WILMA EDWARDS recalls her 1960s youth. "The Ronettes and Dixie Cups - oh yes, I can well remember them, and sitting at my mirror backcombing like fury to reach those glorious bee-hive heights," she says in the programme notes to Be My Baby, in which she plays the role of Matron.

"In those days too, birth control was only just beginning... and I can confirm how terrified we were at the possibility of falling from grace."

The music of the Dixie Cups and the Ronettes - whose 1963 teenage anthem gives Amanda Whittington's play its title - forms the backdrop to this poignant, yet humorous tale of the girls who did fall and ended up in church-run maternity homes for unmarried mothers.

These homes facilitated fast and efficient tracks to adoption, but Whittington records how the young women spoke of being sent away like criminals to live out their pregnancy in secrecy and shame.

The latest arrival at one such mother and baby home in the North in 1964 is Mary Adams (Bonnie Adair, outstanding last night, and tomorrow; Grace Owen tonight and Saturday). Bank cashier Mary is 19, pregnant by a medical student, and unmarried. She is accompanied by her collection of girl-group pop singles and only briefly by her compassionate mother (Helen Scoullar), who is instructed by the firm, dispassionate Matron (Edwards) not to phone, write or inform her husband of the truth behind his daughter's sudden going away.

At St Saviour's, Mary joins the knowing, complex Queenie (Stacey Johnstone/Tansy Adair), the hopelessly romantic Dolores (Jessica Zillessen/Carol Whitbourn) and the naive, little-girl-lost Norma (Rose Alexander/Natalie Dennis), who bond together to face their growing pains.

Whittington embellishes the comic-strip mini-dramas of Phil Spector's girl-group hits by interlacing teenage crushes and wide-eyed hope with 1960s gloom and the trauma of relinquishing new-born babies. Those songs take on the role of a latter-day Greek chorus, performed on a balcony by a pop troupe in shimmering gowns. The singing and choreography could be crisper, and several cast members were prone to rushing their lines last night, but Be My Baby is one swell show. Box office: 01904 674675

Updated: 09:47 Thursday, February 03, 2005