Hairspray

(1972), Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), and Cry-Baby (1990), American filmmaker John Waters is widely referred to as the “King of Camp.” Waters’s canon is a knowing celebration of bad taste, fully conscious of its place as camp. Featuring the acting talents of larger-than-life drag diva Divine, former teen…

…1988 Waters wrote and directed Hairspray, a musical comedy film set in 1962 Baltimore. Starring newcomer Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad, a chubby and chipper high-school student who aspires to become a dancer on a local TV show, the movie draws upon teen dance shows of the era such as…

of John Waters’s camp film Hairspray. For his role as teen heroine Tracy Turnblad’s doting mother, Edna, Fierstein won his fourth Tony Award. He later appeared in Broadway revivals of Fiddler on the Roof, in 2005–06, and La Cage aux folles, in 2011. In addition, he wrote the librettos for…

…and John Waters’s 1988 comedy Hairspray (later turned into a successful musical), in which she played the antagonist Velma Von Tussle. She declined a role in the 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner, to her eternal regret; Daryl Hannah got the part.

…and the original version of Hairspray (1988), directed by John Waters.