Hey girl, what you doing over there?
Can’t you see? I’m spraying my hair …

I’ll disclose right away that I am an original “Hairspray” fan. I wore that tape out as a kid. I practiced my mashed potato right along with the television in my mom’s living room. I knew all the lines, all the songs, etc.

I had high hopes going into the theater tonight. The songs are funny and catchy. The new Tracy is cute and likable, even more so than Ricki Lake. The bigger budget was well spent on making it really look like it’s the 1960′s. But it’s not a John Waters movie anymore. And they cut out many of my favorite gags in the first one. There are no beatniks, no ironing your hair, no auto show, no limbo …. Tracy doesn’t go to special ed because her hair is too high. All of the fathers except Tracy’s have been cut out – and the mothers got bigger parts, more lines, and numbers to sing. Penny’s mom (which was a hilarious role in the first movie) is only a fractionally as weird and crazy, but still funny.

However, the the single thing that made me want to cover my eyes was John Travolta as Edna. He makes the worst woman ever. They should have got a real drag queen for the part, instead of suiting Travolta up in a latex fat suit. Now, to be fair, Travolta is a great dancer. But he takes the part of Edna so seriously that I was just creeped out by him. Which is probably because I was expecting the campy satire that made the original flick so great.

Yeah, it’s not the same. It was entertaining and I had a good time in the theater, but it’s not the same movie at all. I’d rather shake my tail feather along with the John Waters classic. Thanks.