Never mind Saturday night, ‘The Drifters Girl’ musical livened up a wet Wednesday in Plymouth.
I’ve been a fan of the group for decades, since I first heard ‘Under The Boardwalk’ and ‘There Goes My Baby’, but I hadn’t been aware of just how many members there had been in the group; at one point there were at least nine names listed on the backdrop of the set to guide the audience.
The eponymous title character is Mrs Faye Treadwell, played with absolute vocal gusto by Carly Mercedes Dyer, the founder of the American R&B/Soul group, formed in the 1950s, and the only African-American woman to be running a major international band during the sixties and seventies.
Artistic differences, power and conscription played key roles in the group line-up, particularly in the early days. One thing’s for certain, Mrs Treadwell never gave up on the group she loved and fighting for her family.
As juke box musicals go, the cast is one of the hardest working I’ve ever seen, with six performers, four of which play a kaleidoscope of roles. Personality, talent and fabulous harmonies and singing wowed the audience, with lots of restrained shoulder shimmying and finger tapping on knees going on. However, at times I was simply lost by the plot and perhaps overuse of the light tubes on the stage, which distracted from the overall show. I’d like to have known what happened to a couple of characters, where outcomes were alluded to, but could have been explained in a little more detail.
And just how do you cram in five decades of music into a show that’s just under two hours? There wasn’t even time for either ‘Spanish Harlem’ or ‘Up On The Roof’, two of the best songs from The Drifters.
The costumes worked really well, with the snappy outfits spot on for the sixties’ group and enough hats, umbrellas and cigarette smoking to distinguish between the different characters the four male performers portray effortlessly. Faye and Girl (Jaydah Bell-Rickets, portraying Faye’s daughter Tina) only play their own characters and their outfits reflect their change over the course of the show as they mature. Faye has a wonderful collection of coats with all the sass of her personality.
The runaway success of ‘The Drifters Girl’ has to be the vocal performances from the cast, digging in to over five decades of top 10 hits on both sides of the Atlantic (the Ocean, not just the record label featured in the show), including ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, ‘Saturday Night At The Movies’ and ‘Hello, Happiness’.Â
Special mention goes to the London Palladium moment on the show, featuring a well-loved British entertainer, a creative taxi ride and a vivid series of hotel reception experiences, unfortunately reminiscent of the racial hatred of the mid-1970s. One of my favourite performances in the musical was hearing ‘Harlem Child’ told from the viewpoint of Faye.
Cast: Carly Mercedes Dyer, Miles Anthony Daley, Ashford Campbell, Tarik Frimpong, Daniel Haswell, Jaydah Bell-Rickets Director: Jonathan Church Choreographer: Karen Bruce Orchestrations and Original Musical Supervisor: Chris Egan Costume Designer: Fay Fullerton Running Time: 1hr 55 minutes Theatre: Theatre Royal Plymouth Performance Dates: 13th – 17th February Performance: 14th February 2024.
