Made in Dagenham

When a stage show has originally been a film one is always a little apprehensive about how the transition to stage and indeed musical is going to work. There have been many a musical production that really should have remained as films… but not Made in Dagenham I think. With a good score and lyrics and punchy, clever libretto it was a delight to see this story on the stage and indeed Melycrythan AOS did the musical proud!

We were greeted by an excellent set which was moved and used impressively by the stage crew and cast, well-sourced period costumes and lovely attention detail throughout. The band was well-directed under the hand of Matt Hampson and the overall sound world was great.

The ensemble were beautifully rehearsed and worked so well on stage with a good vocals and excellent focus. The principals were well-cast and had a great rapport on stage.

Bethan Williams was brilliant as Rita and led the cast throughout the production with a lovely voice and some fine acting. Rita’s husband Eddie was played well by David Bryan and there was a wonderful journey that both he and Bethan took the audience on, with special mention to Finn Radford and Cira Westermark who played the O’Grady children, Graham and Sharon. The team of factory ladies were fabulous and left us all with our sides aching with laughter as they entertained us. The rapport between Zara Willment as Cass, Kathy Peart as Claire, Lauren Williams as Sandra, Lorraine Williams giving an outstanding performance as Connie and Helen Morgan giving one of the performances of night for me as Beryl, was palpable and the energy from these ladies was a force to be reckoned with. They were joined by Leigh Bamford, Owain Davies, Daniel Moses, Sean Williams and Anthony Isaac as the men of the factory and they too gave great performances.

The Factory managers were well-played by Neil Perks as Mr Hopkins, Owain Davies as Mr Tooley, David Jenkins as Ron and David Windsor Davies as Gregory and fine performances were given by Bryn Stone as Harold Wilson and Laura Gilluley as Lisa Hopkins. I have to commend the outstanding performance given by Lyndzi-Rebecca Williams as the Labour Minister, Barbara Castle. She captured the spirit and character of Barbara Castle brilliantly, had a fantastic voice and an amazing stage presence.

Thank you to the entire company for a splendid evening in the face of some terribly adverse weather conditions, but all credit to the performers and audience for battling through the snow!

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