Presented by the Musical Theatre students at Edge Hill University, and produced by Nick Sanders, this production of 'Shout! The Mod Musical' was performed at St. Luke's Bombed-Out Church in Liverpool as part of the Liverpool Theatre Festival.
This is a jukebox musical by Philip George and David Lowenstein, set in England between 1960 and 1970, and features many of the songs of the decade. Originally written as an Off-Broadway revue style musical, the show is for 5 females.. The Orange Girl, The Blue Girl, The Red Girl, The Yellow Girl, and The Green Girl. They are never given names, but we recognise them by their coloured-coded costumes. The Yellow Girl is American and has come over to England to catch a glimpse of Paul McCartney. The Orange Girl is the oldest and most mature, whilst the others are all in their 20s, and the musical is a collage of their love lives and interests. This afternoon the five girls were ameliorated by three further ensemble girls filling out the chorus harmonies and choreographies where necessary.
The set was ideal for an outdoor, fringe theatre venue; a series of white different heighted oblongs along the rear of the stage, looking suitably sixties; and the costumes were all superb and well thought-out. [perhaps however, the more-than-obvious large leg tattoo should have been covered].
Director James McPherson had worked well to create an ensemble from a group of disparate and unconnected characters, but the dialogue (or in most cases, monologues) between the songs were lacking pace, dynamism and energy sadly, which tended to slow the whole show down somewhat, and the actresses had not been taught the skill of delivering jokes / laugh lines, since so many of these were missed by the audience. The singing was generally of a high standard, and the harmonies secure and nicely placed.
These student actresses are obviously still in training and so this will have been a needed and important learning curve for them.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 29.7.23
on - 29.7.23
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