Shout, Theatre Royal, Bath
Being fully paid up members of the 60s (despite the famous adage that if you can remember them you can’t have been there!) we were looking forward to a good trip, hey man, down memory lane to see Shout. It’s a great production and the story centres on three girls who make the trip from their hometown of Liverpool to the bright lights of swinging London and take up residence in Peckham with an auntie, played by the evergreen Su Pollard. Su Pollard makes Auntie Yvonne everyone’s favourite and cosy relative, someone for all the girls to tell their troubles to, most of which concern the fellers. I had no idea Su Pollard had such a marvellous voice and in the second act her powerful interpretation of Cilla Black’s hit, You’re My World was quite something and brought the house down.
Claire Sweeney, plays Ruby a feisty modern girl, happily embracing the 60s revolution of miniskirts, pop music, free love and just freedom from all the past conventions applying to women. Claire Sweeney makes Ruby warm, brassy, colourful, and courageous and of course she can sing like a dream. The story is cleverly constructed to portray each year 1960 to 1970 through the eyes of a popular magazine, the eponymous Shout. Mark McGee plays ‘The Man’, the only one in the cast, who takes the stage on the change of each year in the guise of an advertisement from the magazine. They were very funny, slightly of the ‘women know your place’ variety and Mark McGee is obviously multi-talented; his impression of Michael Caine was one of the best I’d ever seen and later on his spaced out hippy reminded me so much of a friend (later to become a respectable teacher) it made me laugh all the more. The first half ends with an unexpected surprise which I shall leave to you to find out!
Donna Steele as Georgina and Shona White as Betty make up the trio of girls, the former longing for fame as a model and the latter pining for her boyfriend doing his National Service. Donna Steele looks every inch the 60s icon and Shona White, pretending to be plain, makes us all love the hapless Betty to whom all the things that shouldn’t happen to nice girls, did. Louisa Maxwell and Francesca Newitt make up the ensemble and 1970 was definitely their year as they looked so great in the clothes!
Apart from its quirky look at one of our most famous decades, the show is a rumbustious musical ride through a medley of great songs performed with gusto by the talented cast, all with the opportunity at the end to sing along if you wish!
Jacquie Vowles