Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Hairspray by . r o s s .

What an awesome movie, and what a great night. I love musicals, and my DVD collection basically only has this genre.

I have seen Chicago hundereds of times. And this movie follows in the footsteps of this awesome movie, which was also produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

The original Hairspray move was created by John Waters (who has a great cameo as a flasher in the opening song "Good Morning Baltimore"), Ricky Lake playing Tracy Turnblad (who also has a cameo in this version as a talent agent), and her mother was played by Divine (ten days after the premiere, Divine died in his sleep). I was worried that John Travolta would not be able to fill Divine's massive heels, but he sure did a great job.

Nikki Blonsky, who unsuccessfully tried so hard to get the part of Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway version was discovered working for an ice cream shop in New York where the staff are renowned for singing for their tips. Nikki did a fantastic job of playing the pleasantly plump Tracy, and her voice is heavenly.

I have been like totally such a major fan of Queen Latifa since Chicago when she played Mamma, and her role playing Motormouth Maybelle was awesome, man that girl can sing, she is Big Blonde and Beautiful.

The heartthrobs Zac Effron and James Marsden were great. Especially Marsdens killer smiles, and Effron's amazing eyes (were those contacts he as wearing?). I could swear he was winking at me. The Corny Collins Show is based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show, which was canceled because the producers wouldn't integrate black and white dancers.

Allison Janney was my favourite character, she was always my favourite in The West Wing, and is perfect for this over the top, camp role. Michelle Pfeiffer was great plating the über bitch too. My least favourite character was Christopher Walken, his interpretation of his character was so similar to the role he played in Catch Me if You Can.

The costuming and sets were all over completely the top, along with the hair.... just the way I like it.

This gets a toe-tapping 10/10 from me.

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