Twenty years ago film auteur John Waters wrote and directed his homage to his hometown Baltimore, hair hopping, after school television and the racial division in 1962. He called his movie “Hairspray.” Twenty years later, his “Hairspray” returns to the big screen not as a Waters’ cult film, but the big brightly colored happy screen adaptation of the Broadway musical play.

All three versions can stand on their own merits. Each one was very good in its own right (or in this case write). That is because the essential elements of the original still stand intact. Like most John Water films, the central characters are outsiders and oversized. This is certainly the case in “Hairspray” The perky heroine, Tracy Turnblad, played by newcomer Nikki Blonsky, is a short overweight teenager with a dream to dance and become a Council Member on “The Corny Collins Show”, Baltimore’s version of American Bandstand. She thinks every day shoudl be Negro Day and does not understand the racial tensions that exist in her world.

Tracy’s Mom, Edna, a role designed to be played by a man, who is an overweight laundress who has does not spend much time outside of her Baltimore row house is played not so much as camp but more as woman inside a man’s fat suit. In the original, it was Waters’ favorite Devine. In the original Broadway cast it was Harvey Fierstein and now John Travolta in his first big screen musical performance since “Grease”. He is terrific. He plays the part more as a woman ashamed of her size than vamping it as a drag role. He has lost none of his dancing and singing ability and his Baltimore accent is just fine, Hon.

The rest of casting is near perfect and they all can sing and dance – Amada Bynes, Brittany Snow, Zac Effron, Elijah Kelly representing the central youth of the film. Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken (yes, he too, can sing and dance), James Marsden (Collins)and the ever present movie musical star, Queen Latifah. Technical and production credits are just fine although I do wish they shot on location here in Charm City rather than in Toronto.

Those looking for the original social satire of the Water’s “Hairspray” may be disappointed by this pop version, but I was not one of them. After all this is v3. I liked all three. The hope of a young girl in an ever changing world is quite present in this movie and even and if it represented a small step towards a more tolerant world, it’s a step that is worth watching and enjoying.

3 3/4 rabbit feet

Sinema Rabbit