The upcoming "Hairspray" movie

Cafe Society
1

Right now I’m watching Oprah (I’m laid out for the next few days on Worker’s Comp, and have gotten to this level of boredom already), and the episode is a big hour-long advertisement for Hairspray, coming out in July.

Good to know I’ll have no desire whatsoever to go see the movie.

I saw the stage show (a touring production with a freshly shaven Bruce Vilanch as Edna), and enjoyed it well enough as a light, disposable entertainment. The soundtrack has a few good tracks. The musical hardly touches the racial themes that made the original Waters film so spectacular, but still I had no umbrage.

Unfortunately, the movie musical powerhouse that is Queen Latifah, and what appears to be a fairly eager, talented young cast, cannot save the movie from one thing:

John Travolta cannot do a Baltimore accent. And the producers let him voice one of the most significant characters, Edna, speaking with his awful attempt. For those not from the area, the Baltimore accent owes a lot to cockney. It’s very heavy on the long “e” vowel sound, and a preponderance of dipthongs, superfluous "w"s all over the place. Half my extended family on my father’s side have the accent, and the other half desperately try to fight it. I didn’t grow up in the city, and avoided ahem native speakers for most of my formative youth (“youf”), but I still know it quite well. What the accent is NOT is a lisp that makes the speaker sound mentally deficient. Way to go, John! While all the rest of the cast speaks normally, Travolta never abandons his mission of one to shoehorn the accent in to the movie.

Another Travolta gripe that’s going to prevent me from ever getting in to the movie: He’s not fat, he’s in a fat suit. Divine was fat. Harvey Fierstein was fat. Bruce Vilanch was fat. John Travolta looks like an actor in a fat suit. It makes a difference.

That being said, I hope I can ignore John Travolta well enough, because I’m impressed by the lineup for the rest of the cast, with the adults played by many respected names, and the kids played by newcomers who genuinely appear to be having a good time. It could be a fun summer frivolity. But why, oh why, John Travolta?

2

I too disagree with the Travolta choice. I understand why he was cast–$$$–but it still doesn’t make sense. At all. He’s not a drag performer, he’s not fat, and his voice is all wrong (and not just the accent thing…all the Ednas I’ve seen on stage have a really deep, raspy voice). I can’t imagine that he’ll be anything but distracting.

I thought the original film was great enough without having to do it again. But I’m still excited. I love the movie and I love the musical.

3

Casting him is a distracting gimmick that certainly threatens to ruin the movie more than it promises to enhance it. The sheer spectacle of doing this means most people probably won’t gripe much about the accent (except in light of the bigger performance, so to speak). I’m not familiar with the musical, and haven’t seen the Waters since it came out. The movie might be good, but I don’t think the trailer did an effective job of selling itself.

4

I’m not concerned about how well he does an accent, because it’s not like Harvey Fierstein did anything different from his own voice when I saw him on Broadway. I am concerned over how he’s going to do in the role otherwise. He isn’t anywhere near the top of any list I’d compile to play Edna. I don’t think Travolta is going to serve as any sort of box office draw because I don’t think his fan base is going to be interested in seeing him in a dress and I don’t think anyone not already predisposed to seeing the film is going to be persuaded by knowing he’s in it. I wish the producers had had the balls just to cast Harvey and be done with it.

In sad news, “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now” has been cut from the film.

5

Harvey Fierstein didn’t do anything different from his own voice, and that was fine. It was great that he set the tone for Edna as a very poorly disguised drag queen in the musical numbers. But to be the only one in a cast to attempt a distinct regional accent, and to fail so miserably, that’s one of the foremost reasons that I lament the casting. Otto and monstro, you’ve both brought up other good reasons he’s such a lamentably bad choice.

Indeed. I didn’t particularly like the song before seeing the show, but once I understood where it fit into the story, it took on a whole new life for me.

6

I don’t get the Travolta casting either. I would think the main draw of having him in a musical would be watching him dance. Well, Edna hardly dances, and when she does, she’s supposed to be awkward. So with Travolta not strutting his stuff, and looking less convincing than even Gweneth Paltrow in a fat suit, what’s the point?

Then I really, really, really hope it was filmed and will be included on the DVD. That is *such *a good character song, and it has one of my favorite Penny moments (the line that begins “you’re the one who taught me how to twist and shout…”).

7

If they had to cast a Hollywood actor as Edna, I think John Goodman would have been an interesting choice.

8

A damned good choice, actually. Big guy, gravelly speaking voice, and he can actually sing quite well (see: Monsters Inc, Blues Brothers 2000, Jungle Book 2)

9

I completely disagree. When I saw the show I didn’t read him as “drag queen” at all. He wasn’t playing a drag quen or a man playing a woman. He was playing a woman and I believed him in the role.

I don’t know if it was filmed but what I’ve heard is that it was recorded for the soundtrack. Rather than the film’s Tracy, Amber and Penny, though, it was recorded by Nikki Blonsky (the film’s Tracy), Marissa Jaret Winokur (the original Broadway Tracy) and Ricki Lake, Tracy from the original film.

10

Well that’s a disappointment. Why do a character song if you’re not going to have singers who’ve been working on the characters perform it? Couldn’t the producers have have gotten their novelty casting jollies with, say, “Blood on the Pavement” instead? Or heck, throw some extra verses into “You Can’t Stop the Beat” or something.

11

I would’ve been happy to keep Marisa Jaret Winokur far away from this movie completely. She’s the one person who grates on my damn nerves in the cast recording (give me Matthew Morrison any day…love him, and love him even more when he’s speaking Italian;)) - and of course, she’s in most of the songs. I’ve never thought she was that great of a singer, and it’s not the part (because others have done it without being grating), it’s the performer.

I’ll probably see this, but will probably wait for the DVD. It’s not my favorite show, although it’s fun.

E.

12

I saw it on Oprah (or most of it–the station kept breaking away to tell us it was raining out). I hated Travolta. He doesn’t look right in the role. I never thought of what John Goodman could do with it. I was too busy wishing it had been offered to John Lithgow.

Mama I’m a Big Girl now is one of my favorite songs in the show. I hate how Hollywood has to mess up Broadway

13

Ooh, then how’s about Goodman as Edna and Lithgow as Wilbur, then? Those two could be quite the pair.

14

I’m hoping the casting of Christopher Walken as Wilbur Turnblad will be enough to correct the horrendous mis-casting of Travolta.

VCNJ~

15

I knew there was a reason that I haven’t cared for what I have seen of the movie production. You all hit it right on the head. Travolta was terribly miscast, although it is an understandable mistake.

That said, I am waiting for them to license “Hairspray” to be performed locally. To paraphrase John Waters “It’ll be one of the few times that the fat girl and the drag queen get cast as the leads…”

That alone will be reason enough for me to go… :smiley:

16

I hate it how Hollywood and Broadway are pretty much the same thing at this point. I wouldn’t expect much good to come from this movie.

17

I saw the trailer last night for the first time, and even just seeing the flashes of Travolta didn’t feel right. I also felt like Amanda Bynes looked overly tanned.

Susan

18

Travolta might actually be good.

19

Well, I thought I’d bring this back to say I got to see the movie last night. No spoilers, just a general review.

First of all, I am a fan of the first movie. Loved it when I was a kid, and even though I haven’t watched it in years, I can still remember large chunks of it, if not the entire movie. I never got to see the musical on Broadway.

The plot was pretty much the same as the original, no big surprise there. I liked the songs well enough - I had never heard them before. The only one that I really, really loved was “Big, Blonde and Beautiful”. Other than that, I felt that there were some missed opportunities in terms of sharp wit. I felt like even though this was a musical meant for a wider audience than the original, there could have been a little more fun with the subject (although there were some bits that tried to poke fun).

The acting was - well - wooden by most. In particular, Christopher Walken seemed drugged. Travolta was - not great. Not horrible, but not great. It also felt like the angles of the shots of Travolta were more about “Hey, it’s Travolta - and he’s a fat woman!”, rather than “Hey - here’s a fat woman who is coming to realize she’s more than that”. But I do have to give it up for his dancing - especially at the end. Exceptions to the wooden acting were Michelle Pfeiffer, who was somewhat fun, and Queen Latifah. The prettiness was ably brought by Zac Efron. But what I felt was missing most was a good director. The material was there - it just felt like the actors were not really playing it well.

It’s going to sound strange after saying that the actors were wooden, and the music was just okay, but I ended up liking the movie. Maybe it’s the halo effect from the last scene - I really liked how it came out. Maybe it was the general fun of Nikki Blonsky as Tracy. I don’t know. What I do know is that as a musical, I think it was okay. Not as bad as the second Producers movie, but not quite as good as Dreamgirls. It was generally okay. Wouldn’t mind seeing it again, but I don’t think I’ll seek it out.

Susan

20

I saw the preview for this the other day, and I was stunned by how badly cast Travolta is. In going for the marquee name, they’ve sunk their own ship. Suicidally stupid.

Then of course I was thinking, who should they have cast? Obviously, the only real choice is Fierstein. But then I thought: Oliver Platt? James Gandolfini? Hell, Al Pacino even. But Travolta is just wrong, wrong, wrong. I never noticed how beady his little eyes were till I saw him in a fat suit.