Hairspray is set in 1962. Tracy Turnblad is an overweight teen who comes home every day from school with her friend Penny to watch The Corny Collins Show. On Corny Collins local teenagers dance to all the latest songs. One day Tracy decides to go to one of their dance competitions with Penny. Tracy wins! And is asked to try out for the show. Because she is such a great dancer she is accepted and becomes a regular on the show.
Once on the show Tracy forms a bitter rivalry with the bitchy Amber Von Tussle who is annoyed that Tracy has got the attention of Link one of the boys on the show. And more importantly that Tracy is pitted against her for the Miss Auto Show Crown.
Things aren�t as joyful and happy, as they seem on TV. The TV station bosses wont let black and white people appear on the show together and force the black people to have a separate show once a month. Tracy protests against this and as a result gets herself sent to reform school.
The day of the Auto show soon arrives and because Tracy is in reform school the judges deem Tracy ineligible for the crown. So Amber wins by default. The viewers aren�t happy that Tracy is in reform school and are even more outraged that she is being denied her crown. They all demonstrate for her release outside the mayor�s house. The finally mayor agrees to release her and they all make their way to the Auto Show. Amber�s parents were secretly planning on blowing up the ceremony if their daughter didn�t win and in all the mayhem of Tracy�s return the bomb concealed in Amber�s mother�s hair goes off by mistake! The Von Tussle�s are carted off to jail where they belong and Tracy takes the crown, which is rightfully hers. In all the commotion the show has become integrated and Tracy is sitting on her thrown where she belongs.