Lucy Komisar
"Baby it's You!" a fascinating
and entertaining feminist juke box musical
"Baby it's You!"
Conceived by Floyd Mutrux; book by Floyd Mutrux and Colin Escott;
directed by Floyd Mutrux and Sheldon Epps; choreographed by
Birgitte Mutrux.
Broadhurst Theatre, 235 West 44th Street, New York, NY.
212-239-6200; http://babyitsyouonbroadway.com/.
Opened April 27, 2011.
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar May 14, 2011.
This is a terrific feminist juke box musical.
It is based on the true story of Florence Greenberg (the excellent
Beth Leavel), a New Jersey housewife who discovered the Shirelles,
four Passaic, NJ, high school coeds, who she would make into
a major singing group. She would, in the process, move to Manhattan,
shed her traditional husband and take up with a young song writer.
This was in 1958, before feminism became a mass movement. Also
before Motown, before the Beatles. The visionary Flo and pop
music would never be the same.
 |
| The
Shirelles: Beverly (Kyra DaCosta), Doris (Crystal Starr),
Micki (Erica Ash), and Shirley (Christina Sajous). Photo
by Ari Mintz. |
Greenberg's daughter Mary Jane (Erica Ash)
discovers the girls in the school yard and alerts her mother.
They are charming and have good voices, and they have a point
of view: teenagers singing about teenage angst. "I met
him on a Sunday…"
Flo's accountant husband Bernie (Barry Pearl) thinks she should
be a housewife. Instead, she founds Tiara Records.
Leavel never suggests a woman who was beaten down, just one
waiting for her chance. She'd met Bernie at 16; he was 18. They
married three years later, 27 years before her liberation.
 |
| Beth
Leavel as Florence Greenberg and Allan Louis as Luther Dixon.
Photo by Ari Mintz. |
It doesn't hurt that she meets a much younger
song writer, Luther Dixon (Allan Louis, with a melodious voice
and presence) who joins the company and becomes her lover. He
happens to be black; this is also before the civil rights movement.
She founds Sceptor Records — still the royal theme. And
still the mother, she gives a job to her blind songwriter son.
Flo becomes soigné and chic, hair in mod flip and bangs.
She becomes the most successful female pop music impresario
of the era.
The group that recreates Shirelles is excellent, especially
Christina Sajous portraying lead singer Shirley with charm and
a jazzy full rich voice. The sound moves from 50s doo wop to
60s rock. The music becomes sultry, like "Moma Said"
in 1962. Flo produces "Dedicated To The One I Love,"
"He's So Fine," "I Say A Little Prayer,"
"Twist and Shout."
 |
| Crystal
Starr as Doris, Christina Sajous as Shirley, Beth Leavel
as Florence Greenberg, Erica Ash as Micki, Kyra DaCosta
as Beverly. Photo by Ari Mintz. |
Leavel's own fine voice rings clear in the
musical numbers.
The show proceeds on multiple levels: the musical idiom of the
Shirelles, the feminist assertion of Flo Greenberg, and the
personal difficulties of dealing with her husband and family.
Her daughter is not in the business and feels neglected.
It's clear where the audience sympathies lie. They boo the sexism
of Bernie's attitudes. There's also a sense of the politics
of the times. "Soldier Boy" is about Vietnam. A gig
takes place in segregated Atlanta where Luther and the Shirelles
can't stay in the "white" hotel; so, Flo joins them
in the black side of town.
Leavel expertly captures Flo's iron determination and single-mindedness.
When Burt Backrack comes on the scene, she is not sentimental
about hiring him to take over Luther's role as prime song writer.
She discovers/invents a few other major talents, including Leslie
Gore ("It's My Party") and Dionne Warwick ("Walk
on By.")
Directors Floyd Mutrux and Sheldon Epps do an excellent job
of integrating the story and the music, weaving in numbers sung
by the Shirelles and some of the other stars Flo created.
Flo Greenberg outlasted the Shirelles. As usual, with them she
chose business over sentiment. (But she bought them all houses
in Passaic.) Born in 1913, she finally retired in 1970, but
lived till 1995. Quite an extraordinary woman, quite a fascinating
and entertaining play.
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