Baby: New Off-Broadway Cast Recording 2023

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About the Album: YELLOW SOUND LABEL has announced that it will release Baby: New Off-Broadway Cast Recording. The album is being recorded today – Thursday, May 5 – for release later this year. Baby features a book by Sybille Pearson, music by David Shire, and lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., based upon a story developed with Susan Yankowitz. The album, based on the 2021 Off-Broadway production by Out of the Box Theatrics, will be produced by Michael Croiter, Richard Maltby, Jr., and Geoffrey Ko, who also serves as music supervisor. Out of the Box Theatrics – Elizabeth Flemming, Founder and Producing Artistic Director; Ethan Paulini, Associate Artistic Director – serves as executive producer.
Baby – originally produced on Broadway in 1983 – follows three couples on a university campus dealing with the painful, rewarding and unexpectedly funny consequences of the universal experience of pregnancy and parenthood. They include two college students, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; the thirty-somethings, having trouble conceiving but determined not to give up; and middle-aged parents, previously looking forward to an empty nest when an unexpected night of passion lands them back where they started.
The cast features Christina Sajous as Pam, Gabrielle McClinton as Nicki, Julia Murney as Arlene, Robert H. Fowler as Alan, Elizabeth Flemming as Lizzie, and Johnny Link as Danny. The ensemble includes Jorge Donoso, Marisa Kirby, Jewell Noel, and Ethan Paulini.
“We wrote Baby in 1983 and since then the entire universe has changed,” says lyricist and original director Richard Maltby, Jr. “Revisiting and updating the show has been very exciting, and even with the updates, the process made us realize the heart of the show hasn’t aged at all. I am thrilled to have this new recording to document the show for 2022.”
“Getting the chance to collaborate so closely with Richard to reimagine this unique musical has been one of the privileges of my career,” adds Ethan Paulini, who directed this production. “After living with Baby for the past several years, it seems only fitting that this recording is the next step in this special process. As Richard would say, we are working on a new musical with a 38-year-old score. Viewing these characters through a modern lens demanded to be preserved and with these top-notch performances. I am thrilled that this will be a more complete recording, capturing never-before-recorded material from this fabulous Maltby and Shire score.”
Elizabeth Flemming of Out of the Box Theatrics, comments: “I thought it was essential that we explore the relationships in Baby and the universal experience of having a baby through underrepresented families so that our audiences and artists could see themselves in this new production. Originally, due to script restrictions the only story we could explore with minor rewrites was the middle couple, making Nick and Pam a same-sex relationship (Nicki and Pam) going through IVF to have a child of their own. We were fortunate enough to connect with the original authors who were willing to explore a remount where we could tell this story with more time and research spent on the middle couple’s storyline.”
“Our world has changed,” she continues, “and each couple needed to be given the same time and attention as Nicki and Pam. I expressed my desire to Richard to see my personal story in Baby as a legally blind individual who grew up with disabled parents and explore each couple’s experience and how they could be changed. He could’ve said no, but instead Richard leaned into the process. Lizzie and Danny, written as two able-bodied individuals in the 1983 production, were retold in our production through a legally blind Lizzie and partially-deaf Danny to reflect the experience of the actors portraying them. Arlene and Alan were deepened through the actors playing them (Julia Murney and Robert H. Fowler) by staying true to their ages and asking some hard questions about who they were if they weren’t parents. For the middle couple, we brought on a writing advisor (Anthony Anello) to do research on IVF while Richard interviewed same-sex partners who went through the process.”
“Yellow Sound Label is proud to bring this new Baby to listeners around the world,” says album producer and label founder Michael Croiter. “Maltby and Shire’s wonderful score deserves to be revisited and this album will be a favorite of fans of the original, as well as those discovering this special show for the first time.”
The original Broadway production of Baby opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1983, where it received seven Tony Award nominations, including “Best Musical,” “Best Original Score” and “Best Book of a Musical.” The smart and tuneful Maltby-Shire score has become a favorite of theatre fans over the years, including such songs as “I Want It All,” “The Story Goes On,” “I Chose Right,” and “Patterns” (dropped from the original Broadway production, but reinstated here). Baby was based upon a story developed with Susan Yankowitz. The original Broadway production was directed by Richard Maltby, Jr., and was produced on Broadway by James B. Freydberg and Ivan Bloch, Kenneth John Productions Inc., and Suzanne J. Schwartz, in association with Manuscript Productions.