Listened to the cast album of Cry Baby - the broadway show. I know it's only going off cast albums but I think I can see why that didn't work and Hairspray did. As a musical that is - I prefer Cry Baby as a film. But it doesn't have a lot of story - the film runs out as is. Also the characters are less vivid - Johnny Depp and Amy Locane are a solid centre, and there's decent villains (the smarmy guy, the fake pregnancy girl) but the others are more a galaxy of types - Hatchet Face, Ricki Lake.
Compare Hairspray - it's got the overweight girl, and her mum and geeky dad, and her best friend and the friend's religious nutter mom, and the cute guy and bitch girl and her mum, and the black singer, and the black boyfriend. Hairspray has a natural playground - the Corny Collins show - and is about two big issues: treatment of fat people and treatment of blacks. There's more to work with. Cry Baby doesn't have these. It's about outsiders.
Also I think the music in the film is better than Broadway. It was rock a billy, catchy, fun, The musical music feels more generic.
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