Review-Shout!
November 18, 2008
Date Reviewed: 17th November, 2008
Venue: Theatre Royal, Newcastle
There seems to be an influx of successful musicals covering the music from the decades starting with Buddy (50s), Mamma Mia (70s) We Will Rock You (80s) and Never Forget ( 90s). So Shout! tries to fill in the gap of the 60s, but falls short.
We have a cast who try their best but the book is not strong enough to hold the show together so we are left with a series of songs from the 60s being strung together for no apparent good reason.
The story involves three girls who head down to swinging London. When Ruby (Claire Sweeney) goes to live with her Auntie Yvonne, she is joined by her two best friends Betty (Shona White) and Georgina (Donna Steele) all ready for the bright lights of the swinging capital. Yvonne is played by Su Pollard (Hi De Hi) and to hear her belt out songs that take her away from the comedy character she is still best known for is a delight. In fact she gets the best reception of the night and her rendition of You’re My World, rightly stops the show.
The story, as if it matters, is set in Yvonnes hairdressers and we move through the decade by references to the magazine of the day Shout! and the passing years being projected on the set. We see the onset of new inventions that are part of life today, such as tins and even the Milk Tray Man (how many memories does that jog!) gets a look in. But there is not enough material to make us care about the characters, what there is just about links us to the next song. The token man is played by Mark McGee who changes his costume for virtually every appearance and acts as the narrator.
The show though has one purpose and that is to let us hear the hits of the 60s once more which include Downtown, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, Alfie, Colour My World and the title song Shout!
While Sweeney is billed as the star of the show she is outshone by her co-stars, as the audience’s affection is certainly for Pollard (who appears to be now a national treasure judging from the audience reaction) and Shona White and Donna Steele capture the mood of the era and cannot be faulted. On several occasions Sweeney seemed to be supporting the other cast members instead of leading the company.
This is a feel good nostalgia show but it does not quite hit the mark, which is a shame as while the song material is strong it fails to connect with the audience, who had the opportunity to be dancing in the aisles but remained steadfastly in their seats clapping along.
Comments
One Response to “Review-Shout!”
Got something to say?
-
Recent Posts
Advertisement
Other Regional Sites
This is the only bad review on the whole internet for this musical.. maybe its just not your sort of thing. The only positive thing you said was its a feel good nostalgia, and yet you still gave it 3 stars. Strange