The Hairspray/Chicago connection.
At 12:07 AM on
Friday, July 21, 2006
Marc Shaiman discusses Pfeiffer and Baltimore while Elaine Overholt (vocal coach) speaks highly of the young singing talents of Blonsky, Bynes and Efron.
Here are some Highlights, but please read the full article:
It's currently in rehearsals here, with plans to start shooting just after Labour Day with a starry cast that features John Travolta, Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Chicago, of course, was another film version of a Broadway smash shot in Toronto in 2002. It went on to gross $306 million worldwide and win five Oscars, including Best Picture.
At the time, people thought it would herald a whole new era of cinematic musicals, but subsequent entries (The Producers, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent) have all proved to be serious disappointments: artistically and financially.
Chicago also marked a high-water mark in this city's movie history, with local artisans like Gordon Sim and David Lee winning Oscars and the whole experience creating a positive buzz about Toronto as a filmmaking centre.
Although the two musicals themselves couldn't be more different (Chicago, dark and cynical; Hairspray, sunny and optimistic), there's an interesting assortment of key people connected with both projects.
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, both serving as producers on Hairspray, were also the executive producers of Chicago. Zadan grabbed headlines this week when he announced that 100 per cent of the film would be shot in Toronto, contradicting earlier reports that the exteriors would be shot in Baltimore.
And on the Toronto front, Gordon Sim will provide the same art direction duties on Hairspray that won him his Oscar for Chicago, while local hair artist Judi Cooper-Sealy will be in charge of making sure that the all-important coiffure sculptures reach the appropriate heights.
And Toronto vocal coach Elaine Overholt will work the identical magic for Travolta and Crystal that she did for Richard Gere and Renée Zellweger.
"I'm in rehearsals already," said Overholt from her Riverdale studio yesterday, "but mainly with the younger kids."
She can't speak highly enough about newcomer Nicole Blonsky, the former Cold Stone Creamery server who made it big and landed the leading role of Tracy.
"She's wonderful beyond belief. I love her to death. I truly understand why they cast her. She has a great voice and the innocence that's needed, as well as amazing depth."
Overholt also pronounces Amanda Bynes "spectacular" and says that heartthrob Zac Efron is "a great musical talent and a joy to work with."
Although she has yet to work with Travolta, Crystal and Pfeiffer, Overholt seems relatively calm.
"Sure, there's that element of initial nervousness, but it always works out in the end. Right now, I'm just loving the whole process because the music is so great."
The man responsible for that music, composer Marc Shaiman, is also serving as executive producer for the film, along with his partner and lyricist, Scott Wittman.
The cheerful songwriter bears no ill will towards our city for having slagged his work last time around.
Shaiman revealed that he and Wittman, inspired by the casting of Pfeiffer as the villainous Velma Von Tussel, "have written two new songs for her to choose, or we may very well end up taking her input on the role and going off and bring in another. Which will bring to a total of 47 songs we have written for that character."
He also confirmed that actual Toronto locations, as well as studios, would be used for filming. "They found a fantastic school that reeks of 1963 (when it opened). I can't remember its name, but it was quite a find for us."
As for the whole tempest in a beer barrel about Toronto being used in place of Baltimore, the original film's director, John Waters, himself a Charm City native, tried to put everyone's mind at ease.
"These are the producers who won the Oscar for a movie called Chicago with a movie they shot in Toronto," Waters said Wednesday. "It's not the most shocking thing in the world."
Or as Shaiman put it, with his tongue only slightly in his elfish cheek: "This will be the greatest movie musical ever made because it was filmed in Toronto."-Richard Ouzounian Love,
Hairhopper
