I'll give it a chance, but I agree a lot with Stephanie's main point. The original movie is one of the most purely entertaining films I've ever seen. Why not just re-release it?

This version features new songs and choreography, but one of the things I enjoyed most about the original was Waters' almost archival recreations of some of the dance steps of the era as well as some great, but probably largely forgotten, pop hits. He was recalling a time when the local radio station had some influence, and songs could become regional hits while remaining largely unmarked on the national scene. I hope the show and movie retains some of these scenes.

I love the scene where all the cool kids and hep cats line up to do the Madison (It's Madison time, hit it!). And I also recall the scene where, seemingly for no reason at all, Waters has a homeless man break into a rendition of Toussaint McCall's "Nothing Takes the Place of You."

I remember that song actually got a small ovation from the audience when I saw it.

I'll give the new movie a chance, but I'm afraid I'm bound to be doing an awful lot of comparing and complaining.

Why didn't they simply re-release the original Hairspray? Because what would Travolta do?

What would any of these other people in Hollywood do? Or for that matter, Broadway? Both of those branches of show business are so afraid of presenting anything that hasn't been "pre-sold" that the idea of making something new, something untested, something even slightly potentially upsetting is beyond consideration.

By the way, the DVD of Waters's original is nearly unavailable. It's selling for a ridiculous price on eBay, and obviously it's not for sale in retail stores (to avoid competing with the movie). The new version, however, will swamp the rental stores. Thanks to pre-arranged purchases by Blockbuster, each store will have a lot of them for the presumed flood of renters. There won't be that many renters, meaning those excess DVD's will be flooding the used-DVD racks a couple of weeks after release. Most of you poor souls will forget the Waters version ever existed.

While I usually appreciate Ms. Zacharek's reviews, I think she's dead wrong about most musicals, and is especially wrong in her rehash of Dreamgirls. I would argue that the very lack of the motown sound makes Dreamgirls a more powerful musical and picture. One of the main points of the musical is the whitening of the fictional Supremes with the replacement of the powerful "black"-er singer with the prettier "white"-er singer. Now, if both singers sang with a motown sound backing band, it would undercut the message of the film. The thing about the Detroit-era Motown sound was that the band was always "black", even if it was backing up a singer emulating white artists. Motown was successful because the "blackness" of the backup band was subtle, but it was definitely there.

And while I agree that the sound of Dreamgirls misses the musicality of Motown, the lack of such a sound clarifies the difference between the Jennifer Hudson character and the Beyonce character. That is, we are not distracted by a good soul sound softening the "whiteness" of Effie's replacmenet. Of course, it is unlikely that this failure to pick up the Motown sound was an intentional choice on the part of the writers of Dreamgirls, in fact, I believe it is probable and likely that they thought they were achieving a Motown sound (and to give them some credit, they do avoid the awful belting blandness of most Broadway productions). Nevertheless, even if it was unintentional I think removing the true soul sound from the film creates a greater focus on the central message.

It's a shame that the original Hairspray isn't easily available on DVD. I'd love to see them both as a double feature - I can enjoy one as a wacky John Waters comedy and the other as a Broadway musical reinterpretation. I don't mind comparing the two, but it seemed like Stephanie's main criticism is "it isn't like the original" rather than "there are specific problems with this movie". Why can't we have both?

I love musicals, and for me, the addition of musical numbers is what makes this version of Hairspray stand apart. I'm sure there will be differences from the original Hairspray, and maybe some things that aren't as good - but the original didn't have the musical numbers (in the same way) so I'm looking forward to seeing the new version - as an addition to the older one.

(I'm always frustrated when movie critics go to see musicals and complain that they contain "show music". It's like complaining that a comic movie contains comedy, or a dramatic movie contains drama. An adaptation of a Broadway musical contains music in the Broadway musical style. Everything doesn't have to be rock or rap.)

But I'm fully expecting to be disappointed.

I have the original on DVD, I've been entertained by the Broadway show despite Stephanie's criticisms, it has a unique charm.

The movie is basically a film adaptation of the Broadway show and contains most if not all of the same music. With rare exception, no matter how earnest the director is, movie adaptations of modern Broadway shows pale in comparison to the live entertainment works they try to emulate.

I heard a segment on NPR's Fresh Air today where the director, Adam Shankman was talking about how John Waters gave him permission to make it is own, which I thought was incredibly classy of Mr. Waters. There were several segments played and I was disappointed in the music. I thought it was well, for lack of a better word, square.

Hairspray has a much broader message about intolerance, not just racial but also in terms of overall acceptance of not just the 'other,' but of the self as well. The stunningly handsome Link falls in love with lower middle class, overweight (yet bubbly) Tracy Turnblad instead of beautiful, blonde and supposedly rich Amber. Edna Turnblad learns self acceptance and blossoms even though she's middle aged and extremely overweight - the difference is stunning in Waters' original, but I get the transformation won't be as dramatic in this remake since John Travolta in a fat suit looks a lot younger than Divine or Harvey Firestein did playing the part, so much so Edna looks more like Tracy's older sister than her mother. Seaweed and Penny Pingleton fall in love over Prudence Pingleton's ignorant and narrow-minded objections and who can ever forget that classic line spit out by Prudence, "Penny Pingleton, you know you are punished. From now on your wearing a giant P on your blouse EVERY DAY to school so that the whole world knows that Penny Pingleton is permanently, positively, punished!"

Yes, I'm prepared to be disappointed but I have to go see it anyway because I love the story and what it represents.