I was reading about the Broadway musical version of “Cry Baby” and something caught my ey. The score is co-written by Adam Schlesinger. For those of you who don’t know who this guy is, he’s a writer from one of my favorite bands, Fountains of Wayne. They are best known for their hit song, “Stacy’s Mom,” which was fun but overplayed on the radio and VH1. They have many other better songs on several other great albums worth checking out.

Anyway, my point is that after noticing his involvement, I really want to see “Cry Baby.” A Broadway musical is only going to be as good as the music. Given Schlesinger’s involvement, I can’t help but think it should be great.

The story takes place in Baltimore in 1954. An innocent young girl starts a romance with a guitar-playing rebel from across the tracks. The original movie starred Johnny Depp and was directed by the ever eccentric, John Waters.

After the reasonable success of the film version of the musical “Hairspray,” maybe John Waters’s movies have found their true place as musical theater, first on stage, then regurgitated back onto film. I hope that they make a movie musical of “Cry Baby.” But until then, we can get our Broadway tickets online for the stage show.

Neil LaBute completes his trilogy of plays about body image, following “The Shape of Things,” “Fat Pig” with the premiere of “reasons to be pretty.” The play will open at MCC Theater where LaBute is their Resident Playwright.

The play will star Piper Perabo as Carly, Alison Pill as Steph, Thomas Sadoski as Greg, and Pablo Shcreiber as Kent.

It tells the story about Greg, who makes an offhanded remark about a female coworker’s pretty face and the fact that his girlfriend lacks this desirable quality. The comment gets back to his girlfriend with disastrous results. Then Greg’s buddy Kent and his wife Carly are drawn into the story, relationships falling apart.

LaBute is well known in both the film and theater worlds, having been nominated for many critical awards, having won many.

Piper Perabo is perhaps the most well known of the cast, having starred in “Coyote Ugly,” and “The Prestige.”

Allison Pill was seen most recently in the film “Dan in Real Life” and has been in many on stage productions, most notably “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” for which she was nominated for a Tony.

Thomas Sadoski has appeared on Broadway in “Reckless” as well as many other Off-Broadway productions.

Pablo Schreiber debuted on Broadway with “Awake and Sing!” He received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in that.

Make sure to look for other Broadway tickets online.

The play, “Raisin in the Sun” came to television this week. It tells the story of family in Chicage during the 1950’s who’s “hopes and dreams are constantly deferred” through issues related to racism. The original play was first produced in 1959 and made history as the first play to be written by an African American woman. The play starred Sidney Poitier, Claidia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, and Louis Gossett, Jr. This was followed by a Hollywood movie in 1961.

The play was revived several years ago, starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and John Stamos. This cast reprised their roles in the new television version.

This new television movie aired Monday night, February 25th, and succeeded in “beating NBC in their 6-week winning streak, with 12.7 million viewers.” It’s refreshing to see a movie of such positivity doing well in the ratings.

It’s also good to see strong Broadway productions being featured to a wider audience. The more that people are exposed to quality stage plays in movie form, the more that they’ll be likely seek out Broadway tickets online. It’s a good thing for the theater.

Most of the world knows Lawrence Fishburne as the spiritually serious Morpheus from 1998’s hit sci-fi/adventure, “The Matrix,” as well as the two sequels. He’s also been in other critically acclaimed films such as, “The Color Purple,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Mission Impossible III” “The Tuskegee Airmen,” and he received an academy award nomination in 1994 for his portrayal of Ike Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It.”

But Mr. Fishburne hasn’t been relegated to the screen only. He’s an acclaimed stage actor, having won a Tony Award for his performance in “Two Trains Running.” He was also on Broadway in the revival of “The Lion in Winter.”

He’s returning to the stage in April at the Booth Theatre, to play the legendary Civil Rights lawyer and judge, Thurgood Marshall. The play, appropriately titled, “Thurgood,” is written by George Stevens Jr. It’s “the remarkable and triumphant story of Thurgood Marshall, who rose from a childhood in the backstreets of Baltimore to the Supreme Court of the United States. Along the way, Mr. Marshall overcame many adversities but through them all, remained focused and positive to maintain the great country he wanted to serve. And did.”

The play begins previews on April 12th. It officially opens on April 30th. Make sure you look for these great Broadway tickets online.

Shrek sings! He never really seemed like the singing type. I always imagined him as the kind of guy that watched football on the weekends and shunned the limelight. But the light will be shining on the big green ogre on December 14th when he debuts on Broadway. And he’ll have to kick up his heals, drink some lemon-juice, and hope he comes out in tune.

Needless to say, singing green men all over America are likely to be traveling to the Big Apple this summer for tryouts. And if getting to New York is too much of a challenge, they can also catch an out-of-town tryout in Seattle in August and September.

Although the parts for Shrek and the talking (now singing) Donkey are up for grabs, the part of Fiona has been cast. She will be played by the talented Sutton Foster, to be seen currently playing Inga in “Young Frankenstein.” She’s also starred in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Little Women” and “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

“Shrek” will be directed by Jason Moore. Book and Lyrics are by David Lindsay-Abaire, and music will be Jeanine Tesori. The movie and now play are based on the children’s book by William Steig.

To see other plays based on children’s books or movies, look for Broadway tickets online.

The new 2008 Broadway revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” has a surprising element. It will feature an all black cast. This is a particularly interesting choice, given the fact that the play is about a wealthy plantation owning family in the south.

The play will feature stars from the small and big screen. Terrence Howard, best known for his Oscar nominated role in “Hustle and Flow,” will be playing Brick. James Earl Jones, also known as the voice of Darth Vader, will be playing big Daddy. And Phylicia Rashad, from “The Cosby Show,” will be playing Big Mama. The play will be directed by Debbie Allen, the sister of Rashad.

The decision to choose an all black cast raises many interesting issues. The play is written specifically for white actors. The theater world has traditionally done color-blind or multi-racial casts. But this would not be classified as color-blind since color clearly was a factor in the casting choices. Race in this case is being used to make a statement. Without having seen the play, it’s hard for me to know what the statement would be.

If you’re interested in finding out for yourself, feel free to buy Broadway tickets online.

When I first saw Clay Aiken perform on “American Idol,” I thought, “This guy will never make it as a pop star . . . but he needs to be on Broadway.” He doesn’t have the traditional sex appeal that you need to have in the music industry. But on Broadway, they need character actors, people with charisma that can translate on stage, and people that can really sing. He seems to have all three.

Although his acting experience has been small, I saw him playing a supporting role on “Scrubs” a few years ago and his performance was really excellent. I didn’t even notice that he was Clay Aiken until the end of the episode when he did a special musical number, which would have been cheesy except that it was “Scrubs” and for some reason they can get away with that stuff.

Mr. Aiken will be playing Sir Robin in Spamalot, which is described by its tagline as “a new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’” The play is created by Eric Idle, legendary cast member of Monty Python, and composed by Python’s musical collaborator, John Du Prez. Legendary director of the stage and screen, Mike Nichols, directs the play.

To see this new cast member in a play created by these legendary comic minds you can find your Broadway tickets online.

I recently saw the movie Enchanted that starts out as an animated Disney spoof and ends up in real life New York City. Yes, they call the real world hell, and the characters enter it through a manhole in Times Square. And what do you think is one of the first things you see when Giselle (Amy Adams) comes up, as the camera pans the surroundings? A poster for the broadway show Wicked. I wonder if it was a product placement!

Incidentally, it’s not just Wicked posters and wicked witches in this movie - a few of the songs were written by Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken. Schwartz wrote Wicked. Here’s another tie-in Wicked actress India Menzel (who plays Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West) plays Patrick Dempsey’s girlfriend.

Either way, see the movie. And when you’re in New York, you must see Wicked. It’s one of the Broadway tickets online you can find at Select-A-Ticket.