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by George Patterson
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Big Baby

How bizarre that the song writing team of Richard Maltby, Jr. (lyrics) and David Shire (music) would have their two Broadway musicals both begin with the letter "B"-how even more bizarre that these shows should make their local premieres at the same time.

Having spent a part of my professional life in cabaret, both in New York and New Orleans, I have been thoroughly exposed to Maltby/Shire work from their hit cabaret shows, Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, which contain many cabaret gems, the most performed being "I Don't Remember Christmas" (And I Don't Remember You!). Maltby is also known as the conceiver of Ain't Misbehavin'. Shire has composed music for many movies.

Therefore, one was most disgruntled to be confronted with the soft rock, 70ish music of what is more revue than book show (Sybille Pearson is credited with what book there is here.) Baby, produced originally in the 1980s, is about having a baby, a proposition that seems utterly moot to an audience that is comprised almost entirely of retired, post-menapausal senior citizens.

Three sets of couples take us from a "cold grey March to a grey November (spanning 9 months)" as the program joylessly informs us. They are: Terri Gervais and Ken Risch, a conservative, middle-class, middle-aged couple trying to recapture their youth (they don't); Tracey E. Collins and James Murphy, a blue collar couple who can't conceive even though they try and try; and, Kerry Lynn Mendelson and Gary Rucker, the hep, free-love, couple who are the lucky winners in this drab little tale about the miracle of life.

Directed with determination by Fred Nuccio, the Mendelson/Rucker couple is by far the most interesting and charming of the three couples-all performers, however, are more than competent.

Set designer Robert Self is the star of this show, having devised a unit set of three sets of "Let's Make A Deal" doors that represent the three couples' abodes, opening to permit silent wagons to glid onstage. Above this device is a platform upon which Brandt Blocker conducts a septet that does justice to the Shire score, rocky as it is.

Rivertown Rep is to be commended for producing such a little known musical. But the expense of staging musicals is usually predicated upon making a hefty return; therefore, musicals are usually meant to appeal to the largest possible audience-they are meant to be the quintessence of family entertainment. One questions Baby as a viable choice in this case.

As did their creators when they turned to the Tom Hanks movie Big as their next Broadway assignment.

Just like Baby, Big: The Musical tries oh so hard to win our approval, but one soon finds oneself counting the musical numbers-marking time, praying for the end.

Big was not a hit when it played Broadway briefly in 1996. In fact, it lost its $10 million investment and set a record for Broadway flops. When Pace Theatrical Group, the road show producer who supplies the Saenger Theatre among 33 other venues, approached its creators, Maltby, Shire and book writer John Weidman, about reworking the show for the road they jumped at the chance. After all, Broadway has given us so few family musicals in the recent past that with more exposure in the hinterlands, a show about a boy in a man's body who works in a toy store should be a cash cow in generating amateur royalties for not only its creators but also for its producer (Pace).

If the original production tried to dazzle with spectacle, this downsized version tries to coddle with cuteness.

And "cute" it is. But cute without much story can be cloying and this show remains, in spite of a topnotch cast, very uninvolving and, at two hours, twenty minutes, ultimately draining.

Directed with pizzazz by Eric D. Schaeffer, with energetic, if derivative, choreography by Karma Camp, Jim Newman plays Josh Baskin, the kid who wishes to a carnival machine that he were big enough to ride the Ferris wheel, and gets it. With giddy, wide-eyed amazement and the energy of a small sun, he demonstrates an impressive musical comedy talent, especially in his loose-limbed moves and sweet tenor voice. Jacquelyn Piro, as his fellow employee at MacMillan Toy Company, Susan, whose desire to take their relationship to another level is the catalyst for Josh's determination to undo his wish, is equally qualified for this assignment. Indeed, their duet, "Stars, Stars, Stars" is the musical highlight of a 23 song score that could stand considerable excision.

Others who helped lend credibility to this single plot escapade are the veteran Ron Holgate, who, as the owner of MacMillan Toys, gives Josh his big break. Together they are responsible for the de riguer sequence (the scene from the movie that most resembles musical comedy)-playing a giant keyboard that lights up as they jump upon its keys. At first they seem to be trying to pick out one of the unfamiliar tunes from the show itself before they settle for the more crowd pleasing "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks"; Alex Brumel as Josh's best friend, Billy, who helps Josh become his old, smaller,self, and Travis Jordan Greisler as young Josh-both of these young people display awesome stage presence and impressive singing voices.

The fact remains that the real winners in all this theatrical persiflage are Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, the writers of Big: The Movie.

Auditions

Director Ty Tracy of NORD Theatre's Summer Youth Workshop will hold auditions for Rodgers and Hart's classic musical comedy, The Boys From Syracuse, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors by George Abbott, on Sat., May 30 and Sun., May 31, at 2pm. Auditioners will be taught songs from the show and should come comfortably dressed for dance auditions.

The show is scheduled to run from Aug. 13 thru 30. The theatre is located in Gallier Hall, 701 Lafayette St. at St. Charles Ave. For more information call 504.565.7860.

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