Based on the movie in 1988 and the broadway musical in 2002, “Hairspray” the movie musical recreates the story and changes the ending to give the movie something truly unique for the message of acceptance and love. The story follows Tracy Turnblad, an aspiring performer and a helpless romantic in the city of Baltimore.
Tracy dreams of her voice and heart heard through expressions of performance. She auditions to be on her favorite show, the “Corny Collins Show”, where students in Baltimore dance and perform for live television for the hit songs and trendy dances in their time. Tracy meets the performers from the “Negro Day” channel and teaches her some moves for her audition.
However, she became a target for her ideas to integrate the show with the Negro Day performers. When she’s taken back to the hangout place for Negro Day, she learns the channel is in the process of shut down due to the racism of the producers and directors of the station. This leads Tracy to join the black community in their march against the station to integrate the Corny Collins show with Negro Day.
Tracy and company infiltrate the station for the live show of the competition and in the middle of the show, Tracy and Negro Day host’s daughter Little Inez interrupt the contest and join in. Even though she was of color and not part of the roster, Little Inez received the most votes for her dance and won the Miss Teenage Hairspray Pagent, integrating the show and allowed everyone to come together as one regardless of color.
This change in the story is so iconic compared to the other productions because unlike the original movie and musical, integration is actually achieved. In the other versions, Tracy just wins and lives her dream as a performer while the message of equality and activism gets completely ignored.
This change in the story makes me adore this version of the show so much more. Something actually becomes achieved from the Negro Day community and the other activists along with Tracy and her companions.
“Hairspray’s” revolutionary theme of racism in America is constant today, and the film portrays the obliviousness of others who didn’t understand why people were treated differently. The film also helps to portray the many different forms of art in music that the black community gifted to the world such as gospel, blues and funk.
The film also had notable black actors such as Elijah Kelley who played Seaweed, Taylor Parks who played Little Inez and Queen Latifah as Maybelle. These actors helped to bring out the show’s powerful messages and helped to better portray the black community in the setting of 1962.
Overall, the film is a very good remake of a long-lasting iconic story that’s survived the test of time, but this adaptation will remain the best. The messages and themes while similar, receive more focus and actually become implemented into the story that makes the show so much more revolutionary.
