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AfterElton.com has an advance review of a "rough partial screening" of the new movie version of the Broadway musical version of John Water's cult classic movie Hairspray. (Whoa. That's some genealogy.) The musical, of course, had its pre-Broadway run here at the 5th Avenue Theater and has been back in various various versions since then. The new movie is scheduled for release this summer.



Blogger ChristieKeith has good news for fans of what has become a highly unlikely show-business franchise:

And yeah, John Travolta plays the Divine role of Edna Turnblad and yeah, that didn't work so much for me, but the rest of it? Divine is smiling down from heaven. ...
So, other than Travolta's semi-suckage, how was the movie? Oh, just basically completely brilliant. ...

Hairspray succeeds, in all three of its incarnations, because at heart it's a feel-good movie about fighting the good fight. Tracy Turnblad, a plump high school girl who knows she's destined for greatness as either the first woman president or maybe a Rockette, gets picked as one of the dancers on an afternoon music show on a local TV station. She uses her new-found fame to take a public stand for racial equality in segregated 1962 Baltimore, saying that if she were the first woman president she'd "make every day Negro day!"

Hairspray is all about the triumph of good over evil, and a huge hunk of that goodness comes from Tracy, who is the best heroine ever, and the one with the most bouffant hair. ... She's played in Shankman's film by newcomer Nicole Blonsky, who was discovered by the producers at the social networking version of the soda fountain, MySpace. ...

[S]he's a radiant ball of pure sunshine in the role. Her voice is gorgeous, and she's just the prettiest thing, with the most beautiful eyes and the aforementioned extremely high bouffant hair.

[Hat tip: Queerty.]

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