(no subject)

[pensnest]

I've been meaning to post this for a few days, but now I have a story deadline, so it is obviously a good time.

I watched 'Hairspray' the movie (alas) on the plane home from New York, and enjoyed it a lot. The tiny, round heroine is completely adorable, and lots of the dance-y bits made me want to get up and be choreographed. It'd be charming to think that overcoming discrimination was Just That Easy back in 1962, too.

But I have a gripe. I cannot think of a good reason why Tracy's mother has to be played by a man (in the movie, John Travolta). Yes, apparently it's 'tradition' for the various incarnations of this production. But still—why?

'Cause I think it stinks.

Comments

[phaballa.livejournal.com]

Tracy's mom is played by a man because John Waters wrote and directed the original film. If you know anything about John Waters, you'll understand why this means anything. He was obsessed with Divine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_(Glen_Milstead)), who was a famous drag queen. Part of it is meant to be a statement about gender roles and sexuality; since the movie is primarily about prejudice of various sorts, I think the idea of having Divine play the mother was John Waters's way of saying 'fuck you' to the mainstream media in as many ways as possible.

And that's carried over into the musical because they want to honor Waters's original vision. The new movie (and the musical) is cute, but it doesn't have the same gritty punch of the original film. I think of the original 'Hairspray' as being sort of like a crack fic. It's really meant as a very serious social commentary about prejudice, and I think he wrote it as an allegory that's meant to represent the GLBT rights movement. He wrote it in the last 1980s, at the height of the AIDS scare in America when Reagan was president and almost the entire country had been brainwashed into thinking that gay = AIDS.

Anyway, that's just my interpretation. It might not be significant anymore to have the role played by a man. I also don't think John Travolta was the best choice, since he's NOT a drag queen. That takes the role away from the political meaning and sort of makes a mockery of Divine, which isn't really... yeah, I'm not fond of that.

[pensnest]

Hmm. I know nothing about John Waters, although I had read a little bit about the original film and knew that Divine played the mother there. (And a male character also, I believe.) It sounds from your description as though it would have a completely different feel from the 2007 version.

Hmm again. Clearly, the modern version of the film is much more lighthearted "let's make a musical! It'll be fun!" kind of thing. But the message I get from having John Travolta playing Tracy's mother is quite simply: middle aged fat women cannot be sexy. It has to be understood as comic. Possibly I'm influenced by panto, but to me, it's deliberately undercutting the surface message of the songs and the parents' relationship. As a middle aged fat woman who does all right (and incidentally can dance without bumping into things), I just found I resented it more and more as I watched.

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem was that they cast Travolta AT ALL. phaballa's right -- an actual real drag queen would've been infinitely better. Travolta doesn't know what it's like to be/act as a woman, and he doesn't know what it's like to be/act fat, and he FAILS on both counts when it comes to playing the character as anything other than horrifying camp.

[pensnest]

Perhaps that's it - I was increasingly horrified as I watched, to see how wrong it seemed. (And baffled by the blurb in the airline's magazine which said the film deserved to be remembered for more than Travolta's fabulous performance, hah.) It isn't quite a pantomime dame performance, but it isn't a realistic one either.

[musiclover03.livejournal.com]

What if Joey were in the role? LOL

[pensnest]

I don't think it would make me happy!

[musiclover03.livejournal.com]

*scratches idea*

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it has nothing to do with being a fat, middle-aged woman, it has to do with John Waters and Divine. I don't imagine what you felt when you watched had anything to do with it.

Whatever one may think of John Travolta in the role.

[pensnest]

So was it just me who missed the point, or was it the film makers?

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Probably both. :)

John Travolta is a big name, which to film makers is much more important than the integrity or purpose of the original. And yeah, you may be seeing something that's not meant to be there. But that's not to say Hollywood treats fat, middle-aged women kindly as a matter of course.