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A decamped bouffant

Hairspray isn't Waters, but it's entertaining
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 22nd, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Size matters at Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway. Travolta and Blonsky in Hairspray.
Hairspray

Directed by Adam Shankman
With John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Jerry Stiller and Zac Efron

Camp cult director John Waters’ first crack at Hollywood came as a shock to his shockless audience. Though 1988’s Hairspray featured Waters’ blowsy drag-muse Divine as Baltimore housewife Edna Turnblad, any hopes of catching the divine giantess in fishnets or on all fours following poodles were dashed from Edna’s first entrance.
Waters’ brand of extreme camp was rather housebroken in Hairspray, though by Hollywood standards there was still a nice vein of subversion running through; how could it be otherwise, with Divine finally being splashed on screens large enough to finally accommodate him, and in multiplexes, too?
Hairspray’s other success was in taking a very serious subject — integration — and exploring it in a raucous comedy. Waters’ story was actually based on facts from his life in the Baltimore of the ’50s and ’60s, when the civil rights movement was finally arriving at people’s doorsteps. The tale of a Bandstand-like TV dance show dropping color barriers became a paen to the delirious, youthful energy and epochal change of the early ’60s that was soon to be bludgeoned into submission by Vietnam.
The new Hairspray is based on the 2002 Broadway musical, which, of course, was based on Waters’ film. While the stage was able to retain much of Waters’ slighter, winking campery (especially in casting gravel-gargling Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad), the new film has dampened the camp further, primarily with Edna, as John Travolta has denuded his character of its innate burlesque, playing the part straight, in all the connotations of the word.
Trussed in a fat suit, Travolta attempts to turn Edna into a real woman. As successful as he is in camouflaging himself behind his creation, his Edna finally lacks the transcendent femininity that only divinely inspired transvestites can conjure — and there is a potent pagan religious element to drag.
While the original Hairspray might have lacked such grand Waters monsters as Edith Massey and Cookie Mueller, and only offered trash icon Mink Stole a subordinate role, it was still packed with interesting, marginal cultural figures: Deborah Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller, Pia Zadora, Ruth Brown, Ric Ocasek, et al.
The new Hairspray has gone more Hollywood, with above-the-title names such as Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and Queen Latifah joining Travolta. Though there are a few camp cameos (Stole and Waters himself feature briefly in the opening scene, while Stiller is back this time as Mr. Pinky of Hefty Hideaway), this is strictly a glossy affair.
Having said that, Hairspray is still marvelous entertainment. The songs — minus a few of the Broadway numbers, but with two new additional ones — are infectious, as all the great up-tempo doo-wop and hop standards of the era still are. It’s also a sad testament to America’s evergreen racism that the black characters’ struggle for equality is still topical.
The film’s recreation of the period is almost flawless: the Populuxe architecture, clothes with biomorphic designs running riot, cat-eye glasses, and, of course, the beehives, flips and B-52 coiffure. Adam Shankman’s fluid direction is only matched by his energetic choreography.
The star-studded cast is definitely hell-bent to put the show over, if perhaps too eagerly at times. Travolta’s Edna remains sympathetic, if less commanding than his predecessors’ work. Walken, as Wilbur Turnblad, is given another chance to display his singing and dancing talents (not really seen since Pennies from Heaven), and Latifah puts in a warm-hearted performance as Motormouth Maybelle, the ghetto queen of the Detroit sound.
The younger cast is equally strong, with Amanda Bynes playing Penny Pingleton, James Marsden as the dance show host Corny Collins, Zac Efron as sigh guy Link Larkin and the overtalented Elijah Kelley as Seaweed.
The first Hairspray launched the career of Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad, the young girl who becomes the catalyst for integration. After an old-fashioned talent hunt, the role of Tracy has gone to unknown Nikki Blonsky, and justly so. For all of her physical amplitude, Blonsky can twist and shake with the best of them, and can belt a song like a Broadway veteran. As with Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson, it will be interesting to see if Hollywood will allow these extremely talented women a future.
The film finally belongs to Pfeiffer, as the conniving Velma von Tussle. The actress, who’s been away from the screen for awhile, makes a powerful comeback, and proves herself to be a deft comedian.
However decamped this Hairspray, it’s highly entertaining, and offers further proof that the movie musical may be back.
    

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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