Word: fierstein
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2002-2002
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...relatively intimate size of the Neil Simon, "Hairspray" would be hitting the million-dollar mark. But don't fret for the show's backers. The cast has no above-the-title names - the most prominent figure is Harvey Fierstein, the bullfrog-voiced actor who goes into drag to play the heroine's oversize mother, and whose previous Broadway performance (in his 1987 comedy "Safe Sex") lasted all of one week - so ticket sales aren't siphoned into star salaries. And the show is peddling CDs, T shirts and geegaws galore. At Bloomingdale's, in its 59th Street store and other...
...start, Tracy (Marissa Jaret Winokur) is trapped at home, watching "The Corky Collins Show" with her friend Penny Pingleton (Kerry Butler). Fat Mama Edna (Fierstein) wants to be alone in her misery; she growls to Penny, "Go tell your mother she wants you." Edna is married to medium-size Wilbur (Dick Latessa), who runs the local joke shop; his ambition is to "keep the air from leaking out of my sofa-size Whoopee Cushion." The goal Edna mentions has the same working-class practicality about it: she wants to "find a way to get blood out of car upholstery...
...Harvey Fierstein, in drag as Tracy's battleship mom (the role played by Divine in the movie), is Hairspray's showstopping centerpiece. But somewhere between his flouncy scenery chewing (with a chainsaw voice that is now painful to hear) and the familiar gags about uptight parents and butch gym teachers, Hairspray starts to lose its fizz. Making fun of the '50s and '60s has become so passe that this cartoon version gets old pretty fast. The smiley social commentary--Tracy meets the school's black kids in detention and discovers that they have rhythm--only makes the show's facetiousness...