Radio Lady Reviews: "Hairspray" (Opens Friday, July 20, 2007)

[Radio_Lady]

“Hairspray” is back in vogue…hey, not the stuff to freeze your poofy hairdo… We're talking about the sensational new movie! And it is hot…not to burn yourself…but I mean it has captivating dancing and songs, as well as comedy and non-stop fun.

“Hairspray” has come to the big screen in a big way. The pre-rock, R & B music of the early 60’s and dancing of the post big band era will tempt you to drag the person next to you into the aisles to do the Twist or one of the other retro 1960s dances!

The story is mostly a bit of fluff, corny as in the Corny Collins Show, the American Bandstand look-alike program that is a big part of the story. "Hairspray" has a frothy message on integrating the races that goes down really easy. This flick is an adaptation of the show that is still running on Broadway. The show is itself an adaptation of the non-musical 1988 film outing, and it seems it just gets better and better.

The story is set in 1960s Baltimore and revolves around chunky, dance-loving Tracy Turnblad, played by Nikki Blonsky, who auditions for a spot on the popular Corny Collins show. She wins and becomes an instant sensation but is not welcomed by everyone on the show. In addition, she finds herself in the middle of the program’s racial bias that has limited appearances of blacks to “Negro Day”. Things really get going when show manager, Velma Von Tussle, played by Michelle Pfieffer, announces termination of Negro Day. It’s unthinkable that blacks and whites would be on stage at the same time even though the darker performers clearly offer the latest cutting edge dancing and singing.

The cast is uniformly excellent. Blonsky is terrific as Tracy, and so is Pfieffer as an icy and villainous beauty. John Travolta is big-boned and wonderful as Tracy’s mother Edna Turnblad and is supported by the always-great Christopher Walken as Tracy’s father Wilbur. Add in superlative performances by Queen Latifah (the recent recipient of breast reduction surgery!) as Motormouth Maybelle, James Marsden as Corny Collins, Zack Efron as Link Larkin, Elijah Kelley as Seaweed Stubbs and so many excellent performances that you just have to go see this one for yourself.

Put on your dancing shoes and RUSH to “Hairspray".

I rate it an A+ on Ellen's Entertainment Report Card.



This is Ellen Kimball for Oregon Public Broadcasting's Accessible Information Network.

[Radio_Lady]

1. One reviewer called it "Grease" for the new Millenium! What a great quote!

Have you seen "Hairspray" on its opening weekend?

[Deja Q]

2. Why not just remake "Grease"?

I bet the original will be better. Remakes tend to be lesser on substance and more on "crowd pleasing" mass marketing mush...

[Tektonik]

3. I plan on seeing it,

but it irks me that throughout the promotion of this film, that John Waters' name has rarely ever come up, and he's the genius that created this story in the first place. I imagine it'll be a good film, but as being adapted from a musical, I doubt it'll have a fraction of the oomph the original film did.

edit: I'm a bit intrigued at how well Travolta played his role

[WolverineDG]

5. He played it straight

:rimshot:

not campy, like Devine, but that fit with the character of the movie.

dg

[Fran Kubelik]

8. CBS Sunday Monring interviewed John Waters yesterday

Twas fantastic!! :D

[WolverineDG]

4. I saw it this weekend!

I loved it!! I loved John Waters' cameo too! hee!

I think I was the only one in the audience who saw the original "Hairspray" because of all the "Why is John Travolta playing a woman?" :rofl:

dg

[Tektonik]

6. John Waters has a cameo in the film?

Hmmm then I think I'll go see it this afternoon then

[WolverineDG]

7. Yes, but pay attention

you'd miss it otherwise. :)

dg

[Radio_Lady]

11. Pretty funny, too! Most everyone in the theater laughed, even if they didn't know it was him!

[Fran Kubelik]

9. Thanks for the review.

I do have to cringe at your use of the word darker, but that could just be the knee-jerk liberal in me.

[Radio_Lady]

12. Well, sorry to say that "darkies" was very liberally used lingo in the South while I was growing up.

Remember, the expressions "Blacks" or "Afro-Americans" or "African-Americans" were not being used then. They were simply Negroes or the N----- word in disparagement. It was pretty ugly. Oprah Winfrey has done several shows on how the lighter skinned women (and men, too, probably) were considered "high caste" and were sought after more than the dark skinned women.

Incidentally, I appeared in a starring role on the first children's TV show to desegregate its audience at Channel 4, WTVJ, in Florida. That was in 1957-58, when I was in college. Here are "Skipper" Chuck 'n' me, "First Mate" Ellen, along with "Glumbo Despair" the sad clown -- in my first job.



There used to be Negro days and white days on "Popeye Playhouse" too. Chuck Zink demanded that the management allow us to integrate the audience. Chuck was from Indiana, by way of Pennsylvania, and I was born in Pittsburgh, but my parents moved to Florida in the early 1940s. I was raised in North Miami. There were separate schools, separate drinking fountains, separate seating everywhere, and "red line" housing.

First publicity shot (January 1957)

[Blue-Jay]

15. Ah.

[DS1]

16. Now don't you start getting all uppity

[Blue-Jay]

17. Not me, Boss!

[Radio_Lady]

20. Al Jolson = great talent = misguided and politically incorrect make-up.

But it was pretty uniformly accepted in its time.

[Radio_Lady]

22. Radio made a different contribution -- Negroes played by white men.

August 1929 -- The comedy series, "Amos & Andy," makes its first appearance on NBC radio.

[MonkeyFunk]

23. well

those negroes should've been honored.

Are you for real?

[Mutley]

10. It was great.

John Travolta had the "Baltimore Hon" down Really well. :D

[Radio_Lady]

13. Thanks, Mutley. Appreciate your comment!

Have you ever visited this site?

http://www.baltimorehon.com/

My husband and his first wife (now deceased) lived in Silver Spring, MD for a number of years. He remembers quite a bit from that time.

[Mutley]

14. I haven't seen this site

but thanks! I've lived in Baltimore and its suberbs for years now, and I always have a hard time explaining the accent to outsiders.

:yourock:

[Radio_Lady]

19. When I hear the Baltimore accent, I can always seem to recognize it.

Something like the way you say "orange" and "dollar" -- with the very round "O" sounds.

But sometimes I get it confused with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where most of my cousins grew up.

[Blue-Jay]

18. John Travolta starred in Saturday Night Fever.

Personally, I didn't care for it, what with their tight pants and their "rock & roll" music.

I slept with Robin Gibb and I have it on good authority that he's a straight man, even though people might think otherwise.

[Radio_Lady]

21. No comment... but look at the message anyway...

Oh, you slept with Robin Gibb? Dear me, I hope that's allowed on the DU.

We saw Andy Gibb in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in a touring company in Philadelphia, PA. That was sometimes in the 1980s. He was such a talented young man, but addiction claimed him as its victim, as it does so many other performers.

I slept with Larry King. He's definitely straight. Here's more on that story, in case you're into sordid details.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Radio_Lady/133

[MonkeyFunk]

24. I loved Black Orpheus...

the negroes were so cute. Look at 'em dance!

Lena Horne married a man much whiter than herself (and her daughter married famed director Sidney Lumet! - how's that for upward mobility!) but managed to have a career of her own nonetheless.

joe Franklin raped me.