Today was
another day that, months ago, I’d bought tickets for a play that I of course
won’t be seeing now. As I did with The Color Purple back in April, I originally planned to sit down and listen to
the cast recording for the Broadway production of Frozen, following it up with a Top Five Songs post. However, I’m
not in the mood for it right now. I’ll get around to it some other time, but
for now, I have something different in mind.
Andrew
Lloyd Webber, streaming free theatre on his The Shows Must Go On YouTube
channel, got through all of his shows that have been professionally recorded
and has, it seems, moved on to some of the live musical events put on by NBC in
recent years. It just so happened that this weekend’s show is Hairspray. I saw this back when it aired
at the end of 2016, and I enjoyed it pretty well then, although I didn’t wind
up writing a review for it. And I’m not reviewing it today either, but I will
another day. Instead, I’d just like to talk about some of my thoughts about the
show as I watched it again this week (a few spoilers.)
Back in
high school, when I was first introduced to Hairspray
via the original Broadway cast recording, I was a definite fan of it. The music
was catchy, it was my introduction to Kerry Butler and Matthew Morrison, Tracy
Turnblad was a plucky/rootable heroine, and I liked the message. I do remember
thinking some of the lyrics seemed a little glib given the subject matter (I
also hadn’t seen the original John Waters film yet, so I didn’t know where some
of that sensibility came from.) Over the years, my impressions of the show have
gotten a lot more complex.
It’s
pretty clear that Tracy fits into a White Savior role. Even though her work to
integrate The Corny Collins Show is
done alongside Motormouth, Seaweed, and the other Black characters, it’s still her story and she’s the one leading the
charge. White allies obviously have a place in the fight against racism, but
that place shouldn’t be front and center, and unfortunately, that’s where the
media frequently puts them. Hairspray
is one more example of a story about Black issues that centers on whiteness,
and even back in 2002, we weren’t aching for more of that narrative. This is
especially egregious in Hairspray Live!
because, likely as a side effect of cutting “The Big Dollhouse,” Tracy becomes
the only person who gets arrested at
the protest. Really?!
Even more
uncomfortably, we see how Tracy gets her spot on The Corny Collins Show in the first place by appropriating Black
culture/dance styles. In fairness to her, she learns these steps directly from
Seaweed and her first wish is for them to dance together in front of Corny – plus, from a meta perspective, the
show has Seaweed cheering her on in taking his moves, using him to condone her
actions. But despite that, what we ultimately see is the white girl gaining
recognition by using Black moves, which, when paired with the White Savior
narrative, isn’t a good look.
Fortunately,
for all of Tracy’s missteps, she has a good heart, and like I said, the minute
she learns Seaweed’s moves, she wants them to be able to dance together.
Appropriating Black culture gets her in the door, but once she’s there, she
wants to be able to hold that door open to let in the Black people that helped her. She wants to
give credit where credit is due, and and she wants to take part in making that
dream a reality. Rewatching Hairspray
Live!, a lot of my favorite scenes were probably the ones where Tracy and
Seaweed are dancing together – in detention,
at Motormouth’s record shop, and finally, triumphantly on The Corny Collins Show.
And even
though the whole “well, we rolled up our sleeves and solved segregation in this
2-hour musical!” vibe is definitely trite, and I can see how some might find it
insultingly-simplistic against the backdrop of what’s been going on, it’s also
a nice fantasy, just for a moment. It’s heartwarming when Tracy storms the
stage of The Corny Collins Show
announcing, “This is my dance, and it’s for everybody!”, with all the Black
kids running in to join her. And maybe in a show where a girl gets sent to
detention for “hair-hopping” and there’s like a 15-foot-tall novelty can of
hairspray with Harvey Fierstein hiding inside, maybe a little fantasy is all
right.
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