Hairspray, 2007, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken
Hairspray is a 2007 musical film produced by Zadan/Meron Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, itself adapted from John Waters' 1988 comedy film. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the film follows a "pleasantly-plump" teen named Tracy Turnblad as she simultaneously pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.
Adapted from both Waters' 1988 script and Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell's book for the stage musical by screenwriter Leslie Dixon, the 2007 version of Hairspray is directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman. Hairspray stars John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, and introduces newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. Hairspray features songs from the Broadway musical written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as a handful of Shaiman/Wittman compositions not present in the Broadway version.
Hairspray debuted in 3,121 theatres in North America on July 20, 2007, the widest debut of any modern movie musical. The film earned $27,476,745 in its opening weekend, behind I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This makes Hairspray the record-holder for the biggest sales at opening weekend for a movie musical. The film has since gone on to become the fourth largest grossing musical in U.S. cinema history, surpassing Dreamgirls ($103 million), released seven months prior. As of September 3, 2007, Hairspray has earned an estimated $112,300,000 in the U.S., and $140,700,918 worldwide, and is to date the third highest-grossing PG-rated film of 2007.
Two weeks after its original release, new "sing-along" prints of Hairspray were shipped to theaters. These prints featured the lyrics to each song printed onscreen as subtitles, encouraging audiences to interact with the film.
Hairspray has garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics such as Roger Ebert, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, as well as a smaller number of reviews comparing it unfavorably to the Waters original. The film is one of the top picks on Metacritic, with an average of 81%. It scored a 93% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, also indicating excellent reviews, and making it as of present one of 2007's top twenty best-reviewed films.Wikipedia
