The movie of the musical of the movie

The current film version of Hairspray is a musical, based on the stage musical, which was based on the original movie by John Waters, not itself, strictly speaking, a musical, but a movie with a lot of music. The plot is the same in all three versions: in early 60's Baltimore, fat schoolgirl Tracy Turnblad achieves her dreams of 1) getting to be a regular dancer on a local "American Bandstand"-type show, 2) getting the popular and sexy main male dancer on the show to be her boyfriend, and 3) getting the local African-American kids allowed on the show. Though Turnblad's mother is played in each version by a man, there is nothing directly "gay" about the material. In fact, though Divine is wonderful as Tracy's mom in the first movie, there is really no narrative or thematic reason for the character to be played in drag. Nevertheless, it has become a good gimmick to give the show a hook; Harvey Fierstein played her on Broadway (and we saw Bruce Vilanch play the role on the road) and now John Travolta plays her in the new movie. He obviously saw it as an acting challenge and is OK, though he tries too hard to play the part as a "naturalistic" woman, and part of the charm, if you will, of the earlier incarnations, is that the actors were clearly big drag queens. Not only is Travolta not a drag queen, he isn't all that big, having to be padded out both in body and face. He doesn't ruin the movie, but his interpretation doesn't add anything interesting to the mix, though he is a hoot in the final scene when he cuts loose on the dance floor.

The stage musical, with its elaborate sets, glossy and colorful look, and energetic songs, is a lot of fun; the new film a little less so, perhaps (ironically) because it tries to be truer to Waters' own deliberately rough, indie-film aesthetic. The dances are staged well, but everything looks drabber than it did on stage. The exception is the high-energy finale, an ultra-catchy number called "You Can't Stop the Beat," which gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it. The actors are all fine: newcomer Nikki Blonsky is Tracy, current hot teen idol Zac Efron is the hot teen dancer on the show (he is appropriately glossily handsome, though a bit too plastic to be sexy), Michelle Pfeiffer is the villainess, trying to keep both fat kids and black people down, Christopher Walken is Tracy's dad, and Queen Latifah is Motormouth, the blues singer who joins in the civil rights fight (though the attempt to open the play up with a protest march in the streets falls flat). The biggest surprise is James Marsden, so dully sincere as Cyclops in the X-Men movies, but so sparkling and such a good singer here as the host of the TV show. This film is fun, but see the stage show if you can. [I must add that I miss the original movie's theme, "Hairspray" by Rachel Sweet, and the 60's dance song "Madison Time" by the Ray Bryant Combo not being carried over to either musical version.]