Question: Why is it that Tracy's hair keeps getting more and more highlights through scenes?
Chosen answer: It's common for filmmakers to subtly alter a character's appearance throughout the film to reflect how the character changes. In this case, as Tracy comes out of her shell, her personality becomes brighter, stronger, and more pronounced, and that is shown by her increasingly lighter hair.
Question: One of the lines in "Without Love" states that "Without love, life is Doris Day at the Apollo". What does that mean?
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.
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.
Question: At the end, right at the beginning of the song "Hairspray" at the pageant, Amber turns to Link and whispers, "Look, there's the agents" and it cuts to a few suit-wearing people with clipboards. My mom and I noticed that one of the women among them looked like Ricki Lake. Is it her, in a cameo? It would seem to make sense since she was in the original movie.
Answer: Yes, that is Ricki Lake, the original Tracy Turnblad, in a cameo appearance!
Question: Why didn't Tracy's parents free her from school when they knew that she was going on audition? And why isn't Penny in detention? I don't think that her mother would free her from school.
Answer: Tracy's parents told Tracy not to audition. They were worried that she would be rejected, and not be able to cope with the heartbreak, as evidenced by her mothers' line, "They're gonna hurt her out there". Penny could have left school during her lunch period.
Answer: Yes, Tracy's parents should have signed her out for the audition. Penny has been getting away from her mother for awhile so her cutting school without trouble isn't new to her.
Answer: I believe her hair is also symbolic of white and black integration.