Cry Baby Reviews - YIKES!- Page 4

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:28pm

The first two were positive blaxx.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:31pm

Not to disagree, but I wouldn't say there are "some" positive reviews to this show. It's pretty much getting trashed.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:32pm

This show won't last a week.
In fact, I hear it closes tonight.

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:33pm

Also, isn't David Richardson from WOR the same guy who gave In My Life a flat out rave?

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:33pm

Just to clarify my post, I was expecting an absolute trashing from every review I read. The first two on this thread surprised me, that's all.

[Maurice]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:37pm

Wall Street Journal is very positive.

Wall Street Journal

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 09:37 PM

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:41pm

I enjoyed how blunt Ellen was on the video. Too great. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:42pm

Didn't the Wall Street Journal also like The Little Mermaid? Enough said.

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:42pm

Jeepers - not to be cynical because I want to see this show and like it - but it almost sounds like the Wall Street review was paid for.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:45pm

NO WAY OOOUT!!!!

[Maurice]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:47pm

Well, I was tempted to say that the WSJ was a rave, but it sounded too good to be true.

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 09:47 PM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:47pm

Who is this guy and why is he a theatre critic? I saw Cry Baby and was about to cry myself because it was probably the biggest missed opportunity in a long time. The direction is "an example of perfect comedic timing"? How about the perfect example of high school level staging? The cast is "wonderful'? Especially Harriet Harris? Ummmm....no...? He also calls the Hairspray score not memorable. As much as I didn't like the stage version of Hairspray, I will say that the score was wonderful. Who the hell is this guy?

[maya5892]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:49pm

Ok, I love how everyone on this board is making excuses for critics that gave the show positive remarks. Just let it be. Some will enjoy it.

[morosco]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:49pm

NO WAY OOOUT!!!!

LOL!

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:51pm

That was Leo Bloom by the way.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:56pm

Theatermania is negative with some cruel closing words:

If you're somehow unaware that today's Broadway producers are ravenous to adapt every movie ever made into a musical comedy, you might wonder why any clear-headed person would think John Waters' mediocre 1990 movie musical Cry-Baby had much potential to knock the Great White Way on its Tin-Pan-Alley ear. And while it turns out the reasons are many -- from the success of another Waters-based musical, Hairspray, a plotline reminiscent of another Broadway warhorse, Grease, and the presence of an Elvis Presley-like hero -- those rationales ultimately don't add up to making Cry-Baby a musical truly worth anyone's precious time.
---------------
On the other hand, should their Cry-Baby meet an early demise, it's likely few tears will be shed.


http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/13650

Updated On: 4/24/08 at 09:56 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 9:57pm

Anyone who calls the score to Hairspray "dull" has no credibility.

[maya5892]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:00pm

Ok. Let me say this again. That is their OPINION. Let them have it. They may not have credibility in your mind, or mine, but that doesn't mean their opinion isn't worthy.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:04pm

I would agree with you maya, but these are professional critics. Their so-called opinion must be very educated and well informed, and that review doesn't show that at all. And this has nothing to do with Cry-Baby but with the writing.

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:06pm

So Brantley says

Brace yourself for a shock, gentle theatergoer. There’s no delicate way of putting this. “Cry-Baby,” the latest Broadway musical based on a John Waters movie, is ... tasteless.

When I said “tasteless,” I meant 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. (Not to be tasteless.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/theater/reviews/25cryb.html?_r=1&ref=theater&oref=slogin

[BenKaye]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:06pm

Here it is.

[Maurice]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:07pm

USA Today is mixed to positive.
USA Today

[maya5892]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:08pm

"I would agree with you maya, but these are professional critics. Their so-called opinion must be very educated and well informed, and that review doesn't show that at all. And this has nothing to do with Cry-Baby but with the writing."

I know it doesn't have to do with Cry-Baby, but it still is their opinion, no matter how poor their format of the review is. That's all I'm saying.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:10pm

Wall Street Journal lost me here:
"Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, who wrote the book, also gave us "Hairspray," which I didn't like at all, partly because the score is dull and partly because the show too often lapses into inexplicably preachy period kitsch. Not so with "Cry-Baby."


Ouch from Brantley. Kind of thought he would mention Alli Mauzey, apparently not.

[courtnyj]

Posted: 4/24/08 at 10:11pm

From Brantley's review:

"This show in search of an identity has all the saliva-stirring properties of week-old pre-chewed gum."