The musical Baby It’s You, though seemingly based on the story of the black female voice group, The Shirelles, is mainly focused on the life of their manager Florence Greenberg, a “true Jew”, and how she became someone in the music business. The show uses music from the era (1958-1965), not only from the girl group, but from many other famous hit artists of the time.
The story is narrated by Jocko (Geno Henderson), a radio jockey. He also plays many 
other singing roles throughout the musical. Florence Greenberg (Beth Leavel) is a middle class housewife in New Jersey and acts the part perfectly. She is no longer happy with her life as a housewife and mother of two children, one blind (Stanley Greenberg – Brandon Uranowitz). It’s not that she doesn’t love her family, but she wants to make something of herself and be an individual (hinting at the woman’s civil right movement?). With the help of her daughter Mary Jane (Liz Byrne), she finds a lovely group of African American girls who have stunning voices. She names them the Shirelles after the “leader” of the group Shirley (Christina Sajous). The musical follows her journey to being the top of a recording studio. She begins an affair with the songwriter Luther Dixon (Allan Louis), stunning the public due to their interracial relationship. After having trouble balancing the traditional role of mother and wife with her 
business responsibilities, Florence finally gets it right and still maintains the love of her two children.
The audience had a blast watching this show. Many who knew the songs sometimes sang along and there were groups that would not stop laughing at some of the jokes. It was an enjoyable performance. The one thing that I would criticize was the introductions to the songs that often were introduced by Florence or Stanley as slow ballads before being sung by the Shirelles in an upbeat and fun version (to go along with the story line). Though it aided the story line and emotion of the scene, it didn’t do much in terms of song quality.
Baby It’s You
Broadhurst Theatre
September 2, 2011
Marina B. Nebro
