Review of Hairspray (1988) by Sibby W — 30 Mar 2008

The best. The remake musical is fun, but this, with all its camp, remains a lot truer to its source material. Most people don't realize that this was, indeed, based on a real life show in Baltimore, which struggled with segregation, and is not a campy imitation of "Bandstand".

For younger audiences who saw the musical first, and who are a lot less uptight about race then their parents and grandparents, some of Waters' humor, poking fun at racists, may not be realized as such.