James Snyder, Elizabeth Stanley and company in a scene from Cry-Baby
The Broadway musical Cry-Baby will close following the matinee performance on June 22 at the Marquis Theatre. The show, which received its world premiere at California's La Jolla Playhouse in November, opened on Broadway on April 24 and will have played 45 previews and 68 performances upon closing.
Based on the feature film written and directed by John Waters, Cry-Baby is directed by Mark Brokaw, choreographed by Rob Ashford, and features songs by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan.
Although the show opened to reviews that ranged from mixed to negative, Cry-Baby drew four 2008 Tony nominations, including one for Best Musical. Ashford had been a favorite to win a Tony for the show's inventive and energetic choreography, but Andy Blankenbuehler took the Tony for In the Heights.
The producers of Cry-Baby hoped to equal the success of Waters' long-running hit Hairspray, but the new musical never caught fire at the box office in spite of edging out several big-budget shows for Tony recognition. It grossed $276,245 of a potential $1,243,000 at the 1,600 seat Marquis Theatre for the week ending June 15 and played to 64.42% of capacity. Javerbaum and Schlesinger's Tony-nominated score has not yet been preserved on an original cast album.
Cry-Baby stars James Snyder as Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker and Elizabeth Stanley as good girl Allison Vernon-Williams, plus Harriet Harris, Chester Gregory, Christopher J. Hanke, Carly Jibson, Alli Mauzey and Pichard Poe.
