An outsider again

In the USA Today blog Pop Candy, John Waters offers a little post-mortem on the demise of Cry-Baby, the second musical based on one of his movies to make it to Broadway, which closed on June 22 after 113 performances.

Why do you think Cry-Baby didn't translate to Broadway and Hairspray did?

"I never answer my critics, but a negative review in the New York Times on a Broadway musical is almost impossible to survive. And maybe the '50s are a little used up. ... I wrote a letter to the cast and everybody who was involved, and I basically said, "You know, the cliche is your productions are all like your children, and I like the one that causes the most trouble and is misunderstood." So I guess that would be Cry-Baby. You know, I was an insider, and now I'm an outsider again, so I have to thank them for that."

Cry-Baby

I know it's not fair to criticize a show for not being enough like another show, but I loved Hairspray when I saw it on tour last year and because of that, I had such high hopes for Cry-Baby, another musical based on a John Waters movie.

Unfortunately, not only did Cry-Baby not make me cry, it hardly even made me laugh. The plot, about a "bad" boy from the wrong side of the tracks who falls in love with a "good" girl from the right side of the tracks, has lots of promise, but the book by Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnell wasn't as sharp and witty as I would have liked. I can't believe this is the same team that wrote Hairspray. Maybe my short-term memory is going, but I can't even remember any funny lines.

Cry-Baby's songs, with lyrics by Daily Show writer David Javerbaum and music from Adam Schlesinger, of the pop-rock band Fountains of Wayne, were just mildly funny. The opening number, "The Anti-Polio Picnic," was a promising start, but other than a few references to "Commies," the musical didn't seem to capture the 1950s in all of its misplaced complacency, sexual repression and Cold War hysteria. I guess I expected something more over the top hilarious from Javerbaum, given his association with The Daily Show.

There was very little of the incisive social and political satire, catchy tunes, imaginative sets or quirky, engaging characters that I loved in Hairspray. Even Rob Ashford's choreography didn't excite me very much - although in "Jailyard Jubilee" I did learn quite a bit about how license plates are made. I know there's been some comparison to The Wedding Singer, but I thought Chad Beguelin's lyrics and Ashford's choreography were better than anything in Cry-Baby, especially in a song like "All About the Green," which really captured the 1980s on Wall Street.

I wanted James Snyder's Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker to be, well, badder, maybe more misunderstood, more brooding, more smoldering, more dangerous, more of a character. The same for "good girl" Allison, played by Elizabeth Stanley. She was sweet, but she should have been more of the quintessential 1950s "good girl," so that when she fell for the "bad boy," the contrast could be even more stark and funny.

On the other hand, I thought Harriet Harris really played it to the hilt as Mrs. Vernon-Williams, Allison's very proper, somewhat snooty, upper-crust grandmother. Maybe she's played this type of role before, but I thought she was pretty funny. And Alli Mauzey was wonderfully demented as Leonora, a girl with an unrequited crush on Cry-Baby. (Has there ever been a more perfectly titled song for a character than "Screw Loose?") To me, their performances were more memorable than the leads.

The poster for the show kind of hints at what I was expecting, but Cry-Baby itself doesn't really follow through. Snyder's Wade Walker is nowhere near as scary as the drawing on the cover of the Playbill. The whole thing just felt kind of flat and blah - like white bread and mayonnaise when I was really looking forward to some spicy mustard on rye.

To listen or not to listen

By nature, I'm an information gatherer. It's instinctive, innate, in my genes, in my blood, in my bones, or something. Whatever it is, I can't be any other way.

So it's taking every ounce of willpower I can muster, which normally isn't much, to stay away from video clips and audio clips and stories and reviews of the Broadway musicals I'm seeing in just a few short weeks - In the Heights, Cry-Baby, South Pacific and Gypsy.

I don't really want to unplug my computer, pretend Al Gore never invented the Internet, cover my eyes and ears and relocate to a cave for the rest of the month. But it's tough, because I'm torn between competing desires.

I'm excited about my upcoming trip, so I want to read and hear and see everything I can beforehand. At the same time, I want to maintain a sense of surprise and anticipation that will stay with me until I'm in my seat, listening to the music and watching the story unfold right before my eyes.

Actually, I'm giving myself a free pass on Gypsy, since I saw it at City Center over the summer, and a reduced pass on South Pacific, since I've seen the movie and the concert version on DVD. Because they won't be total surprises, I'm allowing myself to read reviews of Gypsy and listen to the scores of both musicals. (See, I told you I don't have much willpower!)

But I'm trying my best to hold firm on In the Heights and Cry-Baby. Let me tell you, it's not easy with all that temptation at my fingertips.

First, within a half-hour of the end of the first preview, or sometimes even the end of the final dress rehearsal, someone on the Broadway World or Talkin' Broadway message board posts a review. Yeah, I admit I'm a little bit addicted to those boards, even if they do tend to get kind of repetitive after awhile.

Obviously, it's impossible to remain completely in the dark. I mean, it's not like I could take a monthlong vacation from all things Broadway and theater-related. I'm too far gone for that. If you pay attention to the theater, you can't help but read about a show months or years beforehand - during workshops or out of town or off-Broadway.

So I know the basic story of In the Heights and Cry-Baby. But I'm doing my best to stay away from audio and video clips and interviews with the cast and creative team. That's difficult to do, especially in the case of Cry-Baby, since the music starts playing when you click on the Web site.

Last year, I think there were some shows I knew way too much about before I saw them. I loved Spring Awakening, but I really wish I hadn't watched the cast perform "The Bitch of Living" on The Late Show or read so many spoiler-filled reviews.

Also, I wish I hadn't read A Moon for the Misbegotten before I saw the play. My only defense is, I read the play when Kevin Spacey was still doing it in London, and at that time I had no idea I'd be seeing it on Broadway. I'm staying away from his current play, Speed-the-Plow, just in case there's a Broadway transfer.

I just think back to how hard I laughed at the finale of Curtains, how surprised I was to find out whodunit. I did an especially good job of maintaining a healthy sense of ignorance on that one, thank-you very much!

I know that some theatergoers like listening to the score of a musical before they see a show. If you're trying to decide whether or not to buy a ticket, of course that makes sense. But I'm glad I saw Curtains months before the Broadway cast CD came out.

I'd only heard the briefest of snippets of the songs from Wicked before I saw the musical. I don't think "For Good" would have hit me quite so hard if I'd been listening to it every day for the previous three months. I've mentioned before that as soon as I heard the song, I started to cry. And I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.