Saturday, March 26, 2011

LOGOS: Baby It's You!

Previews begin today for Broadway's latest rock'n'roll bio-musical, Baby It's You!  What potentially sets this one apart from say, Jersey Boys or Million Dollar Quartet are two things: it's about a girl group, not a boy band or male rock stars, and it's really as much about the woman behind the scenes as the girls behind the microphone.

Baby It's You! tells the story of Florence Greenberg (Beth Leavel), a New Jersey housewife who propels the Shirelles and other groups to super stardom by ignoring the male dominated recording establishment and striking out on her own.


The show takes place in the early 1960's, and pretty much everything about this logo/advertising has that vintage feel about it.  Except for perhaps a tad too clean a computerized line, the title block takes you right back to the era of doo-wop and fun fun fun.  The bright, pastel-ish colors that clash and go together at the same time - a turquoise-blue and purple - in a faux cursive that is double printed with white and the word "it's" in a decorative circle, combine to take us back to that familiar, homey feeling of late 50's early 60's advertising.

Then there is the double photo of the logo - a girl group in fashionable and tasteful sparkly cocktail dresses surround a single microphone in synchronized knee-bend faces away from us and toward the footlights; and an ultra-fashionable white woman dominates the photo and the logo both by placement and sheer size.  Her lips perfectly lipsticked, her cats eyes glasses, in a matching color, of course, are held off her nose to reveal piercing eyes that sparkle with a confidence and power.


Those photos at a glance tell us the story - Florence is in charge, a muse to the Shirelles.  And the tag line fills in any possible blanks in getting the simple point across: "The Shirelles made the headlines... She made the Shirelles."

With the gals posed away from us, a border of footlights shining in our eyes, we are also told that this show will be in the mold of Jersey Boys, only this time it will be the rise and fall of a girl group.  A coincidence of similarity?  I really doubt it.


But it is colorful, simple to tell what it is all about.  And if that era's music appeals to you, then the show, and its logo really work.

Grade: A

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Jeff
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