The Hayes Theatre, Sydney
July 26, 2018

After the massive success of the musical adaptation of John Waters’ film Hairspray, taking on another of his films seemed like a pretty good idea on paper. But when the musical Cry-Baby – based on Waters’ 1990 film of the same name – opened on Broadway, the reviews were less encouraging, particularly a scathing piece from the New York Times that described the show as “mild-mannered”, “without flavour” and “terminally flat”. Fortunately, the Australian premiere of Cry-Baby, directed by Alexander Berlage for Hayes Theatre Co, is anything but, the cast delivering a wildly entertaining, high-octane performance in which over the top is just the beginning.

Christian Charisiou and Ashleigh Rubenach in Hayes Theatre Co’s Cry-Baby. Photo © Robert Catto

Cry-Baby is a Romeo and Juliet variant set in 1950s Baltimore, its warring houses are the wrong-side-of-the-tracks misfit Drapes (in multi-coloured costumes by Mason Browne at the Hayes) and the clean-cut, white-picket-fence squares (in neat, soft pastels). Our Romeo is Wade ‘Cry-Baby’ Walker (Christian Charisiou), a tough, poor kid, whose opposite number is innocent society teenager Allison (Ashleigh Rubenach). Like the film, which stars a very young Johnny Depp in the...