Charm City never seemed quite so charming as it does in today’s big ’do musical redo of John Waters’ “Hairspray.”
Teasing Baltimore into a land of shabby-chic retro fabulousness, this lyrically upbeat and even socially uplifting fable of fat-girl power and Kennedy-era racial integration couldn’t be more fun and liberating. It’s helmet-headed heaven — an abundant summer movie celebration of tacky flips and working-class dignity with an adorable cast, witty songbook and production numbers buoyant enough to send you home grinning from sideburn to sideburn.
The franchise has taken a trajectory similar to “The Producers.”
“Hairspray” began life as Waters’ 1988 cult comedy. The late, strangely great male actor Divine became the model for the crucial supporting female role of Edna Turnblad, mother of a plucky teenage chub-ette with dreams of local daytime TV dance show grandeur.
With book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan and music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the 2002 Broadway musical was a massive, award-sweeping hit.
Today’s film version of that stage play, as directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman, transforms it into a classic crowd-pleaser not unlike star John Travolta’s “Grease” (still the genre’s box-office champ).
An enduring Travolta is miraculously graceful wielding the girth and hilarious native accent of blue-collar goddess Edna. But the young unknown Nikki Blonsky makes her optimistic protagonist Tracy Turnblad a bopping, crusading little Hollywood heroine for the ages. At first she’s fighting against the size-ism perpetuated by skinny blondes like mean stationmanager Velma Von Tussle (played by the movie’s one weak link, a miscast and lifeless Michelle Pfeiffer). Soon Tracy finds herself risking her chance at television fame to support her talented black colleagues and help them try to desegregate “The Corny Collins Show.” Of course, as the great finale tune “You Can’t Stop the Beat” suggests, you can’t stop progress.
The ironically bubbly opening “Good Morning, Baltimore” sends up the city’s proletarian neighborhoods circa 1962 in all their grimy glory. From that moment to “Welcome to the Sixties,” “I Can Hear the Bells” and beyond, the screenplay blends period-style melodic pleasure and a message of tolerance with heavy characters but without a heavy hand.
The scene-stealing older cast members add goofy color, especially Christopher Walken as Edna’s loving husband and Allison Janney as a horrified reactionary, while Queen Latifah represents the calmly determined heart of the social injustice subplot. The very talented junior ensemble includes Elijah Kelley as African-American dance innovator Seaweed, Amanda Bynes as a goody-goody white girl who gets what Spike Lee once termed “jungle fever,” and Zac Efron as Tracy’s unlikely heartthrob. Hopefully, they will attract a younger audience as well to this A-plus, plus-sized revival of the movie musical.
‘Hairspray’
5/5 stars
Starring: John Travolta, Nikki Blonsky, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah
Director: Adam Shankman
Rated PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking
