The enormous hall which earlier had been filled with tables for the Lionsgate luncheon had mostly been emptied except for a few scattered tables around the outskirts, but they had cleared an enormous dance floor and the stage had been remodeled to look a bit like the dance show featured in the original John Waters movie. Two giant aerosol cans adorned either side of the stage and there were four more surrounding the room. To create the mood, the DJ was playing '50s classics and as mentioned, all of the food was American comfort food like one might eat at the local diner or at home. The place was absolutely packed with industry people and exhibitors. (This wasn't the only ShoWest event where I saw more than a few employees of other studios "checking out the competition.")

After an intro by TV personality Corny Collins, they showed an opening clip of newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblatt singing "Good Morning Baltimore" the first musical number in the movie. It was very vibrant and colorful and as she walks down the street singing, we get a very unexpected John Waters cameo in a rather appropriate role as... well, it's funnier if you see it for yourself. After the song went on for a while, the screen dimmed and the actual Nikki Blonsky burst out onto the stage without missing a note and finished the number live as the footage was replaced with a live cam of her performance. This was very much the mood of the presentation as the song and dance numbers would start on screen and then finish on stage. (I'm a bit disappointed that we were told not to bring cameras into the presentation although they didn't check anyone and lots of the exhibitors were flashing away.)

The second clip started with Tracy in school, excited about getting home so she could watch the "Corny Collins Show" along with her friend Penny (played by an unrecognizable Amanda Bynes in a wild blonde wig) and when they tune in to the TV show, we see James Marsden as Corny Collins himself--you have to imagine Dick Clark and "American Bandstand" which was obviously a huge influence on Waters on his days growing up in Baltimore--and he sings a number which leads to Marsden coming out and finishing the number backed by dancers from the actual film/show.

The first scene of John Travolta in full drag and fat suit playing Tracy's mother Edna got lots of laughs but even moreso when Christopher Walken gave him a kiss on the cheek. These two are probably going to get some of the best laughs in the movie. The scene involved Tracy trying to convince them to let her go on "The Corny Collins Show" but Edna wasn't having any of it. She goes to her room, but then Walken gives her a motivational speech that is so reminiscent of his classic scene in Pulp Fiction that it's hard not to laugh.

Next was a scene of Tracy on the show dancing to a bluesy rock number called "Ladies' Choice" performed by Zac Efron as the good-looking Link Larkin, who also burst out onto the stage to finish the number with the dancers. (After the presentation, a couple colleagues noted that Efron was one of the favorites to play the title role in the Wachowski's Speed Racer and he really looks EXACTLY like him.) Larkin is the boyfriend of Amber, Tracy's stuck-up rival played by Brittany Snow, but he's impressed by Tracy's dancing.

The previous clip also introduced Elijah Kelley as Seaweed Stubbs, the kid from the "black side of the show" (they're segregated from the middle class white kids on the dance floor, 'cause this takes place in the '50s) as Tracy talks to him on the show's dance floor about the two of them dancing. In a later clip, Tracy, Link and Tracy's loopy friend Penny decide to go to North Avenue on Seaweed's side of town, although they're nervous about whether they'll have problems there being white kids. Kelley breaks into an amazing number called "Run and Tell That!" which was a real show stopper as it broke out onto the stage proving that Kelley seems like a talent worth watching.

The next clip showed Queen Latifah wearing a blonde wig as Motormouth Maybell, which got a lot of whoops from the audience as she greeted Seaweed and his white friends to the club. After a bit of banter between them, Travolta's Edna shows up, furious that she had to come out to the bad side of town to get Tracy. She changes her mind when Maybelle shows her the spread of food, which convinces her to stay and then Latifah performs "Big, Blonde and Beautiful", which turned into a great live performance by Latifah (not in costume) that received the best reaction from the attendants, probably due to Latifah's starpower and her popularity from Chicago.

The whole thing ended with a montage of footage from the movie to "You Can't Stop the Beat" before the entire cast came out, not just the live performers, but also John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer (who plays Amber's equally catty mother and Edna's rival), Brittany Snow and Allison Janney, pretty much everyone except Amanda Bynes. They were then joined by director/choreographer Adam Shankman, who came out and thanked ShoWest, New Line and the producers for staging the event. As they left the stage, the six giant hairspray cannisters started pouring out smoke from the nozels to look like actual hairspray, a nice touch.

Either way, the presentation was a great way to introduce the upcoming movie to anyone unfamiliar with the Broadway musical version of John Waters' original film. It was abundantly clear that there's a lot of talent, both musical and comedic, involved with this production. I have to admit being a bit skeptical about movies based on musicals based on movies despite loving The Producers, though I'm more optimistic that this will be a funny and entertaining film. Nikki Blonsky is as an amazing a find as Rikki Lake was back in her day, and I was impressed by Elijah Kelley and Zak Efron who had a great stage/screen presence. Also, who knew that X-Men's Cyclops could sing and perform that well? (Everyone knows Latifah is great from her performance in Chicago.)

As far as Travolta, besides being the ugliest crossdresser I've ever seen, I'm worried that his accent and hammy posing in the movie might get annoying over time, but Divine is a hard act to follow since s/he was a lot more comfortable in drag by the time Waters made Hairspray. Hopefully, having Christopher Walken in there with Travolta will help create some very funny scenes like the one we saw earlier. One has to remember that Shankman's film background includes a number of hit comedies like Bringing Down the House and, for better or worse, The Pacifier and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

(Thanks to New Line for inviting ComingSoon.net to this event and giving an early glimpse of their summer musical.)