Beth Leavel and the Dreams.  I mean, the Shirelles!

The new Broadway musical Baby It's You! has arrived, filled with songs you probably haven't heard since you were a kid.  "I Met Him on a Sunday".  "Soldier Boy".  "Dedicated to the One I Love".  These are songs that were already oldies when I was growing up in the 90's, yet somehow the tunes are still gleefully infectious.  It seems as if the Jukebox Musical is here to stay.  Best exemplified by Jersey Boys and the new Priscilla: Queen of the Desert musicals, this particular iTunes Genius Playlist Musical focuses on The Shirelles and their founder, Florence Greenberg (yes, a 4-woman African American group was founded by a middle-aged Jewish woman from New Jersey.)

Work that bevel!

There is a small note in the program: "Although this play is inspired by actual events, some material has been fictionalized for dramatic purposes".  I'm not sure what exactly this is referring to, other than probably the whole plot.  However!  Nobody REALLY goes to see shows like this for the plot.  If you put the plot-rocity aside, the music is catchy and fun, the singing is great, and you get a little fictional history lesson.

Girl, you betta costume change!

I won't bother explaining what HAPPENS, but I will say, Beth Leavel as Florence Greenberg has the most costume changes I've ever seen.  She wriggles in and out of probably 20 dresses that look exactly the same but are somehow different.  This alone should have earned her the Tony Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical!  I jest, but to be fair, she along with the 4 Shirelles (Erica Ash, Kyra Da Costa, Christina Sajous, and Crystal Starr) sing their faces off!  Props and kudos to them; it must hurt to smile for 2.5 hours straight!  (By the way, yes, you may have seen Erica Ash on the Big Gay Sketch Show!  All in the family!)

Whee!  Exciting!

I will close by admitting that yes, the songs are tuneful, smiley and fun.  And for those who grew up in the 50's and 60's, apparently the story does have a certain nostalgia to it (there was an older woman crying at the end of the show in my row).  I'm starting to wonder if Broadway is fracturing into two camps: the commercial moneymakers (Baby, It's You!, Jukebox musicals) and the original daring storytellers that don't make money (The Scottsboro Boys).  Every so often,  a show manages to live in both camps (The Book of Mormon).  Whatever the case, I'm glad people are seeing shows!  So go see it!  Support the theater in any way you can.

Baby, It's You! is currently playing at the Broadhurst Theater on 235 West 44th St in New York City.