By Andrew Gans
and Kenneth Jones
18 Oct 2004

Mark Brokaw, who is the director of the current production of Reckless at the Biltmore Theatre, will helm the upcoming screen-to-stage musical Cry-Baby.

A spokesperson for the director confirmed to Playbill On-Line that Brokaw has joined the creative team of the musical, which is based on the 1990 John Waters film of the same name. As previously announced, the musical will feature a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan with music by Adam Schlesinger — of the pop group Fountains of Wayne — and lyrics by David Javerbaum, the Emmy Award-winning writer of TV's "The Daily Show."

The musical is being produced by Imagine chairman Brian Grazer and three Hairspray alums, Allan Gordon, Elan McAllister and Adam Epstein.

For Second Stage, Mark Brokaw directed Kathy & Mo’s Greatest Hits, Gemini, This Is Our Youth, The Good Times Are Killing Me and The Rimers of Eldritch. His other New York credits include MTC's Innocents’ Crusade as well as The Long Christmas Ride Home, Stranger, The Dying Gaul and How I Learned To Drive. For the latter he received Drama Desk, Obie and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Director. Brokaw serves on the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and is an associate artist at the Roundabout Theatre and a member of Drama Dept.

The 1990 film "Cry-Baby" cast Johnny Depp in the title role of a motorcycle riding "bad boy" who falls for a debutante named Allison, who has tired of being a "good girl." The cast featured Amy Locane as Allison, Susan Tyrrell as Ramona Rickettes, Polly Bergen as Mrs. Vernon-Williams, Iggy Pop as Uncle Belvedere Rickettes, former porn star Traci Lords as Wanda Woodward and original "Hairspray" Tracy Turnblad, Ricki Lake, as Pepper Walker.