Premiering on Broadway in 2008, Cry-Baby was nominated for 4 Tonys including choreography, book and score. Still, it was not as critically acclaimed as its 2002 predecessor Hairspray, another John Waters film adaptation. Similar to Hairspray, Cry-Baby features a 1950's Baltimore clash of the classes, with "good girl" Allison Vernon-Williams (Taylor Pietz) falling for the slick rock ’n’ roll "bad boy" Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker (Ryan Foizey).
The show begins with the New Line Band's rockabilly admonition to "Take your seat, turn your phone off and unwrap you lozenges". Then it's a headlong plunge into "The Anti-Polio Picnic", a ridiculous, goofy vaccination extravaganza put on by the "Whiffles", the "square" faction of Baltimore. The party is soon crashed by the "Drapes", the "bad kids", with a great number, "Watch Your Ass".
