Cry-Baby

What can fizzle on Broadway can sizzle on other stages. Cry-Baby only lasted 68 performances when it premiered in New York in 2008. At the Hayes Theatre - with its intimate staging - the musical is a delicious treat.

In an echo of Grease, Cry-Baby is set in the early golden era of the 1950’s – where the Cold War is at its most terrifying and bad boys wore leather jackets.  It’s about teenagers from two different tribes who fall in love in the flavour of Romeo and Juliet.

Whilst the premise might feel familiar, very soon the audience is swept away by the hilarious cynicism. The opening song is set at an anti-polio picnic which promotes vaccinations by wheeling around a boy in an iron lung. At the picnic the do-good upper crust tribe “watch for communists, keep tabs on UFOs (and) steer clear of weirdos.

They are contrasted with the lower crust tribe who declare that “it's a perfect day to raise some hell. To crash a car you've stolen.”

The Romeo (Cry-Baby) Christian Charisiou and Juliet (Allison) Ashleigh Rubenach are appropriately handsome and sweet. On their first date they have the pleasure of performing the song “Girl can I kiss you with tongue.” This is a task which they fulfil with admirable enthusiasm. 

Whilst the French kissing is a tad icky – it is saccharine compared to the more extreme images which the film-maker who wrote it (John Waters) has been known to place in some of his movies (Cry-Baby starred Johnny Depp when it was released in 1990).

This production bursts with colour. The set, designed by Isabel Hudson, is a sweet box of tricks with hatches that open and close with dexterity. Mason Browne’s costumes and Cameron Mitchell’s choreography add to the juicy appeal.

The cast sink their teeth into the cartoon like characters. The bad girls are hilarious, led by Laura Murphy (Lenora) and the trio of Manon Gunderson-Briggs (Hatchetface), Amy Hack (Wanda) and Bronte Florian (Pepper) who are appropriately scandalous. 

They contrast with the squeaky clean boys led by Joel Granger (Baldwin).

Shining most brightly was Beth Daly as the matron Mrs Vernon-Williams. Every dry line was milked with surgical precision.

A fun night was had by all.

David Spicer

Photographer: Robert Catto