Cry-Baby (musical)

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Cry-Baby
Music Adam Schlesinger
Lyrics David Javerbaum
Book Mark O'Donnell
Thomas Meehan
Based upon 1990 film by John Waters, Cry-Baby
Productions 2007 San Diego
2008 Broadway

Cry-Baby is a musical based on the 1990 John Waters movie of the same name. The music is written by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger, and the book is by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. O'Donnell and Meehan also adapted Waters' film Hairspray for the musical stage. [1] The musical focuses on Baltimore teenager Allison Vernon-Williams, who is drawn across the tracks from her 1954 finishing-school background into a relationship with the orphaned Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker, the leader of a pack of lowlives.

The musical premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California on November 18, 2007 and ran through December 16. Previews began on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on March 15, 2008, with an official opening on April 24, 2008.[2] Directed by Mark Brokaw with choreography by Rob Ashford, the cast features Harriet Harris and James Snyder as "Cry-Baby".

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Musical numbers

Act I
  • "The Anti-Polio Picnic"
  • "Watch Your Ass"
  • "I'm Infected"
  • "Squeaky Clean"
  • "Nobody Gets Me"
  • "Nobody Gets Me (reprise)"
  • "Jukebox Jamboree"
  • "A Whole Lot Worse"
  • "Screw Loose"
  • "Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby (Baby Baby)"
  • "Girl, Can I Kiss You...?"
  • "I'm Infected (Reprise)"
  • "You Can't Beat the System"
Act II
  • "Misery, Agony, Helplessness, Hopelessness, Heartache and Woe"
  • "All in My Head"
  • "Jailyard Jubilee"
  • "A Little Upset"
  • "I Did Something Wrong...Once"
  • "Thanks for the Nifty Country!"
  • "This Amazing Offer"
  • "Do That Again"
  • "Nothing Bad's Ever Gonna Happen Again"

[edit] Critical response

Cry-Baby has received mixed reviews. Terry Teachout, in the Wall Street Journal, wrote that "the new John Waters musical, is campy, cynical, totally insincere and fabulously well crafted. And funny. Madly, outrageously funny."[3] Similarly, Newsday offered that the musical is "pleasantly demented and - deep in the sweet darkness of its loopy heart - more true to the cheerful subversion of a John Waters movie than its sentimental big sister Hairspray.[4]

On the other hand, Ben Brantley, in the New York Times, wrote that the show is "without flavor: sweet, sour, salty, putrid or otherwise. This show in search of an identity has all the saliva-stirring properties of week-old pre-chewed gum.... Mr. Ashford brings his customary gymnastic vigor to the choreography: lots of revved-up jumping jacks, push-ups and leg lifts, usually led by a trio of athletic muscle boys."[5] Variety added that "watered-down Waters has yielded a flavorless Broadway musical that revels in its down-and-dirtiness yet remains stubbornly synthetic. There's a lot of talent, sass and sweat onstage, particularly in the dance department, plus a sprinkling of wit in the show's good-natured vulgarity. But somehow, it never quite ignites."[6] The New York Sun opined that O'Donnell and Meehan "had far more success with another retro-themed Waters adaptation, Hairspray.... Cry-Baby is content to stay in the shallow end and focus on a standard wrong-side-of-the-tracks tale.... But rather than supply a jolt of not-too-outsider-energy, [the songwriters] have instead coasted on their magpie skills, tossing out an undistinguished stream of pastiche numbers. The lyrics occasionally have a welcome crispness.... The songs themselves, however, are as generic as the lyrics are pointed: It's the first time I can recall forgetting a show's melodies before they were even finished."[1]

Somewhere in between, USA Today commented, "The rockabilly-inspired numbers that David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger have crafted for Cry-Baby aren't as ambitious or infectious [as Hairspray], but the show is similarly good-hearted, and has more of a Waters edge. Javerbaum and Schlesinger's lyrics and Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan's book are both more inventively crass and less snarky than those of other contemporary musical winkfests; you get the sense that these writers share Waters' affection for his goofy subjects."[7]

[edit] Awards and nominations

2008 Tony Award
  • Best Musical (nominee)
  • Best Book of a Musical (Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan)(nominee)
  • Best Original Score (David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger (nominee)
  • Best Choreography (Rob Ashford) (nominee)
Drama League Award
  • Distinguished Production of a Musical (nominee)
  • Distinguished Performance Award (Harris, Snyder and Mauzey) (nominees)
Outer Critics Circle Award
  • Outstanding New Broadway Musical (nominee)
  • Outstanding Choreographer (Rob Ashford) (winner)
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Harriet Harris) (nominee)
Drama Desk Awards
  • Outstanding Choreography (Rob Ashford) (winner)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Grode, Eric. NY Sun review of April 28, 2008
  2. ^ playbill article, March 15, 2008, "Cry-Baby Sheds Its First Tear on Broadway March 15"
  3. ^ [1] Wall Street Journal review, April 25, 2008]
  4. ^ Winer, Linda . Newsday review, April 25, 2008
  5. ^ New York Times review, April 25, 2008
  6. ^ Rooney, David. Variety review, Apr. 24, 2008
  7. ^ Gardner, Elysa. USA Today review, April 2008

[edit] External links

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John Waters
Feature Films
Musical Productions

Hairspray • Cry-Baby
Productions