BABY IT'S YOU- the new musical about the Shirelles

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 10/7/08 at 2:51pm

Does anybody know anything regarding director and casting for BABY IT'S YOU, the new musical about the Shirelles?

it's starting previews in 10 Days in West Hollywood but I could not find any information regarding cast, crew or creative team...




Baby It's You Website

[Parks]

Posted: 10/7/08 at 3:17pm

Oh wow! Any plans for it to come to Broadway? I love the music! Anyone going to see it?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/14/09 at 9:05pm

Now, see, the search worked for me here.

Hi! I'm currently working on the production and we are re-opening the show next week. We've started teching and will continue through this week.

The web site is not back up yet, but I was promised that it should be any day now.

Hope to see some BWW peeps there!

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/23/09 at 3:08am

For anyone who's interested, we have our first preview of the newest version of 'Baby, It's You' starting Thursday, July 23 (Tonight!) in West Hollywood.

The web site is not much at this point, but it gives you a look.

It's a fun show, and I hope to see some BWW folks there!


Baby, It's You Website

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 10/22/09 at 11:11pm

We are now going into technical reheasals for the pre-Broadway run, at the Pasadena Playhouse!

The new set design is very fun and I'll let you know more as we progress!


Meet The Folks

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 12:45pm

New art work:



We go into previews this weekend at the Pasadena Playhouse. They've made some great changes in the script and really polished up the show!

[wonkit]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 12:58pm

"Jersey Girls"?

[once a month]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 1:07pm

"Soldier boy, oh my little soldier boy...I'll be true to you".

Happy memories of being a little boy singing about his soldier boy...only to be interupted by Shelly Fabres' "Johnny Angel".

How could no one have guessed I was gay?

I'd like to see it off-broadway, but EGADS, shades of "Leader of the Pack" !

Miss you Ellie Greenwich (RIP)

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 1:19pm

No LOTP here! The story is more based around Florence Greenberg, the woman who left her husband and family in New Jersey to become one of the most powerful women in the music business. She discovered the Shirelles and founded Scepter Records and Tiara Records, which was home to many famous artists.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 1:47pm

Shirley Owens Alston is my girl!

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 11/3/09 at 8:59pm

I'd like to see this. Love the music.

[snarkywannabedreamer]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 7:35am

i saw it. If you like that kind of music it is chock full of tunes from that era. They have one guy (the DJ) who can sing his freakin' face off and looks like Little Richard... hopefully they hold onto him. Other than that, the show still needs a little TLC in the book department in my opinion. The jokes are REALLY stale... when there are any, the characters are pretty thin, the story just kind of peters out, and the main character, Florence (a woman who leaves her family to start a music label and has an affair) is a pretty unlikeable character. Now I have no problem with unlikeable characters but all her flawed, human issues are just kind of skirted over so that you don't get a feel for her humanity... just the selfishness of her actions... and her annoyingly cliche "Jewish mom" accent. That being said the producers staged a very ambitious show in a tiny little LA theater and I have to give it up to them. Plus, the audience (a lot of older folk) were losing their minds just hearing these songs so it may do very well for that crowd.

[Marquise]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 8:30am

So is this show about the career of the group THE SHIRELLES or about Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg?

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 8:38am

I'd probably love it - that's the music I grew up with and never get tired of.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/4/09 at 2:31pm

Snarky,

We still have Gino, and he's fantastic as ever. I think you need to come and see the changes the new production, because they have really done a great re-write, clarifying a lot, and making the relationships more clear.

Sheldon Epps is a genius.

And Marquise...
The story centered around Florence, but it ALL of the Shirelles music plus a load of other memorable tunes.


****I just got this email:
Hi Everyone,

We are doing an invited dress rehearsal of BABY IT'S YOU! tomorrow night. Please feel free to invite family and friends to come out for an 8pm curtain (unless that changes today). There may or may not be tech tables in the house, but just let your people know that it is still a reahearsal and I am sure they will love it, tech tables and all.

So, if you are interested in seeing it for free, let me know!

Updated On: 11/4/09 at 02:31 PM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/5/09 at 4:07am

Any one?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/5/09 at 1:17pm

Tonight's open to anyone who would like to come. Curtian is at 8.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:12am

http://www.stagescenela.com/html/baby_it_s_you.html

I actually was mentioned in the review.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:19am

They miss-spelled your name.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:21am

I take what I can get.








(Thanks for noticing!)

[mallardo]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:30pm

To the poster here who is in the show... sorry, but I just did not like it. The book is horrible. The story such as it is revolves around an inter-racial romance that has no real dramatic points to make. The Shirelles themselves are not characterized. You end up knowing absolutely nothing about them. They're just there to do the numbers.

Since the Shirelles, unlike the Four Seasons, did not actually have enough hit records to carry a show, all kind of extraneous songs by other people from the period are brought in. The second act is as much about Burt Bacharach as about the Shirelles - in fact the cast bow song is "Say A Little Prayer For Me". Why? It didn't appear in the show!

On the other hand, to be fair, the audience I saw it with seemed to like it, so there you go. Does it have a future? I can't imagine that it does.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:37pm

A friend of mine was actually at the show with Steven Stanley

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:05pm

Mallardo-

The thread title may be mis-leading for this thread, because the story is NOT about the Shirelles, it's the story of Florence Greenberg who found the Shirelles and began her own record label, producing some of Rock and Roll biggest stars, like Burt B, and Dionne W., so that's why there is all of that other music in there.

It's also a story of a 1950's housewife, who decides she wants more out of her life than washing her husband underpants and sets out to do what no other woman had ever done at the time.


And I'm not in it. Did you even read the thread?

[Eris0303]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:38pm

Baby, It's You isn't any more about the Shirelles than a Berry Gordie biomusical would be about the Jackson 5.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 3:45pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scepter_Records

The Shirelles were just a fraction of her empire.