ajhlovestheatre

BABIES

Book and direction by Martha Geelan

Music and lyrics by Jack Godfrey

The Other Palace, London – until 14 July 2024

https://theotherpalace.co.uk/babies-musical/

More than at any time in recent memory, it feels as though the British musical is having ‘a moment’. There’s the perennially popular Everybody’s Talking About Jamie back out on tour, ditto Unfortunate, the rambunctious Little Mermaid bastardisation. Meanwhile, Six continues with world domination, 42 Balloons made hearts soar in Manchester (in what must surely be a precursor to a London run), Operation Mincemeat’s installed in town in its best ever version and garnering every award going, while crowd pleasers Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder!, Two Characters (Carry A Cake Across New York) and Standing At The Sky’s Edge are enjoying West End transfers, and an autumn return is announced for tear-jerking stunner The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. These homegrown tuners seem mostly to succeed when dealing with predominantly British themes and styles, instead of taking on the glitz and sentimentality of Broadway, but here’s one that potentially has more universality than most: after all, we’ve all been teenagers, right?!

Having already won BYMT’s New Music Theatre Award, and became a fan favourite through workshops and a concert presentation, Babies is built on the unpromising (to me anyway) premise of a bunch of fifteen year olds being given life-like electronic doll babies to take care of as an educational project, mainly because of a plethora of unplanned teen pregnancies in the school year above. Reading the blurb, I assumed this show was for the kids only…but what a pleasure it is to be proved so utterly wrong. Jack Godfrey and Martha Geelan’s unpretentious, deceptively clever show never patronises its youthful characters, instead presenting them in all their contradictory, self-obsessed, neurotic, swaggering, humane glory. It’s refreshing, life-enhancing and insightful, while delivering a couple of uplifting hours, full of heart, hope and wicked humour, in the theatre. The concept provides a useful tool to examine the pressures on young people, from social media, from their families, from each other and from themselves, and it does so with a deft touch and a lot of goodwill.

Babies boasts a propulsive, tuneful pop-rock score -it’s a bit Alanis, a bit Avril Lavigne, a bit Destinys Child, all enjoyable- that employs thematic repetition to telling effect, and replete with pithy, witty, relatable lyrics. There’s at least one bona fide showstopper in ‘Hot Dad’, a sassy, z-snapping paean to (predominantly) male self-image and parenting. If there’s any justice, this six week season should be a stepping stone to a permanent run somewhere prominent for this funny, frank, altogether delightful new musical that, although a shoo-in for the GenZ-ers, is so well crafted and intelligent as to have broad cross-generational appeal. Crucially, you can’t help but care about and root for these kids, and the show reveals a startling emotional centre that throws into sharp, joyful relief the pervasive raucous humour but seldom seems belaboured.

The casting is sublime. Heartstopper star and Big Brother alumnus Bradley Riches makes an adorable stage debut as fledgling gay Toby, while Lauren Conroy captures precisely the unique combination of intensity, insecurity and superiority of the teenage overachiever. At the performance I saw, cover Grace Townley subbed brilliantly for Jaina Brock-Patel as social media savvy popular girl Becky, her regular podcast bulletins unravelling hilariously as the pressures of parenting and a super-needy boyfriend (Max Mulrenan, smashing) start to kick in. Lucy Carter is a delight as gawky Lulu who feels like all her Christmases have come at once when an unthinking Becky turns the light of her friendship unexpectedly upon her.

Ashley Goh, Nathan Johnston and Viola Maisey do beautifully by a trio of queer characters the writing for whom neatly sidesteps cliché. The most challenging, best written role is probably mouthy, rebellious Leah, navigating a tricky course between her absent, probably addicted mum, and the grandmother she lives with, and who goes from cynicism about the baby project to forming a touching, clearly much needed, bond with her ‘child’. Zoë Athena is phenomenal, investing this troubled, porous young woman with sweetness, fire and emotional complexity.

Geelan directs her own work with pace and flair, matched by Alexzandra Sarmiento’s streetwise, high energy choreography. Jasmine Swan’s climbing frame set looks good although it wobbles somewhat alarmingly when the cast are clambering all over it. Paul Gatehouse’s sound design is pleasingly clear so that the lyrics, harmonies and the orchestrations (Godfrey, and Joe Beighton) register as they should.

Any parent with a teenager needs to plan a family visit to this, and don’t be surprised to find tears in your eyes… both of mirth and the other kind. I loved every minute of it. A bit naughty, a lot lovely, Babies is unexpectedly but totally delightful.