Hey Johnny, Welcome to the ’60s

By Alison

Toronto steps in for Baltimore, as Hairspray returns to the big screen. We suppose this was inevitable (where was this musical resurgence 10 years ago, when Torontoist was a junior high theatre nerd who cared about such things? Oh well, we’ve always been ahead of our time). We are simultaneously completely mystified and oddly intrigued at the prospect of a cross-dressing John Travolta as the beloved Edna Turnblad. In fact, there is a strangely surreal pop cultural poetry to the notion of John Travolta recreating movie roles originated by Divine – something so wrong, it’s right.