Is it just me....

[pat]

... or is there something grimly ironic in the fact that in a movie about accepting and empowering the marginalized, one of the main characters is played not by a large actress (like there are a lot of roles for really large older actresses) or a transvestite (a la Divine) or even an out gay man (Harvey, honey, we miss you!) but by a very successful straight white male actor in a fat suit and drag?

However, that said, I did enjoy Hairspray quite a lot. Nikki Blonsky was wonderful, and deserved much higher billing than she got. The supporting performances were uniformly good to very good as well: I have a particular fondness for Amanda Bynes (and the girl can sing!) as Tracy's air-head friend Penny and Allison Janney as Penny's bizarro fundamentalist Christian mother. And John Travolta and Christopher Walken had chemistry as Mr. & Mrs. Turnblad.

But the best? John Waters had a cameo... as a flasher.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i soooooo wanted edna and wilbur to kiss. i was betting it wouldn't happen, but i soooo wanted it to.

actually, for billing-- first listed is best, but then last listed is second best. for some weird reason. so she's actually got second best billing in the show.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Well, good. I'm glad... she's a prior unknown, so top billing would not be possible, so second is good.

And I wanted Edna and Wilbur to kiss, too : )

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

And I wanted Edna and Wilbur to kiss, too : )

Me three... :-)

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

The whole Travolta thing has kept me away so far. :/

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Thing is, he's good in the role. And I guess it says something that someone like him would take a role like this and not have it raise eyebrows. Still, I was very disappointed that they did not hire Harvey Fierstein to reprise his stage performance.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

... or is there something grimly ironic in the fact that in a movie about accepting and empowering the marginalized, one of the main characters is played not by a large actress (like there are a lot of roles for really large older actresses) or a transvestite (a la Divine) or even an out gay man (Harvey, honey, we miss you!) but by a very successful straight white male actor in a fat suit and drag?

Nods, you've got a good point there. I didn't expect them to put a woman in the role, since Harvey made it tradition that the mother be played by a man, but you're right that they could have picked a trans or gay man.

That being said, though, Travolta did justice to the role. And it's good in a way to see the mainstream being willing to support gender-bending... that's a triumph of a different sort.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I don't think Divine ever got the credit he* deserved for his acting ability. His part in "Lust in the dust" made it one of my favorites.

* I'm never sure of what pronoun to use so I picked one and went with it.