Bad Girls: The Musical

The Cast presented Bad Girls the Musical at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton. This musical, based on the popular ITV series, was extremely adult by nature, providing a variety of uneasy moments, comic bursts and hard hitting scenes. It is certainly a hazardous musical to take on; however it would appear that it was a risk that paid off for The Cast, being well received by the local audience.

Director, Rob Corner, did a great job in providing simple setting, continuous action and spatial consistency throughout. MD, Dave Dallard, handled the orchestration well, although the sound levels from the pit made for difficult listening at times. The Choreography, provided by Rachael Brown, was excellent throughout, showcasing a nice variety of dance ability within the ensemble.

The ‘screws’, headed by the stern, yet endearing Wing Governor, Gina Coventry, were played extremely well. Chris Collington gave a convincing performance as the manipulative, deceitful and sadistic Fenner, with Kev Chatten (Justin Mattison), John Maddison (The Number One) and Mina Machin (Sylvia Hollamby) all providing strong supporting performances, with excellent character portrayals. The ‘Cons’ were also well balanced, with standout performances being provided by the comedy duo Carrie-Anne Corner (Julie Saunders) and Claire Farrand-Preston (Julie Johnston), both throwing caution to the wind and entertaining the audience (with some rather disturbing moments at times). Further comic entertainment was provided by Lawrie Trott (Noreen Biggs) with a great cameo performance. Alex Tavener (Yvonne Atkins), Emily Harris (Nikki Wade), Kathi Ludlow (Denny Blood), Heather Weaver (Shell Dockley), Emily Corner (Rachel Hicks) and Rachael Brown (Chrystal Gordon) all gave great individual character interpretation and provided fine performances.

As this was the opening night, several technical issues were apparent, however generally all components worked well together. The integrated use of the rear wall cyclorama and projected graphic is something that has been used quite a lot on the Duchess stage and worked extremely well for this production. To give full credit to The Cast, they took this medium one step further than previous productions seen by using transitional/ interactive CGI supported by SFX to create a sense of continuous action during scene changes; which was most impressive. It is definitely a medium that helps enhance a production on a low budget and should be utilised by more groups looking to add that professional touch.

This is The Cast’s first year as part of NODA and in the three years that they have been re-established, they are certainly going from strength to strength. From all at NODA Nottingham, keep up the good work and we look forward to seeing your next production.

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