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EspañolHAIRSPRAY (2007 FILM)
:''For the 1988 film, see Hairspray (1988 film)
:''For the 2002 show, see Hairspray (musical)
'''Hairspray''' is a 2007 musical film produced by Zadan/Meron Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, itself adapted from John Waters' 1988 comedy film. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the film follows a "pleasantly-plump" teen named Tracy Turnblad as she simultaneously pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.
Adapted from both Waters' 1988 script and Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell's book for the stage musical by screenwriter Leslie Dixon, the 2007 version of ''Hairspray'' is directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman. ''Hairspray'' stars John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, and introduces newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. ''Hairspray'' features songs from the Broadway musical written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as a handful of Shaiman/Wittman compositions not present in the Broadway version.
May 3, 1962 begins the same as every other school day for Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), an optimistic "pleasantly plump" high school student from Baltimore, Maryland. She endures a day's worth of boring classes so that she and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) can race home to catch their favorite TV program, ''The Corny Collins Show''. The program, a teen dance show, is broadcast from Baltimore's station WYZT on weekday afternoons.
Some of the teenagers featured on the show also attend Tracy and Penny's school, in particular snobby rich girl Amber von Tussle (Brittany Snow) and her heart-throb boyfriend Link Larkin (Zac Efron), on whom Tracy is madly in love with. Amber's mother Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) manages station WYZT, and goes out of her way to make sure Amber is prominently featured and that ''Corny Collins'' remains a segregated program. Corny Collins (James Marsden) and all of his "Council Kids" are white; black kids are only allowed on ''Corny Collins'' on "Negro Day", held the last Thursday of each month and hosted by local R&B radio dee jay "Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs (Queen Latifah).
Neither Tracy's plus-sized shut-in laundress mother Edna (John Travolta) nor Penny's strict Catholic mother Prudy (Allison Janney) approve of their daughters basing their lives around a TV show, particularly one where teens dance to "race music". Tracy's father Wilbur (Christopher Walken), a joke-shop proprietor, is far more lenient. On one day's show, Corny Collins (James Marsden) announces that one of his "Council Kids" is going on a leave of absence (she is pregnant) and auditions for a replacement will be held the next morning - during school hours. However, Velma turns Tracy away at the audition for being overweight and supportive of integration. Tracy is sent to detention for skipping school, but finds that detention hall is where the black kids hang out and dance. Tracy befriends the detention hall's best dancer, Motormouth Maybelle's son Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who teaches Tracy several R&B dance moves. These dance moves secure Tracy a spot on ''The Corny Collins Show'' when Corny sees her dancing at a record hop.
Tracy quickly becomes one of Corny's most popular Council Kids, and a threat to Velma's quest to have Amber win the show's yearly "Miss Teenage Hairspray" pageant. In addition, Tracy also becomes a threat to Amber's courtship with Link, as the boy becomes increasingly fond of Tracy and less so of Amber. Tracy's popularity earns her a sponsorship offer from clothes salesman Mr. Pinky (Jerry Stiller), who wants Tracy to be the spokesgirl for his "Hefty Hideaway" boutique for plus-sized women. Tracy convinces Edna to accompany her to the Hefty Hideaway and act as her negotiating agent, and in the process brings her mother's days as an agoraphobe to an end.
At school, Tracy eventually introduces Seaweed to Penny, and the black boy and white girl are instantly smitten with each other. One afternoon, Seaweed invites the girls and Link to follow him and his sister Little Inez (Taylor Parks) to a platter party at Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. At the party, Maybelle informs everyone that Velma has unceremoniously canceled Negro Day. Tracy suggests that Maybelle and the others stage a protest march, which they plan for the next afternoon, a day before the Miss Hairspray pageant. Link, scheduled to sing at the pageant and worried about his budding career, backs out of the demonstration and accidentally offends Tracy in the process.
The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest march, which comes to a halt at a police roadblock set up by Velma. The entire company of protestors is arrested, although Tracy manages to escape. She flees to the Pingletons' house, where Penny offers to let her hide out in a basement fallout shelter. However, Prudy discovers Tracy and calls the police, tying Penny to her bed upstairs with a jump rope. Seaweed and a few of the other detention kids (having been bailed out by Wilbur) arrive and help Tracy and Penny escape to Maybelle's record shop, where the kids concoct a plan to crash the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant.
With the pageant underway the next afternoon, Velma, leaving nothing to chance, places policemen around and inside station WYZT in order to prevent Tracy from entering. In addition, Velma switches the tallies from the pageant's phone lines so that Amber is guaranteed to win. Penny arrives at the pageant with an incognito Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and the Detention Kids help Tracy sneak past the police and into the studio in time to participate in the Miss Hairspray dance-off. Link breaks away from Amber's side to dance with Tracy. Inez, who has just arrived at WYZT with Maybelle, is brought to the stage to dance for the pageant.
Against all expectations, Inez receives the most votes and wins the pageant, officially integrating ''The Corny Collins Show''. A perturbed Velma loudly declares her frustration, informing her daughter of the tally-switching scheme. Unknown to Velma, Edna has trained a camera on her, and Velma's outburst is broadcast live on the air, getting her fired. Meanwhile, ''The Corny Collins Show'' set explodes into a celebration as Penny declares her love for Seaweed, Corny and Maybelle begin co-hosting the show together, and Link and Tracy cement their love with a kiss.
Following the success of the Broadway musical ''Hairspray'', which won eight Tony Awards in 2003, New Line Cinema, who owned the rights to the 1988 John Waters film upon which the stage musical is based, became interested in adapting the stage show as a musical film. Development work began in late 2004, while a similar film-to-Broadway-to-film project, Mel Brooks' ''The Producers'', was in production.[2]
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical ''Chicago'', were hired as the producers for ''Hairspray'',[3] and began discussing possibly casting John Travolta and Billy Crystal as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively. Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, authors of the book for the stage musical, wrote the first draft of the film's screenplay, but were replaced by Leslie Dixon, screenwriter for family comedies such as ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' (1993) and ''Freaky Friday'' (2003). After a year's deliberation on who should direct the film, Zadan and Meron finally decided to hire Adam Shankman to both direct and choreograph ''Hairspray''.[4] Upon learning he had been hired, Shankman arranged a meeting with John Waters, who advised him "don't do what I did, don't do what the play did. You've gotta do your own thing."[5] Despite this, Shankman still noted that "all roads of ''Hairspray'' lead back to John Waters."
Dixon was primarily hired to tone down much of the campiness inherent in the stage musical.[6] The 2007 film's script is based primarily on the stage musical rather than the 1988 film, so several changes already made to the plot for the stage version remain in this version. These include dropping several characters from the 1988 version (such as Arthur Hodgepile, Franklin von Tussle, Tammy Turner, the beatniks, etc.), removing the Tilted Acres amusement park from the story, and placing Velma in charge of the station where ''The Corny Collins Show'' is filmed.
One notable difference between the stage musical, the original movie, and the 2007 film version of ''Hairspray'' is that Tracy does not go to jail in the 2007 version. In both previous incarnations of ''Hairspray'', Tracy is arrested and taken to jail along with the other protesters. Edna is presented in this version as an insecure introvert, in contrast to the relatively bolder incarnations present in the 1988 film and the stage musical. Among many other elements changed or added to this version are the removal of Motormouth Maybelle's habit of constantly speaking in rhyming jive talk, and doubling the number of teens in Corny Collins' council (from ten on Broadway to twenty in the 2007 film).
Dixon restructured portions of ''Hairspray's'' book to allow several of the songs to blend more naturally into the plot, in particular "(You're) Timeless to Me" and "I Know Where I've Been". "Timeless" becomes the anchor of a newly invented subplot involving Velma's attempt to break up Tracy's parents' marriage and keep the girl off ''Corny Collins'' as a result. The song now serves as Wilbur's apology to Edna, in addition to its original purpose in the stage musical as a tongue-in-cheek declaration of Wilbur and Edna's love for each other. Meanwhile, "I Know Where I've Been", instead of being sung by Maybelle alone after being let out of jail, now underscores Maybelle's march on WYZT (which takes place in the stage musical only briefly during "Big, Blond, and Beautiful").
''Hairspray'' was produced on a budget of $75 million.[7]
An open casting call was announced to cast unknowns in Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago. After auditioning over eleven hundred candidates, Nikki Blonsky, 17-year-old high school senior from Great Neck, New York who had no previous professional acting experience, was chosen for the lead role of Tracy. Relative unknowns Elijah Kelley and Taylor Parks were chosen through similar audition contests to portray Seaweed and Little Inez, respectively. Travolta was finally cast as Edna, although Crystal's role was instead assumed by Christopher Walken. Several other stars, including Queen Latifah, James Marsden, and Allison Janney were chosen for the other supporting adult roles of Motormouth Maybelle, Corny Collins, and Prudy Pingleton. Teen stars Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, and Brittany Snow were cast as Tracy's friends Penny and Link, and her rival Amber.
Since ''Hairspray's'' plot focuses heavily on dance, choreography became a heavy focus for Shankman, who hired four assistant choreographers and put both his acting cast and over a hundred fifty dancers through two months of rehearsals.[8][9] The cast recorded the vocal tracks for their songs in the weeks just before principal photography began in September.
Principal photography on ''Hairspray'' took place in Toronto, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from September 5 to December 8, 2006,[10] ''Hairspray'' is explicitly set in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and the original 1988 film had been shot on location there, but the 2007 film was shot primarily in Toronto because that city was better equipped with the sound stages necessary to film a musical.[11] Some second-unit footage was indeed shot in Baltimore.
The majority of the film was shot at Toronto's Showline Studios[12] Most of the street scenes were shot at the intersection of Dundas Avenue West and Roncesvalles Avenue. Some of the signs for the 1960s-era stores remain up along the street. Toronto's Lord Lansdowne Public School was used for all of the high school exteriors and some of the interiors, while the old Queen Victoria School in Hamilton was also used for interiors. Scenes at Queen Victoria were shot from November 22 to December 2, and the school was scheduled to be demolished after film production was completed.
Thinner than most of the other men who have portrayed Edna, John Travolta appears onscreen in a large fat suit, and required four hours of makeup in order to appear before the cameras.[13] His character's nimble dancing style belies her girth; Shankman based Edna's dancing style on the hippo ballerinas in the ''Dance of the Hours'' sequence in Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature ''Fantasia''. Travolta fought for the ability to give his character curves, as opposed to a dumpier figure, and a thick Baltimore accent.
Shankman included "a lot of winks" to films that influenced his work on ''Hairspray'':
★ For example, the film's opening shot - a bird's eye view of Baltimore that eventually descends from the clouds to ground level - is a combination of the opening shots of ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1965).
★ Several scenes involving Tracy, such as her ride atop the garbage truck during the "Good Morning Baltimore" number and her new hairstyle during "Welcome to the '60s", are directly inspired by the Barbara Streisand musical film version of ''Funny Girl'' (1968).
★ During "Without Love", Link sings to a photograph of Tracy, which comes to life and sings harmony with him. This is directly inspired from the MGM musical ''The Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937), in which a young Judy Garland swoons over a photo of actor Clark Gable as she sings "You Made Me Love You".
#"Good Morning Baltimore" - Tracy Turnblad
#"The Nicest Kids in Town" - Corny Collins and Council Members
#"It Takes Two" - Link Larkin
#"(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs" - Velma von Tussle, Council Members, and Tracy
#"I Can Hear the Bells" - Tracy
#"Ladies' Choice" - Link
#"The New Girl in Town" - Amber von Tussle, Tammy Turner, Shelley, and The Dynamites
#"Welcome to the 60's" - Tracy, Edna Turnblad, Mr. Pinky, The Dynamites, and Hefty Hideaway Customers
#"Run and Tell That" - Seaweed J. Stubbs, Little Inez, and Detention Kids
#"Big, Blonde and Beautiful" - Motormouth Maybelle and Detention Kids
#"Big, Blonde and Beautiful (Reprise)" - Edna and Velma
#"(You're) Timeless to Me" - Edna and Wilbur Turnblad
#"I Know Where I've Been" - Motormouth Maybelle with Nadine and Chorus
#"Without Love" - Link, Tracy, Seaweed, Penny, and Detention Kids
#"(It's) Hairspray" - Corny Collins and Council Members
#"You Can't Stop the Beat" - Tracy, Link, Penny, Seaweed, Edna, Motormouth Maybelle, Corny Collins, and Chorus
#"Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" - Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, and Elijah Kelley
#"Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" - Nikki Blonsky, Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Harvey Fierstein
#"Cooties" - Aimee Allen
Music producer/composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman were required to alter their Broadway ''Hairspray'' song score in various ways in order to work on film, from changing portions of the lyrics in some songs (e.g. "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs", "Big, Blonde and Beautiful", and "You Can't Stop the Beat") to more or less completely removing other songs from the film altogether.
"Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a popular number from the stage musical, features Tracy, Penny, and Amber arguing with their respective mothers. Neither Adam Shankman nor Leslie Dixon could come up with a solution for filming "Mama" that didn't require a three-way split screen - something they wanted to avoid - and both felt the number did not adequately advance the plot.[14] As a result, "Mama" was reluctantly dropped from the film during pre-production, although it is used by Shaiman as an instrumental when the ''Corny Collins'' kids dance the "Strickin' Chicken". A special version of "Mama" was recorded for the film's end credits in May 2007, during the final score recording process, which featured vocals from each of the three women most famous for portraying Tracy Turnblad: Ricki Lake from the 1988 film, Marissa Jaret Winokur from the original Broadway cast, and Nikki Blonsky from the 2007 film.[15] Harvey Fierstein, who portrayed Edna as part of the original Broadway cast, has a brief cameo moment in the end credits version of "Mama" as well.
"It Takes Two", a solo for Link, was moved from its place in the stage musical (on Tracy's first day on Corny's Council) to an earlier ''Corny Collins'' scene, although only the coda of the song is used in the final release print. "Cooties", a solo for Amber in the stage musical, is present in this film as an instrumental during the Miss Teenage Hairspray dance-off. As with "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a version of "Cooties", performed in a contemporary pop rendition by Aimee Allen, is present during the end credits.
The performance of a vintage dance called The Madison, present in both the 1988 film and the stage musical, was replaced for this version by a newly composed song, "Ladies' Choice". Portions of the Madison dance steps were integrated into the choreography for the musical number "You Can't Stop the Beat", and the song the dance is performed to on Broadway can be heard faintly during Motormouth Maybelle's platter party in the film, retitled "Boink Boink". "The Big Dollhouse" was the only song from the musical not used in the film in any way.
Shaiman and Wittman composed two new songs for the 2007 film: "Ladies' Choice", a solo for Link, and "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)", a song performed during the end credits by Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, and Elijah Kelley. Another "new" song in the 2007 film, "The New Girl in Town", had originally been composed for the Broadway musical, but was deemed unnecessary and discarded from the musical. Director Adam Shankman decided to use the song to both underscore a rise-to-fame montage for Tracy and to showcase Maybelle's "Negro Day", which is never actually seen in either of the earlier incarnations of ''Hairspray''.[16]
One additional Shaiman/Wittman song, a ballad entitled "I Can Wait", was composed for the film as a solo for Tracy, meant to replace the stage musical's reprise of "Good Morning Baltimore". "I Can Wait" was shot for the film (Tracy performs the number while locked in Prudy's basement), but was eventually deleted from the final release print. The audio recording of "I Can Wait" was made available as a special bonus track for customers who pre-ordered the ''Hairspray'' soundtrack on iTunes, and the scene itself will be included as a special feature on the film's DVD release.[17]
Post-production took place in Los Angeles, where composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman continued work on the film's music by employing the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra to record instrumentation for both the songs and the incidental score.
★ 'Nikki Blonsky' as 'Tracy Edna Turnblad': An optimistic, overweight teenage girl who loves to dance, Tracy's color-blindness unwittingly leads her to becoming an active supporter for the integration of ''The Corny Collins Show''. ''Hairspray'' is newcomer Nikki Blonsky's first time as a professional actress.[18]
★ 'John Travolta' as 'Edna Turnblad': Tracy's mother, an asocial shut-in ashamed of her plus-sized figure. John Travolta's casting as Edna continues the tradition of having a man in drag portray the character, going back to the original 1988 film, which featured drag queen Divine as Edna. Travolta was aggressively sought after by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for this role because he had starred in ''Grease'' (1978), the most successful movie musical to date.
★ 'Michelle Pfeiffer' as 'Velma von Tussle': The manager of station WYZT, the racist former beauty queen Velma is primarily interested in both keeping her daughter Amber in the spotlight and ''The Corny Collins Show'' segregated. ''Hairspray'' is the first film featuring Michelle Pfeiffer to be released in five years (''Stardust'', also featuring Pfeiffer, was filmed before ''Hairspray'', but released almost a month after).[19] The irony of Pfeiffer and Travolta appearing onscreen together (Travolta starred in ''Grease'', Pfeiffer in ''Grease 2'') was not lost on the production staff.
★ 'Christopher Walken' as 'Wilbur Turnblad': Tracy's father, the easy-going proprietor of the "Hardy-Har Hut" joke shop below the Turnblad family's loft apartment. Walken beat out Billy Crystal[20] and Jim Broadbent[21] for the part of Wilbur.
★ 'Amanda Bynes' as 'Penny Lou Pingleton': Tracy's best friend, a nerdy sheltered girl who falls in love with Seaweed, despite her racist and stern mother Prudy. A young actress famous for appearances on Nickelodeon TV shows and in feature films, Bynes was one of the few movie stars cast among the teen roles.[22]
★ 'James Marsden' as 'Cornelius "Corny" Collins': The host of ''The Corny Collins Show'', Corny does his best to fight his show's imposed segregation. Corny Collins is based upon Baltimore TV personality Buddy Deane, who hosted a eponymous local teen dance show in the late 1950s and early 1960s. James Marsden beat out both Joey McIntyre and ''X-Men'' costar Hugh Jackman for the part.[23]
★ 'Queen Latifah' as '"Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs': A Baltimore R&B radio dee jay who hosts "Negro Day" on ''The Corny Collins Show'', Maybelle also runs a record shop on North Avenue. Queen Latifah appeared in the successful Zadan/Meron movie musical ''Chicago'' (2002), and worked under Adam Shankman's direction in ''Bringing Down the House'' (2003).[24] She beat out soul legend Aretha Franklin for the role of Maybelle.
★ 'Brittany Snow' as 'Amber Velma von Tussle': Velma's bratty daughter and the lead female dancer on ''Corny Collins'', Amber becomes Tracy's enemy when Tracy threatens both Amber's shot at the "Miss Teenage Hairspray" crown and Amber's relationship with her boyfriend Link. Brittany Snow had previously worked with Shankman in ''The Pacifier'' (2004).
★ 'Zac Efron' as 'Link Matthew Larkin': Amber's boyfriend and the lead male dancer on ''Corny Collins'', Link is a singer who slowly finds himself falling in love with Tracy, who has always had a unrequited crush on him. The character is based in part upon rock and roll star Elvis Presley. Zac Efron, a popular teen actor from the Disney Channel TV movie ''High School Musical'', was thought by Adam Shankman to be "too Disney." Shankman's sister, executive producer Jennifer Gibgot, convinced her brother to cast Efron, since the teen star would draw a substantial teen crowd.
★ 'Elijah Kelley' as 'Seaweed Joseph Stubbs': Maybelle's son, an expert dancer who teaches Tracy some moves and falls in love with her friend Penny. Kelley, a relative newcomer to film, beat out other open call auditioners and several popular R&B stars for the part of Seaweed.
★ 'Allison Janney' as 'Prudence "Prudy" Pingleton': Penny's mother, a devout Catholic whose strict parenting keeps Penny from experiencing life as she had once said "Having nothing builds character!"
★ 'Jerry Stiller' as 'Mr. Pinky': The proprietor of "Mr. Pinky's Heft Hideaway", a boutique shop specializing in clothing for plus-size women. Jerry Stiller portrayed Wilbur in the original 1988 version of ''Hairspray''.
★ 'Paul Dooley' as 'Mr. Harriman F. Spritzer': The owner of the "Ultra-Clutch" company and the main sponsor of ''The Corny Collins Show'', Mr. Spritzer is just as anxious as Velma to keep ''Corny Collins'' segregated.
★ 'Taylor Parks' as 'Little Inez Stubbs': Maybelle's pre-teen daughter, Inez is a skilled dancer just like her brother. Inez is based in part upon Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a formerly all-white school in the state of Louisiana.[25]
★ Curtis Holbrook as Brad
★ Hayley Podschun as Tammy Turner
★ Philip Spaeth as Fender
★ Cassie Silva as Brenda
★ Nick Baga as Sketch
★ Sarah Jayne Jensen as Shelley
★ Jesse Weafer as IQ
★ Kelly Fletcher as Lou Ann
★ J.P. Ferreri as Joey
★ Spencer Liff as Mikey
★ Laura Edwards as Vicki
★ Tabitha Lupien as Becky
★ Corey Gorewicz as Bix
★ Josh Feldman as Jessie
★ Becca Sweitzer as Darla
★ Everett Smith as Paulie
★ Tiffany Engen as Noreen
★ Brooke Engen as Doreen
★ Brittany Snow as Amber
★ Zac Efron as Link
★ Nikki Blonsky as Tracy
★ Nadine Ellis, Tanee McCall, and Ariké Rice as The Dynamites (singing voices by Shayna Steele, Kamilah Marshall, and Terita R. Redd)
★ Ricki Lake as William Morris Talent Agent #1 (the original Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film)
★ Adam Shankman as William Morris Talent Agent #2 (the director and choreographer of the 2007 film)
★ Marc Shaiman as William Morris Talent Agent #3 (the composer and co-lyricist for the Broadway musical and 2007 film)
★ Scott Wittman as William Morris Talent Agent #4 (the co-lyricist for the stage musical and 2007 film)
★ John Waters as "the flasher who lives next door" (the writer, director, and co-producer of the 1988 film, in which he also appears as Penny's insane psychiatrist Dr. Fredrikson)
★ Mink Stole as the smoking woman Waters flashes (the original Tammy Turner in the 1988 film)
★ Shawn Thompson as the TV reporter outside the studio during the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant (the original Corny Collins in the 1988 film)
★ Corey Reynolds (audio only) singer of "Trouble on the Line" (Seaweed J. Stubbs from the Broadway musicals' original cast)
★ Harvey Fierstein (audio only) featured in the end credits in "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" (original Broadway Cast's Edna)
''Hairspray'' debuted in 3,121 theatres in North America on July 20, 2007, the widest debut of any modern movie musical.[26] The film earned $27,476,745 in its opening weekend, behind ''I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry'' and ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix''. This makes ''Hairspray'' the record-holder for the biggest sales at opening weekend for a movie musical.[27] The film has since gone on to become the third largest grossing musical in U.S. cinema history, surpassing ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' ($112.8 million) and ''Dreamgirls'' ($103 million), released seven months prior.[28] As of September 9, 2007, ''Hairspray'' has earned an estimated $114,881,000 in the U.S., and $147,591,576 worldwide, and is to date the third highest-grossing PG-rated film of 2007.[29]
Two weeks after its original release, new "sing-along" prints of ''Hairspray'' were shipped to theaters.[30] These prints featured the lyrics to each song printed onscreen as subtitles, encouraging audiences to interact with the film.
''Hairspray'' has garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics such as Roger Ebert, ''The New York Times'', and ''The Boston Globe'', as well as a smaller number of reviews comparing it unfavorably to the Waters original. The film is one of the top picks on Metacritic, with an average of 81%.[31] It scored a 93% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, also indicating excellent reviews,[32] and making it as of present one of 2007's top twenty best-reviewed films.[33]
Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying that there was "a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960s goofiness."[34] Lou Lumenick of ''The New York Post'' hailed ''Hairpsray'' as "The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century - and yes, I’m including the Oscar-winning ''Chicago.''"[35] ''New York Daily News'' critic Jack Matthews called the film "A great big sloppy kiss of entertainment for audiences weary of explosions, CGI effects and sequels, sequels, sequels."[36] ''The Baltimore Sun'' review offered Michael Sragow's opinion that "in its entirety, ''Hairspray'' has the funny tilt that only a director-choreographer like Shankman can give to a movie."[37] Dana Stevens from ''Slate'' called ''Hairspray'' "intermittently tasty, if a little too frantically eager to please."[38]
''The New Yorker''’s David Denby felt the new version of ''Hairspray'' was "perfectly pleasant," but compared unfavorably to the Broadway musical, since "[director Adam Shankman and screenwriter Leslie Dixon] have removed the traces of camp humor and Broadway blue that gave the stage show its happily knowing flavor."[39] Stephanie Zacharek of ''Salon.com'' found ''Hairspray'' "reasonably entertaining. But do we really need to be entertained reasonably? Waters's original was a crazy sprawl that made perfect sense; this ''Hairspray'' toils needlessly to make sense of that craziness, and something gets lost in the translation."[40]
Although it was generally received well by both critics and the box office, ''Hairspray'' nonetheless garnered some criticism upon its release by individuals in the gay community. Much of this criticism surrounded Travolta's portrayal of Edna Turnblad, a role played in the original film by celebrated drag performer Divine, and in the stage adaptation by Harvey Fierstein. Kevin Naff, a managing editor for Washington, DC/Baltimore area online gay news site ''The Washington Blade'' called for a boycott of the new ''Hairspray'' film, alleging that Scientology, in which Travolta believes, was patently homophobic, and allegedly supported workshops designed to "cure" homosexuals.[41] Adam Shankman protested Naff's proposed boycott, stating that Travolta was not homophobic, as he, Waters, Shainman & Wittman, and several other members of the creative staff were gay, and Travolta got along well with the entire crew.[42] "John's personal beliefs did not walk onto my set," said Shankman. "I never heard the word 'Scientology.'"
Below is a list of awards that ''Hairspray'' or its cast have won or been nominated for.[43][44]
★ Cross-dressing in film and television
1. Hairspray (2007)
2. Casting looms for New Line's younger-skewing 'Hairspray'.
3. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron Signed to Produce New Line Cinema’s Musical Film Version of Hairspray
4. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #2
5. NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
6. Verini, Bob (July/August 2007). "Miss Beehive-ing: Leslie Dixon styles ''Hairspray'' for the Big Screen." ''Script''. Pgs. 60-66
7. At 20, ‘Hairspray’ Gets a Third ‘Do. Merissa Marr
8. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #11
9. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #13
10. Summer of stars
11. Youtube.com
12. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #12
13. Seeking His Inner Her, Size XXXL Jesse Green
14. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #3
15. You Can't Stop The Beat: Shaiman's unrivaled songwriting talent is outed by ''Hairspray'' colleagues Jon Burlingame
16. Shankman, Adam (2007). ''Hairspray: Soundtrack to the Motion Picture'' [Liner notes]. New York: New Line Records.
17. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #19
18. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #7
19. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #6
20. A hubby for 'Hairspray'.(Billy Crystal to act in New Line Cinema Corp.'s movie)
21. Jim Broadbent Cast as Wilbur in Hairspray Film
22. Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley Interview, Hairspray
23. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #8
24. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #4
25. Watered Down: The truth behind ''Hairspray''
26. Weekly Tracking: 'Chuck & Larry' likely 2nd to 'Potter' w/M+; 'Hairspray' w/widest opening in modern history for a musical, but is New Line opening too wide?
27. 'Chuck & Larry' Can't Stop 'Hairspray' Sheen
28. Musical Movies
29. 2007 Yearly Box Office for PG Rated Movies
30. Blonsky and Kelly Screen Sing-Along "Hairspray" in NYC Aug. 1; Hits Theatres Aug. 3 Ernio Hernandex
31. Hairspray (2007): Reviews
32. Hairspray
33. Top Movies: Best of Rotten Tomatoes
34. Hairspray
35. Tons of Fun: Star-studded Musical Large and in Charge Lou Lumenick
36. 'Hair' do... Jack Matthews
37. 'Hair' apparent Michael Sragow
38. Not a Drag: John Travolta in ''Hairspray''
39. Hairspray David Denby
40. "Hairspray"
41. Travolta says ''Hairspray'' isn't a gay film Jeannette Walls
42. Shankman Blasts Proposed ''Hairspray'' Boycott
43. Awards for Hairspray (2007)
44. Hairspray awarded by Hollywood Film Festival
★ Official ''Hairspray'' site
★
★ Official ''Hairspray'' blog
★ Official ''Hairspray'' t-shirts
★ ''Hairspray'' trailers at Apple.com
★ ''Hairspray'' official Myspace page
★
:''For the 2002 show, see Hairspray (musical)
'''Hairspray''' is a 2007 musical film produced by Zadan/Meron Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, itself adapted from John Waters' 1988 comedy film. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the film follows a "pleasantly-plump" teen named Tracy Turnblad as she simultaneously pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.
Adapted from both Waters' 1988 script and Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell's book for the stage musical by screenwriter Leslie Dixon, the 2007 version of ''Hairspray'' is directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman. ''Hairspray'' stars John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, and introduces newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. ''Hairspray'' features songs from the Broadway musical written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as a handful of Shaiman/Wittman compositions not present in the Broadway version.
Plot
May 3, 1962 begins the same as every other school day for Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), an optimistic "pleasantly plump" high school student from Baltimore, Maryland. She endures a day's worth of boring classes so that she and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) can race home to catch their favorite TV program, ''The Corny Collins Show''. The program, a teen dance show, is broadcast from Baltimore's station WYZT on weekday afternoons.
Some of the teenagers featured on the show also attend Tracy and Penny's school, in particular snobby rich girl Amber von Tussle (Brittany Snow) and her heart-throb boyfriend Link Larkin (Zac Efron), on whom Tracy is madly in love with. Amber's mother Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) manages station WYZT, and goes out of her way to make sure Amber is prominently featured and that ''Corny Collins'' remains a segregated program. Corny Collins (James Marsden) and all of his "Council Kids" are white; black kids are only allowed on ''Corny Collins'' on "Negro Day", held the last Thursday of each month and hosted by local R&B radio dee jay "Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs (Queen Latifah).
Neither Tracy's plus-sized shut-in laundress mother Edna (John Travolta) nor Penny's strict Catholic mother Prudy (Allison Janney) approve of their daughters basing their lives around a TV show, particularly one where teens dance to "race music". Tracy's father Wilbur (Christopher Walken), a joke-shop proprietor, is far more lenient. On one day's show, Corny Collins (James Marsden) announces that one of his "Council Kids" is going on a leave of absence (she is pregnant) and auditions for a replacement will be held the next morning - during school hours. However, Velma turns Tracy away at the audition for being overweight and supportive of integration. Tracy is sent to detention for skipping school, but finds that detention hall is where the black kids hang out and dance. Tracy befriends the detention hall's best dancer, Motormouth Maybelle's son Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who teaches Tracy several R&B dance moves. These dance moves secure Tracy a spot on ''The Corny Collins Show'' when Corny sees her dancing at a record hop.
Tracy quickly becomes one of Corny's most popular Council Kids, and a threat to Velma's quest to have Amber win the show's yearly "Miss Teenage Hairspray" pageant. In addition, Tracy also becomes a threat to Amber's courtship with Link, as the boy becomes increasingly fond of Tracy and less so of Amber. Tracy's popularity earns her a sponsorship offer from clothes salesman Mr. Pinky (Jerry Stiller), who wants Tracy to be the spokesgirl for his "Hefty Hideaway" boutique for plus-sized women. Tracy convinces Edna to accompany her to the Hefty Hideaway and act as her negotiating agent, and in the process brings her mother's days as an agoraphobe to an end.
At school, Tracy eventually introduces Seaweed to Penny, and the black boy and white girl are instantly smitten with each other. One afternoon, Seaweed invites the girls and Link to follow him and his sister Little Inez (Taylor Parks) to a platter party at Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. At the party, Maybelle informs everyone that Velma has unceremoniously canceled Negro Day. Tracy suggests that Maybelle and the others stage a protest march, which they plan for the next afternoon, a day before the Miss Hairspray pageant. Link, scheduled to sing at the pageant and worried about his budding career, backs out of the demonstration and accidentally offends Tracy in the process.
The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest march, which comes to a halt at a police roadblock set up by Velma. The entire company of protestors is arrested, although Tracy manages to escape. She flees to the Pingletons' house, where Penny offers to let her hide out in a basement fallout shelter. However, Prudy discovers Tracy and calls the police, tying Penny to her bed upstairs with a jump rope. Seaweed and a few of the other detention kids (having been bailed out by Wilbur) arrive and help Tracy and Penny escape to Maybelle's record shop, where the kids concoct a plan to crash the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant.
With the pageant underway the next afternoon, Velma, leaving nothing to chance, places policemen around and inside station WYZT in order to prevent Tracy from entering. In addition, Velma switches the tallies from the pageant's phone lines so that Amber is guaranteed to win. Penny arrives at the pageant with an incognito Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and the Detention Kids help Tracy sneak past the police and into the studio in time to participate in the Miss Hairspray dance-off. Link breaks away from Amber's side to dance with Tracy. Inez, who has just arrived at WYZT with Maybelle, is brought to the stage to dance for the pageant.
Against all expectations, Inez receives the most votes and wins the pageant, officially integrating ''The Corny Collins Show''. A perturbed Velma loudly declares her frustration, informing her daughter of the tally-switching scheme. Unknown to Velma, Edna has trained a camera on her, and Velma's outburst is broadcast live on the air, getting her fired. Meanwhile, ''The Corny Collins Show'' set explodes into a celebration as Penny declares her love for Seaweed, Corny and Maybelle begin co-hosting the show together, and Link and Tracy cement their love with a kiss.
Production
Early development
Following the success of the Broadway musical ''Hairspray'', which won eight Tony Awards in 2003, New Line Cinema, who owned the rights to the 1988 John Waters film upon which the stage musical is based, became interested in adapting the stage show as a musical film. Development work began in late 2004, while a similar film-to-Broadway-to-film project, Mel Brooks' ''The Producers'', was in production.[2]
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical ''Chicago'', were hired as the producers for ''Hairspray'',[3] and began discussing possibly casting John Travolta and Billy Crystal as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively. Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, authors of the book for the stage musical, wrote the first draft of the film's screenplay, but were replaced by Leslie Dixon, screenwriter for family comedies such as ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' (1993) and ''Freaky Friday'' (2003). After a year's deliberation on who should direct the film, Zadan and Meron finally decided to hire Adam Shankman to both direct and choreograph ''Hairspray''.[4] Upon learning he had been hired, Shankman arranged a meeting with John Waters, who advised him "don't do what I did, don't do what the play did. You've gotta do your own thing."[5] Despite this, Shankman still noted that "all roads of ''Hairspray'' lead back to John Waters."
(Screen to) stage to screen changes
Dixon was primarily hired to tone down much of the campiness inherent in the stage musical.[6] The 2007 film's script is based primarily on the stage musical rather than the 1988 film, so several changes already made to the plot for the stage version remain in this version. These include dropping several characters from the 1988 version (such as Arthur Hodgepile, Franklin von Tussle, Tammy Turner, the beatniks, etc.), removing the Tilted Acres amusement park from the story, and placing Velma in charge of the station where ''The Corny Collins Show'' is filmed.
One notable difference between the stage musical, the original movie, and the 2007 film version of ''Hairspray'' is that Tracy does not go to jail in the 2007 version. In both previous incarnations of ''Hairspray'', Tracy is arrested and taken to jail along with the other protesters. Edna is presented in this version as an insecure introvert, in contrast to the relatively bolder incarnations present in the 1988 film and the stage musical. Among many other elements changed or added to this version are the removal of Motormouth Maybelle's habit of constantly speaking in rhyming jive talk, and doubling the number of teens in Corny Collins' council (from ten on Broadway to twenty in the 2007 film).
Dixon restructured portions of ''Hairspray's'' book to allow several of the songs to blend more naturally into the plot, in particular "(You're) Timeless to Me" and "I Know Where I've Been". "Timeless" becomes the anchor of a newly invented subplot involving Velma's attempt to break up Tracy's parents' marriage and keep the girl off ''Corny Collins'' as a result. The song now serves as Wilbur's apology to Edna, in addition to its original purpose in the stage musical as a tongue-in-cheek declaration of Wilbur and Edna's love for each other. Meanwhile, "I Know Where I've Been", instead of being sung by Maybelle alone after being let out of jail, now underscores Maybelle's march on WYZT (which takes place in the stage musical only briefly during "Big, Blond, and Beautiful").
Pre-production and casting
''Hairspray'' was produced on a budget of $75 million.[7]
An open casting call was announced to cast unknowns in Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago. After auditioning over eleven hundred candidates, Nikki Blonsky, 17-year-old high school senior from Great Neck, New York who had no previous professional acting experience, was chosen for the lead role of Tracy. Relative unknowns Elijah Kelley and Taylor Parks were chosen through similar audition contests to portray Seaweed and Little Inez, respectively. Travolta was finally cast as Edna, although Crystal's role was instead assumed by Christopher Walken. Several other stars, including Queen Latifah, James Marsden, and Allison Janney were chosen for the other supporting adult roles of Motormouth Maybelle, Corny Collins, and Prudy Pingleton. Teen stars Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, and Brittany Snow were cast as Tracy's friends Penny and Link, and her rival Amber.
Since ''Hairspray's'' plot focuses heavily on dance, choreography became a heavy focus for Shankman, who hired four assistant choreographers and put both his acting cast and over a hundred fifty dancers through two months of rehearsals.[8][9] The cast recorded the vocal tracks for their songs in the weeks just before principal photography began in September.
Principal photography
Principal photography on ''Hairspray'' took place in Toronto, and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from September 5 to December 8, 2006,[10] ''Hairspray'' is explicitly set in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and the original 1988 film had been shot on location there, but the 2007 film was shot primarily in Toronto because that city was better equipped with the sound stages necessary to film a musical.[11] Some second-unit footage was indeed shot in Baltimore.
The majority of the film was shot at Toronto's Showline Studios[12] Most of the street scenes were shot at the intersection of Dundas Avenue West and Roncesvalles Avenue. Some of the signs for the 1960s-era stores remain up along the street. Toronto's Lord Lansdowne Public School was used for all of the high school exteriors and some of the interiors, while the old Queen Victoria School in Hamilton was also used for interiors. Scenes at Queen Victoria were shot from November 22 to December 2, and the school was scheduled to be demolished after film production was completed.
Thinner than most of the other men who have portrayed Edna, John Travolta appears onscreen in a large fat suit, and required four hours of makeup in order to appear before the cameras.[13] His character's nimble dancing style belies her girth; Shankman based Edna's dancing style on the hippo ballerinas in the ''Dance of the Hours'' sequence in Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature ''Fantasia''. Travolta fought for the ability to give his character curves, as opposed to a dumpier figure, and a thick Baltimore accent.
Shankman's inspirations
Shankman included "a lot of winks" to films that influenced his work on ''Hairspray'':
★ For example, the film's opening shot - a bird's eye view of Baltimore that eventually descends from the clouds to ground level - is a combination of the opening shots of ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1965).
★ Several scenes involving Tracy, such as her ride atop the garbage truck during the "Good Morning Baltimore" number and her new hairstyle during "Welcome to the '60s", are directly inspired by the Barbara Streisand musical film version of ''Funny Girl'' (1968).
★ During "Without Love", Link sings to a photograph of Tracy, which comes to life and sings harmony with him. This is directly inspired from the MGM musical ''The Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937), in which a young Judy Garland swoons over a photo of actor Clark Gable as she sings "You Made Me Love You".
Music
Musical numbers
#"Good Morning Baltimore" - Tracy Turnblad
#"The Nicest Kids in Town" - Corny Collins and Council Members
#"It Takes Two" - Link Larkin
#"(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs" - Velma von Tussle, Council Members, and Tracy
#"I Can Hear the Bells" - Tracy
#"Ladies' Choice" - Link
#"The New Girl in Town" - Amber von Tussle, Tammy Turner, Shelley, and The Dynamites
#"Welcome to the 60's" - Tracy, Edna Turnblad, Mr. Pinky, The Dynamites, and Hefty Hideaway Customers
#"Run and Tell That" - Seaweed J. Stubbs, Little Inez, and Detention Kids
#"Big, Blonde and Beautiful" - Motormouth Maybelle and Detention Kids
#"Big, Blonde and Beautiful (Reprise)" - Edna and Velma
#"(You're) Timeless to Me" - Edna and Wilbur Turnblad
#"I Know Where I've Been" - Motormouth Maybelle with Nadine and Chorus
#"Without Love" - Link, Tracy, Seaweed, Penny, and Detention Kids
#"(It's) Hairspray" - Corny Collins and Council Members
#"You Can't Stop the Beat" - Tracy, Link, Penny, Seaweed, Edna, Motormouth Maybelle, Corny Collins, and Chorus
End credits songs
#"Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)" - Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, and Elijah Kelley
#"Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" - Nikki Blonsky, Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Harvey Fierstein
#"Cooties" - Aimee Allen
Song score production and changes
Music producer/composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman were required to alter their Broadway ''Hairspray'' song score in various ways in order to work on film, from changing portions of the lyrics in some songs (e.g. "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs", "Big, Blonde and Beautiful", and "You Can't Stop the Beat") to more or less completely removing other songs from the film altogether.
"Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a popular number from the stage musical, features Tracy, Penny, and Amber arguing with their respective mothers. Neither Adam Shankman nor Leslie Dixon could come up with a solution for filming "Mama" that didn't require a three-way split screen - something they wanted to avoid - and both felt the number did not adequately advance the plot.[14] As a result, "Mama" was reluctantly dropped from the film during pre-production, although it is used by Shaiman as an instrumental when the ''Corny Collins'' kids dance the "Strickin' Chicken". A special version of "Mama" was recorded for the film's end credits in May 2007, during the final score recording process, which featured vocals from each of the three women most famous for portraying Tracy Turnblad: Ricki Lake from the 1988 film, Marissa Jaret Winokur from the original Broadway cast, and Nikki Blonsky from the 2007 film.[15] Harvey Fierstein, who portrayed Edna as part of the original Broadway cast, has a brief cameo moment in the end credits version of "Mama" as well.
"It Takes Two", a solo for Link, was moved from its place in the stage musical (on Tracy's first day on Corny's Council) to an earlier ''Corny Collins'' scene, although only the coda of the song is used in the final release print. "Cooties", a solo for Amber in the stage musical, is present in this film as an instrumental during the Miss Teenage Hairspray dance-off. As with "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", a version of "Cooties", performed in a contemporary pop rendition by Aimee Allen, is present during the end credits.
The performance of a vintage dance called The Madison, present in both the 1988 film and the stage musical, was replaced for this version by a newly composed song, "Ladies' Choice". Portions of the Madison dance steps were integrated into the choreography for the musical number "You Can't Stop the Beat", and the song the dance is performed to on Broadway can be heard faintly during Motormouth Maybelle's platter party in the film, retitled "Boink Boink". "The Big Dollhouse" was the only song from the musical not used in the film in any way.
Shaiman and Wittman composed two new songs for the 2007 film: "Ladies' Choice", a solo for Link, and "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)", a song performed during the end credits by Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron, and Elijah Kelley. Another "new" song in the 2007 film, "The New Girl in Town", had originally been composed for the Broadway musical, but was deemed unnecessary and discarded from the musical. Director Adam Shankman decided to use the song to both underscore a rise-to-fame montage for Tracy and to showcase Maybelle's "Negro Day", which is never actually seen in either of the earlier incarnations of ''Hairspray''.[16]
One additional Shaiman/Wittman song, a ballad entitled "I Can Wait", was composed for the film as a solo for Tracy, meant to replace the stage musical's reprise of "Good Morning Baltimore". "I Can Wait" was shot for the film (Tracy performs the number while locked in Prudy's basement), but was eventually deleted from the final release print. The audio recording of "I Can Wait" was made available as a special bonus track for customers who pre-ordered the ''Hairspray'' soundtrack on iTunes, and the scene itself will be included as a special feature on the film's DVD release.[17]
Post-production took place in Los Angeles, where composer/co-lyricist Marc Shaiman continued work on the film's music by employing the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra to record instrumentation for both the songs and the incidental score.
Cast
Starring cast
★ 'Nikki Blonsky' as 'Tracy Edna Turnblad': An optimistic, overweight teenage girl who loves to dance, Tracy's color-blindness unwittingly leads her to becoming an active supporter for the integration of ''The Corny Collins Show''. ''Hairspray'' is newcomer Nikki Blonsky's first time as a professional actress.[18]
★ 'John Travolta' as 'Edna Turnblad': Tracy's mother, an asocial shut-in ashamed of her plus-sized figure. John Travolta's casting as Edna continues the tradition of having a man in drag portray the character, going back to the original 1988 film, which featured drag queen Divine as Edna. Travolta was aggressively sought after by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for this role because he had starred in ''Grease'' (1978), the most successful movie musical to date.
★ 'Michelle Pfeiffer' as 'Velma von Tussle': The manager of station WYZT, the racist former beauty queen Velma is primarily interested in both keeping her daughter Amber in the spotlight and ''The Corny Collins Show'' segregated. ''Hairspray'' is the first film featuring Michelle Pfeiffer to be released in five years (''Stardust'', also featuring Pfeiffer, was filmed before ''Hairspray'', but released almost a month after).[19] The irony of Pfeiffer and Travolta appearing onscreen together (Travolta starred in ''Grease'', Pfeiffer in ''Grease 2'') was not lost on the production staff.
★ 'Christopher Walken' as 'Wilbur Turnblad': Tracy's father, the easy-going proprietor of the "Hardy-Har Hut" joke shop below the Turnblad family's loft apartment. Walken beat out Billy Crystal[20] and Jim Broadbent[21] for the part of Wilbur.
★ 'Amanda Bynes' as 'Penny Lou Pingleton': Tracy's best friend, a nerdy sheltered girl who falls in love with Seaweed, despite her racist and stern mother Prudy. A young actress famous for appearances on Nickelodeon TV shows and in feature films, Bynes was one of the few movie stars cast among the teen roles.[22]
★ 'James Marsden' as 'Cornelius "Corny" Collins': The host of ''The Corny Collins Show'', Corny does his best to fight his show's imposed segregation. Corny Collins is based upon Baltimore TV personality Buddy Deane, who hosted a eponymous local teen dance show in the late 1950s and early 1960s. James Marsden beat out both Joey McIntyre and ''X-Men'' costar Hugh Jackman for the part.[23]
★ 'Queen Latifah' as '"Motormouth" Maybelle Stubbs': A Baltimore R&B radio dee jay who hosts "Negro Day" on ''The Corny Collins Show'', Maybelle also runs a record shop on North Avenue. Queen Latifah appeared in the successful Zadan/Meron movie musical ''Chicago'' (2002), and worked under Adam Shankman's direction in ''Bringing Down the House'' (2003).[24] She beat out soul legend Aretha Franklin for the role of Maybelle.
★ 'Brittany Snow' as 'Amber Velma von Tussle': Velma's bratty daughter and the lead female dancer on ''Corny Collins'', Amber becomes Tracy's enemy when Tracy threatens both Amber's shot at the "Miss Teenage Hairspray" crown and Amber's relationship with her boyfriend Link. Brittany Snow had previously worked with Shankman in ''The Pacifier'' (2004).
★ 'Zac Efron' as 'Link Matthew Larkin': Amber's boyfriend and the lead male dancer on ''Corny Collins'', Link is a singer who slowly finds himself falling in love with Tracy, who has always had a unrequited crush on him. The character is based in part upon rock and roll star Elvis Presley. Zac Efron, a popular teen actor from the Disney Channel TV movie ''High School Musical'', was thought by Adam Shankman to be "too Disney." Shankman's sister, executive producer Jennifer Gibgot, convinced her brother to cast Efron, since the teen star would draw a substantial teen crowd.
★ 'Elijah Kelley' as 'Seaweed Joseph Stubbs': Maybelle's son, an expert dancer who teaches Tracy some moves and falls in love with her friend Penny. Kelley, a relative newcomer to film, beat out other open call auditioners and several popular R&B stars for the part of Seaweed.
★ 'Allison Janney' as 'Prudence "Prudy" Pingleton': Penny's mother, a devout Catholic whose strict parenting keeps Penny from experiencing life as she had once said "Having nothing builds character!"
★ 'Jerry Stiller' as 'Mr. Pinky': The proprietor of "Mr. Pinky's Heft Hideaway", a boutique shop specializing in clothing for plus-size women. Jerry Stiller portrayed Wilbur in the original 1988 version of ''Hairspray''.
★ 'Paul Dooley' as 'Mr. Harriman F. Spritzer': The owner of the "Ultra-Clutch" company and the main sponsor of ''The Corny Collins Show'', Mr. Spritzer is just as anxious as Velma to keep ''Corny Collins'' segregated.
★ 'Taylor Parks' as 'Little Inez Stubbs': Maybelle's pre-teen daughter, Inez is a skilled dancer just like her brother. Inez is based in part upon Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend a formerly all-white school in the state of Louisiana.[25]
Featured performers
★ Curtis Holbrook as Brad
★ Hayley Podschun as Tammy Turner
★ Philip Spaeth as Fender
★ Cassie Silva as Brenda
★ Nick Baga as Sketch
★ Sarah Jayne Jensen as Shelley
★ Jesse Weafer as IQ
★ Kelly Fletcher as Lou Ann
★ J.P. Ferreri as Joey
★ Spencer Liff as Mikey
★ Laura Edwards as Vicki
★ Tabitha Lupien as Becky
★ Corey Gorewicz as Bix
★ Josh Feldman as Jessie
★ Becca Sweitzer as Darla
★ Everett Smith as Paulie
★ Tiffany Engen as Noreen
★ Brooke Engen as Doreen
★ Brittany Snow as Amber
★ Zac Efron as Link
★ Nikki Blonsky as Tracy
★ Nadine Ellis, Tanee McCall, and Ariké Rice as The Dynamites (singing voices by Shayna Steele, Kamilah Marshall, and Terita R. Redd)
Cameos
★ Ricki Lake as William Morris Talent Agent #1 (the original Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film)
★ Adam Shankman as William Morris Talent Agent #2 (the director and choreographer of the 2007 film)
★ Marc Shaiman as William Morris Talent Agent #3 (the composer and co-lyricist for the Broadway musical and 2007 film)
★ Scott Wittman as William Morris Talent Agent #4 (the co-lyricist for the stage musical and 2007 film)
★ John Waters as "the flasher who lives next door" (the writer, director, and co-producer of the 1988 film, in which he also appears as Penny's insane psychiatrist Dr. Fredrikson)
★ Mink Stole as the smoking woman Waters flashes (the original Tammy Turner in the 1988 film)
★ Shawn Thompson as the TV reporter outside the studio during the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant (the original Corny Collins in the 1988 film)
★ Corey Reynolds (audio only) singer of "Trouble on the Line" (Seaweed J. Stubbs from the Broadway musicals' original cast)
★ Harvey Fierstein (audio only) featured in the end credits in "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" (original Broadway Cast's Edna)
Release and reception
''Hairspray'' debuted in 3,121 theatres in North America on July 20, 2007, the widest debut of any modern movie musical.[26] The film earned $27,476,745 in its opening weekend, behind ''I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry'' and ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix''. This makes ''Hairspray'' the record-holder for the biggest sales at opening weekend for a movie musical.[27] The film has since gone on to become the third largest grossing musical in U.S. cinema history, surpassing ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' ($112.8 million) and ''Dreamgirls'' ($103 million), released seven months prior.[28] As of September 9, 2007, ''Hairspray'' has earned an estimated $114,881,000 in the U.S., and $147,591,576 worldwide, and is to date the third highest-grossing PG-rated film of 2007.[29]
Two weeks after its original release, new "sing-along" prints of ''Hairspray'' were shipped to theaters.[30] These prints featured the lyrics to each song printed onscreen as subtitles, encouraging audiences to interact with the film.
''Hairspray'' has garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics such as Roger Ebert, ''The New York Times'', and ''The Boston Globe'', as well as a smaller number of reviews comparing it unfavorably to the Waters original. The film is one of the top picks on Metacritic, with an average of 81%.[31] It scored a 93% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, also indicating excellent reviews,[32] and making it as of present one of 2007's top twenty best-reviewed films.[33]
Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, saying that there was "a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960s goofiness."[34] Lou Lumenick of ''The New York Post'' hailed ''Hairpsray'' as "The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century - and yes, I’m including the Oscar-winning ''Chicago.''"[35] ''New York Daily News'' critic Jack Matthews called the film "A great big sloppy kiss of entertainment for audiences weary of explosions, CGI effects and sequels, sequels, sequels."[36] ''The Baltimore Sun'' review offered Michael Sragow's opinion that "in its entirety, ''Hairspray'' has the funny tilt that only a director-choreographer like Shankman can give to a movie."[37] Dana Stevens from ''Slate'' called ''Hairspray'' "intermittently tasty, if a little too frantically eager to please."[38]
''The New Yorker''’s David Denby felt the new version of ''Hairspray'' was "perfectly pleasant," but compared unfavorably to the Broadway musical, since "[director Adam Shankman and screenwriter Leslie Dixon] have removed the traces of camp humor and Broadway blue that gave the stage show its happily knowing flavor."[39] Stephanie Zacharek of ''Salon.com'' found ''Hairspray'' "reasonably entertaining. But do we really need to be entertained reasonably? Waters's original was a crazy sprawl that made perfect sense; this ''Hairspray'' toils needlessly to make sense of that craziness, and something gets lost in the translation."[40]
Although it was generally received well by both critics and the box office, ''Hairspray'' nonetheless garnered some criticism upon its release by individuals in the gay community. Much of this criticism surrounded Travolta's portrayal of Edna Turnblad, a role played in the original film by celebrated drag performer Divine, and in the stage adaptation by Harvey Fierstein. Kevin Naff, a managing editor for Washington, DC/Baltimore area online gay news site ''The Washington Blade'' called for a boycott of the new ''Hairspray'' film, alleging that Scientology, in which Travolta believes, was patently homophobic, and allegedly supported workshops designed to "cure" homosexuals.[41] Adam Shankman protested Naff's proposed boycott, stating that Travolta was not homophobic, as he, Waters, Shainman & Wittman, and several other members of the creative staff were gay, and Travolta got along well with the entire crew.[42] "John's personal beliefs did not walk onto my set," said Shankman. "I never heard the word 'Scientology.'"
Awards
Below is a list of awards that ''Hairspray'' or its cast have won or been nominated for.[43][44]
| Year | Result | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Winner | Teen Choice Awards 2007 | Choice Summer Movie - Comedy/Musical |
| 2007 | Winner | Young Hollywood Award | One to Watch - Zac Efron One to Watch - Nikki Blonsky |
| 2007 | Winner | Hollywood Film Festival & Hollywood Awards | Hollywood Ensemble Acting of the Year Award - Musical/Comedy |
| 2007 | Nominated | MTV Movie Awards | Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet |
See also
★ Cross-dressing in film and television
References
1. Hairspray (2007)
2. Casting looms for New Line's younger-skewing 'Hairspray'.
3. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron Signed to Produce New Line Cinema’s Musical Film Version of Hairspray
4. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #2
5. NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
6. Verini, Bob (July/August 2007). "Miss Beehive-ing: Leslie Dixon styles ''Hairspray'' for the Big Screen." ''Script''. Pgs. 60-66
7. At 20, ‘Hairspray’ Gets a Third ‘Do. Merissa Marr
8. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #11
9. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #13
10. Summer of stars
11. Youtube.com
12. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #12
13. Seeking His Inner Her, Size XXXL Jesse Green
14. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #3
15. You Can't Stop The Beat: Shaiman's unrivaled songwriting talent is outed by ''Hairspray'' colleagues Jon Burlingame
16. Shankman, Adam (2007). ''Hairspray: Soundtrack to the Motion Picture'' [Liner notes]. New York: New Line Records.
17. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #19
18. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #7
19. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #6
20. A hubby for 'Hairspray'.(Billy Crystal to act in New Line Cinema Corp.'s movie)
21. Jim Broadbent Cast as Wilbur in Hairspray Film
22. Amanda Bynes, Elijah Kelley Interview, Hairspray
23. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #8
24. The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #4
25. Watered Down: The truth behind ''Hairspray''
26. Weekly Tracking: 'Chuck & Larry' likely 2nd to 'Potter' w/M+; 'Hairspray' w/widest opening in modern history for a musical, but is New Line opening too wide?
27. 'Chuck & Larry' Can't Stop 'Hairspray' Sheen
28. Musical Movies
29. 2007 Yearly Box Office for PG Rated Movies
30. Blonsky and Kelly Screen Sing-Along "Hairspray" in NYC Aug. 1; Hits Theatres Aug. 3 Ernio Hernandex
31. Hairspray (2007): Reviews
32. Hairspray
33. Top Movies: Best of Rotten Tomatoes
34. Hairspray
35. Tons of Fun: Star-studded Musical Large and in Charge Lou Lumenick
36. 'Hair' do... Jack Matthews
37. 'Hair' apparent Michael Sragow
38. Not a Drag: John Travolta in ''Hairspray''
39. Hairspray David Denby
40. "Hairspray"
41. Travolta says ''Hairspray'' isn't a gay film Jeannette Walls
42. Shankman Blasts Proposed ''Hairspray'' Boycott
43. Awards for Hairspray (2007)
44. Hairspray awarded by Hollywood Film Festival
External links
★ Official ''Hairspray'' site
★
★ Official ''Hairspray'' blog
★ Official ''Hairspray'' t-shirts
★ ''Hairspray'' trailers at Apple.com
★ ''Hairspray'' official Myspace page
★
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psst.. try this: add to faves
