Hairspray: stage vs screen

Hairspray has traveled in both directions. John Waters' 1988 film comedy, starring Ricki Lake as Tracy and Divine as Edna, became the 2002 Broadway musical with a score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, which was then filmed in 2007 by Adam Shankman with Nikki Blonsky as Tracy and John Travolta as Edna. Here is what changed at each step.

Stage

Broadway musical (2002)

Screen

Hairspray (1988), John Waters' original film, and Hairspray (2007), the movie musical

1. The original film is not a musical

Waters' 1988 film is a comedy built around early 1960s dance records, with just one original song, so Tracy, Link, and Corny Collins dance but do not sing. The Broadway show gave them an original score, with songs like "Good Morning Baltimore," "I Can Hear the Bells," and "You Can't Stop the Beat." The 2007 film is a movie of that musical, not a remake of the 1988 film.

2. Different villains in 1988

In the 1988 film, Amber's parents Velma and Franklin Von Tussle (Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono) own an amusement park that bans Black visitors, and Franklin hides a bomb in Velma's towering wig to use if Amber loses. The musical drops Franklin and the bomb and makes Velma the scheming producer of The Corny Collins Show. The 2007 film makes her the manager of the TV station that airs it.

3. Reform school, jail, or no jail at all

After a protest turns into a riot in the 1988 film, Tracy is sent to reform school and is freed only when Motormouth Maybelle and Li'l Inez handcuff themselves to the Governor of Maryland. On Broadway she is arrested at a protest march, the women sing "The Big Dollhouse" behind bars, and Link sneaks into the jail to free her. The 2007 film skips jail for Tracy entirely: she goes on the run, and her friends and father help sneak her into the TV studio for the finale.

4. Who wins the pageant

The 1988 film ends at the Miss Auto Show 1963 pageant, where the newly pardoned Tracy claims her crown after the bomb in Velma's wig goes off and the Von Tussles are arrested. On stage, Tracy wins Miss Teenage Hairspray and announces that the show is now integrated. In the 2007 film, Little Inez wins the crown instead.

5. Songs cut from the 2007 film

The 2007 film drops "The Big Dollhouse," "Velma's Revenge," and the reprise of "Good Morning Baltimore," and turns "Cooties" into an instrumental during the pageant. "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" was cut from the story but plays over the end credits, sung by Ricki Lake, Marissa Jaret Winokur (Broadway's Tracy), and Nikki Blonsky.

6. Songs added for the 2007 film

Link (Zac Efron) gets a new solo, "Ladies' Choice." "The New Girl in Town," a song written for the stage show but cut before Broadway, returns to accompany a montage of Tracy's rise to fame. A new song, "Come So Far (Got So Far to Go)," plays over the end credits.

7. Edna, Wilbur, and Velma

Edna has always been played by a man: Divine in 1988 (who also played Arvin Hodgepile, the racist station manager), Harvey Fierstein on Broadway, and John Travolta in 2007. Travolta plays Edna as a shy, insecure woman who rarely ventures out. The film also adds a subplot in which Velma tries to seduce Wilbur (Christopher Walken), so "(You're) Timeless to Me" becomes the song that reconciles him with Edna.

Hairspray movie vs musical: FAQs