequences and Tracey learning the black moves. The party with maybelle? Link and his dancing with Tracey?
5. The Corny Collins Show: television, black and white, the teenage audience, the dancing, the performers in the studio, the comment by Corny Collins, Corny himself and his toothy smile, songs, compeering? His support for Tracey? Clashes with Velma? Trying to avoid Amber? the quest for the queen of the dance? The serious elements of white dancing and the one night for black audiences? Segregation - and the changes of 1962-63? The bigoted advertiser? Velma and her racist attitudes?, the conflicts, the pressure on Corny Collins? The uproar in live shows? The handling of the situation - and the happy ending?
6. Social themes within the cheerful mood: family, school, the teacher and detention, fashions, glamour, TV idols, being fat, race issues, wealth, power?
7. Tracy: in herself, at home, watching the television? Her size? The opening song and her cheerfulness about Baltimore? Going home with Penny to watch TV? Penny’s mother and her severity? Detention and learning the moves? The audition, her explanation of herself? Success, popular? Link coming to detention, the moves, becoming her boyfriend? Her leading the dance, Link? The fashion shop and going there with her mother - the manager and his using her in the ads? Maybelle and her visit, leading the dance? In her own area? Her son? Amber and her jealousy? the demonstration, Tracy going to jail? Her being released? Winning? Nikki Blonsky as a lively and likable heroine?
8. Tracy's parents? John Travolta and obeseness, eating, doing the laundry and ironing, not going out, the fussing mother, love for her husband? The satire on the mother? Becoming her daughter's agent? Relationship with her husband, his work, his shop and the novelties? Admiring Tracy? The husband and his support of his daughter? Velma and her intrusion? Upset, reconciliation? The demonstration? The clothes and the transformation? With Maybelle?
9. The pressure on Amber and her glamour, spoilt, nasty, ridiculing Tracy in front of her parents, wanting to be in the limelight, her mother's insistence on practice, Velma’s resentment about Amber's rejection, her memories of her past and unscrupulous winning, the upset and her being fired? Amber’s change of heart?
10. Penny as Tracy's best friend, nice? her interfering mother, the mother going into the black neighbourhood and the satire on white fear? Penny at Maybelle's, falling in love with her son, imprisoned and going off with him?
11. Link as the typical clean-cut American hero? With Amber, dancing? Nice? Supporting Tracy? his injury? Supporting her in the race issues? The range of the dances, the jokes, the young dancers, the black dancers?
12. The culmination with Tracy in prison, released, queen of the dance? Right overcoming? An atmosphere of joy and innocence and change? Cheerful?
