Hairspray
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50 free Hairspray trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Hairspray has been told four ways: a 1988 cult comedy, a Tony-winning Broadway musical, a 2007 movie musical and a live television special. All of them follow Tracy Turnblad, a teenager with big hair and bigger dreams who dances her way onto a local TV show in 1962 and then sets out to integrate it. Few stories pair such bright songs with such a serious subject. This quiz leans on the 2007 film, the version most people know: who played whom, how the cast was found, where it was shot and which numbers were added or dropped. It also covers the stage show's songs and stars, the original film and its creator, and the real programme that inspired the whole thing. The questions start easy for anyone who has seen the movie once and build to deep cuts for people who know the cast album by heart. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you guess.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor needed four hours of makeup to play Tracy's mother Edna in the 2007 film Hairspray?
John Travolta
John Travolta wore a padded suit that also hid his beard, so stubble never grew through his makeup by midday. Studio executives had first pictured a comedian in the part.
Q 02Hairspray is set in 1962 in which East Coast city, where the 1988 original was also filmed?
Baltimore
Baltimore appears for real only in the 2007 film's opening shots, because that version was shot in Canada. The story's TV dance party was modelled on a real local programme.
Q 03Which teen star was first judged "too Disney" to play Link Larkin in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Zac Efron
Zac Efron won the part after the director's sister, an executive producer, argued he would bring in a big teen crowd. He was fresh from High School Musical.
Q 04Aretha Franklin was considered for Motormouth Maybelle, but who played her in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah had already appeared in Chicago for the same producers and acted for the same director in Bringing Down the House. Her Maybelle leads the film's protest march.
Q 05In the 2007 film, which character is crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray after a late surge of votes?
Little Inez
Little Inez takes the crown, which integrates The Corny Collins Show on live television. On stage it is Tracy who wins the title instead.
Q 06Which pop star played Tracy's best friend Penny in the 2016 live TV broadcast of Hairspray?
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande was named the broadcast's most valuable player by Variety's critic, in a cast that included several Broadway veterans. The special drew just over nine million viewers.
Q 07Link Larkin, the singing heartthrob of Hairspray, was based in part on which rock and roll star?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley is the model for Link, a mildly vain crooner who skips the protest march because talent scouts are coming to hear him sing.
Q 08How often are Black teenagers allowed to dance on The Corny Collins Show at the start of Hairspray?
Once a month
Once a month is all the show's bosses allow, on a special edition hosted by Motormouth Maybelle. In the 2007 film even that is cancelled, and Tracy proposes a protest march.
Q 09Penny's finale dress in the 2007 Hairspray is made from bedroom curtains in a nod to which musical?
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music has Maria cut play clothes for the von Trapp children from old curtains, and Penny's dress copies the trick. The same curtains hang in her bedroom earlier in the film.
Q 10Edna's dancing in the 2007 Hairspray was modelled on hippo ballerinas from which Disney film?
Fantasia
Fantasia's hippos pirouette through the Dance of the Hours, and the director wanted Edna to move just as lightly despite her bulk.
Q 11Which actress ended a five-year screen absence as villain Velma Von Tussle in the 2007 Hairspray?
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer had already shot Stardust, but Hairspray reached cinemas three weeks sooner and so became her comeback.
Q 12Which actor won the role of Tracy's father Wilbur over Billy Crystal in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken was put forward by the star playing his wife Edna, and the two share a duet in which Wilbur apologises to her.
Q 13Hugh Jackman and Joey McIntyre lost the part of Corny Collins in the 2007 Hairspray to which actor?
James Marsden
Q 21Who wrote and directed the 1988 Hairspray and pops up as a flasher in the 2007 film's opening song?
John Waters
John Waters told the remake's director not to copy either his film or the stage show but to do his own thing. He had played a quack psychiatrist in the original.
Q 22Which drag performer played both Edna Turnblad and a bigoted TV boss in the 1988 film Hairspray?
Divine
Divine had hoped to play Tracy as well as her mother, but the distributor talked the director out of it. It was his last film released in his lifetime.
Q 23Which future talk show host made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film Hairspray?
Ricki Lake
James Marsden plays Corny as a progressive who fights the segregation imposed on his own programme. Jackman had been his co-star in the X-Men films.
Q 14Which Nickelodeon star plays Penny Pingleton, Tracy's shy best friend, in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Amanda Bynes
Amanda Bynes was one of the few established film stars cast among the teenagers. Her Penny ends up tied to a bed by a furious mother.
Q 15Which actress, who had worked with the director on The Pacifier, plays Amber in the 2007 Hairspray?
Brittany Snow
Brittany Snow got the part of Tracy's rival partly because another contender was about to start filming the TV series Heroes.
Q 16Which actress plays Prudy Pingleton, who ties her daughter to a bed, in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Allison Janney
Allison Janney plays Prudy as a strict fundamentalist who reports Tracy to the police. Her husband is in prison for a crime the film never names.
Q 17Nikki Blonsky was working at which ice cream chain when she won the lead in the 2007 film Hairspray?
Cold Stone Creamery
Cold Stone Creamery was the day job of a 17-year-old with no professional acting or singing credits. She was picked from more than 1,100 hopefuls at open casting calls.
Q 18Elijah Kelley plays which Hairspray character, who teaches Tracy dance moves and falls for Penny?
Seaweed Stubbs
Seaweed Stubbs is Motormouth Maybelle's son, and the steps he shows Tracy win her a place on television. Kelley got the part through an audition contest.
Q 19Who played Tracy's father in the 1988 Hairspray and the Hefty Hideaway's owner in the 2007 film?
Jerry Stiller
Jerry Stiller came back nearly two decades on as the plus-size boutique owner who hires Tracy as his spokesgirl and gives Edna a makeover.
Q 20Where at school does Tracy meet the Black dancers who teach her new moves in the 2007 Hairspray?
Detention
Detention is where Tracy lands for skipping class to audition, and the dancing she finds there changes her luck. In the 1988 original the meeting happens in special education classes.
Ricki Lake's own hair was used for the part's big styles, and she returned for the 2007 remake in a cameo as a talent agent.
Q 24Which rock singer played Velma Von Tussle opposite Sonny Bono in the 1988 film Hairspray?
Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry was also meant to perform songs for the film, but her label Sire objected, so the Blondie singer only acted.
Q 25Which actor won a Tony as Broadway's first Edna and returned for the 2016 live Hairspray telecast?
Harvey Fierstein
Harvey Fierstein also wrote the 2016 teleplay himself, adapting the stage script for television. He sang a brief cameo over the 2007 film's end credits too.
Q 26Which future Glee star originated the role of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway in 2002?
Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison stayed with the show until January 2004. Five years later, in 2009, Glee made him famous as teacher Will Schuester.
Q 27Which West End singer won an Olivier Award as Edna in London's first production of Hairspray?
Michael Ball
Michael Ball won Best Actor in a Musical for the part in 2008 and came back to it for the 2021 West End revival.
Q 28Which choreographer directed the 2007 film Hairspray and appears in it as a talent agent?
Adam Shankman
Adam Shankman drilled his cast and more than 150 dancers through weeks of rehearsals before shooting began.
Q 29Who composed the songs for Hairspray, writing the words with his partner Scott Wittman?
Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman agreed to the project only if Wittman could join him, and their three-song demo convinced the producer she had the right team.
Q 30Corny Collins's dance party in Hairspray was based on which real teen TV programme?
The Buddy Deane Show
The Buddy Deane Show aired in place of American Bandstand in its home city, where the local ABC affiliate blacked out the network programme. Its host cameos as a newsman in the 1988 film.