SHOUT! The Mod Musical

Shout! What a wow of an evening!  What a wow of a show when so expertly performed by this talented group.  A fantastic trip back down memory lane  to the sixties with the music, fashions, dance crazes all performed with such exacting  precision, verve, pep, and enthusiasm it was a wonder anyone had any breath left to sing – but sing they did very tunefully and a great deal of it in multi part harmony.

This show is a medley of favourites from the best of the swinging 60's music, loosely woven together by telling the story of five young girls, all with different backgrounds and morals, as they grow from teens into womanhood.  Using a magazine format their stories develop with true confessions, adverts, quizzes and, of course, their letters to a rather frumpy problem page advice columnist whose uncaring replies don’t necessarily bear any relationship to the problem in question yet, to modern day thinking and hindsight, are hilariously funny.

This show was a joy to watch and listen to from beginning to end.  The set, a very simple rostra of steps with banner hangings depicting the front pages of the magazine (Congratulations to the set painters) but with a wealth of various coloured lighting, backlighting and clever use of special spots, made the necessary mood changes of the show and very much enhanced the very effective silhouette shapes and grouped freezes of the chorus and dancers.  The sound was very well balanced between the stage and band of keyboards and percussion and was necessarily loud enough for pop music but not over amped and deafening!!  It was difficult to tell which was ‘production’ and which was ‘choreography’ the two blended so well from the very talented team of Giles and Amy and there was no distinction between singing chorus, dancers and principals – everyone sang and everyone danced and all to the same brilliant standard.  Performed almost entirely by ladies – the evening sped by.  Well done to the two brave men of the cast.

It is impossible to select anyone for special mention as there were no weak links in this company whatsoever, everyone on stage was of the same professional standard. Cleverly cast and beautifully costumed with period hairstyles, make-up and accessories, everyone acted well, making their particular character totally believable throughout the evening bringing out all the humour and heartbreak of those supposedly ’swinging’ times.

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