“The characters are shallow, the plot non-existent, and the music counterintuitive”
“I’m pregnant” – so say the leading ladies of Baby in its first scene. And its third scene. And its final scene. Actually, the whole show is some variation of “I’m pregnant” or, in at least one case – spoiler alert – “I’m not pregnant”. Can a full-length musical dedicated to the idea of having a baby be boring? Hey, you said it, not me.
Baby was first produced on Broadway, in the 1980s, where it ran, modestly, for less than year. The show oozes an 80s aesthetic, as well as 80s cultural values, and there is a fair number of groans – landlines, moustaches, instances of casual misogyny. (How disappointing that, in the same month that Marianne Elliott took a 70s relic and made it fresh in Company, Baby director Mark Kelly somehow added ten years to his source material).
Baby doesn’t have much of a plot. Three couples learn they are pregnant; two of these pregnancies are unplanned. The couples are spuriously linked through one university where the men work or study, although this link is superfluous; the characters are united and reunited throughout the show by a series of awkward coincidences – bumping into each other on the street, that sort of thing.
The music in Baby is jaunty, except for the occasional wailer, and helps to carry the bizarre current of pep that zips through the score like Larry Bird on Diet Coke. The lyrics do tend to get a bit out there, taking intimate, personal moments, and throwing them into abstraction. Take, for example, the opening number, which I guess is about the process of conception:
Stop the moment, Take it in, Can’t you feel, The change begin?, Don’t you feel, The cosmic surge, As two lives begin to merge?
From my seat in row E there was no cosmic surge, but maybe you need to be closer to the stage.
Considering the drudge that is the source material, the cast do good work. Laurel Dougall as Pam Sakarian, a gym teacher who is desperate to get pregnant, is full of vim and tragedy, and really steals the show in act 2. Holli Paige Farr plays Lizzie Fields, a college student who gets knocked up by her boyfriend, cleverly and with dignity; she rises above the text.
The set design is minimal, but effective, and the costumes certainly bring home the 80s theme, although I can’t for the life of me figure out why the ensemble are so often dressed in baseball jerseys when they are not, in fact, playing baseball.
Baby was not a smash in 1983, and it has even less going for it now. The characters are shallow, the plot non-existent, and the music counterintuitive. Still, there are some good performances in this production at the Drayton Arms, and theatregoers should take note of the names Laurel Dougall and Holli Paige Farr, who, given better material, may one day really be able to send out those cosmic surges.
“Perhaps we haven’t all dressed up an office chair in a shirt, but the sentiment that we can often find solace through fantasy is still there”
It can’t be often that the programme to a show reads ‘please note: in this production, the part of Jake Gyllenhaal will be played by an office chair’. This forewarning is emblematic of Verity Williams’ one-woman-show, Jake. Through a montage depicting some of the most iconic romantic scenes from the movies, Williams tackles the mammoth subject of loneliness.
Told through the framing of an annual meet-up for lonely people (Jake Gyllenhaal branch, of course), the show aptly depicts some of the more unusual sides of loneliness: the pleasure of watching a soppy rom-com, and the fun to be had from a fantastical celebrity crush. Perhaps we haven’t all dressed up an office chair in a shirt, but the sentiment that we can often find solace through fantasy is still there.
The strengths of the show lie in Williams’ ability to perform physical theatre with naturality: she is exceptionally watchable. It’s a rare thing for a first-time solo performer to hold your attention so voraciously. As the actor re-enacts scenes from a range of genres (from Brokeback Mountain to the Lion King), the slight mania that creeps in through Williams’ expressions starts to denote that something is not quite right. She peppers her show with moments of burlesque whilst dressed as the Rabbit From Donnie Darko. These instants become dark intrusions; they are funny at first, then progressively become eerie and frenzied.
The subtle, humorous way that Jake deals with loneliness is not, however, carried right through the show. The monologue that forms the last part, although insightful, undermines a lot of the well-crafted intricacies that were built up through the sketches. The show is asserted from the very beginning to be about loneliness, and the pseudo-reveal at the end of the show is a little pointless. The monologue explicitly lays out the performer’s proclivity for loneliness, how tricky it is to conquer and how it can be unrelenting. The careful research behind the show is evident, but it would be much more interesting to see it wholly integrated into the show’s sketches. There was a vulnerability to the dance, comedy, and clowning that created most of the show that communicated a lot of the things that are then bluntly put on the table in the final monologue.
The was an impressive debut performance. Williams’ gift for improvisation and comedy is a joy to watch.
