My Thoughts on CRY-BABY- Page 2

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 8:43pm

"Anyone think the show has a shot at positive reviews and a cast recording?"

i think positive reviews and a cast recording are in order. I'd buy it!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 8:45pm

Positive reviews??? Are you on crack? This show will get universally panned and close soon thereafter.

Then again, I haven't seen the "changes" yet...maybe I will be singing a different tune come next Saturday evening...

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 8:51pm

"Positive reviews??? Are you on crack?"

Please attempt to keep your snide comments to yourself when criticizing another person's opinion.

And if you insist on talking about crack, I have to wonder about you, going to a show "so painful" for a third time.

[matty159]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 8:53pm

All judgments aside, I hope to see this in two weeks. Though I am a bit nervous!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 8:56pm

I'm seeing the show again to see the changes that they have made over the past two weeks...and because I'm a flopaholic.
Updated On: 3/30/08 at 08:56 PM

[matty159]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:00pm

To be completely honest, the only reason I want to see it is for the turkey appeal. I lurves me a flop too, and since I am gonna be up there, I see it as money well worth spent! (Funny how it comes to that, huh?!)

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:02pm

Matty159, if that is the reason you are going, you will not be disappointed!!!

[jaystarr]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:09pm

Wat- I think you and Jane2 have seen totally two different shows..lol!

*****

To everyone- I am seeing the show bec. I heard there are some hot boys there? lol! No actually... I want to see Rob Ashford's dashing chreograhy!

J*

[Jane2]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:19pm

I'm sorry I got involved in this ridiculous banter. Grow up.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:34pm

It looked orange to me -- maybe because I was so dazed by that point? Either way, it was awful.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 9:42pm

Yes, the nun's outfit is now bright orange. It was only hot pink for the first couple of previews.

[theatre2]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 8:28pm

now that all the other shows have recored deals hope about cry baby.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 8:44pm

Record WHAT? There's no score there.

[Sauja]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 11:23pm

As someone who doesn't post a lot here but does browse for opinions, I'm pleased to see some dissent from the original opinion that Cry-Baby is the worst thing to happen on Broadway in any significant amount of time. Granted, its problems are very real and very noticeable. But there's enough wit and charm for an enjoyable enough two and a half hours.

It put me very much in the mind of High Fidelity--enjoyable elements but milquetoast leads. Strong supporting characters but little story development. That said, I do think reviews will be stronger than they were for High Fidelity and that the commercial reception will be much, much better if just because the tone is more upbeat, the show is more fun, and the source material is better suited to adaptation.

It also reminded me of Xanadu. I worry that I'm begging for my first virtual slap here, but I hated Xanadu. I found it suffocatingly self-referential and obsessively glib. Cry-Baby also winks at the audience, but it does so while also managing to tell a story. It doesn't find itself shrieking at the audience about how much it amuses itself, which I found refreshing. So for my money, not only was this not the worst musical Broadway has seen in years (can we all agree that was Brooklyn?), it isn't even the worst it has seen this season (I WANTED to love Xanadu--I swear).

Oh, and Jaystarr, there really are very, very hot boys in the show. AND the choreography is fab. If those are your two reasons for going, you shouldn't be too let down.

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 12:09am

i personally think with this whole month of previews the show can go in the right direction.

NEW CHANGES:

Tonight was the last time "Class Dismissed" will be performed, the actors said the new song will be inserted tomorrow. And they cut out "Let's Get Some Air" and added a good reprise of "Nobody Gets Me" sung by Allison and they re-ordered the "Nobody Gets Me" sequence. And since Cry-Baby doesn't bring Allison to Turkey Point she now says she hitchhiked her way there with a stranger and she liked it.
Very cute changes.
The line about the response Allison has for her nightgown has been cut.

A few other minor things as well. But all in all the show is certainly making some good effective changes.

[misto625]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 12:49am

What was the line about the response Allison has for her nightgown? I saw the show last week and can't remember it.

[bwayguy22089]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 12:51am

I loved the changes. Even the little line changes are huge improvements.

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 1:10am

Allison said something along the lines that the gown was reversible.


And i do agree, the little changes are great improvements.

I'm seeing the show again tomorrow and will definitely post how the new song is.

*edit* I forgot to mention that Tory Ross said tonight that "Class Dismissed" is being replaced with a new song for tomorrow." Updated On: 4/1/08 at 01:10 AM

[singingbackup]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 1:12am

No fancy #/# reviews, but for what it's worth: Went tonight with friends, the crowd was into it (lots of Bway folks off from their shows came by to see it), there were genuine laughs, some killer dancing and staging, nice moments here and there, but most of all, we had fun. Did I leave humming the score, no (but that's not quite fair, since I can't stop singing stuff from In The Heights). It does need work, and from what I hear it's getting it. It's not a show for everyone, but if they really hone in on the edgier humor and lean more towards John Waters and away from Hairspray, it has a shot at a decent show and, if nothing else, a nice night's entertainment.

I do think a good crowd helps, though. Friends went to the Saturday matinee and it was like a funeral. But our decent sized orchestra audience (didn't see the mezz) loved it, even the cute stuff at the beginning and end *NO Spoiler here. No standing ovation but very enthusiastic cheers for some of the standouts. And Harriet Harris sang her song fairly well, so that seems to have improved.

I also felt that more than just Allie Mauzey were camping it up (some have reported a lack of energy from most of the cast.) Energy and 'camp' seemed amped up and that could be why more jokes were landing.

In closing, I had turkey for lunch, and this ain't no turkey.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 1:37am

From what I saw last week, though I'm still really iffy on the casting of James Snyder and Elizabeth Stanley, the work of Harriet Harris, Christopher J Hanke and Alli Mauzey more than made of for it. The ensemble is fantastic and the choreography is a lot of fun, a great job by Rob Ashford.

I do find the biggest issues in the score: most the drapes' songs all sound exactly alike, but i liked the squares songs and several of the bigger number; and the book, where despite some cute lines, i found early exposition quite interminable; the dialogue for Cry-Baby and Allison is non-descript; and god, i hope that monologue at the end gets shortened by about 75 percent by opening night, it stops the show dead.

BUT I'm very happy to hear that between last Thursday and this week, some substantial changes are being made. The ones DidYouReallyHearMe mentioned are HUGE steps in the right direction, though i wouldn't replace Class Dismissed, it's just too many songs in a row.

I saw a lot of potential in this show, I just hope that the work on the show continues so that it may live up to it. Now I dunno, I may even want to see it again to see how the previews develop, see if the changes are working!

Updated On: 4/1/08 at 01:37 AM

[DidYouReallyHearMe]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 2:31am

everythingtaboo, i agree with the class dismissed note. I cannot wait for tomorrow night to arrive so i can see the cuts and changes they make.

And the energy was WAYYYY up there tonight. Wow.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 7:06am

I liked Class Dismissed.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 8:42am

i liked Class Dismissed too

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 4/1/08 at 11:32am

I hope Let's Get Some Air and Class Dismissed are bonus tracks on the cast recording (if there is one).

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 4/3/08 at 8:00am

I went last night for the first time, and on the whole I very much agree with SW's post, as well as many other posts that said the performance was underwhelming but not an abomination.

The show wasn't GOOD, but it was, for many parts, enjoyable. The main detractor were the absolutely horrific jokes, many of which I said the punchlines of because they were so predicatable. "You're letting yourself go! When you shower, you later and rinse, BUT YOU DON'T REPEAT!" *RIMSHOT* Or the worst rhyme of the night, in "I'm infected", which I agree needs to go:
"This is a worse diagnosis, / than mononucleosis."

On the whole, though, it was a better night at the theater than sitting at home doing nothing. The leads are extremely talented (albeit underused). The plot hits you over the head with itself incessantly, but not in a "we're being obvious as good satire" way. I liked it more than Hairspray (which isn't saying much), though, because it didn't take itself seriously at any point of the show. There are some points in Hairspray that are meant to be taken seriously but are too corny (excuse the pun) to do so, and it actually seems like they're trying to teach us that racism is bad. There wasn't any of that here. Everything was tongue-in-cheek, which is good. Don't take yourself too seriously.

In conclusion, though, I found "Nothing Bad is Ever Gonna Happen Again" to be a fitting, self-fulfilling closing number to the show. Unfortunately, the words will only be truest on closing night.