Think year 11s, Gen-Z, singing, dancing, music - and honestly – the episode of Love Island that airs every year when all the couples must look after plastic babies.
The new coming-of-age musical BABIES is showing now at The Other Palace in Victoria, and it’s not one to be missed.
BABIES is showing until July 14 and is produced by Crossroads Live (also The Bodyguard, Annie, Chicago, Cats, The Drifters Girl) and theatre development company Indigo Productions (led by James Lane and Ed McGovern).
I laughed and smiled all the way through it, and the acting, singing, and dancing were absolutely phenomenal.
The show follows nine year 11 school kids who have been tasked with looking after plastic babies for a week – testing their patience, relationships, friendships, and not least their parenting skills.
All the personalities are perfectly contrasting – the teacher’s pet Jasmine, the Insta-famous, pink obsessed Becky and her cool, Becky-obsessed boyfriend Ben, wannabe sweetie Lulu who is desperate for a friend, Leah with a secret to share, dancer Grace, football boy Jacob who comes out to Toby and hot dad Alex.
The cast includes Ashley Goh, Bradley Riches, Grace Towning, Jaina Brock-Patel, Lauren Conroy, Lucy Carter, Max Mulrenan, Morgan Phillips, Nathan Johnston, Rowan Macpherson, Viola Maisey and Zoë Athena.
You really feel like you get to know each and every one of them, and you become immersed in the life of a year 11 classroom and what really means to them.
The audience were howling with laughter, crying, clapping, and the full standing ovation at the end says it all.
Music and lyrics are by Jack Godfrey and the book is by Martha Geelan, and BABIES follows the sell-out concert series in November 2023 at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.
The journey of BABIES began in early 2021 when Martha and Jack submitted one of the songs titled Hot Dad to British Youth Music Theatre (BYMT) for inclusion in the New Music Theatre Award, which it went on to win.
As a result, the writing duo were commissioned to finish the musical with the introduction of a wider creative team, including Music Supervisor, Orchestrator and Vocal Arranger, Joe Beighton (SIX), in preparation for an initial run at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, where it played three performances with a cast made up of over 30 talented emerging performers from the BYMT programme in August 2021.
Indigo Productions and Crossroads Live then joined the project as commercial producers, with the production still proudly partnered with BYMT and supporting the brilliant work of the charity.
Development workshops were held in 2022 and 2023 prior to an appearance at West End Live and the series of concerts in the West End at the Lyric on Shaftesbury Avenue in November 2023.
Tickets start from £15 and are on sale now from www.babiesmusical.com
About BABIES The Musical
“The year above got pregnant so we’re doing this instead!”
Summer is done. Year 11 is here. Being a child is out. Being a grown up is in. Time for more parties, more responsibility and, oh yeah…becoming a parent to a plastic robot baby simulator.
After a rise in pregnancies among the year above, the school’s sex education department are compelled to take action. Fuelled by a blistering pop-rock score, Babies follows nine classmates as they take on their most important school project yet: keeping a fake baby alive for an entire week. As the pressures of teenage life collide with the demands of parenting, the students are forced to ask themselves: what is it I really want? who is it I really want to be?
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