Bailey

It was first-timer Bailey Warner, playing the title role in Bailey, who stole the show, upstaging seasoned talents Sam and Cheryl Warner. Bailey was a bouncing beauty. While her dialogue was limited, her charming smile ruled. After the show I took her into my arms and congratulated her (she's next scheduled for a role in Theatrx's upcoming version of The Nutcracker.) By then Bailey will be a seasoned performer at the age of five and a half months.

The lineage of Bailey: First it was a play, The Fourposter, which metamorphosed into the musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, I Do! I Do! last seen on the ACT circuit in November 2001 under the able direction of Jay Mower and starring the Warners. Playwright/Composer/Director Steven Storc created, I Did! I Did!, bringing his oblique sense of humor into play. That was in February of this year. By then, Cheryl was having trouble getting into her wedding dress for the play, as Bailey was due in June.

Bailey is a very special love story. Sam and Cheryl met on the stage, and, as they say, the rest is history. They were married last year on the Theatrx stage. While I Do! I Do! and I Did! I Did! covered the first 50 years of Claire and Edwin Chandler's (Cheryl and Sam) married life, Bailey focuses on a four-month period beginning just after her birth. There are very special trials that take place with the first child. Suddenly, the husband is no long the primary focus in the household. The baby demands, and gets, all the attention. Tensions build. Sometimes depression sets in. These are some of the subjects touched upon in Storc's very original work.

Bailey opens with the family returning home from the hospital, Claire and Edwin singing "Mommy and Bailey and Me" to Bailey. One of the most touching songs is "Bailey's Lullaby," written and sung by Sam. As tensions build, Claire laments, "I've Lost My Life" while Edwin counters with "I've Lost My Wife."

The second act offers up delightful surprises. Sam, Cheryl, and Bailey make a perfect stage family. Sam balances Cheryl's zaniness with husbandly confusion. Cheryl's comedic talent explodes across the stage with some of the funniest antics since "I Love Lucy." Cheryl's solo, "A Prettier Girl," had the patrons in hysterics. Sam's proud father attitude is lovingly displayed in "Daddy's Girl," sung to Bailey as he holds her. Still, the two professionals, though they tried, couldn't help but be upstaged often by their lovely and already stage-wise daughter, Bailey.