Bad Girls

The Mellow Dramatics                      Bad Girls                     May 2015

There can't be many musicals in which a terrified young woman hangs herself in her cell after being raped by a corrupt prison warder, only for the show to move speedily on to a glitzy top hat and tails dance routine. There aren’t many, no, but Bad Girls is one of them.

'Bad Girls' was a TV series first aired in 1999 which lasted for more than 100 episodes over a period of 8 years. I watched the series and wondered how on earth it would transfer to the stage. However I came out from watching The Mellow Dramatics Production of this lesser known musical and was pleasantly surprised at how much I had enjoyed it.

The show was full of strong characters and this was not just the principals, everyone in the company had obviously spent time developing their on stage personalities and maintained them throughout the show. Special mention has to go to (I hope I get the right person!) Alison Barrett for her extremely funny character, so few words but packed full of character and she did make me laugh. The vocals were very strong in the company numbers and the women seemed to be having a fantastic time as a group on stage.

Stacey summers (Nikki Wade), Amy Glover (Crystal Gordon) and Andrew Warner (Jim Fenner) were strong in both their singing and acting. Sharron Plummer as Helen Stewart got just the right blend of authority and care for the inmates and Lucy Robinson (Shell Dockley) had great characterisation and obviously enjoyed being the ‘Bad Girl’! The two Julies worked brilliantly together and brought some great humour to the scenes.

The set worked extremely well and the projections added to the overall gritty reality of the show. The direction of this show was slick and detailed. Well done to Donna Stephenson. It was great to see the band on stage and the music was very strong under the direction of Rob Murray. I would however, suggest that more time is spent balancing the sound as the music often overpowered the vocals.

The show is a strange one and some of the numbers didn’t seem to ‘fit’ comfortably within the story. However, there were little gems within the show like "We're all banged up without the bang" - near-the-knuckle humour but well executed and choreographed and Freedom Road, a gorgeous opening to Act 2.

No one could accuse Bad Girls: The Musical of being great art but it is entertaining with some strong songs and a fabulously character driven cast and storyline.

Well done to all involved in this show, your hard work paid off.

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