Blonde Bombshells of 1943

Synopsis

Blonde Bombshells of 1943 looks back at the early years of the Blonde Bombshells, the most glamorous swing band in the land. Elizabeth, now a grandmother, but then a naïve schoolgirl in Leeds, remembers it as the most exciting and frightening time in her life. Never before had she met an upper-class deb, a nun and a man wearing a frock, all in the same room and all while the bombs were falling. Music may be the food of lots of things as well. Memories, regrets, catastrophes, laughter and narrow escapes. This especially so when it's the music of Fats Waller, the Andrew Sisters and Glenn Miller - not forgetting Flanagan and Allen and George Formby. What Elizabeth learns from her memories is simple; inside every respectable middle-aged woman, there's a Blonde Bombshell screaming to get out.

Our Review:

19 July 2006

Unashamed nostalgia has not had much of a look-in lately, but the all-girl big bands of the Second World War era have become a cottage industry for Alan Plater, that admirable popular dramatist with a list of television credits stretching from episodes of Z Cars to the Beiderbecke Trilogy.

Blonde Bombshells of 1943 is a tribute to the sort of band pioneered by Ivy Benson, wrapped up in the memories of one of the musicians who signs on as the bombs drop. Originally a television film starring Judi Dench, Cleo Laine, Olympia Dukakis, Leslie Caron and Joan Sims (to name but a few!), the stage version was premiered two years ago at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and now Hampstead is presenting the latest revival from the Octagon, Bolton.

There's not much of a story, and anyone expecting a musical theatre experience comparable to Evita or even Sunday in the Park with George will be disappointed...

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Latest User Review

195.93.21.68) - 2 August 2006:

What more does a theatregoer want? Great music played by actors who can also act; a good and interesting story and script that contains the usual high standard of Alan Plater's witty and clever writing. Great entertainment. Fully justifies a transfer to the West End....

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