OK... but what does that have to do with his overall versatility as an actor, or are you saying that he isn't really that versatile?
If you are, then that's your right, but I'd obviously disagree.
Well, to my mind, versatility means someone who can play different roles in such a manner that you can believe him as that character, someone who changes his performance or even his looks to fit the new character he's playing, as opposed to someone who plays a cowboy with the same appearance and characteristics as he plays a New Yorker, as he plays a gangster, as he plays an angel, as he plays any other role. To me, John Travolta plays John Travolta regardless of what character he's playing. The same can be said about most of the actors in Hollywood--you go to a John Wayne movie, you know what you're going to get from Wayne because you've seen the same performance in every one of his films; go to Steve McQueen, you know what his performance will be like, go to Doris Day and you know how she's going to play the role, go to a John Travolta film, you know you're going to get the same John Travolta you've always seen before. Like most movie stars, he makes a good living being the person people want to see on screen time after time after time. Very few movie stars are really good actors who can give you something different from one film to the next. As far as I can see, playing "Hairspray" in drag is probably the only risk he's taken on stage and his first major effort to stretch his acting ability. I hope he succeeds, but I'd be more impressed if Wesley Snipes, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Preston, Cary Grant, and so many others hadn't already done it.
As for his
Urban Cowboy role, John Travolta didn't look, sound, or act like anyone I ever met in Gilley's, so he certainly wasn't believeable in that role to me. I kept expecting him to break into a disco line dance. Yeah, the movie was a big hit and paid him a lot of money and lots of people liked it. But I didn't believe him for a moment. Just my opinion. Not saying it's right or better than yours at all.