Creators: Phillip George & David Lowenstein
Director: Joseph Hodges
Five unnamed young women, each designated by a colour, are working their way through the 1960s with different personalities and anxieties in a show which pounds with energy from first to last under Joseph Hodges’s direction in this revival. The all-female three-person on-stage band, ably led by Gabrielle Ball on keys, adds plenty of fizz.
The device which sustains the narrative (no plot as such) is an advice column in a magazine called SHOUT! All five write to Gwendolyn Holmes, voiced by Pippa Winslow. Only a slight exaggeration of the banal advice dished out by her real-life near namesake Evelyn Holmes, it always comes back to giving men what they want, running a tidy home – and conforming.
Her answers are funny because they seem outrageous by 2025 standards, although there’s nostalgia there too. James Davies, for instance, has had huge fun designing hair and wigs from neat bobs to backcombed bouffant protrusions and cascading curls. And the mini dresses and boots are a rather heart-warming blast from the past, although the donning of what look, from a distance, like Lycra cycling shorts underneath is a bit odd.
Essentially, though this is a juke box musical which packs a huge amount of music, often originally performed by mould-breaking 1960s women, including Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and Nancy Sinatra. The five cast members all sing with passionate commitment and a wide range of moods. At the same time, Jay Gardner’s fast-paced choreography uses every inch of the Gatehouse’s potentially awkward rectangular space to colourful effect.
There is, however, a bittiness about this episodic show in which no character is ever fully developed or subject fully explored. We simply get snippets of individual stories as laws and social mores change. These “girls” come from different parts of the country. They are stereotyped individuals rather than friends, although, obviously, within the show, they come together as an ensemble.
Far too many issues are crammed into the mix from the pill and abortion rights to gay pride and the ever-elusive female orgasm – among other things. Moreover, it’s too long for what it is. The programme states a running time of approximately 90 minutes, including interval. It is actually half an hour longer, not least because of the unnecessarily protracted ending.
Runs until 20 July 2025 and continues to tour
