July: Summer Movie
Preview
Hairspray. July
20
Starring:
John Travolta, Nikki Blonsky, Michelle
Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah.
Written by:
Thomas Meehan, Mark O'Donnell, Leslie
Dixen
Directed by:
Adam Shankman
Ah, the wonders of the modern female
fat suit. Many male performers —
from Robin Williams
to Eddie Murphy
— have glued on latex or silicone
to bulk up and switch sexes in the name
of comedy. Now it's John
Travolta's turn to pack on the
pounds to play Edna Turnblad, a zaftig
early-1960s Baltimore housewife whose
plump teen daughter, Tracy (Nikki
Blonsky), is determined to integrate
a local TV dance show, thus striking a
blow for big girls and black folks simultaneously.
Travolta has especially big pumps to
fill, since he's had a couple of larger-than-life
predecessors. Drag iconoclast Divine
played Edna in John
Waters' landmark 1988 film comedy,
and Harvey Fierstein
anchored the hit 2002 Broadway musicalization.
This flick is modeled after the stage
show, not Waters' original, and marks
the 53-year-old Travolta's first singing
role since 1978's Grease.
He took it after turning down movie musicals
for years, including the part Richard
Gere played in Chicago. Why the
holdout? ''I always
said the best parts in musicals are women's
parts,'' he told EW at the recent
ShoWest convention in Las Vegas.
The filmmakers compounded the Greaseconnection
by coaxing Grease
2 star Michelle
Pfeiffer to play nefarious anti-integrationist
Velma Von Tussle. ''It
always surprises me just how bad a shape
my voice gets into,'' says Pfeiffer,
who gets to sing ''Miss Baltimore Crabs,''
a beauty-pageant ode. ''But
I feel like I understand the instrument
more now.'' Though Pfeiffer worried
that Velma was too shrewish, she says
she trusted director Adam
Shankman (Bringing
Down the House) to keep Velma sympathetic,
not just a foil for nicer characters like
Edna's husband, Wilbur (Christopher
Walken), and record-shop proprietress
Motormouth Maybelle (Queen
Latifah).
Of course, they could all wind up overshadowed
by the film's would-be Jennifer
Hudson: Blonsky, who was working
at a Cold Stone Creamery on Long Island
before winning the part of Tracy in an
open audition. Says the director of his
18-year-old leading lady, who sings sublimely,
''She's the reason
this whole movie works.''
(July 20) |
