It’s 1954. Everyone likes Ike, nobody likes communism and Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker is the coolest boy in Baltimore. He’s a bad boy with a good cause – truth, justice and the pursuit of rock and roll. Cry-Baby and the square rich girl, Allison, are star-crossed lovers at the centre of this world. Fuelled by hormones and the new rhythms of rock and roll, she turns her back on her squeaky-clean boyfriend, Baldwin, to become a “drape” (a Baltimore juvenile delinquent) and Cry-Baby’s moll. At the other end of the topsy-turvy moral meritocracy of 1954 America, Baldwin is the king of the squares and leads his close-harmony pals against the juvenile delinquents, who are ultimately arrested for arson, sending the drapes all off to prison. It’s Romeo and Juliet meets High School Hellcats.

Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan
Songs by David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger
Based on the Universal Pictures film written and directed by John Waters
Licensed exclusively by Music Theatre International (Australasia).
All performance materials supplied by Hal Leonard Australia.

View the digital program here.