Maltby and Shire's ode to impending parenthood Baby follows three expectant couples: unmarried college students (Liz Callaway, Todd Graff), empty nesters (Beth Fowler, James Congdon), and thirtysomethings who have been try... more »ing desperately to conceive (Catherine Cox, Martin Vidnovic). As the couples explore their different reactions to their situation, the songs alternate between humor and heart-tugging drama. In "I Want It All," the women weigh what they want out of their pregnancies and subsequent lives, while the men express their pleasure in the funky "Fatherhood Blues." In the emotional centerpiece of the show, "The Story Goes On," Callaway reacts after feeling her baby kick for the first time, while "The Ladies Singing Their Song" takes a gentle poke at well-meaning advice givers (Sondheim's ladies who lunch at a different phase of life). This long-awaited reissue of the 1983 original Broadway cast recording captures Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations of shimmering strings and sassy brass and also includes Fowler's solo "Patterns," a gem cut from the original production. Leading the strong cast is Callaway, who was nominated for a Tony (as was Graff and the show, score, book, director, and choreographer) and who later went on to star on Broadway as Grizabella in Cats, perform voiceovers for animation (Anastasia, the Aladdin sequels), and rerecord "The Story Goes On" as the title track of her 1995 solo album. This Baby is a most welcome arrival. --David Horiuchi« less
Maltby and Shire's ode to impending parenthood Baby follows three expectant couples: unmarried college students (Liz Callaway, Todd Graff), empty nesters (Beth Fowler, James Congdon), and thirtysomethings who have been trying desperately to conceive (Catherine Cox, Martin Vidnovic). As the couples explore their different reactions to their situation, the songs alternate between humor and heart-tugging drama. In "I Want It All," the women weigh what they want out of their pregnancies and subsequent lives, while the men express their pleasure in the funky "Fatherhood Blues." In the emotional centerpiece of the show, "The Story Goes On," Callaway reacts after feeling her baby kick for the first time, while "The Ladies Singing Their Song" takes a gentle poke at well-meaning advice givers (Sondheim's ladies who lunch at a different phase of life). This long-awaited reissue of the 1983 original Broadway cast recording captures Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations of shimmering strings and sassy brass and also includes Fowler's solo "Patterns," a gem cut from the original production. Leading the strong cast is Callaway, who was nominated for a Tony (as was Graff and the show, score, book, director, and choreographer) and who later went on to star on Broadway as Grizabella in Cats, perform voiceovers for animation (Anastasia, the Aladdin sequels), and rerecord "The Story Goes On" as the title track of her 1995 solo album. This Baby is a most welcome arrival. --David Horiuchi
"In the mid-eighties the economics of Broadway really began to take its toll on smaller intimate musicals. "Baby" was a casualty of this sad state, closing with fewer than 250 performances. The best thing about "Baby" is the music by Richard Maltby and David Shire (who also wrote the musical version of "Big" in the 90's). The CD features Liz Callaway singing "The Story Goes On," which she later records again on her other CDs. Liz Callaway alone is enough reason to buy "Baby". But there are also the wonderful performances by the rest of the cast. Particularly exciting is the song featuring three pregnant women, "I Want It All."This was out of print for a while and seems to be hard to come by every once in a while. Snap this one up while you can."
A wonderful Broadway score with top theater singers.
09/08/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"BABY is a wonderful musical with a strong score, a good book, and some of Broadway's best performers, including Liz Callaway. The songs range for great duets like "Two People in Love" and "What Could Be Better?" to soaring ballads like "The Story Goes On." This has just been released commercially in the US on JAY Records. Buy it!"
Good, but not stellar
10/25/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Okay, so I'll be honest: BABY, when staged, is a bizarre show. It waltzes breezily in and out of the lives of three multi-generational couples as they stumble down the road to parenthood. Oddly, the CD feels more lucid than actually watching the play, primarily because of the excision of various odd bits of dialogue and very odd scene changes.The music here ranges from soaring torch-songs (Story Goes On) to rock ballads (I Chose Right) to touching duets (With You) to well-written comedy (Ladies Singing Their Song) to down-right badly written numbers such as Fatherhood Blues (which, despite the title, has not one ounce of bluesy feel, which may have well been the point, but was not carried across, and instead plays like one long song from a bad episode of Barney). The cast is good, but not great; then again, this is a show from one of the transitional seasons on Broadway (when shows started moving away from crooners toward smaller voices) and it shows. Breakouts include Liz Callaway, who has gone on to garner a bit of fame on her own, and Todd Graff, both of whom were nominated for a Tony for this show (though listening to the CD, you won't understand why). Other members of the cast are okay, despite the total lack of vocal emotion of one cast member in particular.This is a good CD to have simply because of the odd subject matter and presentation (the show starts out with a "Look Who's Talking"-esque sperm-meets-egg sequence). Those who are looking for under-appreciated music would also enjoy this CD as almost all of the above songs deserve a better (or SOME) reputation in musical theatre circles. But one might look for Maltby & Shire compilation discs instead as some of the performances here are mousy, despite the fun, if rather dated and schmaltzy, orchestrations by Broadway guru Jonathan Tunick.Overall, I'd recommend this CD to die-hard musical buffs, but not to those who still think My Fair Lady starred Audrey Hepburn."
A really cute musical with really nice music.
05/20/1998
(4 out of 5 stars)
"BABY is definately a seventies musical about three couples in various stages of having a baby: Couple 1: The college girl and musician with an OOPS! pregnancy, COUPLE 2: The ones trying desperately to get pregnant but they are having trouble getting her pregnant, and COUPLE 3: The retired couple with another OOPS!With a few catchy songs and a small band for back up (kind of like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS in that way), it's high on the CUTE factor. Songs you might recognioze from this show are I CHOSE RIGHT, PATTERNS, THE STORY GOES ON, not to mention a few cute ones like FATHERHOOD BLUES, I WANT IT ALL, and my personal favorite, WHAT COULD BE BETTER, a hysterical duet between Couple 1 trying to picture how their child is going to look.If you are a musical theater fan, songs in this show are definately worth learning and dedicating to your loved one (esp. I CHOSE RIGHT). If you ONLY tend to like the hard core stuff like LES MISERABLES and PHONTOM OF THE OPERA (you know, the ones with huge orchestras and casts), this may not be for you. This is more for the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and PIPPIN fans.My favorites, to give you an example of my taste, are: LES MISERABLES (like everyone else), SWEENEY TODD, and CHILDREN OF EDEN (the new show just begining to surface in the states by Stephen Schwartz, creator of PIPPIN and GODSPELL)."
My Favorite "Nearly Unknown" Show
loesser | colonia, nj United States | 02/07/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A great show makes a great CD. I will never understand why this show didn't become a hit! I saw this show at a local amateur theater and have loved it ever since. Maltby and Shire are the best composer and lyricists to never have a successful B'way show. This score is great- Fatherhood Blues, I Want It All, The Story Goes On, The Ladies Singing Their Song- These are unforgetable and deserved to be heard. Get this gem!"
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1
![Seussical [2000 Original Broadway Cast]](https://nationalbookswap.com/cd//m/02/4802/514802.jpg)
![Sly & the Family Stone - Greatest Hits [Epic]](https://nationalbookswap.com/cd//m/63/8263/18263.jpg)
