I was really looking forward to this movie version of Hairspray right from the beginning. It's a show that I thought would lend itself well to a movie format (it was originally a movie after all), and the cast they put together was quite something. And it turned out to be completely enjoyable and fun, which made me really happy!

They changed a few plot points, and cut some songs. The most upsetting cut for me was "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now", which is one of my favourite songs in the show. It didn't leave a hole where they took it out, which is probably why they chose to, but I still missed it.

Definitely the biggest change overall was taking out the whole prison subplot (and with it, the "Big Doll House" number), and simply having Tracy on the loose instead, trying not to get caught. And then there was the whole thing with Velma coming on to Wilbur - felt a little strained to me, but not enough to ruin things. I did like the march on the TV station, and that scene probably yielded my favourite line, when Edna tried to leave because she couldn't be seen on TV at her current weight. :-)

On to the cast then. Of course the big draw for a lot of people was John Travolta as a woman, and indeed there were people at the screening I went to that laughed every time he came on screen, before he did anything. I thought he did a decent job in the role - I still prefer Harvey Fierstein over all, but John Travolta was fine.

Michelle Pfeiffer was excellent as Velma, and I really liked the staging for "Miss Baltimore Crabs", with her teaching the kids a dance, rather than it just being a straight audition. Nikki Blonsky was great as Tracy - no complaints there!

Probably my happiest surprise was James Marsden as Corny - who knew he could sing as well? I'd take his Corny over Link any day. ;-) Zac Efron did a fine job as Link though, particularly in "Without Love", which was a pretty cheesy set up for the character, but he still managed to sell it.

The rest of the cast were all great, and I'm looking forward to the DVD release and hopefully lots of fun extras! It definitely erased the slightly bad taste left over from the Toronto production, and I'm looking forward to seeing more stage productions again soon!