Hairspray

A Screenplay

John Waters

$26.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Picador US
28 January 2026

Film movie scripts & screenplays; Plays & playscripts

Tracy Turnblad, a spunky, full-figured Baltimore teen, wants nothing more than to be a featured dancer on The Corny Collins Show. So when she gets chosen to be on the air, it seems like all her dreams are about to come true. But when she and some of the Black cast of the show try to integrate the segregated dancing, things take on a life of their own. A sweet, hopeful parable about the dangers of conformity and segregation, Hairspray is perhaps the one optimistic entry in John Waters' shocking and delightfully deranged oeuvre. Both a clear-eyed social critique and a celebration of the dizzying aesthetics of Baltimore in the early 1960s, this is another, softer side to the essential John Waters.

By: John Waters
Imprint: Picador US
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 191mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 8mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781250371294
ISBN 10: 1250371295
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 28 January 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

John Waters is a writer, a film director, an actor, and a visual artist best known for his films, including Hairspray, Pink Flamingos, and Serial Mom. He is the author of the national bestsellers Role Models, Carsick, and Mr. Know-It-All. His spoken-word shows This Filthy World, False Negative, End of the World, and A John Waters Christmas continue to be performed around the world. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.