CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM CRY-BABY
CRY-BABY HITS BROADWAY
PREVIEWS BEGIN SATURDAY, MARCH 15
OPENING SET FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 24
AT THE MARQUIS THEATRE
MUSICAL BASED ON JOHN WATERS FILM,
DIRECTED BY MARK BROKAW, AND
CHOREOGRAPHED BY TONY-WINNER ROB ASHFORD,
EARNED RAVE REVIEWS AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
SCORE BY DAVID JAVERBAUM,
EMMY-WINNING EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF “THE DAILY SHOW”
AND ADAM SCHLESINGER,
OSCAR- AND GRAMMY-NOMINATED SONGWRITER OF FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
BOOK BY MARK O’DONNELL AND THOMAS MEEHAN,
TONY-WINNING HAIRSPRAY TEAM
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MUSICAL SET IN 1954 BALTIMORE
ALL PREVIEW TICKETS $54
Producers Adam Epstein, Allan S. Gordon, and Elan V. McAllister have announced that the new musical, Cry-Baby, based upon the Universal Pictures film written and directed by John Waters, will premiere at Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway, beginning previews Saturday, March 15 at 8:00pm and opening Thursday, April 24, at 6:30pm.
Cry-Baby has songs by David Javerbaum, the Emmy-winning executive producer and former head writer of “The Daily Show,” and Adam Schlesinger, Grammy-nominated for his work with the band Fountains of Wayne and Oscar-nominated for the song “That Thing You Do” from the film of the same name. Cry-Baby’s book is by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan who received the Tony Award for best book for their work on the hit musical, Hairspray. Cry-Baby is directed by Mark Brokaw, who is perhaps best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, How I Learned to Drive, and choreographed by Rob Ashford who received a Tony Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie. John Waters serves as creative consultant.
Baltimore, 1954. Everyone likes Ike, nobody likes communism, and Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker is the coolest boy in town. He's a bad boy with a good cause—truth, justice, and the pursuit of rock ‘n roll—and when he falls for a good girl who wants to be bad, her charm school world of bobby sox and barbershop quartets will never be the same. Wayward youth, juvenile delinquents, sexual repression, cool music, dirty lyrics, bizarre rejects...Finally, the 50’s come to life! For real this time!
All tickets during Cry-Baby’s preview period will be priced at $54 to coincide with the year of the musical’s setting.
The cast of Cry-Baby features James Snyder (Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker), Elizabeth Stanley (Allison), Harriet Harris (Mrs. Vernon-Williams), Chester Gregory II (Dupree), Christopher J. Hanke (Baldwin), Alli Mauzey (Lenora), Courtney Balan (Mona), Carly Jibson (Pepper), Lacey Kohl (Wanda), and Richard Poe (Judge Stone).
Cry-Baby received its world premiere at California’s La Jolla Playhouse on November 18, 2007. The show played to sell-out houses and received rave reviews:
“A joyous, dance-happy confection. Dazzling choreography, brilliantly satiric lyrics, eye-popping sets, and show-stopping performances. James Snyder has the right, swivel-hipped, curled-lip look and a robust, nimble singing voice and Elizabeth Stanley has a big, belty, bluesy voice wrapped in a shy, girlish stage presence.” Pam Kragen, North County Times
“Exuberantly witty! Laughs aplenty, powerhouse choreography, and a sizzling rockabilly-and-blues inspired score. Show’s individual showstopper is Alli Mauzey. Choreographer Rob Ashford wittily turns group numbers into Jerome Robbins duking it out with Onna White—an evocation of the musicals’ Golden Age.” Bob Verini, Variety
“Talent-stuffed, deliriously danced, smoothly directed. Irony-drenched lyrics by David Javerbaum, wildly inventive and energetically danced choreography by Rob Ashford and a show-stopping number delivered with star-making lunacy by Alli Mauzey. James Snyder has a big, smooth rangy voice and shows comedic smarts. Harriet Harris is wonderful.”
Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union-Tribune
“The Hairspray writing team and a Jon Stewart alum have struck gold adapting another John Waters film for the stage. Elizabeth Stanley owns the best voice in the cast, an electrifyingly beautiful instrument.” Paul Hodgins, Orange Country Register
The ensemble is rounded out by Cameron Adams, Ashley Amber, Nick Blaemire, Michael Buchanan, Andrew C. Call, Eric L. Christian, Colin Cunliffe, Lisa Gajda, Stacey Todd Holt, Michael D. Jablonski, Laura Jordan, Brendan King, Marty Lawson, Spencer Liff, Courtney Laine Mazza, Mayumi Miguel, Tory Ross, Eric Sciotto, Peter Matthew Smith, Allison Spratt, and Charlie Sutton.
The scenic design for Cry-Baby is by Scott Pask; costume design is by Catherine Zuber; lighting design is by Howell Binkley; sound design by Peter Hylenski; musical direction, incidental music, and additional arrangements are by Lynne Shankel; orchestrations are by Christopher Jahnke; dance arrangements are by David Chase; wig and hair design is by Tom Watson; make-up design is by Randy Houston Mercer; fight director is Rick Sordelet; production stage manager is Rolt Smith.
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Mark O’Donnell (Book) received the 2003 Tony® Award for the book of Hairspray. His plays include That’s It, Folks!; Fables for Friends; The Nice and the Nasty; Strangers on Earth; Vertigo Park and the musical Tots in Tinseltown. He collaborated with Bill Irwin on an adaptation of Moliere’s Scapin and co-authored a translation of Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear. He has published two collections of comic stories, Elementary Education and Vertigo Park and Other Tales (both Knopf), as well as two novels, Getting Over Homer and Let Nothing You Dismay (both in Vintage paperback). His humor, cartoons and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Esquire. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the George S. Kaufman Award.
Thomas Meehan (Book) received his first Tony® Award in 1977 for writing the book for Annie, his Broadway debut, and subsequently won for The Producers (2001) and Hairspray (2003). Additional credits include the musical adaptation of I Remember Mama, Ain't Broadway Grand, and Annie Warbucks, the Off Broadway sequel to Annie. In addition, he is a long-time contributor of humor to The New Yorker, an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks's Spaceballs and To Be or Not to Be. Meehan is a graduate of Hamilton College.
David Javerbaum (Songs) is the Executive Producer of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. His work for that program, including four years as Head Writer, has earned him eight Emmys, two additional Emmy nominations, two Peabody Awards, and Television Critics Awards for both Best Comedy and Best News Show. He is one of the primary authors of the show’s textbook parody, America (The Book), which sold over 2.5 million copies, won the James Thurber Prize for American Humor (his second), won the 2005 Quill Awards for Best Humor Book and Audio Book, and was named Publishers’ Weekly’s 2004 Book of the Year; the audio book won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. He spent three years writing for the satirical newspaper and website The Onion, conceiving its 1999 New York Times #1 bestseller Our Dumb Century and contributing numerous articles to it and two other Onion books. His work in musical theater, which won him the prestigious 2005 Kleban Award, includes serving as lyricist and co-librettist of Suburb, which won the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater; its 2001 Off-Broadway production earned numerous major Best Off Broadway Musical nominations (for which it was nominated as Best Musical, Broadway or Off). He is a graduate of NYU's Graduate School of Musical Theater Composition and Harvard University, where he wrote for the humor magazine The Harvard Lampoon and co-wrote two of that school's Hasty Pudding musicals. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Debra and their daughters Kate and Sara.
Adam Schlesinger (Songs) is a New York-based songwriter, composer and record producer. He is a member of two critically-acclaimed bands, the Grammy-nominated Fountains of Wayne and Ivy. He was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Original Song" for his title song to the Tom Hanks-directed film That Thing You Do!; his songs have also appeared in such films as Music and Lyrics; There’s Something About Mary; Shallow Hal; Scary Movie; Josie and The Pussycats; Me Myself and Irene and numerous others. His television credits include “Saturday Night Live,” “Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital,” “Crank Yankers,” “The Howard Stern Show,” John Leguizamo’s “House of Buggin’”, “The Dana Carvey Show,” “Roswell,” “Felicity,” several MTV and VH1 projects and others.
Mark Brokaw (Direction) most recently directed the New York revivals of Reckless (Manhattan Theatre Club and Second Stage at the Biltmore) and Baltimore Waltz (Signature Theatre Company). New York premieres include Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home and How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard Theatre), Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero (Playwrights Horizons and its UK premiere at London’s Donmar Warehouse and West End) and This Is Our Youth (New Group and Second Stage), Craig Lucas’s The Dying Gaul and Stranger (Vineyard Theatre), Douglas Carter Beane’s As Bees in Honey Drown and Music from a Sparkling Planet (Drama Dept.), Wendy Wasserstein’s Old Money (Lincoln Center Theater), Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride (New York Shakespeare Festival) and Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me (Second Stage). Regional credits include the new musical Marty with John C. Reilly at the Huntington, A Little Night Music in the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center, as well as work at the Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse and the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.
Rob Ashford’s (Choreography) Broadway credits include Curtains (Tony® Award nomination), The Wedding Singer (Tony® and Drama Desk Award nominations), Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony Award for Best Choreography; Drama Desk and Astaire Award nominations.), The Boys From Syracuse. London credits include Evita (Olivier Award nomination); Guys and Dolls (Olivier Award nomination); Thoroughly Modern Millie (Olivier Award nomination); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Once in a Lifetime (National Theatre). Other credits: Candide (Theatre Chatelet, Paris); Pardon My English, Tenderloin, A Connecticut Yankee, Bloomer Girl (Encores!); Princesses (5th Ave. Theatre); Marty (Huntington); 3hree (Ahmanson, Prince Music Theater), Time and Again (MTC); Pippin (Paper Mill); Dawn Upshaw (Lincoln Center); and A Christmas Carol (McCarter). Also, Beyond the Sea, directed by and starring Kevin Spacey. He serves on the Executive Board of SSDC.
James Snyder makes his Broadway debut in the spring of 2008 re-creating the title role of king of the Drapes, Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker, following the world premiere engagement at La Jolla Playhouse. Other stage credits include the Los Angeles productions of Rock of Ages (also Las Vegas) and Happy Days; The Fantasticks (Sacramento Music Theater); Hamlet; Ray Bradbury’s Let’s All Kill Constance; Sneaux; Plop and Oklahoma. In addition, he played Luke Skywalker in the critically-acclaimed production Star Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes in Los Angeles, Paris and Scotland. Film credits include An American in China, Anderson’s Cross, Shuttle, She’s the Man and Pretty Persuasion, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. He has also lent his voice to the animated films Tuck Everlasting and Darby O’Gill.
Elizabeth Stanley’s Broadway credits include April in the Tony® Award-winning revival of Company. Select regional credits include April in Company (Cincinnati Playhouse), Belle in Beauty and the Beast (Pioneer Theatre Company), Brooke in Noises Off! (Weathervane Theatre), Daisy in Side Show (Weathervane Theatre), Amneris in Aida (Gateway Playhouse), Sugar in Sugar (Gateway Playhouse) and Lucy in the opera The Telephone (Seaside Music Theatre).
Harriet Harris is the recipient of the 2002 Tony® Award and Drama Desk Award for Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Broadway credits include Old Acquaintance and The Man Who Came to Dinner and Off Broadway credits include Rude Entertainment; Jeffrey (Drama Desk nomination); Bella, Belle of Byelorussia (Drama Desk nomination) and Innocents’ Crusade. Film credits include Memento, Nurse Betty and Addams Family Values, and Harris is often recognized for her television work on “Desperate Housewives,” “Frasier,” “Six Feet Under,” and “The X-Files.”
Chester Gregory II’s Broadway credits include Seaweed in Hairspray and Terk in Tarzan, and regional/tour credits include The Jackie Wilson Story (Jeff Award, BTAA, Audelco, Excellence Award & NBTF Award).
Christopher J. Hanke, who plays Baldwin, the leader of the Squares, has been working on this project since its inception. His Broadway credits include Mark in Rent and J.T. in In My Life. Tour credits include Tom Sawyer in Big River (Deaf West) and Ethan Girard in The Full Monty.
Alli Mauzey chases after Cry-Baby at every turn as the desperate and delusional Drape Lenora. Mauzey’s Broadway credits include Wicked (Glinda Standby) and Hairspray (Brenda).
Courtney Balan, who plays Mona a.k.a “Hatchet Face,” appeared in the Broadway production of In My Life.
Carly Jibson (who plays Cry-Baby’s perpetually knocked-up sister Pepper), has credits that include Tracy in Hairspray (Broadway and first national tour), and regional credits that include the world premieres of Asphalt Beach and Crash Nation.
Lacey Kohl plays the beautiful Wanda. She made her Broadway debut at 15 in the Lincoln Center revival of Carousel. She has also appeared in Grease, Smokey Joe’s Café, and The Who’s Tommy.
Richard Poe who plays Judge Stone has appeared on Broadway in M Butterfly, 1776, Moon Over Buffalo, Fiddler on the Roof, The Pajama Game, and Journey’s End, among others.
Cry-Baby plays Broadway’s Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway. The performance schedule is Monday through Saturday at 8pm with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm through April 27. Beginning the week of April 28, the playing schedule will be Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm; with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets go on sale to the general public Sunday, February 24; the box office opens Monday, February 25. Tickets are $35 – $120 and may be purchased by visiting Ticketmaster.com or phoning 212 307-4100. All preview tickets are priced at $54 and rear mezzanine preview tickets are priced at $35. For group sales, visit TDI/Broadway.com or phone 1-800-BROADWAY or 212 541-8457. For information about Cry-Baby, visit www.crybabyonbroadway.com and www.myspace.com/crybabyonbroadway.