No Square putting on a show with ‘Babes in Arms’

Tom Titus

“Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!”

Theater lovers who identify that line with Mickey Rooney in the

1940s movie version of “Babes in Arms” with Judy Garland are only

partially correct. Actually “Babes” was born on Broadway in 1937, two

years before Judy trod that yellow brick road.

And it’s been revived, periodically, for new generations of

wide-eyed, toe-tapping kids with grandiose ideas ever since. Come

Aug. 6, it’ll be resurrected once more by Laguna Beach’s No Square

Theater in Laguna High School’s Artists Theater.

Bree Burgess Rosen, a co-founder of the No Square group, is

directing the show, which, she says, “boasts one of the greatest

scores ever written.” Set at a summer stock theater, the plot

concerns the apprentices’ conviction to mount the original revue

they’ve created while dodging the underhanded attempts of the surly

theater owner to squash their efforts at every turn.

“Its score is, without a doubt, musical comedy’s finest,” she

declares, pointing to such now-classic Rodgers and Hart tunes as

“Where or When,” “Johnny One Note,” “I Wish I Were in Love Again,”

“The Lady is a Tramp,” “My Funny Valentine” and, of course, the title

number.

“However,” she notes, “the script fell into obscurity. “It was a

script revised by George Oppenheimer in 1959, under the supervision

of Richard Rodgers, which became the version licensed by R&H; from

then on.”

Revivals have proliferated ever since, drawing praise such as,

from the New York Times, “full of good feeling and a score that is

altogether superb” and “almost too enjoyable for a theatergoer’s

good.”

“We’re happy to introduce our younger actors to so many show tune

standards which have become the backbone of America’s musical

theater,”

Rosen says. “And for the rest of the company, ranging from 10

to...well, the grandmother of the 10-year-old, ‘Babes in Arms’

captures the excitement that actors feel every time they go on

stage.”

Now, some 67 years after the first babes strutted their stuff, and

a lifetime after Mickey and Judy kicked up their heels on the screen

in the show, and its sequel, “Babes on Broadway,” the No Square

Theater kids are getting ready to “put on a show.”

Performances are scheduled for Aug. 6 and 7 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 8

at 2 p.m. in the Laguna High Theater, 625 Park Ave. Ticket prices

will be $18 for adults and $12 for students and senior citizens.

“With a score full of all-time favorites, don’t miss ‘Babes in

Arms,’ director Rosen advises. “Another show this good may come along

-- but who knows where or when?

* TOM TITUS reviews Laguna theater for the Coastline Pilot.