Babies: a new(born) musical - Lyric / The Other Palace

You should be. The run time is approx 2 hours.

Saw it the other day having seen the concert last year, I enjoyed it again but think I preferred it as a one act - maybe I didn’t notice but I didn’t feel like there was much new material, if anything less material? So it seemed strange to have extended the runtime - while I thought it was fun the way they alluded to the interval in the act one finale song, I feel like the interval interrupted the momentum and the events during the party had less impact

Really enjoyed this today. Exactly what you'd expect it to be. Catchy songs, superb cast, slick and polished show all round and, most of all, fun!

The strongest point here is the cast. Genuinely likeable bunch, strong of voice, strong in the choreo where needed and perfectly suited to their characters. Bravo to the casting people!

Jaina Brock Patel gives mega energy camp in everything, she's a superb performer. Viola Maisey stood out for me. An excellent supporting performance in which she shines despite not being a focus in the story. Will be another name added to my list of actors to watch out for any time I'm choosing a show.

If you're considering it, I would say definitely catch it. Fun, upbeat, talent, FUN. Also, it's quite fun.

I saw it today. Loved it.
Great acting from the whole cast.

Songs were very catchy and choreography spot on.

Considering how minimal stage set was, I thought it was utilised well.

While not hilarious as such, I thought it was pretty funny overall.

Story wise, there isn't much more to it than '15 year old kids have to take care of dolls for a week', but that's fine by me.
4.5* from me. 

Saw this tonight and its absolutely delightful.

Some spoilers follow. . .

The upbeat propulsive pop-rock is a positive foot-tapping pleasure throughout, and although most of the 8 stories are underdeveloped (only Jasmine's story feels like its got a compelling dramatic engine, room to breathe and a beginning, middle and end), its an infectious and joyous slice of teen life from start to finish.

While all the performances are delightful, its the magnetic Toby stand-in, Morgan Phillips, who makes mountains of mirth out of molehills of underwritten moments ("uh oh"), who is the most compelling stage presence. His future in elevating underwritten TV roles into sensitive and funny award-winning characterisations feels assured lol.

That said, as mini-Rebekah-Vardy, gleefully social-mediaing her whole life at everyone else's expense, Jaina Brock-Patel's Becky is a maniacal purse-lipped hoot, Lucy Carter's Lulu channels all the wide-eyed, soulful, comedically explosive innocence of Aimee Lou Wood at her best and Lauren Conroy's Jekyll-and-Hyde, two-faced, two-voiced, turn as furiously competitive wolfish Regina George in hard-working Hermione Granger clothing is pitch perfectly done.

Dramatically, the weakness is in the lack of stakes for too many of the characters, but the biggest weakness of the show is the title, which makes it sound like a tediously worthy glorification of the merits of parenting, whereas in fact, it's nothing of the sort, the parenting of dolls being a mere catalyst for engaging with all the typical teenage dramas regarding fitting in with everyone around you and having a purpose. How on earth is the target audience supposed to know how entertaining this is when the title sounds so worthy, middle-aged and boring?

Tonight, for whatever reason, the show was under-attended, and everyone at the back was upgraded to seats further forward.

For me, Jack Godfrey is clearly one of our greatest new musical theatre talents, and the effervescent performances here merit an easy joyous 4 stars from me.

Make me the third tonight. I was the almost bald white haired over 65 sitting dead centre front row (always have same seat at the Other Palace) among all the under 25s.

High School Musical at Blackheath Halls tomorrow for a further dose of youth culture !

Great West End Live performance. Fabulous energy!

I’m glad they didn’t do Hot Dad again, it’s a great song but Without Saying Goodbye did a great job of showing a different side to the show to where the marketing has focused.

Going tonight.

Saw this tonight. I have to say that I do not understand the hype in any way. The songs are appallingly written with dull predictable and uninspired rhymes. Characters are all clichéd tropes. No nuance in the writing. Dull.

I have to disagree with the previous comments. I didn't know much about it and I went with an open mind. I agree that the plot is not much and at the beginning most songs are about the same topic: the babies, how hard it is, etc. But as the show progresses you start seeing the different personalities and how the characters relate to each other and make up a close cluster of friends.

The cast is fantastic, they give it all and there is great chemistry between them. Definitely worth a watch and I'm sure we'll see some of these performers in bigger things in the future.

I liked it more when it leaned into the humour, I found Leah's teenage angst a bit too corny and Hollyoaks.