Second John Waters Film — "Cry-Baby" — Heading to the Stage as Musical | Playbill

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News Second John Waters Film — "Cry-Baby" — Heading to the Stage as Musical Will lightning strike twice?

Brian Grazer must think so. Variety reports that the Imagine chairman is planning to bring another John Waters film — "Cry-Baby" — to Broadway. Waters, of course, also wrote and directed the 1988 film "Hairspray," which became the runaway hit of the Broadway season just ended, eventually winning the 2003 Tony for Best Musical. The industry paper says that Grazer — who produced "Cry-Baby" on screen — will produce the stage version with three Hairspray producers, Adam Epstein, Allan Gordon and Elan McAllister. Waters will also be involved in the musical's creation, and a search is currently on for writers to pen the score.

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.

About the property, Grazer told Variety, "I always loved that movie, the work experience with John and Johnny Depp, but seven people saw it. I was left feeling it was a movie better suited as a musical." John Waters added, "'Hairspray' was a story about race; 'Cry-Baby' is a story about class. The only thing I will insist on, as I did with Hairspray, is that I be the Grease police. This can't be Grease; it happened way before. The period is pre-Elvis, and the music was rockabilly. It is strong and it is sexy."

 
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