Cry-Baby

Marquis Theater

I read the review by Ben Brantley in the Times before I went to the theater. Brantley likened Cry-Baby to tasteless, old chewing gum. And, I read the review by Terry Teachout in the Journal. Teachout wrote that it was hilarious. The two were not of the same opinion at all. So, I had to go and see for myself.

Granted, Cry-Baby followed the same-old musical formula which may account for the "tasteless" theme of Brantley's review. It didn't try and push past the stale formula or change it in any way. Even the rebels against the formula, though (Drowsy Chaperone, for instance) haven't actually advanced anything new.

It wasn't quite hilarious, though, as Teachout said, though. It was funny. I laughed out loud a few times. But, I wasn't rolling in the aisles.

It was just good. Cry Baby falls in the same bucket as Legally Blonde, Spelling Bee, Hairspray and maybe even Avenue Q although that one is a stretch. And, I liked it a lot--a lot more than most of the musicals I just mentioned.

It's missing one thing: a star or two. For example, it doesn't have Kelli O'Hara who is currently playing in South Pacific or Sutton Foster now in Young Frankenstein. It's missing that star who blows you away with their understanding of the piece and their elevation of the role.

But, let me tell you what it does have--a really nice production, a good book, above average music, impressive sets and a hell of a lot of dancing. I haven't seen this much dancing in a long time. Not just dancing, too--it has really great choreography underneath the dancing. People float across the stage when they aren't doing flips, tap dancing or impressing you in some other way.

Cry-Baby is something of the old Grease story. Square, pretty girl meets rough-and-tumble boy and they have a tough time getting together. It's set in the Grease time period, so it has all those big skirts and a little bit of an Elvis feel, well okay a lot of an Elvis feel. But, let's be honest Elvis never hurt anything, only helped.

The big dance number in Act II was set in prison (how many times have we seen this before? I know--Legally Blonde and Chicago just to name two now playing), but it had its own spin which I really liked. They were making license plates in the scene and they strapped the license plates to the bottom of their shoes and tap danced with them. It looked dangerous, impressive and marvelous all at the same time.

I thought the strongest element of the show was the layering. The songs were layered, the sets were layered, the staging was layered. I never say this, but I will here: I could see it again. There was enough going on to see it twice and catch a few things you missed.

I walked away thinking that overall this was the best musical I've seen in this genre in a long time. And, I normally don't really take to this genre. But, I do think this deserves its place as the next great Broadway tourist attraction. It deserves its long run status. And, people should rightly flock to this as much as anything else playing right now. Also nice for me, I never saw the movie and I'm not sure everyone has. So, even though it's doing what all of the other musicals are doing right now, ripping their story from a movie, it felt fresher to me as the characters haven't entered every day conversation long before the musical hit.

It still can use a little tightening up. It doesn't yet have the feel that they've performed it hundreds of times because they have not. But, people genuinely seemed happy with what they saw last night. And, I don't think it disappoints. It certainly did not disappoint me. I left the theater with a bounce in my step and happiness that I'd seen something before it became the next big thing.