(Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post! I’m just going to let myself struggle as I work to find a new normal and I’m going to try to give myself permission to talk about it here, especially knowing that I’m not the only one.)

Last night there were thunderstorms moving in and Daddy was out at a Clippers game. The combination of an unusually missing father and scary lightening had the kids nervous so we came down here to watch stuff on youtube. Madison has been listening to the Hairspray soundtrack (Broadway version, natch) pretty much nonstop so I was pulling up videos of that and also of Mr. Noodle, Mr. Noodle’s brother Mr. Noodle and Mr. Noodle’s sister Ms. Noodle since we were on Broadway stuff already. (Aside — I would LOVE to see Bill Irwin in Waiting for Godot. He’s starring right now with Nathan Lane and I hear tell that it’s amazing!)

Ok so we’re watching You Can’t Stop the Beat and Noah and I get to talking. There’s a whole subtext in the original musical (and in the original movie) that’s missing from the latest version, which has to do with being gay. See, John Travolta plays Edna Turnblad — a role created by two premiere drag queens — perfectly straight. He says so. He said, “The only real difference is I’m actually playing a woman versus drag.” And that’s the problem because Edna Turnblad isn’t a woman — she’s a drag queen. And that’s the subtext missing from this latest version — that it’s not only fabulous to be fat and fabulous to be black but it’s also fabulous to be gay.

There’s a lot of humor in the original movie and in the Broadway version that’s about you (the audience) knowing that Divine and Harvey are men and the rest of the cast playing it like they don’t know and this is gone from the movie. That knowing wink, that sly smile — it’s not there. And there’s a real joy missing, too. When Harvey sings in the finale:

You cant stop my happiness
‘Cause I like the way I am
…
So if you don’t like the way I look
Well, I just don’t give a damn!

He’s singing it as a gay man in drag and it’s moving — it’s really moving. It goes beyond a fat woman accepting herself — because you’ve already got Tracy modeling fat acceptance — and it turns into a song about not letting other people define your gender roles, which is some heavy stuff, right there. And for me? A lesson that’s hugely important within the value system of our family.

Of course there’s a terrible irony at play, too, which is that rumor (and just rumor) has it that John Travolta is gay and closeted. I have no idea if it’s true or not but it colors the role if you know that. Because if he is gay and closeted — and honestly I feel like as prevalent as that rumor is that it’s a big elephant in the room in every interview — then how he plays Edna is even worse and borders on tragic given his distaste for how she’s traditionally played.

“You can dress a guy on stage and do that joke where’s she’s like a refrigerator, but I don’t think that works as well on this level. You have to make it watchable,” says Travolta. To which I say, ummm, Travolta? Screw you. Because Divine and Harvey are plenty freakin’ watchable if you’re not, you know, totally homophobic.

In any case, John Travolta, whatever his sexuality, doesn’t get drag and he doesn’t get how it impacts the role. Says he of his Edna, “I was playing a woman. It’s not that I’m not entertained by drag. But I’m an actor. If I’m going to play a woman, let me play a woman. Don’t let me pretend to be, and wink, wink, I’m a guy under here.”

It’s not “wink, wink, I’m a guy under here,” it’s “wink wink, I’m a GAY guy under here.” Hairspray is supposed to be a great big laughing f*ck you to racism, misogynism and HETEROSEXISM. It’s actually a pretty subversive little show and it’s most subversive when it’s loud, offensive, campy and DRAG. You don’t cast Divine or Harvey Fierstein if you want to play the show straight because it’s not tradition for a man to play Edna — it’s tradition for a drag queen to play Edna and the difference ain’t actually all that subtle.

Anyway, I told Noah all of this and I think he gets it. I told him that they caved to pressure to cast a big star like John Travolta in a role he isn’t really made for and that it’s still a fun movie but it’s not true to the spirit of either of the originals.

I love drag. I love the way drag is a commentary on gender roles and sexuality and frankly, I want my kids to love it, too, or to at least get it. And they aren’t gonna get it if the only Edna Turnblad they know is Travolta’s.

Ok, here’s the original “Welcome to the 60s” (lousy quality because someone’s swiping it from the balcony — four minutes in gets you to Edna’s grand entrance) and here’s the Travolta version. Don’t let the better sound/video fool you.

Also, here’s the original (Tony’s version) — Harvey arrives 1 minute 50 seconds in — of “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and the Travolta version — he comes in at the 6 minutes 10 seconds mark. (Queen Latifah was inspired casting. Really my only quibble is Travolta and I wish the director — who is a gay man — was free to say what he really thought of it. I betcha John Waters thought the whole thing –given the rumors — was hilarious.) And truly — that grand finale? Is so much more exciting/effective when you’ve got the gay subtext.

And also, as an added bonus, the trailer to the original movie, which is hilarious. (For comparison’s sake, the latest trailer, which reminded me of the candlelight vigil screen, which I also didn’t like because it took the movie into a self-conscious seriousness that wasn’t right for the show.)

Edited to add: La Cage Aux Folles solo for another wonderful Broadway drag show with a nice message for all of us, seriously — “I am what I am, I am my own special creation… I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses.”