"Remarkably clever...charming. Just what the Doctor ordered." Matthew Fraser, Toronto Globe and Mail, National Edition "Jones has created a unique world in which childhood, children and parents are examined with much hunour aand a great deal of truth...melodic, catchy and lyrically clever...entertaining, witty and intelligent." Basil Deacon, Halifax Chronicle Herald

"Inventive...tuneful...dramatic." Sid Adilman, Variety reviewer "Colourful, upbeat, lively, delightful and clever...a good dose of reality." Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen

HOW BABIES WAS BORN

It was a hot August day on Prince Edward Island, my second home and where my family has our summer cottage. For the past three weeks, I had been getting up at 6 a.m., brewing some coffee, going out on the deck, and writing lyrics for a show I had in my head, called BABIES. On this one particular day, I had been quickly eliminated from a tennis tournament, and, therefore, headed down to the beach. It was low tide, a time when one can walk forever on the warm sand dunes. While walking, I met Bill Hancox who was CEO of the Confederation Centre For The Arts in Charlottetown. The Charlottetown Festival, in its wonderful, 1,300-seat theatre, has been producing full stage musicals since 1967, including the perennial "Anne Of Green Gables". They had also produced two of my earlier musicals in past years. 

After chatting about kids, the weather and the tennis tournament, Bill asked me if I was working on any new musicals. I described BABIES. He got very excited about it. Two days later, I was called into a meeting with Alan Lund, the award-winning Artistic Director of the Festival. I read a few lyrics from my unfinished work. Alan loved it and it was agreed, all around, that BABIES would be produced on the Main Stage the following summer. Consequently, I started getting up at 5 a.m., and completed the first draft of BABIES by the end of the summer.

(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that while I was on the beach talking to Bill Hancox, my wife, Eve, was still in the tennis tournament. Unfortunately, she fell on the courts and broke her wrist. No one could find me and someone else had to drive her to emergency at the Charlottetown Hospital. I was not very popular on the home front. This was not her first break and would not be her last. Eve, to date, has broken her wrist six times, three on her left arm and three on her right.)       Cliff Jones

PRODUCTIONS OF BABIES

For the next two summers, BABIES was a huge hit on the Charlottetown stage (see some of the reviews/comments in the banner at the top of these pages). During the intervening years, BABIES was on the curriculum of the internationally-renowned Music Theatre programme at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. (Twice.) BABIES also enjoyed two major productions (different production companies, two years apart) in Ottawa, Ontario.  It was also produced by production groups in Toronto, Waterloo and Brampton, Ontario. Its track record of great reviews by critics and audiences alike continued with a wonderful production of BABIES in Sydney, Australia.

MAKING THE CAST ALBUM OF BABIES

Three lawyers who were extremely active in musical theatre in Canada's capital, Ottawa, loved the productions of BABIES that had been mounted in their fair city. It was a tremendous and welcome surprise to writer/composer Cliff Jones when the three men came forward with an offer of $50,000 to produce a cast album of the show.

Over a period of three months, Cliff recorded all the instrumentals at a studio in the beautiful Caledon Hills, just north-west of Toronto, and all the vocals at Number Nine Sound, a studio in downtown Toronto. Some of the solo singers were from the original cast of BABIES, some were from a Toronto, stage musical production group called The Yorkminstrels, and all of the Chorus singing was performed by The Yorkminstrels. Cliff took another six weeks to mix the album. The result is the wonderful, double-CD album of BABIES. Listen to some songs from the show on the "Sample Songs" page. Click in the above navigation bar.