Cry Baby Reviews - YIKES!

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:40pm

Link is not available, so here is text until I can provide a link from Newsday.
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Spoof hits the high Waters mark


Friday, April 25, 2008
By LINDA WINER

Just how many high-school spoofs about the ‘50s can pop culture embrace?

The surprising answer to that question is…oh, all right, one more. “Cry-Baby,” which opened last night at the Marquis Theatre, 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.”

This is not to suggest that this amiable show will likely compete with “Hairspray” for the big-ticket audience. For starters, it is based on a lesser Waters movie, which, despite Johnny Depp as the bad-boy hero, was a dimwitted 1990 takeoff on every ‘50s takeoff from “Grease” through “Happy Days” and beyond.

But the new musical, directed by Mark Brokaw and exuberantly choreographed by Rob Ashford, is confident – no, proud – of its simple bad taste / good values ancestry. The class-warfare book, by “Hairspray” adapters Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, keeps importance and sincerity to a delightful minimum.

And the word-smart score – by newcomers David Javerbaum (executive producer of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”) and Adam Schlesinger (power-pop band Fountains of Wayne) – is a twisted dopey-like-a-fox combination of eight-bar ‘50s rockabilly for the wild kids and harmonized Eisenhower-kitsch for the right squares.

The good cast throws itself happily into the peppy, vulgar, deadpan foolishness of the style. If Depp put Cry-Baby, the rocker-rebel orphan, on the tender side of Elvis and James Dean, James Snyder goes for the irony of Charlie Sheen playing The Fonz. Elizabeth Stanley, as Allison, the good girl who wants to be bad, brings an endearing dorky underbelly to the cliché of the wholesome blonde with the wailing belt.

The thoroughly original performance come from Alli Mauzey as lovesick Leonora – not just Cry-Baby’s needy hanger-on, but a genuine nutcase, a delusional stalker with a dangerous look in the corner of her weird eyes. When she sings “Screw Loose,” a homage to Patsy Cline and all love’s crazy girls, we swear we can hear screws rattle.

Harriet Harris, who won her Tony Award for Brokaw’s production of “Thoroughly Modern Mille,” players Allison’s snob-with-a-conscience grandmother with the blasé dazzle of Eve Arden on uppers.

Scott Pask’s scenery, with set pieces that roll in and fly down, take us with deceptive effortlessness from the Baltimore country club to the gang’s heavy-petting quarry to prison. Catherine Zuber’s grossly appropriate costumes appreciate that ‘50s style was a lot more than poodle skirts.

Even the most ludicrous moments – iron-lung jokes, anyone? – move with fast-thinking flair in Ashford’s choreography, which pushes libidos and muscles against square geometrics and culminates in a furious but funny prison tap for seriously impressive male dancers.

Elevating the brain-numbing intentions of the form are such delirious lyrics as “girl, can I kiss you with tongue?” and a happy tribute to the early rock romance with “misery, agony, helplessness, hopelessness, heartache and woe.” It’s pretty stupid, yes, but with brains.
Updated On: 4/25/08 at 03:40 PM

[TooDarnHot]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:45pm

ouch... deceptive thread title.

perhaps you could include the author or publication, in your title?

I was expecting a complilation of CRY BABY reviews or something.

p.s. - look Amalou. I'm posting in a CB thread and I'm not bashing it! Aren't you proud of me?

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:51pm

That's a super-positive review, I must say!

Keep 'em comin', folks!

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:53pm

I think MenzelManiac was starting the thread where all the critics' reviews would be posted, since Linda Winer is the theatre critic for Newsday.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 3:57pm

No link? And that seems to be the whole thing which might lead to the whoe post being deleted.

[matty159]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:00pm

Wow! Based on what I have read on here (and from friends who have seen it), that is VERY positive. I can't wait to read more!!!!

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:02pm

That's...surprising.

Let's see if others follow or whether our dear Newsday critic was hitting the first four letters of her last name too hard when she saw this.

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:30pm

Just got permission to post the article. Will remove text and provide a link as soon as it is available. Looks pretty good though, no?

[TooDarnHot]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:33pm

Am I crazy or did I not get a definite feeling from Linda?

She beats around the bush too much... needs to be more blunt and up-front. that's MY opinion at least.

I would give this a Positively Mixed ranking. Not sure if it's all 100% thumbs up though.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:33pm

I'm SO looking forward to reading more!

[Smaxie]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:36pm

That's a positive review, pure and simple.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:39pm

Wow, that was a very positive review.

[musicalmaster703]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 4:40pm

They had a review on the today show, I missed it. Was it positive or negative?

[DCS]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:11pm

Does Winer really say that Harriet Harris won a Tony Award for BROKAW's produciton of Thoroughly Modern Millie? Wow, Michael Mayer must be really surprised...he thinks that he directed that show!

[MenzelManiac]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:21pm

And another review, no link available. Will remove text when link goes up.

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Cry Baby

David F. Richardson Theater Critic for WOR Radio 710

Want to have fun dumb fun at a Broadway show? Than I have just the ticket for you. The show is called Cry Baby and it opened last night at the Marquis theater where my ears were blown out by the silliest, most irreverent and madcap musical to hit a Broadway stage in a long time. It’s Baltimore in 1954 and the good rich kids are laughingly aligned against the bad poor kids. You know the usual Good girl falls for the bad guy while the good guy is trying his darndest to win her over. Also along for the wild ride, besides a bunch of kids who can dance, and I mean dance, up a storm and a trio of off the walls mugging broads. is the comic actress Harriet Harris who plays our heroine’s grandmother who has a silly secret past that comes out in the wild ending. She is one of the funniest women in the theater today and when she finally gets to her big number in the second act she’s just over the top.

Cry Baby, by the way brought to us by the same team that brought us the mega hit Hairspray runs at warp speed for 2 hours and fifteen minutes and I can guarantee you won’t take a nap but conversely you might want a set of ear muffs if you’re close to the stage. This is a great show to take unsophisticated clients, out of town relatives or friends to. They will not be bored, fall asleep or be mad at your when it’s over. Hairspray its not but it is a hoot.

So if you want to just have a good time, think about nothing and pretend you’re back in the early fifties, head on over to Cry Baby and just have a good time. No crying here. This is David Richardson Theater Critic for WOR Radio 710.

[pli1018]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:23pm

Wow even as a huge fan of the show, I'm surprised that any critic is even leaning towards positive comments about the show. Either way, looking forward to more positive reviews!

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:26pm

This is amazing -- We're already 2 for 2! YES!

[DCS]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:28pm

well, I am pleased to see these reviews so far....definitely some great pull quotes for the ads....when I saw the show in La Jolla, I felt there was a fun show hidden somewhere in there...my biggest issue was the miscasting of the 2 leads (although I loved Mauzey and Hanke) and the fact that the show didnt seem irreverent or subversive enough....sounds like Brokaw and Ashford may have actually worked things out during the preview process and come up with an entertaining show....I guess we'll see what some of the major critics have to say

[BenKaye]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:29pm

First, everyone thought Cry-Baby was a shoo-in for a Best Musical Nomination. Then, everyone thought it was gonna be the flop of the season. Now, already 2 positive reviews, quite possibly bringing up Tony hope once again?

This is madness I tell you. Madness!

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:31pm

This could prove to be a interesting evening.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:34pm

And they hated AFFAIR! Wow. (The world is coming to an end...beware! LOL!)

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:34pm

I saw it early in previews, and part of me is like, "... how could it REALLY have gotten that much better?" And then on the other hand, it really did, I thought, have potential.

Of course, these reviews so far aren't from the most reliable critics, so we'll see.

[DCS]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:35pm

Let's not get too excited, folks....we still have some major critics yet to weigh in....I just hope we get a cast recording so I can hear Screw Loose and the 2nd Act opener again

[TooDarnHot]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:36pm

a day of positive reviews shouldn't make CRY-BABY a shoein for Best Musical nomination

and for those of you who think my goal in life is to destroy this mindless show, I would say that about ANY musical...

and luvtheemcee has a valid point -- I will wait for the bigger critics to weigh in. Updated On: 4/24/08 at 05:36 PM

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 5:36pm

Why hasn't AM-NY chimed in yet?

Oftentimes, they're super-early with their reviews, no?