John Waters' Cry Baby/ Tribeca Film Festival
Don't cry for me, John Waters! Your over-the-top tour de gross-out has hit mainstream, proving what your pal William Burroughs used to say about acceptance, if you stick around long enough . . . Commercial success may of course come at the price of losing edge, but in your case, edge may be overrated. On Broadway Hairspray and now Cry Baby are huge hits, showing how edgy meets marketplace: with exuberant choreography, the crinkle of crinolines, slick pompadours, padded rumps. When New York Magazine features you as a subversive gone MOR, your pencil thin mustache loses its twitch. Divine's shit eating ending in “Pink Flamingos,” the stray dog eating a lesbian's discarded “bone” from a botched sex change in “Desperate Living”! Ah, those were moments of high satire. In “Cry Baby,” set in Waters' beloved Baltimore, the outcast, misunderstood teens sing of kissing with tongues, going down in the marshes. Anyone who has seen “Grease” is familiar with this territory of preppies vs. hipsters, with “Cry Baby” adding a bit of social consciousness: not only do the lovers (James Snyder and Elizabeth Stanley) meet at the anti-polio picnic, but the rebel-with-cause cried himself out when his parents were wrongly executed as arsonists. Wow! Talk about the '50's!
When you become an authority-that's the ultimate acceptance. Where was John Waters the night I saw his play? He was partying at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of “Squeezebox!” with directors Steve Saporito and Zach Shaffer, the likes of Debbie Harry, Lady Bunny, Misstress Formika, Michael Musto, John Cameron Mitchell, and the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. The doc about Don Hill's legendary boite turned trans-sex disco for a night/week is actually quite moving, with lots of heart as the real-life characters finally finding a place to fit in. Waters is also called upon to expound on the art scene in another festival favorite, “Guest of Cindy Sherman” directed by Sherman's ex, Paul H-O. So please, give John Waters an honorary doctorate!
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