Hairspray Holds Up
I caught the North American premiere screening of the film musical Hairspray last Monday night in Toronto (at the wonderful Elgin Theater) and must say that I was pleasantly surprised. And if the rest of the audience’s reaction to the movie is any indication, this adaptation of the Broadway play–which itself was adapted to the stage from John Waters’ 1988 film of the same name–should be a huge summertime hit. Dare I say that it may just end up being this generation’s Grease?
Needless to say, the cast is an impressive mix of veterans and relative newcomers: John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley and Nikki Blonsky.
I’m pretty certain that Travolta will be receive a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as Edna Turnblad (and could very well take home the award, too, considering he’s never won before and has been around now for a very long time). And that’s a prediction coming from someone who took a while to embrace the actor’s performance in this film; despite the fact that the rest of the audience surrendered their love and laughter to him almost immediately. Who said my days of playing hard to get were over?
Michelle Pfeiffer is wonderful as the film’s villainess, Velma Von Tussle; I just love it when she plays evil. More, please! Christopher Walken has fun with his role, Queen Latifah’s voice has never sounded better—again, look for an Oscar nomination, although Pfeiffer is equally deserving—and speaking of voices, who knew that cutie James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops of the X-Men flicks) could sing and dance?
One of the reasons I think this film will do great boxoffice has to do with the casting of Zac Efron. Thanks to the phenomenal success of High School Musical, this fresh-faced actor is beyond popular with tween and teen girls at the moment and will have the gals (and young fags) returning to the movie theaters time and time again to watch his moves on screen. (Note to Zac, who attended the premiere: If you know you’re going to appear on stage prior to the film’s screening, for god’s sake either take your gum out of your mouth or at least stop chewing it until you’ve returned to your seat. Not an attractive sight, I have to say.)
Nikki Blonsky, who was selected from something like 10,000 others auditioning for the pivotal role of Tracy Turnblad, has energy to spare and easily holds her own on screen with the Hollywood heavy-hitters. And don’t get me wrong, while she definitely has a strong singing voice I realized after a couple of songs that it also reminded me of every actress whose ever appeared on Broadway in “Annie”. A little too enthusiastic sounding at times, if you know what I mean.
And speaking of singing voices, Elijah Kelley’s is unbelievably awesome. And he’s pretty easy on the eyes, too.
Hairspray will be released on July 20. Word of mouth alone should prevent its cinematic run from being a case of Hair today, gone tomorrow. And if the opening night crowd is any indication, this is THE film of the summer for gay men to bring their favorite fag hag to.
Cheers!
S.R.
