Cry Baby Reviews - YIKES!- Page 3

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:06pm

Holy Crap if word of mouth was pretty dismissive you know its a disaster lol

[MarkK]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:08pm

The word of mouth people were so HARSH about James & Elizabeth. I'm surprised those comments made it in to the reel.

Probably the nicest things they said, " well, he was kind of good, and they're both not........untalented?"

[ruprecht]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:09pm

I agree with you, bwayguy, but if the Word of Mouth review is bad... Yikes! I thought they were, um, encouraged to like everything?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:11pm

I actually think they were right on about James and Elizabeth. They just seem to be really not invested in their roles and quite frankly, not ready to handle carrying a show like this.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:12pm

Best part of Word of Mouth:

The chick who played Allison... didn't like her.

[scaryclowns223]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:15pm

I would trust Tom from Word of Mouth to write a review for a periodical. Dude knows good theatre, is insightful, and is clearly very smart.

That said, I've never seen a Word of Mouth review that poor. Usually at least one person likes it, but these guys all didn't really enjoy it. Although the clip at the end sounded good.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:16pm

The chick who played Allison....didn't like her.

Both the leads need to be replaced.


Best word of mouth quotes since the Raul lip licking incident.

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 08:16 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:20pm

Wow, I actually agree with most of what the "word of mouth" reviewers said. It's so funny that the one girl was referring to Spencer Liff, but didn't mention him by name.

[BroadwayPer4mer03]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:34pm

Variety is up - Mixed to Negative


"As the title character memorably told his good-girl-gone-bad sweetheart in John Waters' 1990 movie, "You got it, Allison. You got it raw." But one problem for "Cry-Baby" was that the underground trashmeister's rebel rawness was diluted into benign, kitschy satire in his attempt to follow "Hairspray" with a further step toward the mainstream. So it's perhaps not surprising 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."

"But without a central romance that cooks, the show's pleasures evaporate as they unfold. Javerbaum and Schlesinger angle to send the audience out on a high with the good-time closer "Nothing Bad's Ever Gonna Happen Again," but unlike "Hairspray," where "You Can't Stop the Beat" was a mandate to celebrate, we don't care enough about anyone onstage in "Cry-Baby" to share their joy."

"Inevitable as they are, the comparisons to the previous Broadway musical fashioned from a Waters film are secondary to the grab bag of elements in "Cry-Baby" that recall everything from "Grease" and "Little Shop of Horrors" to "All Shook Up" and "The Wedding Singer." Whatever its inspirations, this vanilla show lacks a fresh identity of its own."







Variety - Crybaby Updated On: 4/24/08 at 08:34 PM

[Maurice]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:35pm

Just got home and caught up with what's been happening... Watched Word of Mouth and liked Tom's comment, "If the whole show was as good as the chorus is... it would be the best show in history." Let's hear it for the chorus!

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 08:35 PM

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:35pm

Yeah, love, the Variety review I had already put up.

[MarkK]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:38pm

Chicago Tribune - Mixed to Negative

The performances are mixed. Neither James Snyder, the invulnerable newcomer who plays the title role (performed in the movie by Johnny Depp), nor Elizabeth Stanley, who plays the show’s curious good girl seduced by Mr. Blocked-Tear-Ducts in Leather, emit sufficient charisma or sexuality to hold down the leads. You don’t sense a pair of twisted, beating hearts.

Chicago Tribune Updated On: 4/24/08 at 08:38 PM

[MarkK]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:46pm

Associated Press - Negative

An insistently cartoonish `Cry-Baby' works hard at trying to entertain

NEW YORK (AP) - Can we shed a tear for Cry-Baby, a strenuous, insistently cartoonish stage adaptation of John Waters' cinematic trash fest? Well, maybe one or two.

The laborious musical that opened Thursday at Broadway's Marquis Theatre works hard at trying to entertain, never relaxing for a moment as it tells a familiar story: the
romance between a good girl and a bad boy, set against the backdrop of 1950s social mores and mortality.

AP

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:51pm

Is this worse than TLM?

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:54pm

No, cause at least some of the reviews were mixed.

[Steve2]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 8:57pm

I have attached the Variety review from La Jolla Playhouse. Quite a contrast with the current review.

No real tears are shed in "Cry-Baby," the exuberantly witty musical adaptation of John Waters' 1990 social satire in pre-Broadway tryout at the La Jolla Playhouse. That's because the style forbids anything quite so vulnerable. Employing '50s musical-comedy conventions to skewer conventional morality then and now, tuner offers laughs aplenty, powerhouse choreography and a sizzling rockabilly-and-blues-inspired score -- but it lacks a single sentimental bone in its body. While the show is never exactly mean, it's not warm either, and it will be interesting to see how auds take to a hilarious romp that rarely stops, or stoops, to touch them where they live.
Wryly ironic sensibility is derived partly from Waters but mostly from satirical newspaper the Onion and TV's "The Daily Show," on whose staffs co-songwriter David Javerbaum has been a mainstay. Structure echoes that of all those Elvis Presley musicals in which a swingin' outsider rocks Middle America; tonally, the tuner is closest to the Zucker brothers' laugh-a-minute Elvis spoof "Top Secret!"

Variety Review from La Jolla

[Maurice]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:00pm

So, what happened as far as Variety is concerned between La Jolla and Broadway?

[scaryclowns223]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:03pm

Looks like the West Coast Variety critic is much more easily persuaded/entertained than the East Coast Critic.

Though that seems to be the case with most critics. If they were that good, they would be covering New York shows.

[roadmixer]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:04pm

Snipe if you like about Mermaid. The numbers tell the story of success.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:08pm

Why are these "real" reviews? Because you agree with them?

Variety is mainly for industry insiders, and I only know what AM NY is from these review threads.

Newsday is a newspaper which reaches a large community in Long Island and the city.

But that must be a crap review, because she liked the show.

[Midnight Radio]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:16pm

Yes, and AP only happens to run around the world and is the biggest name in global news.

What the hell do they know?

[amalou]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:17pm

Hey, you're only smart if you hate something.

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:18pm

I have never been so undecided about whether to see a show or not in my life. I will if I can get a good seat - here's hoping the premiums get released as cheaper seats by mid May.

I am glad to see some positive reviews for this show. It annoys me how so many people want to compare it to Hairspray. They are two different films so why would you not expect two different shows?

Re the two leads, is it possible that the producers would replace them? The general consensus seems to be that they aren't very good and from the sounds of things if they were replaced then maybe the show would be a lot better?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:19pm

"I have never been a fan of Linda's reviews for Newsday."

I'm with you on that. I cannot stand her reviews from the past two seasons.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:20pm

I am glad to see some positive reviews for this show.

???