Made In Dagenham

Made In Dagenham has become one of my favourite shows. It has a good true story based on the striking women of Dagenham for equal pay back in the 60’s and the musical score is great.  I was not disappointed with this production.  Ian Walker did a good job with the direction and the orchestra led by Damian Bell was on top form.  Add to this some nice choreography from Jessica Mellows and you have a winner of a show.

There were some excellent performances all round.  Rita O’Grady (Harriet Thompson) was outstanding and showed great acting skills together with a strong vocal. So too did husband  Eddie O’Grady (Brendan Culshaw). They worked together very well showing great strength and emotion.  Their two children Graham O’Grady (Joshua Fishburn) and Sharon O’Grady (Lauren Mundy) did very well. The girls on the production line of Connie (Karen Powell), Sandra (Sophie Lomas), Clare (Amy Coates), Cass (Ria Westhead) and Beryl (Victoria Porter ) worked well together and had good comedic timing. Harold Wilson (Sam Mitchell) and Barbara Castle (Catherine Webster) both delivered strong performances especially Barbara’s rendition of ‘Ideal World’. Tooley (Phil Green) played his part well and delivered  ‘This is America’ with great authority. Other notable performances came from Monty (Charles Swallow), Jeremy Hopkins (Martin Blagden) and Lisa Hopkins (Karen Mills). All the supporting characters played their parts well and contributed to success of this show.

All the musical numbers were performed with great enthusiasm and power culminating in the powerful and uplifting ‘Stand Up’.  Well done Phoenix on a wonderful production. 

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