"Ethan Paulini, OOTB's associate artistic director, serves as director and choreographer of this immersive production, held in a 60-seat loft at Theatrelab. The intimate proceedings (efficiently designed by Rien Schlecht) put you, quite literally, in the middle of our three couples' collective living rooms — a proximity that turns out to be more exposing than it is gratifying."
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"NOVEMBER 14, 2021 7:50 PM BABY: CHARM-FILLED MALTBY-SHIRE MUSICAL MAKES A WELCOME RETURN By Steven Suskin ★★★ Share on FacebookTweet about this on Twitter Julia Murney, Liz Flemming, Danielle Summons, and Jamila Sabares-Klemm in Baby. Photo: Jo Chiang 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."
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"This Baby is on its way, but still has some growing to do. Too many of the book scenes bring the show to a screeching halt, and are in desperate need of trimming. (The aforementioned in-vitro exchange is the worst offender, though a late-show argument between Danny and Lizzie runs a close second.)"
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