Shout - The Mod Musical

As local theatre starts to awake from its Covid-19 induced lay-off of 17 months, it was a delight to be able to sit and enjoy this hugely entertaining production.

In many ways this is an ideal choice of show for the current times. With a cast of five females, and backing tracks, it suits a socially distanced scenario very easily, although luckily in this case, with restrictions being eased, full houses were possible for those who were venturing out into a non socially distanced theatre world for the first time since March 2020.

The show is set in London between the early 60s and 70s and is a juke box musical, but the musical numbers are linked together with a slim plot line following the lives of the 5 female singers – named (and conveniently dressed) as Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green and Red. This plot is represented by little snapshots into their personal lives, and by their letters to Gwendolyn Holmes who is an advice columnist for the magazine “Shout” (hence the title). The advice Gwendoline dishes out is decidedly questionable, but these little snapshots and scenarios are enough to make this show engaging and humorous, and raised it above the level of just another 60s concert. The show is presented without an interval and lasts just 90 mins so is ideal for a modern audience with shorter concentration levels !!

I adore 60s music, so I was definitely in my element and loved every number sung by the 5 great vocalists.  Rachel Lake (Orange) was the married lady who suspects her husband is cheating on her and finally learns to reject the columnists dodgy advice. Her power house vocals garnered great applause throughout. Terrie-May McNulty (Yellow) (who I last saw performing on a cruise ship a few years back) was the American who had travelled to the UK to get sight of her crush Paul McCartney, only to have her hopes dashed when he gets married. Once again another power house voice that stopped the show a number of times. Josie Parkin (Blue) was very sweet and in top form as the wealthy girl talking about her perfect life, and who turns out to be gay. Obviously back in the 60s a bigger deal than now. Vanessa Hurley (Green) was hugely entertaining as the racy girl who sleeps around and likes lots of adventurous sex, but ends up happily married and pregnant. When a characters first word uttered as a description of herself is “slutty” you know what you are going to get. She belted out her numbers with great raciness. Finally Nicola Dale (Red) was lovely as the youngest girl who lacks self confidence, gets some rather harsh advice from Gwendolyn, but ends up with a nice man. She reminded me very much of lulu and she and Josie provided a great contrast to the three power house voices with sweeter vocals that suited their song choices very well.

Staging need only be simple, in this case a rostra, staircase, and 2 small podiums, but this is all it needed. Similarly it doesn't need great histrionics of choreography but what it does need is variety and Hannah and Chris were careful to ensure that visually the show didn't get boring. Something like this could so easily get very samey. To aid the visual variety, the tech team came up with some superb lighting. Costume changes were kept to a minimum, with just one costume each until the finale sequence. All made by Ryan Mockridge and looking great. 

This show does apparently come with orchestrations for live musicians but apparently they are so disappointing that it is better to use the superb backing tracks that sound great and come with all the vocals from Gwendolyn Holmes (who sounds increasingly more demented as the show progresses). It was a good choice to use these backing tracks although I did miss a good live band . However the upside was that the lack of musicians on stage enabled us to focus on the girls. 

Congratulations to all concerned. Live theatre is certainly back in Teignmouth with a bang... or rather a very large Shout. I could have happily sat through it all again immediately. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.