Week Of July 9, 2007 - Mon / Fri

July 13, 2007

"Styles keep a changin'
The world's re-arrangin'
But Hairspray, you're timeless to me"

Musicals are a funny thing. 

They are a form of drama that moves right past our traditional ways of processing drama.  Music does that. Music is something that you don't think about.  You feel it.  Or you don't.  But it pushes right past the intellect.

When John Waters made Hairspray 20 years ago, it was his first movie with a rating more family accessible than an R.  And it was not even a PG-13.  It was PG all the way.   (Ironically, Red Dawn, the very first PG-13 release, back in 1984, gets a DVD relaunch next Tuesday, three days before Hairspray is released).

The funny thing about Hairspray is that it stayed very specifically in the Waters oeuvre.  It was a period film - his norm - about outsiders - his norm - with the outsiders overcoming long odds - his norm - with an untraditional hero - his norm - and a shockingly loveable drag queen at the heart of the thing.  But it wasn't just Divine in this case.  Expanding the base, he had a young, fat, female at the center and mixed race in as a theme.  They shall all overcome. 

The film was not a hit.  It grossed less in its run - never cracking 250 screens (back when 1250 screens was a good sized release) - than Biloxi Blues did on opening weekend when it opened a month after Hairspray.  Many things have changed since then.  One of them is that Hairspray became "one of those" VHS-driven classics. 

It made Ricki Lake a celebrity.  Divine, who had been developing a mainstream career in the years just before Hairspray, died just as the film expanded into a wider release, which may have dampened the excitement a bit.  Sonny Bono, Deborah Harry, Ruth Brown, Jerry Stiller, and Pia Zadora all got street cred from their appearances.  And it was even Josh Charles' first film ... before Dead Poet's Society.

The film also spoke to a theme very popular at the movies.  What was at the heart of the National Lampoon-era films, like Animal House, Stripes, Caddyshack, and Ghsotbusters?  The nerds have their day over the mainstream.  Revenge of the Nerds, Footloose, The Goonies, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Cocoon, and Beetlejuice were among the most popular of them. 

As a Broadway musical, the show launched the 2002-2003 season on July 18, 2002.  The Producers (2002 Best Musical), The Lion King (1998 Best Musical), and Mamma Mia! were top of the Broadway charts.  Other movies turned stage shows were having some success, including Thoroughly Modern Millie (2001 Best Musical), The Graduate, The Full Monty, and Beauty & The Beast.  Chicago was struggling along with the film due four months later.  

What Hairspray brought to the table that was a little different - and a little the same - was its late 50s, early 60s sensibility that fit right into the Tony winners of 1961, Bye Bye Birdie and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.  Bye Bye Birdie, for those of you who don't know the show, was about a typical American family sidetracked by an Elvis-like character using them for promotional value as he shipped off to war, centered around the guy who is handling the promotion.  How to Succeed was about a complete underdog (albeit it white and suit wearing) who mocks industry by rising through its ranks in a week or so by sheer force of will and a guidebook. 

Hairspray dirties up the perfect American family a bit, embracing the spirit of that same family writ lower class.  Mom is overweight and a home laundress and dad owns a joke shop, the apex of his ambition. The J. Pierrepont Finch (from How To Succeed) of Hairspray is Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager with three unshakeable beliefs: 1) She must dance, 2) She must become famous, 3) Integration is right. 

Her forum isn't being on the Ed Sullivan show being kissed by Elvis.  She will earn her place with her skill as a dancer and her indomitable spirit. 

The score, written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, did a great job of balancing and progressing through the late 50s doo-wop and 60's R&B.  The book, which stays close to the movie in some ways and drops the rough stuff on the other, was written by Mark O'Donnell and Tony-winning The Producers collaborator Thomas Meehan. 

Taking up the impossible-to-replace role of Edna Turnblad played by Divine was the can't-be-replaced Harvey Fierstein.  But ironically, Edna's dancing partner, Wilbur, played by vet Dick Latessa, was at the heart of the show, with a number called, "You'll Always Be Timeless To Me."  Somehow this romantic number between two losers the audience loved became the showstopper.  It was an example of how big the heart of the show was and how it somehow avoided feeling gooey, if only a bit because the woman in the romantic number was a man.  Outside was in.  Inside, out.

And now ... the movie ... .

Adam Shankman as The Director and Choreographer.  Leslie Dixon as The Screenwriter.

And the element I feared the most ... John Travolta in drag.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the multiplex.  It turned out that John Travolta wasn't playing the role as any kind of drag queen, taking the matter-of-factness of Divine a step beyond.  Travolta plays a woman in this movie.  And by about halfway through the film, she is delivering the full skill set of Travolta movie charm.  We love Edna, this woman who is afraid to leave the house to let anyone see her enormous girth ... and who learns to love herself as the film progresses.  If the film does good business, there is a very real chance of this performance getting a Best Supporting Actor (or is it Actress) nomination.  His work here is every bit a revelatory as his work in Pulp Fiction.

Of course, the movie is built around her daughter, Tracy Turnblad.  And there, as on stage, is a more dramatic example of the chubby girl than your memories of Ricki Lake will ever allow.  Nikki Blonsky is the proverbial bundle of energy.  She's that girl who waits on you in some crummy restaurant and is so freakin' charming that you have to tip her double what you normally would and try to help her get a job somewhere better. 

Filling out the family roster is Chris Walken, who has become The Father Most Likely as he's gotten older, a man of the (very weird) world with a glint in the eye and a willingness to go to unexpected ends.  You believe him as a man who lusts for Triple-E Edna and has no interest in skinny Michelle Pfeiffer and her Baltimore crabs.

Just outside of the nuclear family is Amanda Bynes as Tracy's best friend, the goofy Penny Pingleton, whose expansive tastes seem to surprise her every time.  Her mom, who was Prudence in the original film and became Prudy in the musical, is played by the great Allison Janney, about whom the only complaint is not enough screen time.

At the TV station is The Corny Collins Show, the girls' favorite.  One of the real surprises of the film is James Marsden, as Corny, who can actually sing and dance a bit.  (The producers of Xanadu should be calling him to fill in for the show's make lead as soon as possible.)  The station manager is Michelle Pfeiffer, who is game, but the one underwhelming element in the film, as the evil racist Velma Von Tussle.

The Nicest Kids In Town are led by Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow, who played "the new girl" in the Mean Girls rip-off John Tucker Must Die)  and the charismatic Link Larkin, played by the super-heated star of High School Musical, Zac Efron.  Both actors hit their (one)notes just right.  But both have a chance, before its all over, to show a little more.

One of the little-mentioned home run moments on the film is very reminiscent of the "Oh Sandy" number from Grease, which most of us remember not for the heartfelt singing of John Travolta, but for the great 1950s promotional films on the drive-in screen, including the famous hot-dog-jumping-into-the-bun.  The number here is "Without Love," which has Link/Zac searching out Tracy and dueting with her photograph.  You have to see it to get the big smile on your face that I get when I think about it. 

On the other side of the tracks are Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah), Seaweed (Elijah Kelley, from Take The Lead) and Little Inez (Taylor Parks).  It's one of those odd circumstances of casting (who else is a name for this role besides Latifah, and she also worked with Shankman on Bringing Down The House) that Queen Latifah is about the only movie star you can imagine who can match up and face-off with John Travolta in the massive suit.  These are two big women and there is a real sense of them sharing something deeper that has never really been in any other incarnation of this material.  In addition, Latifah hits every note of this character with a very relaxed energy that she hasn't really tapped in a role before.  She is the adult in the room.  And she can belt with anyone.

The real revelation in the family is Elijah Kelley, who is a truly electric performer.  He gets a number of opportunities to move, but it is when he knocks out "Run and Tell That" with a dance that takes him from the schoolyard to the bus to his neighborhood that he just blows it out.  He's the first guy I have seen in a long, long time who really does strike me as having the kind of talent that Sammy Davis, Jr had ... and I saw The Man in Vegas in the 70s when a night in the showroom with him was a one of a kind experience.

So that's the cast.  And here is my experience of this film ...

I first saw it in a slightly premature screening - New Line was thrilled with what was delivered - and the show was so charming and sweet that it was pretty irresistible.  Still, there were flaws that stuck out, the most frustrating being that Adam Shankman is a better choreographer than a visual director.  He set things up beautifully and then didn't quite know how to show it.  Often, he over-edited when what we, as an audience, needed was a simple shot of the person singing or dancing ... the emotion is in the eyes and physicality of some great performances.

When I finally saw the final version, there were two notable differences ... and, for me, improved the experience by about 20%.  First, it felt like Shankman had taken out some of the edits that felt so hyperactive.  And secondly - and more importantly - the soundtrack, serviced by composer Marc Shaiman, was complete. 

It was truly fascinating to experience.  I am used to seeing rough cuts of films.  I understand cutting and what is and isn't there when a movie is shown mid-process.  But the difference between the first and second screening, for me, was like seeing tiles in a bathroom when they are just being placed and then, when the grouting is done just right.  The music, which is far lusher than the Original Broadway Cast Album, fills the empty spaces in a remarkable way.  Shots that weren't changed work better than before.  And in a show like this, there is something powerful about how rich, emotive wall-to-wall music acts as a hammock for everything else.   This is not like Chicago or Dreamgirls, pretending on some level that they were not traditional musicals.  This is overtly a musical, from the first number, as Tracy wakes up singing and does the John Waters version of the Beauty & The Beast opening "Belle" number as she walks around Baltimore. 

I liked the movie the first time I saw it.  I loved it the second time.  There are a couple of saggy spots, but the movie runs nicely in third gear for about seventy minutes ("Good Morning, Baltimore," "I Can Hear The Bells," and "Run & Tell That" are the home runs.)  And then the film really comes to life when Travolta and Walken have their duet.  Every turn from then on is unique, exciting, and simply joyous.  There is the big Civil Rights number with Latifah, the great kitsch romantic number with Zac, Nikki, and a great story turn with Amanda Bynes, and the big driving finale number, "You Can't Stop The Beat."

There are three of the stage show's songs that didn't make the movie, though two of them ("Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" and "Cooties") turn up over credits.  I really missed Mama, since it gives us another chance to hear from Penny Pingleton, my favorite secondary character in the show. And I understand why "The Big Doll House" had to go ... it is by far the most the-a-tah number in the stage show. 

There is also a new song, "Come So Far," that is over credits ... as though no one at New Line got the note that you can't just tag a new song onto the credits and run it for an Oscar nomination anymore.  The song has to be an integral part of the film now.  It also keeps the credits from going right into their version of "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" sung by Blonsky, Rikki Lake and the Tony-winning Broadway Tracy, Marissa Janet Winokur  I would love to think there was some footage of the trio out there to go with the song ... but it's not in the credits.  And without it, not many will get the joke of the performance of the song.  (A tiny cameo in the song from another Broadway star is unmistakable.)

If I was New Line, I would be pushing "Run & Tell That" and "Without Love" a lot harder.  "You Can't Stop The Beat" is obviously the anthem of the show.  But for a younger audience, those two numbers are as current as a musical can be and feature the young cast, who are critical to the success of the film.  That and a few more shots of Travolta dancing. 

This is a clean, clear, very likeable show.   It's not edgy like Chicago or serious like Dreamgirls or the topper to the already popular Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley that Grease was.  But it's a terrific, good looking, beautifully acted ride and a perfect summer change of pace. 

Like I wrote ... musicals ... they are a funny thing.  Few forms of art deliver so much sexual panic to perfectly heterosexual men.  Few forms make people tense up and judge instead of simply allowing themselves to sit back and let the wave of pleasure (in a good show) wash over them.  I feel fortunate that my parents, who were almost my age in the height of the Gershwin, then Rogers & Hammerstein and Lerner & Loewe eras, raised me on this stuff.  They gave me - completely by mistake - the freedom to go into viewing pretty much any form of art without self-consciousness or the presumption of my own insecurities.  That doesn't keep musicals or any artistic effort from being mediocre or simply sucking ... but it allows me to embrace the joy of discovery any time I enter a theater. 

The most pleasure I have had in a theater showing a studio release this summer was in Ratatouille and Hairspray.  Could it be that it's because both films are so in love with the human spirit?  Yeah ... that could be it.  Bring on Bourne and Superbad (and my secret dark horse hope for the end of the summer, Hot Rod) ... things are looking up.

E Me.

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