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With: Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller, Ric Ocasek, Pia Zadora, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Josh Charles, Mink Stole, Michael St. Gerard, Leslie Ann Powers, John Waters
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Written by: John Waters
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Directed by: John Waters
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MPAA Rating: PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking
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Running Time: 92
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Date: 02/26/1988
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Integration Nation
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
John Waters had his first sizable budget ($2.7 million versus $300,000 for his previous film Polyester) and his first PG rating on Hairspray, and yet lost none of his edge. It's set in Baltimore in 1962, where teens are obsessed with dance show "The Corny Collins Show" on TV. Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) dreams of being on the show, and gets her wish when she wins a dance contest. She befriends some Black kids at school and begins fighting against integration, including on the show itself, which as a designated "Negro Day" and does not allow Black folks into the studio on other days. It features Waters's favorite performer Divine in her final role (she died just week after the film was released) as both Tracy's mom and as a racist TV station owner.
The incredible cast also includes Jerry Stiller as Tracy's dad, legendary singer Ruth Brown as "Motormouth Maybelle Stubbs," a strong and influential Black woman in the community, Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry as the racist parents of the blonde snob Amber (Colleen Fitzpatrick, also known as pop star Vitamin C), Mink Stole (another Waters regular) as Corny's assistant, Josh Charles (Dead Poets Society) as a teen dancer, Ric Ocasek and Pia Zadora as a pair of Beatniks, Michael St. Gerard as hunky Link (Tracy's love interest), Leslie Ann Powers as Tracy's best friend Penny (who begins dating a Black man), and Waters himself as a kooky psychiatrist who tries to brainwash Penny into dating whites. The movie is funny and sweet as well as being edgy and incredibly socially progressive, and while Waters fans wouldn't dare compare it with his underground early work, it's still one of his best. It was adapted into a Broadway show in 2002, and that was adapted into another movie in 2007.
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