Analysis Of Hairspray

One such musical that does this is Hairspray. It tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager in 1962 Baltimore as she tries to make her dream of dancing on a local TV show, ‘The Corny Collins Show’, come true, whilst also campaigning for racial integration on the show and in society.

Tracy faces a lot of negativity throughout the musical; her weight and her politically controversial ideas and actions make her an easy target. In order to tell the story the musical uses slightly racist language, as many people in the 1960’s did, as it was around the time of the civil rights movement. During the song “Nicest Kids in Town” (Whittman, Shaiman, 2007) we hear Corny Collins the host of the show, describe the child dancers as “nice white kids who like to lead the way” (Whittman, Shaiman, 2007) he then adds “and once a month we have our Negro Day!” (Whittman, Shaiman, 2007) This is an obvious reference to the racial segregation that was occurring during that time period and a satirical comment by the musicals writers as the audience now hear the lyrics and see how absurd they seem. Also the use of the word ‘negro’ is a shock to the audience in and of itself. In today’s society ‘negro’ is a taboo term that is a reminder of the extreme racism present during the 50s and 60s, and so the characters in the musical using it so openly is a reminder of the type of society the musical is set in. The word ‘white’ is also sung with some emphasis, as if to make a point of their skin colour and its status within that society. ‘Negro day’ as it is so called in the musical, is the one day a month when it is solely black people performing on the Corny Collins show. Velma Von Tussle, the show’s racist producer, dismisses Tracey when she a...

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... in this musical its message is applicable to the various different forms of discrimination throughout the world. Discrimination can occur with anything if it is not the norm of society at the time. It is only when the thing that is being discriminated against becomes a social normality that it is finally accepted.

The musical Hairspray was originally written as a 1988 film musical. This was a time when prejudices of race were still a powerful influence on the general opinion of society. This musical can be seen as a social commentary on the time in which it was set and time in which it was written, but it has a universal message against the discrimination of minorities but does so with a self-deprecating sense of humour as to not appear wildly political, as Hoffman expresses, “in ways that are highly entertaining and overly simplistic.” (2014, p. 230, note 10).