BABY, IT'S YOU! Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 1:31am

Today is Wednesday, April 27, marking the official opening night performance of Baby It's You!, the story of a New Jersey housewife who launched the 1960s girl-group The Shirelles, following previews from March 26 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tony Award winner Beth Leavel plays Florence Greenberg.

The musical, using pop hits of the period, was conceived by Floyd Mutrux and is directed by Mutrux and Sheldon Epps, and written by Tony-nominated book writers Mutrux and Colin Escott, the team behind another jukebox Broadway show, Million Dollar Quartet.

Here's how producers bill the show: "Before Motown and the British Invasion, Florence Greenberg took the male-dominated music industry by storm, revolutionizing pop music and becoming the most influential and successful female record company president ever. After discovering one of the greatest girl-groups of all time, The Shirelles, at her daughter's high school, Greenberg packed the girls in her car, drove across the George Washington Bridge to New York City, and embarked on a trailblazing journey from New Jersey housewife to record mogul, creating the independent house of hits that was Scepter Records."

Baby It's You! features a cast of 19 that also includes Allan Louis, Geno Henderson, Erica Ash, Kelli Barrett, Kyra DaCosta, Crystal Starr Knighton, Barry Pearl, Christina Sajous, Brandon Uranowitz, Alison Cimmet, Erica Dorfler, Berlando Drake, Adam Heller, Jahi A. Kearse, Annette Moore, Zachary Prince, Ken Robinson and Chelsea Morgan Stock.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 7:42am

Did the powers-that-be over at BWW forget to display the Baby, It's You! logo next to their very own?

[dramarama3]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 7:58am

Let's pray for raves.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:03am

The fact that this is opening the same day as The Normal Heart isn't going to do it any favors. Let the bloodbath begin.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:07am

This is going to be a very interesting thread.

[myshikobit]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:14am

I'm really excited to see these reviews...

[Here_I_Go_Again]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:15am

its so sad cause the cast is GREAT, and Beth... AMAZING- but the show itself is so dreadful!!!

[dave1606]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 9:40am

Does anyone else think the image next to the BWWW logo makes it look like the cast of Baby It's You is in the Normal Heart?

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 9:49am

These reviews will be interesting.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 10:49am

Does anyone else think the image next to the BWWW logo makes it look like the cast of Baby It's You is in the Normal Heart?


Hahah, yes. I saw that and thought "Why does the image for THE NORMAL HEART look like it has drag queens in it?"

I thought multiple Broadway shows were not supposed to open on the same day?

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:00am

This is gonna be hilarious.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:30am

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20364394_20485045,00.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:34am

Wow talk about early from EW.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:36am

A B-?? That's more than kind.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:38am

I was expecting lower than a B-

[PopAria]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 11:40am

Wow. EW.com gave it a B- !

[BroadwayShowTime]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 1:51pm

hmmm.. With the Legal issues and the reviews coming in...
Can we expect a closing notice by tomorrow?

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 2:25pm

I can't believe the first review is so positive...

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 3:18pm

Glad to read some nice things in the EW review. I hope more will be forthcoming for this pleasant show.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 3:38pm

with the lawsuit plus (likely) terrible reviews; I say this closes by Memorial Day.

Posted: 4/27/11 at 5:14pm

that girl on LX-TV NY just said

that 'everyone was singing in their seats last night' and 'she can't wait to see it'.

i consider that a very positive review.
and i would hang on to it.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 6:50pm

Talkin Broadway is up

"There have been worse jukebox–songwriter showcase musicals than Baby It’s You!, which just opened at the Broadhurst, but it’s difficult to think of a more boring one. The worst of the lot usually have the decency to be excitingly, originally bad. (Anyone remember Good Vibrations?) This one is merely one concentrated, over-amplified yawn.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/BabyItsYou.html


Updated On: 4/27/11 at 06:50 PM

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 6:54pm

The audience is responding to the show at the performances. Thank goodness they do. There are times where I couldn't hear a word the actors were singing onstage. I only figured out what some of the songs were because of the people shrieking along off-key.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:26pm

Chicago Tribune is a pan:

" Oh, the wretched unfairness of it all. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons get a thrilling jukebox celebration. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at least had their music treated with respect and artistry. But the Shirelles, one of the greatest girl groups of all time (heck, they were covered by the Beatles), get a show of such total ineptitude and cynical profiteering that your mouth pretty much dangles open in disbelief for the duration of the entire tawdry proceedings. “Baby It's You” makes “Million Dollar Quartet” look like “Three Sisters.”

The two shows — the Chicago and Broadway hit “Million Dollar Quartet” and “Baby It's You” (not the Chekhov) — actually share authors in Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott. Most of that first show's fans, myself included, were always aware that the book is not the main strength (a Tony Award nomination notwithstanding). But you don't get a full sense of the bullet that was dodged until you see “Baby It's You,” which is directed by Mutrux and Sheldon Epps, and must surely be one of the worst jukebox shows every to grace the Great White Way."

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2011/04/baby-its-you-broadway-review-shirelles.html

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/27/11 at 8:28pm

I thought this was the "Normal Heart" review thread for a second, and I literally gasped when I saw "Chicago Tribune is a pan". Then I realized I was in this thread, and calmed down again. Ha.