Continuity mistake: During the scene with the picture of the teacher with breasts. Link's and Amber's seats move. Link's seat is behind the desk and then its in front moving Amber's seat over towards the center of the desk.
Continuity mistake: When Tracy is running away from the police, there is a shot of her pushing through the crowd until she is free, but the next bird's-eye shot shows her pushing through the marchers all over again. (01:19:55)
Continuity mistake: When the song "I Know Where I've Been" has finished and the crown is chanting, the position of Edna's arm that holds the white purse, changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: At the start of "Good Morning Baltimore," Tracy's alarm clock changes position three times.
Continuity mistake: When Amber is crying on her bed, and her mother (Velma) comes over holding a white cat, during the scene the cats motions are not consistent from shot to shot, and at the end of the scene Velma lifts the cat up twice between shots.
Continuity mistake: The direction that Link's microphone faces changes a few times during "Ladies Choice" and also his position and the way he handles the mike is not continuous throughout the song.
Continuity mistake: During "Good Morning Baltimore", when the bum on the barstool waves to Tracy, in the first shot he has his whole hand waving, yet in the next shot only two fingers wave at her.
Continuity mistake: In the final scene where the votes are being taken in on the scoreboard, the amount of scores on the board, for Tracy and Amber, is inconsistent between shots.
Continuity mistake: During "Without Love" the positions of the lamp, vanity box, globe, etc. on the desk (where Link eventually sets down Tracy's photo) keep changing.
Continuity mistake: At the end of 'Run and Tell That' you see Penny begin to get off the bus first. Next shot, you see Tracy stand up to get out with Penny behind her. In the next shot, Penny is off the bus first again with Tracy behind her.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Tracy first goes to detention and meets Seaweed, when Seaweed says, "Well this is something for you," and then he introduces himself, look on the floor behind him. You can see crinkled up paper balls on the floor that throughout the entire scene move spots, and you never see anybody pick all of them up. For example, watch when Seaweed is dancing and his foot touchs a ball and it gets tossed aside and magically disappears.
Continuity mistake: When the kids are getting off the bus singing "Run and Tell That," Penny is in front of Tracy. But when the camera is inside the bus, Tracy is in front of Penny.
Continuity mistake: During "Weclome to the 60's" when Edna is looking over the contract at 'Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway', her arm keeps alternating from up to down between shots.
Continuity mistake: During "Welcome to the 60s" there is a pink car in front of Pinkys. The next shot the car is gone, then it's back, and then it's gone again.
Continuity mistake: When Amber is being bitchy about Tracy in class and Link tells her to stop, during this scene Amber's arms continually keep changing position.
Continuity mistake: When Seaweed sings "Run and Tell That", he is singing to Penny, "And then there's those who try to help God knows." When the camera is facing her, Penny is shown looking very stiff, as if she wasn't dancing (or couldn't get into the groove). When the camera is over her shoulder, showing Seaweed, she is dancing. The next shot of Penny she is not dancing again.
Continuity mistake: During "Ladies Choice", in a wide shot Corny Collins has his arms by his side, grooving. In the next closeup his arm are spread out wide.
Continuity mistake: At the end of "You Can't Stop the Beat," the first angle is of Tracy and Link, and then Penny and Seaweed come down a space that the Dancers make them. At one point the Dancers are almost up and then in the next shot, the Dancers are bent down and are coming up again.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning when Tracy hasn't even been shown yet, you see some people pulling open a window gate, and the window has a new sign and a couple sale signs on it. Later in the film, when Tracy is singing 'Good Morning Baltimore', she passes by the same place. Only this time the window gate is closed again. (She leans up against it and grabs it.) (00:01:00 - 00:03:40)
Continuity mistake: In "Welcome to the 60s" where they enter Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway and Edna is given the contract, she switches her purse to her other hand. Then the camera angle switches from Edna to Mr. Pinky and then back again. The second time, she switches her purse again.
Answer: First I need to explain that the Apollo Theater, an amazing music venue, is in upper Manhattan (NYC), in the predominantly black neighborhood of Harlem. The movie 'Hairspray' takes place in 1962, and at that point in time very few white musical artists had performed at the Apollo (between 1950s and early 60s), and those who did were famous rock-and-roll musicians, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets (1957). Now as for Doris Day, by 1962 she was a lovely popular American actress/singer, who, as the saying goes, was "as white as white bread", and to imagine someone like Doris Day appearing on stage at the Apollo Theater is an amusing incongruity and just not quite right. So the words "without love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo," means life would just not be right at all without love.
Super Grover ★
Thank you. My director is making our cast look up stuff we don't know. So as Penny I felt like I needed to know so thank you for cleaning that up for me.
I hope you have fun playing Penny, and that your entire cast and crew enjoy putting on your stage production of Hairspray. Break a leg, sweetie.
Super Grover ★