"Baby Baby Baby" plays at Century II

Saturday, February 10, 2

By Bud Norman The Wichita Eagle

Pregnancy is certainly a pregnant topic, in the sense of "being rich in significance of implication," and Stage One's production of "Baby Baby Baby" energetically  strives to sing and dance as many laughs and tears from the subject as possible.

The show is an updated and re-vamped version of "Baby," a Broadway hit of the 1980s for composer David Shire, lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. and playwright  Sybille Pearson. Its producers are hoping to deliver "Baby Baby Baby" back to The Great White Way sometime in 2001. [Joni's note the Producers of Stage One state that the show is slated for revival in the 2002 Theatre season.]

If New York's theater-goers respond as favorably as the audience at Thursday night's world premiere in Century II's Mary Jane Teall Theater, "Baby Baby Baby" should enjoy a happy second childhood.

Pearson's story involves three couples, ranging in age from early 20s to mid 40s, and the various ways that impending parenthood affect their varied relationships. Shire and Maltby's bouncy songs tell much of the tale, with able help  from Kurt Stamm's equally bouncy choreography and Laura Bergquist's faultless musical direction, while the rest is revealed in dialogue ranging from the comic to the tragic.

A talented cast handles both music and dialogue with aplomb, creating characters and relationships broad enough to be identified with but still specific enough to be credible.

As the older couple facing an unexpected pregnancy just as their older children are leaving the nest, Mark Hardy and Deborah Tranelli strike all the right comic notes while maintaining a wise tone. Her ripe beauty and his  gentlemanly charm mix into such a sexy relationship, though, that the challenge to their marriage never seems quite threatening enough.

Greg Stone and Rachel De Benedet are strong as a couple trying desperately -- sometimes too desperately -- to conceive. Stone's regular guy jocularity and De Benedet's leggy, athletic sex appeal work together well, especially  for the music and comedy.

Josh Tower brings a strong stage presence and easy likability to his role as a youthful musician eager for the responsibilities of fatherhood. M. Kathryn Quinlan is good as his pregnant girlfriend, despite a couple of conspicuously  dropped lines, but even her strong voice and personal charm aren't quite enough to endear her character, who has all the irresponsible self-absorption of an '00s flibbertigibbet and all the cliches of a '70s feminist.

A talented collection of mostly regional performers -- including Gina Austin, Joseph Bergquist, Trisha Garnes, Paul Jackson, Rachel Kice, Brenda Lawton and Michael O'Roark -- contribute some fine dancing and  comedy.

Director Stamm's shrewd staging keeps the proceedings moving along at a brisk pace, with the balletic swirl of the scene changes being fun to watch rather than distracting. He draws considerable energy from his performers. The  more dramatic moments sometimes seemed manipulative, but his audience didn't seem to mind having its heartstrings tugged with such expertise.

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