《纽约时报》剧评人及读者对Hairspray的评论(3)

　　A similar perky eroticism now imbues the interracial romance of Penny Pingleton (Jennifer Gambatese), Tracy's best friend, and Seaweed J. Stubbs (Chester Gregory II), the son of the soulful D.J. Motormouth Maybelle (Mary Bond Davis). As the thoroughly winning Ms. Gambatese plays her, Penny is not just a nerdy, uptight cartoon in need of a good, uh, boyfriend. The comic broad strokes are still in place, but they have a newly melting quality. And the dynamic Mr. Gregory conveys the full sexual promise in Seaweed's songs.

　　Edna and Wilbur aside, the middle-aged characters are, as before, either so virtuous (like Mabel) or so vicious (like the racist television producer Velma Von Tussle, played by Barbara Walsh) that they gnaw at the nerves. It's when ''Hairspray'' is preaching via big-throated anthems or satirizing via clunky caricature that you miss the sustained double-edged campiness of Mr. Waters's movie. Seeing the show again, I was conscious of irritating stretches of tedium that my mind had kindly erased from my first viewing of it.

　　What this recast ''Hairspray'' does best, and what makes it worth revisiting, is to highlight the randy rhythms in early rock 'n' roll that made parents fear for their children's chastity. With Ms. Jibson and Ms. Gambatese playing girls on the cusp of womanhood, the show vibrates with that sense of new access to previously forbidden pleasures. The show's rousing paean to changing times, ''You Can't Stop the Beat,'' may ostensibly be about social issues like integration. But it is now quite clear that it's a more primal life force that makes this music throb.