BABY GO BOOM-BOOM
Baby the 1983 Broadway musical now called Baby: The Musical with a book by Sybille Pearson, music by David Shire, and lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr., is a story that is almost a song cycle about three couples, each at different stages of life, who are surprised by an unexpected miracle. What is truly unexpected and unfortunate is that this was the show selected to close out Revolution Stage Company’s first season, which included the hits Avenue Q and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
While it has some decent tunes, Baby — which might have been edgy in the 1980s — comes by modern standards with a dull edge. The feminist message is woefully dated, and the playful musical numbers undermine the poignant subject matter. Pearson’s book has a realistic and human approach to the profound impact of having a baby despite littering the script with hit-or-miss one-liners. There are moments that accurately reflect the feelings of jubilance, sorrow, confusion and the anticipatory anxiety of having a baby. Couples that have, or are trying to have children will find plenty of opportunities for knowing side glances. While it’s a great show for anyone who is interested in seeing the ups and downs of pregnancy, one wonders if this will appeal to the Palm Springs theater crowd (couldn’t the couple trying to have a baby been cast as gay?).
There are great performers involved, but Rebecca McWilliams‘ direction is an absolute misfire, with attention to detail missing in action: a lobster dinner comes in a Chipotle bag; someone reading chapter 26 in a book only looked at the inside cover; and sometimes props are used, sometimes not (improv-like pantomime is used for food and plates). And McWilliams’ choreographic movement is weak, looking like last-minute stage directions that the cast had not completely learned yet.
We are introduced to the couples one at a time. Lizzie (Candace Coe) and Danny (Joseph Portoles) are still in college and living together, with Danny wanting to focus on his music career. Pam (Heather Joy) and Nick (Jacob Samples) are in their thirties and are desperately trying to become pregnant. Alan (Michael Pacas) and Arlene (Sonia Reavis) are recent empty-nesters in their forties. Lizzie and Arlene experience unplanned pregnancies that cause difficulties at their respective ages; while Pam and Nick have the opposite problem and their attempts to get pregnant have turned their sex life into a grueling second job.
Each couple has their strengths: Portoles and Coe have incredible voices that mesh extremely well together. Pacas and Reavis — while not appearing as middle-aged — are both great actors with amazing chemistry. Reavis, especially, has great comedic bids that hit every time, but during “Patterns” she portrayed painful emotion that evoked our sympathy and brought the house to a standstill.
Ms. Joy was an absolute joy being overly enthusiastic about being pregnant; stretch marks and morning sickness will not stop Pam — she wants the whole pregnancy package, and we completely buy it. Her number “The Ladies Singing Their Song” is energizing and funny. Mr. Samples is an amazing singer and did an especially great turn in “Fatherhood Blues.” What a pleasure watching Samples and Joy, a perfect yin and yang.
The true standouts of the show are definitely Jason Ayestas as a Doctor and Katrina Dixon as a Nurse, both of whom bring a huge amount of life and excitement to their scenes. Ayestas hilariously camps it up dressed as a woman during “Ladies Singing Their Song.”
Under Douglas Wilson‘s musical direction, the harmonies are amazing, extremely tight and clean. The terrific live band — Emiliano Villarreal on bass, Alex Danson on piano, Bob Forte on drums — also sounded great. However there are some dishearteningly off-pitch vocals. Confusingly odd, there is a song in the program that isn’t used, and two songs were flipped.
The sound design by Mariah Pryor and Kelly McGuire, with Fred Thompson as soundboard operator, is a huge issue. Singing can overpower dialogue; microphones are not being turned on or off at the appropriate times (we hear the heavy breathing from actors as they walk off stage); levels are not set correctly, especially evident in during the pivotal song “I Want It All”, an outdated white-collar feminist anthem; the band is far too loud; sound effects of hormonal college students sounded more like static; enormous speaker monitors are unnecessary; and there is a sound effect of a womb at intermission that is very confusing: a pulsing light on a screen gives the effect of the audience being in the womb, but the music overpowers the womb sound.
Miguel Lauro‘s simple set has only two white pieces that stayed on stage throughout, with benches and some props used to fill the scene (is this because multiple events happen in this space at the same time?). I like that the bed headboard is moved downstage of the bed to create a sofa for the doctor’s office and then pushed back upstage to make the bed. Nathan Cox‘s projections are almost perfect, except for the scenes in one household where all the picture frames are blank, and a hospital scene in which an actor is put on a hospital bed, but the projection behind them has another hospital bed at a confusing angle. The projection of a sperm swimming across the screen during “We Start Today” is awesome.
All in all, Baby is a genial, sweet, entertaining journey into and through one of the most powerful and important things that any couple goes through. It may not be a perfect musical, but its heart is strong. What a shame we get only murmurs at Revolution.
photos by Nathan Cox
Baby
Revolution Stage Company
611 S. Palm Canyon Drive in Downtown Palm Springs, near Revivals
Fri at 7; Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2
ends on June 9, 2024
for tickets ($35-$45), visit Revolution
