STAGE REVIEW : ‘It’s a Girl!’: A Labor of Love and Laughter

Having a baby and fighting the construction of a nuclear waste dump at the same time? It’s a piece of cake for Linda Bragg and her maternity support group mates.

In John Burrows’ British labor of laughter “It’s a Girl!” at the Odyssey Theatre, the two projects aren’t unconnected. Why go through the uneasy nine months, these women are saying, when someone’s stockpiling lethal material under your basin? The concern is real.

It doesn’t help that Linda’s husband Melvin works for the company building the dump, and that he’s dead set against her having the baby at home. Fortunately for “It’s a Girl!” the British sense of the absurd within reality allows us to look at Linda’s problems with a wide smile.

Can pregnancy be this much fun? According to Linda and her friends, it can. Between demonstrations (at one point they chain themselves to a drilling rig), the evening takes us along the quintet’s nine-month journey to the labor ward, defining their aching and craving and their very individual attitudes toward their condition.

The mothers-to-be also sing, in fine a cappella harmony, a sprinkling of deucedly clever songs (Burrows wrote the lyrics, Andy Whitfield the music) that fill in everything you ever wanted to know about gestation and its environs. A paean to “The Girls in Labour Ward 109” and a fetus’ lament, “Move Over, Mama, I Need Some Elbow Room,” are memorable.

They also play a handful of other characters, sympathetic to their plight or not, in a highly polished example of ensemble playing. Although director Robin Saex could move some of the non-musical scenes along a bit more briskly, she maintains a fine sense of giddiness (in both senses of the word).

Olivia d’Abo is a delight, effortlessly blending innocence and grit as Linda. Marti Muller is husky-voiced Mina, but spends as much time as Linda’s husband Melvin, and Belle Calaway doubles as the more mature Celia and as the feisty nurse who holds their hands through it all.

Laura Bogard as earthy Eve and Mary Van Arsdel as the more than dingy Mary (who’s always ready to “go ‘round the pub”) both double as macho company men, among others, and they’re all a joy to watch and hear (musical direction is by Gaylen Lindsay Thompson, choreography by Jean Schomaker).

On a realistic, typical Brit pub setting by Craig E. Lathrop (Mary feels quite at home), and under Kathi O’Donohue’s smooth lighting, “It’s a Girl!” brings a breath of fresh air to a couple of less than fresh subjects. It’s a charmer.

At 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles; Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; mats. Sunday and March 25, 3 p.m.; indefinitely. Tickets: $16.50-$20.50; (213) 477-2055.