With a tip of the hat to Amanda Dehnert's darker, edgier, grittier production of Annie at the Trinity Rep, Rob Marshall will bring to the screen a darker, edgier, grittier vision of the musical Hairspray.
Penny is a teenager on the verge of a psychotic break due to extreme sexual and mental abuse at the hands of her mother. Spending her days soiling herself in a gritty, litter-strewn Baltimore alley, Penny finally snaps when a rat runs across her foot. The only person in her life she can remotely consider her friend, some fat girl named Tracy, finds Penny in a puddle of her own urine and asks, "God Penny, what's wrong with you."
At that moment, Penny has her psychotic break and imagines that she lives her life in a candy-colored version of her hometown where everybody bursts into song. But because she has such low self-esteem, she is only a sidekick even in her fantasy life.
Marshall had tremendous success with the "the musical numbers are only in one character's imagination" angle in the smash hit film Chicago. This time, however, there will be no happy ending, as Penny is jolted back to reality in a final scene reminiscent of the one in Last Exit to Brooklyn.
Twitter @NamoInExile
Instagram none