Cry Baby Reviews - YIKES! — Page 7

I'd call the Post review Mixed.

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2 out of 5 stars.
NY Daily News

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"Yeah, I'm sure the reviews will kill this show. They did it for Wicked for too. They also saved Grey Gardens. Thank goodness. Reviews make or break every show."

That's a bad comparison. Wicked was going to be a huge hit regardless of its reviews- by that point everyone knew the show was settling in for a long run. With Grey Gardens, everyone knew it was going to get good reviews, particularly for Ebersole, but that it would still struggle to find its audience.

honestly, they should just plaster the city with Spencer Liff posters.
that would do more to promote the show than anything else.

The reviews are unfortunate, but Brantley's review (while negative) is pretty mild. I really thought he'd just destroy the show.

However, I don't see Crybaby being a strong enough show to bridge the gap between bad reviews and a lengthy run. That's always sad, because you know that a large percentage of the cast is working hard. Poor Laura Jordan at the end of that show, standing in a pie pan for 20 minutes. This show could have been something really interesting, if done well. Sorry to see it wasn't.

I feel like the show fell into the awkward category of "not bad enough to be good" and "not good enough to be good". And then they froze it. Give it another month of re-writes, maybe you'd have something. But where it stands now, I can't possibly see a healthy run coming.

The only hope that they'll have is that so many revivals opened this year and not that many new musicals, meaning they could be defaulted into a Best Musical nomination, which just might trick people into buying tickets for awhile.

"Given its pedigree, it seems to be in for either a long lingering money-losing run (like WEDDING SINGER) or the producers will pull the plug fast (like HIGH FIDELITY.)"

a very astute assessment, frontrowcentre

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i feel bruised for them all, but i gotta say *some* kind of quid pro quo is goin on with that WSJ review!

I don't know if he understudies Snyder, but he should have been cast as Snyder. Snoopy the Dog would be a better Cry Baby.

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

You're forgetting this is BroadwayWorld. Any show that becomes financially successful must be deemed as "crap" regardless its quality or anyone's former opinions of the show. If you do not hate all hit shows and verbally rip them to shreds, then you are obviously not a supporter of musical theatre. Get with the program!

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Oh, I know full well about falling in love with a show that's not the best. Hello, I started this BWW account years ago and look at my screen name, lol.

I don't follow critics reviews or financial success as a way to judge my own appreciation of the show. At least, I try as hard as I can not to.

People like Michael Reidel, though, can do some serious harm to the community because they're often hard to ignore. Being a gossip columnist is one thing, but having an ax to grind with a show for some reason is unhealthy. Purposely trying to take a show down? Unprofessional. (Sorry, that's my Reidel gripe, lol)

Cry Baby has some good advance sales, and increasingly strong word of mouth (at least, in comparison to the abominable word of mouth they were getting in the first month of previews before extensive re-writes). I think it might run through the Tony's, but I can't imagine it going any further.

People like Michael Reidel, though, can do some serious harm to the community because they're often hard to ignore. Being a gossip columnist is one thing, but having an ax to grind with a show for some reason is unhealthy. Purposely trying to take a show down? Unprofessional. (Sorry, that's my Reidel gripe, lol)

I'm not fond of Riedel either, but this is nothing new to Broadway. Shows have been surviving sensationalists like him for decades. He says good things and bad things and he may be somewhat influential, but I don't think he can control the mob mentality of the tourist masses (who have no idea who Riedel is), so he pretty much has to target the shows that will be most attended by local theatregoers. The man's job is to sell papers by getting people to talk about theatre. At least someone is talking about theatre, which is more than you can say about 99% of the country.

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not every show deserves to have a shot. especially if there are (potentially) better musicals out there that could take its spot.

And based on the tryout, Cry-Baby was considered one those better musicals. One that could distract us from the disappointments of Little Mermaid and Young Frankenstein. It's all about perspective.

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