James Marsden is delightfully hammy as show host Corny Collins. She sparkles in every scene, allowing the audience to love and despise her equally. Pfeiffer leads the charge among the adult cast members with her outlandishly vindictive mother.

Zac Efron and Brittany Snow fit perfectly into their vain characters, Efron playing the surprisingly progressive Link Larkin and Snow taking on the shallow, debutante Amber.

Bynes delivers her best performance as the starstruck girl ready to strike out against segregation after falling in love with Kelly’s character Seaweed. Elijah Kelly and Taylor Parks are smashing in their big screen breakthroughs. There isn’t a poor performance among the younger cast members. Although she is undoubtedly the star of the show, there are plenty of other entertaining performances. Nearly 20 years later, as the hit Broadway tuner makes its requisite big screen adaptation, Blonsky makes a similar splash delivering an endearing, charismatic performance that puts the rest of the cast to shame. The original 1988 John Waters version was a huge underground hit, making a star out of Ricki Lake. When the show eliminates the once-a-week black dance section of the program, Tracy shows her support, hoping to eliminate segregation from the airwaves, an act that would put the desegregation movement on the fast track. After Tracy makes the show, she is instantly thrust into a contest to become Miss Hairspray, a title Velma desperately wants for her daughter Amber (Brittany Snow). Hairspray follows Tracy as she shakes her plus-sized toosh on the dance floor, hoping to become the newest member of The Corny Collins Show, much to the chagrin of Velma von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer), the show’s style maven.

Some parents, including those of her best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes), think the entire concept is born of the devil, but that doesn’t stop the beat. The Corny Collins Show is the highlight of her day and she goes out of her way to dress and wear her hair in the latest styles as seen on the show. Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) is every bit the typical teenager growing up during the dance show craze of the 1960s. Equal rights in the 1960s finds itself dressed up and put to music in the big screen adaptation of the Broadway stage musical based on the John Waters film Hairspray.

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