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
History of cross-dressing whom the troupe has said is the most hilarious in drag, appears so extremely unfeminine, with his square chin and six-foot, five-inch frame that it is funny. Cleese also wore female clothes while appearing as "himself" in a magazine advertisement for American Express. "Monty Python's Flying Circus" also did a sketch called "The Lumberjack Song," about a lumberjack who likes to "put on women's clothing and hang around in bars." In "Clue: The Musical", Mrs. White is usually played by a man. In all versions of "Hairspray"—the original film, the stage musical, and the film adapted from the musical—Edna Turnblad