Review - Cry-Baby: Deliriously Warped

Check your good taste at the door and have a blast at Cry-Baby, the deliriously warped new musical comedy based on the John Waters flick spoofing the culture clash between squares and juvies in 1950s Baltimore. While jokes about polio and sexually abusive priests and songs about tongue kissing may not be for everyone, this hilarious and spirited tuner serves up its crudeness and with extra helpings of whipped cream and sprinkles from the first notes of its revved-up overture to the final chord of the play-out music. I laughed for over two hours and when I looked down I saw my toes involuntarily tapping. It's a fun night out.

Just as the Waters film parodied the way the 1950s have been depicted in the cinema, director Mark Brokaw's production mocks the way the era has been seen through musical theatre. In fact, you might call Cry-Baby a clash between the rude satire that Grease was when it first hit Broadway in 1972 and the sanitized family fare it has evolved into. The cheery, candy-colored world created by Scott Pask (set), Catherine Zuber (costumes) and Howell Binkley (lights) plays straight to material that kicks nostalgia to the curb and presents the Eisenhower era via knowing, modern day cynicism.

The sturdy and clever book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan has the James Dean-ish loner Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker (James Snyder) and peppy, wholesome blonde Allison (Elizabeth Stanley) falling for each other at Baltimore's 1954 Anti-Polio Picnic. While the self-proclaimed squares that make up Allison's social network sing, "We avoid all temptations/We fight modern scourges!/Repress all our lustful and primitive urges," while preparing to bend over and take a vaccine needle to the butt, Cry-Baby's gang warns, in song, "You gotta watch your ass these days."

Our anti-hero got his nickname for the way he reacted when his parents, suspected of being Communist arsonists, were sent to the electric chair. Though Allison's grandmother (Harriet Harris) tries to keep the couple apart ("You are turning this carnival into a circus!"), the high-schooler's hormones lead her to hear Cry-Baby sing at a lakeside dive. But when a fire breaks out during a break in their make-out session, you-know-who is the main suspect.

In keeping with the spirit of the piece David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger are credited for writing songs instead of a score but that doesn't keep their collection of catchy period tunes propelling very funny, self-referential lyrics from being good theatre music. "Girl, Can I Kiss You With Tongue?," has a classic rock ballad romanticism expressing a thought that was certainly on the minds of most high school boys, even if it could never be played on the radio. The celebratory finale, "Nothing Bad Is Ever Gonna Happen Again," predicts that the 50s will bring an end to racism and provide decent housing and universal health care for all. ("There are no more assassinations/No more conflicts overseas/We conquer mental illness/And venereal disease!")

Rob Ashford's choreography is some of the best to be seen on Broadway these days as he nixes nostalgia and mixes high energy period steps with character-driven visuals that contribute to the warped sense of fun. Having a chorus of jailbirds do a tap dance with license plates on their shoes may not sound like a good idea, but it fits perfectly here and Ashford's ensuing jailbreak ballet is a wildly exuberant hit.

If there's a hitch in the evening it's that Snyder and Stanley have the unenviable task of playing the romantic leads in a show that's decidedly unromantic. Both are in terrific form vocally and play their roles just right but they're continually overshadowed by the supporting players who get the real juicy stuff. Alli Mauzey, for example, may not have a lot of stage time as the deranged schizophrenic with a crush on Cry-Baby, but she threatens to steal the show every time she walks on and delivers the most memorable musical moment singing the Patsy Cline parody, "Screw Loose," a song I suspect cabaret singers will be having switchblade fights over any day now. ("Eccentric; erratic/Toys in the belfry; bats in the attic.")

Harriet Harris' star presence and impeccable comic timing are sharp as ever, though her only solo is not the songwriting team's best effort and seems to be in an uncomfortable key, keeping the quirk-mistress from really soaring with it. Christopher J. Hanke also displays some excellent comedy chops as Allison's clean-cut, country-clubbing boyfriend ("I'd like to remind the wait staff that in the event of a nuclear attack, the shelter is for members only.") who leads the four-part harmonizing group, The Whiffles.

Chester Gregory II, who mixes James Brown moves with Little Richard vocals as Cry-Baby's best friend and the trio of pregnant teen Pepper (Carly Jibson), curvy perv-magnet Wanda (Lacey Kohl) and tough babe Mona, a/k/a Hatchet Face ("I'm ugly on the inside, too!) are all great fun and sing the hell out of their numbers.

Cry-Baby may not be the kind of show you'd take your conservative grandma to, but your crazy uncle who all the neighbors tell their kids to avoid will have a great time.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: James Snyder and Elizabeth Stanley; Bottom: Harriet Harris and company.

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