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Their eight Tony awards are still warm, but ''Hairspray'' bigwigs are already teasing their next project: ''Cry-Baby.'' Producers Adam Epstein, Allan S. Gordon, and Elan V. McAllister will join big-haired Hollywood honcho Brian Grazer in bringing the 1990 John Waters pic to Broadway. As with ''Hairspray,'' ''John will be my creative conscience,'' says Epstein. A '50s-set flick with a rock & roll heart, ''Cry-Baby'' features such colorful creations as dreamy delinquent Wade Walker (Johnny Depp) and hideous hottie Hatchet-Face. ''I write the kind of characters that are begging to sing,'' says Waters. ''No matter how perverted, how insane, they're all joyous.''

Epstein envisions a two-to-four-year gestation period for his ''Baby''; he still needs a director, choreographer, and composer-lyricist. Despite speculation, it appears that ''Hairspray'' writers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are not ''Cry-Baby''-bound. ''Scott and I wish the best for 'Cry-Baby','' says Shaiman, ''but we're waiting for 'Pink Flamingos,' 'Female Trouble,' or 'Desperate Living.' Singing a--holes and lesbians cutting off penile implants -- that screams 'musical' to us.''


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Posted Aug 08, 2003 | Published in issue #722 Aug 08, 2003 | Order Article Reprints