By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN? Saturday 1 June 2024 (matinee), and runs through 14 July 2024 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

This hilarious and really quite touching new British musical answers the question what would happen if you gave 9 Year 11 teens a robot baby each for a week that needs caring for 24/7 and cries, needs feeding and poops?

• Read on for reasons including how you’ll go ga-ga for the songs and you’ll struggle to get the earworm Baby, Baby, Baby out of your head

It’s a genius concept explained away as an anti-pregnancy education drive in school after a girl in the year above got pregnant and won the British Youth Music Theatre’s New Music Theatre Award in February 2021 accompanied by the song Hot Dad (listen below) as Jack Godfrey (music and lyrics) and Martha Geelan (book and director) explain in the programme.

The heroine of our story is rulebreaker Leah, a headstrong yet vulnerable Zoe Athena, who has an estranged mum who asks her for money, 2 gay best friends and an unhinged classroom nemesis.

You’ll go ga-ga for the songs as we did which are a hugely commercial mixture that cover a wide variety of musical bases including 80’s-inspired adult orientated rock (AOR) as well as guitar pop favoured by the likes of Busted/McFly, Avril Lavigne and Green Day.

Our favourite number is Hot Dad (see below) in which the male members of the cast feel the immediate benefits of looking after a mock robot child include how caring for them suddenly makes them more sexually desirable.

Throw in thorny teenage issues in a familiar education-based setting including an unexpected same sex kiss, grades anguish, bi-curiousity and abusive parents and you have a show that’s going to resonate with an awful lot of people who go or have been to school – past and present.

You may remember Bradley Riches from the last series of both Heartstopper and Celebrity Big Brother and here he is adorable as 1 of Leah’s BFF’s, Toby, and the recipient of that unexpected kiss.

Co-author Jack Godfrey is already making waves with new musical 42 Balloons which recently ran in Manchester and do check out songs from that show which has a similar 80s AOR vibe which are available on socials.

He’s clearly a talent to look out for in the future and this audience gives this preview performance of Babies a standing ovation at its close and its clear that there’s so much love in the room for this hugely entertaining show.

Expect Babies to continue to find an audience that will come under its spell, take care and nurture it and come back to visit it again – and again.

It’s a show that has a heart, isn’t afraid to show it and also is more than willing to allow us to get to know its characters, appreciate them for their flaws and so we really care what happens to them.

You’ll go ga-ga for the songs and we guarantee you’ll struggle to get the earworm Baby, Baby, Baby out of your head after a visit.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy The Other Palace Tickets
• Have you seen a Jack Godfrey show before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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