# Hairspray in Japan-so many questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 22, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279 "2020-05-22T03:57:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/1 "2020-05-22T03:57:32Z")

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So while wasting time on the rabbit hole known as youtube, I came across [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ETqd3HgGCE).

Now a great song is a great song but I have a few questions:

Will the segregation theme really play in Japan?

Kudos for having a “black” Maybelle, but why is Seaweed not black?

Why are half the costumes from circa 1960 and half appear to be from the 1980s?

Why translate from the Japanese back into the English for the subtitles when they could just post the original lyrics?

Am I the only one who really really wants to see the full show?

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/2 "2020-05-22T04:14:13Z")

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I’ve already seen a 99% white high school production of “Dreamgirls”, so this probably isn’t any worse.

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**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/3 "2020-05-22T05:24:14Z")

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The lil’wrekker was in a production of ‘12 Angry Men’ except they had only a few guys in the group. So it was ‘12 Angry Women’. She played the Loud mouth guy/woman.

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**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/4 "2020-05-22T17:39:03Z")

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Japan has a fair number of cross-dressing stars (male-to-female) in varying degrees of convincingness, but it would have been so cool to have Matsuko Deluxe as Edna. She has the right sort of in-your-face personality.

According to the clip they are supposed to open in Tokyo in mid-June, but I doubt they’ll make that date. Hope they’ll be able to postpone rather than cancel altogether.

I didn’t see any translation back to English, the lyrics of the songs are shown in either Japanese or English at the bottom of the screen, which is standard for Japanese TV, and the words shown in English are where they are singing English words, which also happens a lot in Japanese pop songs.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/5 "2020-05-23T00:32:07Z")

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> [@psychobunny](#):
>
> Will the segregation theme really play in Japan?

Just change Negroes to Koreans. Or any kind of _gaijin_, for that matter.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairspray-in-japan-so-many-questions/854279/6 "2020-05-23T00:35:54Z")

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> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> The lil’wrekker was in a production of ‘12 Angry Men’ except they had only a few guys in the group. So it was ‘12 Angry Women’. She played the Loud mouth guy/woman.

Typecast.  
D+R