Keenan Coffey

1/16/15

Drama A

Hairspray Performance Critique

Mrs. Rockne

Hairspray

 

                The performance of Hairspray was definitely a very interesting one. There were many reputable actors and actresses including Zac Efron, John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, and Allison Tannery. The movie takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. The time period of the musical starts in 1962. Hairspray is a well- known musical based in a time period when racial issues were present, and morals and values differed greatly.

                The overall story was structured well throughout the movie. The exposition starts with the Corny Collins Show and Tracy’s involvement with it. The rising action begins with Tracy ultimately auditioning for the show, and meeting the African American dancers on the show. The climax includes her admission into the show, and the backlash that came with it. Her size brought a lot of turmoil to the cast of the show, and also her protesting was the end of the climax. The falling action is Tracy’s sneaky actions to get onto the Corny Collin’s beauty pageant, and the first black winner of the pageant. The resolution is when the show gets integrated with the African Americans that participated in Negro Day.

                The performers did a fantastic job of portraying the values and expressions of people in this time period. John Travolta was Tracy’s mother, and showed how a typical mother in this time period was. He also gave a sense of humor to the movie because of a man playing a woman. Also, Zac Efron portrayed a typical teenager in this time period well. He was pro-integration, along with Nikki Blonsky performing as Tracy. Their characters were believable, along with the rest of the cast. Their volume and articulation was stellar because of the musical aspect to it, and the songs and characters did a good job with this. One takeaway would be how modern the songs sounded, and some of the modern body movements throughout the musical.

                The set established a mood of sympathy for the black teenagers and people, along with an optimistic one as it went on. The lights conveyed emphasis on the characters, and the Corny Collins show. Throughout the film it continuously brightened the characters shown. The costumes and makeup were very old fashioned, like the skirts and dresses especially. The floral designs and length showed this. The sound and music was emphatic and loud most of the time which was great because it was obviously a musical.

                The audience was attentive throughout the duration of the play. The entire class had their eyes glued to the screen for the most part. The musical was very interesting because of both the plot and the structure of the movie. The show as a whole was appealing to me. The characters were performed well by a great cast, and it worked to portray the virtues of the 1960’s. Overall, I liked the musical a lot and