Bad Girls The Musical

I have to admit I’m not familiar with the TV series, Bad Girls from which this musical came. It rather passed me by in the nineties and noughties, not really my cup of tea. However, having seen what was a riveting performance by the Mill I’m rather wishing I’d actually given it a go at the time. It grabbed my attention, was extremely entertaining and held it for the next three hours.

Directed by Martin Grover, the story centres around a power struggle for the governorship of G Wing in the prison and a plot by corrupt prison Principle Officer, Jim Fenner to oust the existing Wing Governor, Helen Stewart. He ‘befriends’ a new vulnerable inmate, Rachael Hicks who commits suicide after he sexually assaults her, and the prisoners start a riot in protest. Meanwhile there is a fight between top dog and lifer, Shell Dockley and long-term prisoner Nikki Wade to whom the wing Govenor Helen has a sexual attraction and who is encouraging Nikki to fight for her freedom in the appeal court. Then Blonde Bombshell Yvonne Atkins arrives and Shell sees a threat to her top dog position.

The first thing to be said is: ‘What a set!’ When you looked at that stage you really had entered a prison. The Mill have an almost unique feature in having a gallery above the stage, which normally houses the band, but on this occasion made for a brilliantly designed two teer landing of prison cells. The walls on both levels were brick painted blue on the bottom half and white on the top half flats and distressed perfectly to give a really grubby appearance of a run-down prison. On the gallery level there were four grey painted cell doors, each with a identifier G2 – 01 to G2 – 04. And on the ground floor just one G1 – 01.  The two levels being accessed by a spiral metal staircase.  A centre section on the ground floor had two lockable prison bar doors leading to the rest of the prison and behind it the wall parted between scenes to bring on the furniture. Probably the best set I’ve seen at the Mill and would have comfortably graced any West End theatre. Brilliant job: Dave Jones, Kevin Beirne, Tim Murden, Gerry Stafford and a special mention to asylum seeker and carpenter Hamid Karandi, who sadly moved on before the play opened and never saw his work on the finished set.

Furniture was kept simple with a cheap table and chairs, a bed, which only just fitted through the gap from the green room onto the stage, a wonderful stand-alone toilet complete with high cistern, an armchair and a metal tea trolley. Props were by Sue Lander, Tracey Arnold and Condoleezza Hankins.

Lighting by Dave Jones was equally clever with dotted, outside, oval style, glass fronted lights spaced at regular intervals along the walls of the landings, adding to the gloomy rundown appearance. They particularly highlighted the distressed grubbiness of the brickwork.  Mark Luckin did his usual excellent job with the sound which is rarely a problem at the mill.

Costumes by The Pinup Girls, Debs Boddington, Julie Poole, Deanne Tucker, Gill Ridley and Kim Hawing were very well sourced with a great contrast between the officers’ uniforms to a real rag bag collection of civilian clothes worn by the prisoners. Some of the T-Shirts were very amusing such as ‘Need an Arc, I Noah a Guy.’ And as for Fenner’s Union Jack underwear, which produced one of the best laughs of the night, probably best to move on!

The band on this occasion was placed in the green room, presumably linked by video and only visible to us for the final bow, but as usual were absolutely spot on. Well done to MD, Kaye Tompkins on Keys with Andrew Longland-Meech (Keys 2), Barbara Taylor (Reed 1), Andy Stewart (Reed 2), Charlie Manning (Trumpet), Lee Wong (Bass) and Brendan Rayner (Drums).

Choreography by Charlotte Pask was simple and delightfully old school, with some excellent numbers especially with makeshift canes, i.e prison mops, and a brilliant number after the interval with almost the entire female cast of prisoners superbly dressed in identical pink wigs.

I like to mention all the actors in my reviews but with a cast of twenty-eight, I have to say I’d need to see the show several times to remember all the characters and their inter relationships, but what I would say is the interaction between the various characters was riveting.

For the staff, John Stevens as The Number One was very authoritarian, loved the amusing urinal scenes with a larger than life, corrupt Jim Fenner played by Tim Jackson-Waite, always superb, who had a great conspiratory rapport with the bubbly officer Sylvia Hollamby played by Jenny Tymon-Robins. Young Josh Broomhead as junior officer Justin Mattison nailed being slightly out of his depth amongst this bunch of hard women whilst keeping a cool head, except when it came to misreading the sexual orientation of his boss. Elspeth Duffy as Governor Helen Stewart, with a wonderful Scottish accent and stern but friendly face was ideally cast. Ably backed up by fellow officers, Sam Leach as Dominic McAllister, Dan Shaw as Josh Mitchell and Nicole Macdonald as Diane Baker. 

For the prisoners, Kate Brewster as Nikki Wade led a wonderful mixture of characters, from top dog, Shell Dockley, superbly played by Louise Devonshire-Mander, whose enduring smile easily turned nasty, abetted by her sidekick Denny Blood (Grace Craddock). The two Julies, Sanders and Johnson (Leisa Keightley and Louise Harrison) made a great comic pair and Annette Codrington as the ‘I don’t do scared’ Yvonne Atkins, in probably the best outfit, was very watchable indeed. Our comically religious Crystal Gordon (Jennie Grover) was great fun. And my favourite, Noreen Biggs (Jenny Curzon) as the old lady with a fag hanging out of mouth. And what a superb demonstration by Charlotte Pask of the vulnerable newbie Rachael Hicks, who starts the show wearing just her knickers. Bravely brilliant!

But well done also to Amanda Squires, Lauren Chacon, Emily Dignan, Jorja and Rachel Osborne, Clare Patrick, Suzanne Lewis, Lydia Le Fer, Tracy Powell, Bridie Gibbs and Cleo Carter.

The musical numbers themselves were often narrative in nature, Guardian Angel, Jail Craft  etc., interspersed with some superb cast numbers, such as, ‘Life of Crime,’ ‘I shouldn’t be here,’ ‘That’s The Way It Is,’ and the audience’s favourite, the superbly comic and brilliantly choreographed ‘All Banged up.’

So, well done indeed to Martin Grover, his cast and crew for an excellently performed production. During discussions at home after the show we asked the question: Ignoring the wages issue, what’s the difference between amateur and professional theatre these days. Answer: the mega amount spent on sets and costumes. In Sharnbrook’s case for this production I don’t think that would have made any difference.

 

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