By Sarah Sluis
Adam Shankman director of the Hairspray movie musical, has announced he will take on Columbia's long-circulating remake of Bye Bye Birdie. I haven't seen the original, so I headed over to YouTube to check out one of the musical numbers. The song "Telephone Hour," which borrows the split screen and bubble bath conferencing of Pillow Talk, also has extremely improbable sequences of people talking on rotary phones in soda fountains, libraries, showers, and cars. Kind of goofy and fake, I'm thinking, when it suddenly occurs to me that the remake won't have this problem: people talking in cars? in the (quiet section of the) library? restaurants? Why, that happens every day! I imagine the only problem is that nowadays teens will view some of the dialogue as unrealistic, because they totally would have texted the information.
For those who haven't seen the movie, the plot doesn't condense easily. A pop star, about to be drafted, somehow gets convinced to appear on a television show and kiss a high school girl who is one of his biggest fans, much to the chagrin of the girl's boyfriend.. I had a hard time picturing this plot (if they're setting up for a pop star-high schooler romance, isn't that a little May-December?) until I learned that the pop star was based on Elvis Presley, a music icon who could reliably create mass hysteria among teen girls. Originally, the girl was played by Ann-Margret (even I know about her), and the pop star a mid-twenties looking fellow, softening my age-related concerns. Still, I'm curious to see who they tap for casting choices. For now, I'll just keep humming along the "Telephone Hour."
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