The basic conceit of Definitely Not the Baby Sitters Club is that the improvisers will create a brand new Baby Sitters Club (BSC) story right in front of us.  If you don’t know what the BSC is, you were probably not a tween in the 1990s.  Baby Sitters Club was a series of over 100 books by Ann M Martin that reached peak popularity in the mid-to late-90s.  The stories are decidedly domestic, focusing on the struggles of friendship and centred on the entrepreneurial members of the titular Baby Sitters Club. 

The BSC was popular, and so is this show, so book in if you want to see it. And if you have only the most tenuous connection to the BSC, you really should go see it. It’s wonderful.

In this loving tribute, the setting is transposed to a 1990s New Zealand.  Stonybrook, originally a Connecticut suburb of New York City, becomes a Wellington suburb somewhere near Karori.  Each improviser takes on the persona of a member of the Baby Sitters Club, including sporty Kristy (Caitlin McNaughton) with a canon-accurate ‘Kristy’s Krushers’ jersey, Big Smoke fashionista Stacey (Abby Howells), Raglan-casual hippie chick Dawn (Rose Cann), sensitive cat-lover Mary Anne (Christine Brooks), arty Claudia (Jennifer O’Sullivan) and story-loving junior member Mallory (guest improviser Anna Renzenbrink). 

Each member is costumed in 90s-tastic outfits that show off her personality to the fullest, from Mary Anne’s modest pinafore dress to Claudia’s outrageous home-made skirt, vest, and tie.  Jim Stanton has killed it with the costumes in this show. 

There’s a subtle but important contrast between this show and any single book in the series.  Each BSC book picks one member of the Baby Sitters Club and focuses on her, with the other characters playing supporting roles.  Definitely Not the Baby Sitters Club spreads its focus over all the different members, with several tangentially touching plot lines that all need to be resolved. It’s more Avengers or Big Hero 6 than Captain America or Iron Man.  The quality of the improvisation is so high that the actors are able to keep track of all the different plotlines and where they are at any given moment in the show.

Stories on the night include: concerns that the meticulous Mary Anne is losing her mind, including possibly hallucinating boyfriend Logan Brown and talking too much to her cat; Claudia and Stacey trying to make outfits for an upcoming teddy bear’s picnic; junior member Mallory thinking her wish for more emotional depth has killed the mum of one of her babysitting charges and trying to deal with the emotional fallout; and Kristy and Dawn trying to figure out how to talk to the sensitive Mary Anne about their concerns. 

The plotlines are bookended by the book’s convention of starting and ending with a Baby Sitters Club meeting. The first one introduces the different characters and conflicts, and the last one has the finishing nut-shelling and lessons learned.  It’s really complicated to pull off this kind of story, and Baby Sitters… almost gets there.  A couple of stories fade away, traded mainly for storylines that are paying off with higher stakes or that have more characters involved.  In addition, the plethora of locations makes for no small amount of confusion as things build to their peak, resulting in some behind-the-mark lighting transitions.  Still, the structure here marks a vast move forward from Definitely Not Witches. 

Definitely Not the Baby Sitters Club works mostly because the audience is so incredibly familiar with the series.  Now, I’m definitely a 90s kid, and oh my goodness, I have so many delightful moments of, “Oh my gosh, I totally remember that!”  But there are a bunch of ladies in the audience about 5 years younger than me who obviously care much, much more about these books than I did.  When there is the least suggestion of non-canon, the place feels like it is going to erupt.  It is such a sensational tease, and maybe the most amazing feeling I’ve had in a theatre in a long, long time.

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