Hairspray (2007 film) the 1988 John Waters film upon which the stage musical is based, became interested in adapting the stage show as a musical film. Development work began in late 2004, while a similarly film-to-Broadway-to-film project, Mel Brooks' "The Producers", was in production. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the executive producers of the Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Chicago", were hired as the producers for "Hairspray", and began discussing possibly casting John Travolta and Billy Crystal (or Jim Broadbent) as Edna and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively. Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell, authors of the book for the stage musical, wrote
Dame Edna Everage the sequel "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own", the Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam cameos at the close of the film to confer upon Edna the title of Dame, henceforth to be known as "Dame Edna". Following the lukewarm reception to Edna's early appearances in Humphries' 1969 stageshow "Just a Show" and the BBC television series "The Barry Humphries Scandals", a growing awareness and appreciation among British audiences for Edna emerged and Humphries devised a stage show titled "Edna Everage Housewife Superstar" which was successfully presented in London's West End in the mid-1970s. The show featured monologues, songs and what was