Theater Reviews—

‘Baby’ Brings A Bundle Of Unexpected Surprises At Polka Dot Playhouse

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — Baby is an unexpected and very pleasant surprise that is currently onstage at Polka Dot Playhouse for the next three weekends as part of the theater’s summer musical series. Featuring a score by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr and a book by Sybille Pearson, the play uses the prospect of a baby to explore the lives and relationships of three very different couples.

Danny and Lizzie are a pair of college juniors who have just moved into an off campus apartment together; Nick and Pam are a good natured, easy-going athletic coach and his sports-minded wife, and Alan and Arlene are a college administrator and his wife, forty-something empty-nesters whose three children have all left home.

The couples don’t know each other but they are linked both by their connection to the college and by the fact that the women meet when they go to the gynecologist for their pregnancy tests. This allows for one of the many snappy musical numbers — “I Want It All” — as the three compare notes on what this is going to mean for their lives.

The men go through a similar rendition of “Fatherhood Blues” when they turn out for a pick-up softball game. Their high spirits and enthusiasm capture perfectly the excitement of an anticipated and wanted child.

But the issue of having a baby also precipitates a crisis in each of the relationships. Danny, who wants to study classical music, resolves to take a much more lucrative job with a touring rock band so that he can marry Lizzie and support his family. Lizzie, however, is a strict feminist who sees marriage as the enemy  — she does not want to end up like their mothers.

Nick and Pam, turning thirty, are delighted at the prospect of finally becoming parents only to discover that her test results are negative. Nick is tolerant and understanding about this until he learns that it is his low sperm count that is responsible for their failure to conceive, throwing him into anguish and depression.

Alan and Arlene, who conceived unexpectedly after too much champagne at a big party, are unsure whether they can handle starting parenthood all over again at their age. Alan thinks the presence of more children would fill up what has turned into an empty house rattling around, while Arlene longs for a chance for true romance — a little love nest apartment in the city, vacation cruises instead of family canoe trips, and the chance to enjoy freedom from parental responsibilities.

What makes Baby so enjoyable is the way it combines songs with really clever, Cole Porter-style lyrics (and music that successfully mixes rock, jazz and Broadway sounds) with a plot that is essentially character driven. These are real people, believable and very likeable, so that we care about them and sympathize with their attempts to deal with what is happening to them. It’s a play that will resonate most with audiences who can identify with the experience of having kids, but it’s also a good enough show that just about anyone will be highly entertained by it.

The six principals — Susan Bigelow, Marty Bongfeldt, Al Bundonis, Christopher J. Hanke, James Van Treuren and Lisa Yuen — are all fine actors with terrific voices. Stephanie Stiefel Williams does a comic tour de force, handling a variety of minor roles — Lizzie’s jealous classmate, a self-absorbed doctor, an air-headed real estate agent, among them.

(Performances continue through August 19 on Friday and Saturday evenings and late Sunday afternoons. Contact the theater by calling 203-333-3666 for curtain and ticket details. Polka Dot Playhouse is at 177 State Street in Bridgeport.)