Cry-Baby the Musical

With great excitement we start the Border Season with Selkirk MTC’s production of Cry-Baby the Musical.

This show was new to me, as I’ve never seen the movie and had no idea what to expect.

The musical is a pastiche of the rock and roll era music, with a heavy nod to ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Grease’ in it’s story-line - but without any fatalities! 

Truly engaging from the start, with a great musical score by Javerbaum & Schlesinger, the fabulous band were perfectly balanced and supported the cast with panache, enhancing each vocal and choreographed number.

The staging and lighting was slick, with the cast discretely helping change the scenes. A collaboration of hired and personal costumes epitomised the period, with a very distinguishable difference from the ‘squeaky clean’ upper class of Baltimore and the delinquent ‘Drapes’.

The harmonic opening picnic scene introduced us to the ‘upper class’, with the all important, melodramatic Mrs Vernon-Williams, being superbly portrayed by last year’s leading lady, Kirsty Cleland. A talented actress and singer who kept her character throughout, played Grandmother to Allison and raised a massive applause for her fabulous, emotional Act 2 solo, ‘I Did Something Wrong Once’. 

Allison was perfectly cast and was played to perfection by Natalie Wright. Her beautiful voice suited both aspects of her character, with lyrical sweetness suiting her upper class, ’square’ upbringing which switched proficiently to embrace her will to fit in with the rebellious ‘Drape’ gang. This role has given this superbly talented young lady a fantastic opportunity to blossom and become the leading lady she has aspired to be. Superb!   

The modest and highly skilful Choreographer, Stuart Mitchell was rightfully cast in the title roll of Wade ‘Cry-Baby’ Walker. He had all of the charisma and vocal prowess necessary to be the epitome of a delinquent icon of the period, with inevitable dancing skill to lead the rock n roll, jive type numbers which had the audience enraptured. The pairing with Allison was visibly natural and vocally their voices were an absolute, harmonic treat. ‘Watch Your Ass’, ‘Nobody Gets Me’ and ‘Do That Again’ sees his character shine, while ‘I’m Infected’, ‘A Little Upset’ and ‘Misery’ proved that the melding of vocals with Allison was excellent, all harmonically and beautifully sung.

The OTT characters of Baldwin, Ross Aitkin and Lenora, Rebecca Jackson were excellently portrayed. 

Baldwin, with superb two-faced expressions, he kept his controlling and superbly sneaky character in check until he was ‘rumbled’ in the finale reveal. His input in the fabulous ‘barber shop style’ group, The Whiffles, was testament to the male singing ability within that group. The quartet ‘All in My Head’ with Lenora, Cry-Baby and Allison was also outstanding. 

Lenora, superbly characterised by Rebecca Jackson, was a revelation. Having seen this young lady play more serious roles in the past, she totally embraced this crazy and comedic character to her credit. Her open-mic solo ‘Screw Loose’ was absolutely fabulous. 

The Teardrops of the ‘Drape’ gang were larger than life. 

Pepper, the pregnant 16 year old, Amy Welsh, (with bump) strutted her stuff with immoral conviction contributing to the superb harmonic singing within the delinquent trio. 

Amanda Blacklock, perfectly cast as Wanda, was beautifully costumed, leading the trio, and once again became an eye-catching character throughout the show giving great  vocal strength to the trio.

Facially scarred, Mona/Hatchetface was perfectly played by Lauren Boomer who totally embraced the aggressive character until her comedic transformation in surgical bandages revealed an evolving external fix, though, as she said, “I’m still ugly inside!”.

Dupree was in the safe hands of Craig Douglas, displaying his wide vocal range in solos 'Jukebox Jamboree’ and  ‘Jailyard Jubilee’, with a few high oohs and aahs for good measure. His harmonic singing with Cry-Baby during their incarceration also hit the spot. 

The cameo role of Judge Stone was a resounding success in the hands of Steve Hartley-Oliver. In a switch from previously directing SMTC, he brought stature and credibility to the lawmaker of the show.

To quote the synopsis, this show certainly does have ‘more drama than a wasp at a picnic’ but was thoroughly brilliant entertainment. A second viewing was testament to that, seeing this fantastic company make Cry-Baby the Musical a smash hit for them this year. 

Many thanks once again for your wonderful hospitality.  

 

  

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