Today came the really disturbing news that John Travolta is in talks to star as Edna Turnblad in the upcoming film version of the Broadway musical “Hairspray,” which is itself a remake of John Waters’ 1988 non-musical film.
There are two reasons I don’t like this: one, the role was originated on Broadway by Harvey Fierstein, and as long as Divine is dead, Harvey’s the man for the role.* And two, the thought of Travolta in drag, singing, is just too frightening to contemplate. If he takes this role, he can never play Chili Palmer again.
(*The role of Edna is traditionally played by a man in drag; when I saw the show on Broadway with Fierstein two years ago, the Southern tourist behind us turned to his wife at the end of the first act and said “wait a minute- that’s a man!”)
Posted by Stephen Silver at February 25, 2005 12:53 AMOMG. This is disturbing. I just saw Hairspray with Bruce Villanch playing Edna, and that was disturbing enough...
I should have known better than to read this right before going to sleep.
Posted by: Esther at February 25, 2005 01:33 AMi agree. Harvey needs the work. He is soo funny, everyone needs to see it. John Travolta unfortunately is a frekin weirdo. He is a Christian Scientologist and I saw him on Letterman last night and he admitted he has a weird family...
Posted by: A at February 25, 2005 11:03 AM