The joys of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s score for the 1983 musical Baby are immediately apparent through the first scenes of the revised version which opened tonight. After three pairs of prospective parents go through their opening numbers, they mellifluously glide into a six-voice cacophony of expectancy, the liltingly bouncy “Baby, Baby, Baby.” What—to quote one of those opening songs—could be better than that?
The score over the rest of the evening remains mostly near, or at, this exuberant level. You might well wonder, then, why Baby has been relegated to the sidelines of musical-comedy memory. The answer becomes apparent soon thereafter, when that old devil “book trouble” overtakes the songwriters. No matter how high lyricist Maltby and composer Shire soar thereafter, the dialogue scenes and schematically skewed plotting interrupt the anticipated bliss of the characters. And of the audience, too.
That’s not to say that this pandemic-interrupted chamber version from Out of the Box Theatrics is not without multiple charms, or that fans of the score will not be amply rewarded by paying a visit. Performed in a white-painted loft space far west on 36th Street, serving an audience of a mere 62 patrons per performance, the musical has been revisited by its creators—40 years later—to address Out of the Box’s professed mission of “uplifting the voices of marginalized communities.” This is accomplished through inclusive casting (successful) and 21st century-friendly content (not so successful).
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
The production is marked by six ingratiating performances. Julia Murney is given star billing, surprisingly so in that this is a musical with six altogether-equal leading roles. The actress—who admittedly has a much stronger resumé than the others, including roles in The Wild Party and a long-term stint atop Wicked—thoroughly earns that over-the-title credit with a riveting performance as Arlene, the eldest of the three expectant mothers.
Murney is paired with Robert H. Fowler as her equally-middle-aged husband, while the second couple (now same-sex) is played by Danielle Summons and Jamila Sabares-Klemm. The young lovers of the group are Johnny Link (who is partially deaf) and Elizabeth Flemming (the Out of the Box founding artistic director, who is legally blind). All are engaging; all deliver their songs with aplomb. The three members of the cut-down ensemble—Marisa Kirby, Jewell Noel, and Jorge Donoso—are impressive enough to deserve their own mention as well.
Director-choreographer Ethan Paulini keeps the action fluid, with the cast spinning through the small space and transforming the minimal-but-functional scenic design by Rien Schlecht. The score lends itself to the four-piece combo of keyboard, drums, bass, and cello, with Link—as the young composer Danny—joining in on the guitar.
But the book by Sybille Pearson does them in. The major problem from 1983 remains: By creating a show with three equal couples and six equal leading roles, the authors trap themselves into giving everyone more or less equal time. This means that the youngest couple, who have what is arguably the most sympathetic story and what are arguably the most enjoyable songs, need to continually step aside to make way for the less compelling others.
The admirable inclusivity attempts by the authors and Out of the Box create another sort of book problem. Not that musical comedy librettos need to make sense, but the focus of the dilemma for the middle couple is their difficulty in getting pregnant. Both parties ascribe this to the obvious lack of fertility of Pam, a college basketball coach. In the original script, conflict is created when it turns out that the fault lies in the sperm count of the braggadociousally virile Nick.
Making matters even more problematic is that a significant stretch of the plotting is structured around a comedy song (“Romance”) in which the couple undergo a decidedly nonromantic series of ovulation-timed “rendezvous” set to a mechanistically challenged habanera. (“How could such love be so much work?” they ask, as they become “machines to make a kid.”) The current Baby is forced to retain “Romance”—the song is performed not once but three times—which despite altered dialogue and altered lyrics makes little sense for Pam, the updated “Nicki,” and their turkey baster.
But let’s give credit to good intentions and express hearty appreciation: This new-generation Baby offers the opportunity to hear a present-day team of good actors sing these delightfully good and exuberantly tuneful songs. The evening ends with a climactic reprise of Maltby and Shire’s “The Story Goes On,” one of Broadway’s most rousing show tunes ever. When it is interrupted by the unseen-but-heard clarion call of the title character—well, your heart will likely rise in your throat.
Baby opened November 14, 2021, at Theaterlab and runs through December 12. Tickets and information: ootbtheatrics.com
