Theatre Kraken’s Cry-Baby triumphs over its material
Vartanova with Emma Woodside as Allison, Alianne Rozon as Dance Captain, Steph Goodwin as Hatchet Face, and Abbey Flockton as Pepper. Flockton as Pepper.
If you you lower your defences, Theatre Kraken’s production of Cry-Baby is capable of providing you with an uproariously enjoyable time at the Gladstone Theatre.
This is less due to the material — an uneven stage musical derived from John Waters’s 1950’s movie starring Johnny Depp — than to the spirited ensemble work of a 19-member cast and the sturdy contribution of a six-piece band under Chris Lucas.
Only the most dedicated sourpuss would be able to resist the trashy pleasures afforded by this cheeky reworking of one of the most durable themes in dramatic literature — the one where the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for the good girl from a distinctly tony neighbourhood. In this instance we’re have1950s Baltimore and the breakdown in class taboos that occurs when swaggering, misunderstood delinquent Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker encounters quintessential good girl Allison Vernon-Williams. Don’t, however, expect this story to unfold within a normal dramatic framework. …