Creepy is the Word (is the Word, is the Word...)

Coming this summer to a theater near you! It's Hairspray! Again! The remake of the 1988 John Waters camp classic stars, of all people, John Travolta as Baltimore housewife Edna Turnbladt, the role Divine made famous almost twenty years ago. It's the latest movie to capitalize on Hollywood's trend of remaking older movies. I don't understand why film companies do this, instead of sourcing new original screenplays. There isn't a dearth of new material out there, that's for sure. But with all the aspiring screenwriters dying to get their stories forever fixed onto celluloid, why do Hollywood execs take the easy way out and remake a hit movie from the past? Or, in Hairspray's case, the remake of a movie based on a play based on a movie.

I was a senior in college in Baltimore when the movie debuted almost twenty years ago. The new wave dance club that I used to go to every Friday night held dance auditions to cast for the movie. A friend of one of my best friends from school landed a role as an extra in the film. She's one of the "special" kids on Tracey Turnbladt's team in the gym class scene. The movie had its world premiere in Baltimore at a theater on York Road, close to my school. My roommates and I could look out of our dorm room window and see the spotlights in the sky from the theater as we watched local television coverage of the premiere on t.v. A week later I saw the movie at that theater. Divine had made a hand imprint in cement in the theater's sidewalk on premiere night, just like they do at Graumann's Chinese Theater. A few weeks later, he was dead. The original movie will forever remind me of my senior year. Good times, good times.

I'm always skeptical of movie remakes. They're usually never as good as the original (who could forget Debbie Harry as Mrs. Von Tussel, asking Divine's Edna Turnbladt "Is your daughter a mulatto?"). And they fill all the roles with the industry's hottest actors, whether they're really suited to the role or not, because they're already planning on having a blockbuster on their hands. In the case of the original Hairspray, its unique charm is derived from the fact that it was a quirky movie, not quite the independent movies of Waters's early career, but it had the same irreverance and non-conformity, while being made within the confines of the established Hollywood industry. It was made because Waters had a vision (and I'm not talking about the vision of dollar signs in his eyes). Hairspray also used more creative casting, including using unknown actors. Nobody had heard of Riki Lake before the original Hairspray. The movie launched her career - a dubious distinction, perhaps, given her subsequent and appallingly trashy talk show of the 1990s. But I try not to think about that when I watch the original movie.

It will be interesting to see how much the city of Baltimore has changed since the original movie was made. 1962 was "only" twenty-five years in the past when Hairspray was filmed. Remnants of the Sixties could still be seen here and there around Baltimore. None more conspicuous than big hair. Baltimore was famous for it, (hence the title of the film, and the attention it gives to hair and various hair-care techniques, such as hairspraying, teasing, ironing, combing, etc.) The old lady who worked at the liquor store where my roommates and I bought our alcohol still had a beehive. "The higher the hair, the closer to God." The city scenes looked convincingly like 1962 because many of the city streets, with the ubiquitous Baltimore rowhouses, remained unchanged architecturally. I wonder if they still are. The original Hairspray was as much a love letter to Baltimore as it was social commentary, mixed with nostalgia.



Until I see the movie myself, I will reserve judgment as to whether John Travolta, who simply oozed testosterone in "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease," will make a good Edna Turnbladt. It could either be the most brilliant casting decision since Charleton Heston played Moses, or the biggest casting disaster since George Clooney played Batman. And, with "Grease" and "Hairspray," movies named for styling products, what's next for John Travolta? Maybe "Mousse?" - How about "Gel!" Or "Styling Putty," perhaps.

Judging from the photo, Travolta in drag, in a fat suit, looks kind of creepy. And if there's anything creepier than John Travolta as Edna Turnbladt, it's the doll of John Travolta as Edna Turnbladt. Debuting in July to coincide with the movie release, a toy company is launching a line of singing Hairspray dolls. Which begs the question: will there be "other outfits sold separately?" Perhaps some stylish ensembles from Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway?