Screw Loose...

Cry Baby, The Musical -- May 2015

This one is going to take a little time as I had been working on the show for around 2 years, from first email to the end of the run.  So its better for you, Dear Reader, that I break it up in parts. :)

Part One:  The Beginning

I don’t even know where to start talking about my crazy adventure in bringing Cry-Baby the Musical to life at the Henegar.  There is one thing that people know about me.  The first thing is that I always take big risks and second, I never give up.  My philosophy is that if you want something bad enough, there is a way to make it happen.

Many times during this process I felt like Thelma and Louise.  Should I park the car and get shot or should I just go ahead and dive off the cliff?  I dove off the cliff obviously.  The last two years have been full of cliff diving!

During tech week for Ain’t Misbehavin’ I was watching YouTube videos waiting on a light to be fixed and taking my mind off ticket sales.  I came across the Tony Award performance of Cry-Baby where the prisoners were tapping with license plates on their shoes.  I had forgotten how exhilarating that number was when I saw it live in New York in 2008.  I loved the show when I saw it and so did the audience. So I began wondering why the show had never been licensed.  Google literally had nothing until I ran across a blog by my new hero, Scott Miller.  Scott is the Artistic Director at New Line Theatre in St. Louis.  Scott was able to contact the author’s agents and actually produce the show in a scaled down version with help from the authors themselves.  Check out his blog entry here.

Scott wrote an entire thesis about the show, what he loved and hated about the Broadway production and how he was going to look at it with a fresh perspective.  I was hooked.  I had to put the show on the Henegar line up.  I just didn’t know how.  So, I emailed Scott not thinking I would get a response. Immediately he emailed me back and gave me the author’s agent’s info.  I couldn’t believe it.  I very sappily wrote Olivier Sultan, a top agent at CAA, and others proclaiming why I was the right person to direct the show at the Henegar, a small theatre in comparison to his world.  Then nothing.  The email was slightly embarrassing, but I will share it anyway:

The Drape and Square thing at the end makes my skin crawl, but hey, it got a response!

During this time, Ain’t Misbehavin’ was the unqualified hit of the season, so I was rejoicing in the fact that a risk paid off.  I constantly tell my actors, if you don’t take one risk per day, you aren’t living enough.  I needed to follow my own advice.  So I emailed CAA again!

The season announcement was looming as I started to work on Spamalot in March, 2014.  When I had all but given up hope, Mr. Sultan’s assistant Selena had pity on me or she saw how enthusiastic I was about the show.  She told me they wanted the show to happen!  BOOM!  I was in!  Then…nothing.  For two months.  But, I didn’t give up.  I kept emailing, trying to avoid being a pest.  The season brochures had to go out!  Three weeks later, Selena said, “We would love to see CRY-BABY at your theatre, so please feel free to announce it with your season and we will work out all financial terms in due time!”  Little did I know that behind the scenes the rights to the show was being picked up by MTI.  Uh oh.  But I proceeded and announced Cry-Baby in the 2014-2015 season.

All was well, or so I thought.  First of all, we didn’t have a script.  No one knew which version was out there to send me. The same with the score.  There were so many versions during the show’s process from La Jolla Playhouse to Broadway to New Line.

After nine months later of complete silence, MTI contacted me and said, “Please take down all the publicity for Cry-Baby and remove it from your website immediately!”  I was stunned. What can I do now?  I had no idea what to do or who to reach out to.  Also during this time my contact at CAA had moved on, so I had a new assistant to reach out to and catch up on the last nine months.  I sent an email to MTI showing that we had permission initially, but all the rules suddenly changed.  Of course it had changed!  The show was now the intellectual property of MTI, but luckily their President, Drew Cohen also wanted our production to happen.  They let us keep it on our site but quickly informed me that there was NO WAY any of the materials would be ready by the time we auditioned.  And they weren’t even sure we would have any materials by the time the show was scheduled in our season.  Grim, to say the least.

Please keep in mind that through all of this, when every email pertaining to Cry Baby was printed out, it was around 190 sheets of paper.  

Enter my new hero, Adam Schlesinger.  Adam wrote the music and lyrics for the show with David Javerbaum, the head writer on “The Daily Show”.  Adam wanted the show to happen at the Henegar.  So he kindly reached out to me and said that he would handle getting me the materials to put on the show.  Now, keep in mind this was on March 15, 2015.  Exactly two months before opening night and fifteen months since I sent my first email!

“First of all, thanks for your continued interest in Cry-Baby! And sorry all for the delays. We have been working to streamline the show (particularly the music) and it’s been a bit of a process. But the good news is we can get you what you need for your production. Feel free to call me and discuss.  Best, Adam Schlesinger”. WHAT?!?!  I was literally going to talk to the guy who wrote the show, but also wrote one of my favorite songs, “That Thing You Do”.  I was dying.  The first time we talked I was scared to death.  After talking to him I realized he is one of the nicest, down to earth guys on the planet.  If it weren’t for Adam we would not be making history at the Henegar.  Without his support, we would be DOA.

From there I met, Steven M. Gold, the music producer for the Broadway production who was readying the score for the licensed version.  They were also laying down tracks for a cast recording featuring the original cast.  (There had never been an actual cast recording).  After countless emails and a few phone calls, we finally were able to get a working libretto and a score.  Since they were sent via email, I immediately had them bound and they were ready two days before auditions.

Yes, it was stressful!  But it was also the most exhilarating experiences of my life. How many directors can say that they worked with the ‘team’ to create something that would be forever licensed to every theatre in the future?  But, little did I know, the hardest work was still ahead…

To be continued in Part Two:  Frankenscript!