'Cry-Baby': Rockabilly heartthrob needed for Broadway run

Is there a Cry-Baby in Austin? That's not me being snarky; that's the question being asked by Telsey + Company, the big-deal New York casting agency (Rent, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, Wicked, Tarzan, among others). See, a new stage musical is being developed from John Waters' 1990 film Cry-Baby, and it needs a musically inclined, hunky Johnny Depp type for the title role. Obviously, this is a naked grab at cashing in on the success of Hairspray, another Waters campsploitation classic that made the leap from screen to stage (and is leaping back to the screen this summer, with John Travolta sporting Divine's housedress!), but why not? Especially if you can get a book from the same guys who adapted Hairspray for Broadway (Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan) with music by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger and lyrics by Daily Show writer David Javerbaum and have it shepherded to the stage by gifted hands like choreographer Rob Ashford and director Mark Brokaw. The show is a lock for Broadway next year, after a West Coast run at La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif., Oct. 30-Dec. 16. There's just that matter of the male lead. The folks in charge want a musician, and they've auditioned guys so far in New York; Los Angeles; Nashville, Tenn.; and Memphis, Tenn. Supposedly, in every one of those cities, someone asked, "Are you going to Austin?" So they decided they ought to come here, and here they are, right when we have the greatest concentration of musicians in town all year long.

Auditions are set for Saturday, March 17, 3-7pm, at the City Theatre, 3823 Airport. Come with 16 bars of a pop/rock song that shows your range, and bring sheet music and a photo/résumé stapled together. A piano accompanist will be provided.