City of Angels at the Garrick: Nearly Superb Production of a Nearly Great Showby Randi / March 12, 2020One Jewish Boy at Trafalgar Studios is Incisive, Upsetting, & Too Relevant
Honestly, forking finally. Stephen Laughton’s One Jewish Boy is the Jewish representation London’s theatre scene has been not only severely lacking but opening mocking the need for. A four-hander (that’s right) telling the story of a couple – one Jewish boy and one mixed race girl – over their 15-year relationship, Laughton’s work is like all our (the chosen our) anxieties about identity and prejudice in anti-Semitic England and the world at large distilled into an hour and a half of excellent, inventive, heartbreaking story-telling.
One Jewish Boy shares the relationship of Jesse and Alex and how anti-Semitism (and specifically its effect on the titular boy) affects their happiness. The storytelling jumps around through time to show Jesse and Alex at different points, from the day she serves him with divorce papers to the day they first meet, from their wedding day to the day he proposes, the day they decide to have a baby, in seemingly random but ultimately poignant order. The key flashback is glimpsed multiple times but never fully shown: a 2013 attack that left Jesse hospitalized. He was beaten on the street for being Jewish, as his white supremacist attackers shouted things about Hitler and gassing (lines that are played several times on the speaker system, definitely necessitating more of a trigger warning than I saw anywhere). Jesse rightly deems this a hate crime, and understandably suffers a sort of PTSD for years and years to come, as this realization of how much hate exists threatens his ability to live fully and without constant fear, for him and his son and his community. Alex thinks he should get over it.
Now I said that a little flippantly, and Alex does give him time (although the anti-therapy vibe is so very British and so very infuriating (and accurate)), but ultimately she cannot abide his inability to get over it. Even though it’s impossible not to be haunted by that sort of trauma, she sees a line where that crosses into debilitating preoccupation. And this is one of the several incredibly difficult and heavy ideas that this play handles so well. Even though I tended to side with Jesse, you see where Alex is coming from, regarding this and all their problems. Alex wants Jesse to stop letting his attack define how he sees the world. As someone who is mixed race, she definitely has experience with racism and with coping with it, and her view is valid. (Although it’s kind of ridiculous to ask a Jew to stop being anxious, like is she new.)
Where the play excels is in presenting these significant issues in a provocative way, where even if you side with one of them, you understand both and there’s no clear answer. The content is difficult because it’s so relevant, for really all young people trying to navigate a world of more blatant racism as well as longstanding cultural differences with the people in their lives. Laughton touches on incredibly important concepts like inherited trauma (done so well on season 2 of Transparent, btw), circumcision, and even who to vote for. (I appreciated the very new bits about Labour and Corbyn’s anti-Semitism in the recent general, since people are still blaming Jews for his loss and I could go on a big long rant as I have before about how Jews are really the only group to be blamed for not happily supporting people who have clearly shown to be against them but I won’t do that right now.)
A lot of the content is distressing and leaves you with a “well, fuck” kind of sigh, so the amount of laughter throughout is pretty remarkable. That’s due to the writing (some of the jokes, my god, RightMove is the Tindr for married people?? THAT IS TRUE) as well as the superb performances. Robert Neumark-Jones makes his Jesse open and vulnerable and deeply felt while also remaining likeable even when he’s being a dick, driving Alex, a vibrant Asha Reid, crazy in the good and bad senses of the word. It seemed obvious to me that in the sort of battle where no one is right or wrong, Jesse was clearly not wrong, but it could be that I identified with and understood him more for the obvious reasons. Or maybe I side so strongly with Jesse because he liked to stay home and Alex seemed like a ‘fun girl’ who likes to go out, yeesh. But they both feel so authentic and so connected to each other’s performances, making their characters’ fundamental differences all the sadder.
The only thing I actively disliked was putting forward as fact, through Jesse’s statements, the dangerous idea that white Jews are not white. This is an ugly battle that Jews face, and to give in to the idea that Jewish is a race and not a religious or cultural identity plays into and gives ammunition to the ever-increasing othering. It wasn’t clear if this was a statement being made by the author or a nuanced way to show that Jesse was going over the top with his obsession about the world rejecting him, but even if it was the latter I don’t think it will be clear to many theatergoers, who might think ‘oh I guess white Jews aren’t white’ (and London audiences are traditionally mmm not the best at getting nuance with these sorts of issues; see e.g. every single other review of mine).
Aside from that, One Jewish Boy is an exceptionally discerning and sensitive play, with sharp writing and strong performances. It’s a must-see for anyone who cares about society’s prejudice and racism and rising hate, which should be everyone.
INFORMATION
One Jewish Boy is playing at Trafalgar Studios 2, the small studio, until April 4. Studio 2 is on the bottom level, the same as the bar, with one 4-stall ladies room next to the bar. There are no bad seats as it’s a small square, but I had the best seat in the history of theatre and I’m super thankful – right next to the door. Also it was 20 minutes shorter than I anticipated so I was OKAY (shout out to Greg Serrano (you know what I mean)).
There is some smoking, not to much but amplified by the tiny unventilated room, which got a little rough for me but most people should be fine. If you’re in the front row you will get vaped in the face.
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How is London’s “School of Rock” Holding Up Two Years Later?
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today we are looking at London’s production of “School of Rock”, now playing at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Drury Lane.
With the recent news that Broadway’s production of “School of Rock: The Musical” will close in January, I wanted to see how the West End production is doing almost two years since it opened. It’s easy for a long run to get sloppy (and by easy I mean expected), but with a show like this I knew it would still be a fun time. On this (sweltering hot) summer weekday matinee, I went in fully expecting crowds of kids on their summer break, loud and raucous and annoying, but they were actually fine and as usual it was their parents who didn’t know how to behave. But I put on my blinders and focused on the stage, and I enjoyed myself immensely. The performers are giving it their all, and although they do indeed need a refresher from the director on a few points, it was overall a solid production.
With the recent news that Broadway’s production of “School of Rock: The Musical” will close in January, I wanted to see how the West End production is doing almost two years since it opened. It’s easy for a long run to get sloppy (and by easy I mean expected), but with a show like this I knew it would still be a fun time. On this (sweltering hot) summer weekday matinee, I went in fully expecting crowds of kids on their summer break, loud and raucous and annoying, but they were actually fine and as usual it was their parents who didn’t know how to behave. But I put on my blinders and focused on the stage, and I enjoyed myself immensely. The performers are giving it their all, and although they do indeed need a refresher from the director on a few points, it was overall a solid production.
When you have a great movie like “School of Rock”, with Jack Black’s hilarious, unmatchable star turn, it’s hard to argue that a musical version is necessary. This is true for most movie-to-musical adaptations, like “Frozen”, “Big Fish”, “Mean Girls”, the recent “Pretty Woman”, man I could go on forever with shows where the movie is simply a better version of the story. And early word about the new “Moulin Rouge!” tryout in Boston is also that, while it’s fun, it’s not nearly as affecting and spellbinding and special as the movie. (Can you tell I love that movie?). Triumphs like “The Band’s Visit” show that a stage version’s improving upon a film is definitely the exception to the rule. To win me over, you really have to show that a stage version is worthwhile and not just a money-grab on a familiar property (although of course everything is a money-grab).
Luckily, although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the musical of “School of Rock” is better than the film, I think that it’s equally enjoyable, although in different ways. Where the movie is tight and well edited (my favorite attribute of anything, which is ironic and fun for you because this site is First Drafts Only haha), the show is a little loose in the cage at times and needed some more cleaning up (and cutting of boring songs). But seeing this story get the stage magic treatment, and especially seeing these kids performing these instruments live, is so special and it makes the musical a winner in my book. And yes, the kids are really performing live, which Andrew Lloyd Webber himself tells you in the opening (recorded) audience greeting.
Why AL Dubs, you ask? Well one of my favorite things about “School of Rock: The Musical” – and the thing that most people don’t realize – is that ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER wrote the music. I don’t think I will ever get over how funny that is. And while it seems like a mismatched composer-to-property pairing, Dubs can ROCK OUT WITH HIS well I’m not going to finish that because he’s a Sir but damn, the man has got some killer rocker vibes. Of course his distinguished works include tons of rocking anthems; I guess I doubted that he still had it in him which was wrong. With ALDubs on the music, we have Glenn Slater on the lyrics, of “The Little Mermaid” (Broadway version, yelch), “Sister Act: The Musical” (decent but unmemorable), and “Leap of Faith” (blahhhh whaaaat) fame, and as you can tell by my parentheticals, I had low expectations for him given his track record. However, most of his lyrics were pretty darn clever, and crammed in so tight that they deserve a re-listen so I can catch all the humor. Well done (finally). The mostly clever lyrics were matched by a mostly clever, often very funny book by – you will never guess this one – Julian Fellowes, as in the creator and sole writer of Downton Abbey. I KNOW. If you had me watch this show without knowing the creative team, and then gave me a list of every single writer in the world and had me put them in order of ‘Who I Think Wrote This’, the guy who wrote Downton Abbey would be all the way at the bottom and the only entry below him would be ‘me but I forgot.’
Speaking of that ‘unmatchable’ performance by Jack Black, the musical Dewey has to be different enough to avoid comparisons. With more immaturity but also maybe more of an obvious heart, this Dewey is a lovable clown. Played now by Stephen Leask, he easily won over the audience even though he shows his sweaty belly a whole lot. Or maybe because he shows his sweaty belly a whole lot, I don’t know, but the man is constantly onstage, constantly jumping on desks and doing backflips???, and constantly belting his lungs out while playing impressive guitar. It’s quite a role. His song “When I Climb to the Top of Mount Rock” was so energetic and baller that I was totally won over by the performer, and I immediately thought ‘oh THIS is why Dewey has a regular alternate’. It took the Broadway production way too long to give the original Dewey, Alex Brightman, an alternate, and instead they pretty much exhausted him for months beyond what should ever be expected of someone (like with Ethan Slater and “Spongebob” this year. JUST GIVE THESE GUYS REGULAR ALTERNATES (AND TELL THE AUDIENCE WHEN THEY WILL BE ON)). Leask is really giving every ounce of everything he has and it’s amazing to see, especially when too many actors in many shows seem to be phoning it in.
The best parts of the show are of course when the incredible kids perform with Leask’s maniacal ball of energy, posing as their substitute teacher but he’s really a bum pretending to be his teacher-best friend. (I’m going to assume you know the story because if you haven’t seen the movie, ya basic. That’s the worst insult. You’re devastated right now.) Three kids rotate in each of the child roles, including Summer, the high-strung perfectionist; Zack, the amazing guitarist whose father is an asshole; Lawrence, the geeky keyboard player who is so sweet; and Sophie, the bassist who literally does duck-face the entire time. My favorite was Freddy, the drummer, a role that is actually shared by two boys and one girl, so I guess the production happily realized that most roles are universal. Luckily, I saw the girl drummer, Annabel Gracey, and she was a badass standout of the whole show. Her command of the stage stood out compared to the other kids, and she tore those drum solos apart. Amazing. Finding kids who can play instruments at this level was a challenge, I’m sure, and finding ones who can also sing and decently act too? They’re not the best singers, and they’re not the best actors, but these kids are impressive, especially when they just get to play. The show really comes alive with such magical energy when they do their big performance numbers. The kids’ straight dramatic line readings need some pace work (too long pauses) and they need to stop looking directly at the conductor for cues, but their talent is undeniable and it’s exciting to watch them perform.
The big performance songs from the movie were kept for the show (including the one that goes “Well you’re not hardcore” I can’t tell from the program what it’s called, and “School of Rock”, their big Battle number), which was a smart decision considering new songs for those big moments would have probably been disappointing to the audience. And they are total bangers so why not keep them?! They’re matched by exciting new songs like the aforementioned “Mount Rock”, “You’re in the Band”, and “Stick It to the Man”, bangers all. There’s a nice “When I Grow Up”- inspired number where the kids feel sad about how shitty their parents are, which is even better in its slightly changed reprise directed to Dewey.
But the adult scenes are hella boring, and sometimes infuriating. The former includes the introduction to the prep school by the principal Ms. Mullins (Rosanna Hyland), which seems to be reprised 100x. Honestly we just don’t need that much time devoted to the other teachers; it adds nothing. The latter includes the scene where Dewey first sees the kids playing (classical) music. Ms. Mullins is running the class, and as they play, she sings the Queen of the Night aria from “The Magic Flute” (you know the aria). I was sitting there just like…is this shit for real? Hyland is a fantastic vocalist but it is so inappropriate and unnecessary for this show. It’s so infuriating because it seemed clearly shoved in there for Sierra Boggess (Broadway’s original Ms. Mullins), an incredible singer (though often very dull), to have something more to do in this thankless role. I guess the creators were thinking, ‘how will we get Boggess to do this non-lead role with just one decent (though again too long and unnecessary) Act II song, oh I know, we will give her a Mozart aria…? OH AND THEN LET’S HAVE HER SING IT AGAIN AT CURTAIN CALL. GIVE US TONYS PLEASE.’ I mean this is really the dumbest part of the whole show and I can’t believe it’s still happening. Her Mullins is kind of directed poorly I think too, all strict and boring with no nuance, so her transformation at the end comes out of nowhere, whereas Joan Cusack in the movie was mature but you could tell she was kind of adorable and very curious about Dewey. The only role more thankless than this one is that of Patti, played by Sarah Silverman in the movie. This Patti is a total shrew and all she does is yell, so much so that when Ned finally tells her off at the end, the audience cheers. I really hate everything about the character, because I really don’t want a packed room to cheer when a man berates his girlfriend and tells her to shut up, but I also wanted her to shut up.
I was also weirded out by the gay jokes. As you know from the movie, there is a little boy who is gay, and his personality is a flamboyant stereotype. Even though the movie was from another era when it comes to representations of gay characters, and so you’d expect the representation today to be more normalized and less played for laughs, the musical dials it up 500%. I was shocked. It doesn’t help that British people are still apparently not comfortable with homosexuality (in a tiny move that I loved, one kids’ parents are two men. When the teacher greets them as “Mr. & Mr. Stephens” or whatever, just simply greeting them, the audience treated that like it was a laugh line. Horrifying), but using this boy to get big laughs just because he says “Barbra Streisand” or likes glitter felt way outdated and offensive. His character can be fun and super funny without being insulting.
So how is “School of Rock” doing? They do need to clean up a few things – the pacing at many points was off, especially on the kids’ deliveries but also with the adults, who also need to work on their accents. I wish they could still make edits (like cutting most of the grown-ups’ songs and scenes), but alas this show has been frozen for years now. Even so, it’s overall a wonderful time at the theatre and you can’t help but enjoy yourself. Watching the band perform live is exciting and the vibe is so happy and exuberant. And while the movie may better, this is a worthwhile adaptation and a guaranteed good time.
Luckily, although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the musical of “School of Rock” is better than the film, I think that it’s equally enjoyable, although in different ways. Where the movie is tight and well edited (my favorite attribute of anything, which is ironic and fun for you because this site is First Drafts Only haha), the show is a little loose in the cage at times and needed some more cleaning up (and cutting of boring songs). But seeing this story get the stage magic treatment, and especially seeing these kids performing these instruments live, is so special and it makes the musical a winner in my book. And yes, the kids are really performing live, which Andrew Lloyd Webber himself tells you in the opening (recorded) audience greeting.
Why AL Dubs, you ask? Well one of my favorite things about “School of Rock: The Musical” – and the thing that most people don’t realize – is that ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER wrote the music. I don’t think I will ever get over how funny that is. And while it seems like a mismatched composer-to-property pairing, Dubs can ROCK OUT WITH HIS well I’m not going to finish that because he’s a Sir but damn, the man has got some killer rocker vibes. Of course his distinguished works include tons of rocking anthems; I guess I doubted that he still had it in him which was wrong. With ALDubs on the music, we have Glenn Slater on the lyrics, of “The Little Mermaid” (Broadway version, yelch), “Sister Act: The Musical” (decent but unmemorable), and “Leap of Faith” (blahhhh whaaaat) fame, and as you can tell by my parentheticals, I had low expectations for him given his track record. However, most of his lyrics were pretty darn clever, and crammed in so tight that they deserve a re-listen so I can catch all the humor. Well done (finally). The mostly clever lyrics were matched by a mostly clever, often very funny book by – you will never guess this one – Julian Fellowes, as in the creator and sole writer of Downton Abbey. I KNOW. If you had me watch this show without knowing the creative team, and then gave me a list of every single writer in the world and had me put them in order of ‘Who I Think Wrote This’, the guy who wrote Downton Abbey would be all the way at the bottom and the only entry below him would be ‘me but I forgot.’
Speaking of that ‘unmatchable’ performance by Jack Black, the musical Dewey has to be different enough to avoid comparisons. With more immaturity but also maybe more of an obvious heart, this Dewey is a lovable clown. Played now by Stephen Leask, he easily won over the audience even though he shows his sweaty belly a whole lot. Or maybe because he shows his sweaty belly a whole lot, I don’t know, but the man is constantly onstage, constantly jumping on desks and doing backflips???, and constantly belting his lungs out while playing impressive guitar. It’s quite a role. His song “When I Climb to the Top of Mount Rock” was so energetic and baller that I was totally won over by the performer, and I immediately thought ‘oh THIS is why Dewey has a regular alternate’. It took the Broadway production way too long to give the original Dewey, Alex Brightman, an alternate, and instead they pretty much exhausted him for months beyond what should ever be expected of someone (like with Ethan Slater and “Spongebob” this year. JUST GIVE THESE GUYS REGULAR ALTERNATES (AND TELL THE AUDIENCE WHEN THEY WILL BE ON)). Leask is really giving every ounce of everything he has and it’s amazing to see, especially when too many actors in many shows seem to be phoning it in.
The best parts of the show are of course when the incredible kids perform with Leask’s maniacal ball of energy, posing as their substitute teacher but he’s really a bum pretending to be his teacher-best friend. (I’m going to assume you know the story because if you haven’t seen the movie, ya basic. That’s the worst insult. You’re devastated right now.) Three kids rotate in each of the child roles, including Summer, the high-strung perfectionist; Zack, the amazing guitarist whose father is an asshole; Lawrence, the geeky keyboard player who is so sweet; and Sophie, the bassist who literally does duck-face the entire time. My favorite was Freddy, the drummer, a role that is actually shared by two boys and one girl, so I guess the production happily realized that most roles are universal. Luckily, I saw the girl drummer, Annabel Gracey, and she was a badass standout of the whole show. Her command of the stage stood out compared to the other kids, and she tore those drum solos apart. Amazing. Finding kids who can play instruments at this level was a challenge, I’m sure, and finding ones who can also sing and decently act too? They’re not the best singers, and they’re not the best actors, but these kids are impressive, especially when they just get to play. The show really comes alive with such magical energy when they do their big performance numbers. The kids’ straight dramatic line readings need some pace work (too long pauses) and they need to stop looking directly at the conductor for cues, but their talent is undeniable and it’s exciting to watch them perform.
The big performance songs from the movie were kept for the show (including the one that goes “Well you’re not hardcore” I can’t tell from the program what it’s called, and “School of Rock”, their big Battle number), which was a smart decision considering new songs for those big moments would have probably been disappointing to the audience. And they are total bangers so why not keep them?! They’re matched by exciting new songs like the aforementioned “Mount Rock”, “You’re in the Band”, and “Stick It to the Man”, bangers all. There’s a nice “When I Grow Up”- inspired number where the kids feel sad about how shitty their parents are, which is even better in its slightly changed reprise directed to Dewey.
But the adult scenes are hella boring, and sometimes infuriating. The former includes the introduction to the prep school by the principal Ms. Mullins (Rosanna Hyland), which seems to be reprised 100x. Honestly we just don’t need that much time devoted to the other teachers; it adds nothing. The latter includes the scene where Dewey first sees the kids playing (classical) music. Ms. Mullins is running the class, and as they play, she sings the Queen of the Night aria from “The Magic Flute” (you know the aria). I was sitting there just like…is this shit for real? Hyland is a fantastic vocalist but it is so inappropriate and unnecessary for this show. It’s so infuriating because it seemed clearly shoved in there for Sierra Boggess (Broadway’s original Ms. Mullins), an incredible singer (though often very dull), to have something more to do in this thankless role. I guess the creators were thinking, ‘how will we get Boggess to do this non-lead role with just one decent (though again too long and unnecessary) Act II song, oh I know, we will give her a Mozart aria…? OH AND THEN LET’S HAVE HER SING IT AGAIN AT CURTAIN CALL. GIVE US TONYS PLEASE.’ I mean this is really the dumbest part of the whole show and I can’t believe it’s still happening. Her Mullins is kind of directed poorly I think too, all strict and boring with no nuance, so her transformation at the end comes out of nowhere, whereas Joan Cusack in the movie was mature but you could tell she was kind of adorable and very curious about Dewey. The only role more thankless than this one is that of Patti, played by Sarah Silverman in the movie. This Patti is a total shrew and all she does is yell, so much so that when Ned finally tells her off at the end, the audience cheers. I really hate everything about the character, because I really don’t want a packed room to cheer when a man berates his girlfriend and tells her to shut up, but I also wanted her to shut up.
I was also weirded out by the gay jokes. As you know from the movie, there is a little boy who is gay, and his personality is a flamboyant stereotype. Even though the movie was from another era when it comes to representations of gay characters, and so you’d expect the representation today to be more normalized and less played for laughs, the musical dials it up 500%. I was shocked. It doesn’t help that British people are still apparently not comfortable with homosexuality (in a tiny move that I loved, one kids’ parents are two men. When the teacher greets them as “Mr. & Mr. Stephens” or whatever, just simply greeting them, the audience treated that like it was a laugh line. Horrifying), but using this boy to get big laughs just because he says “Barbra Streisand” or likes glitter felt way outdated and offensive. His character can be fun and super funny without being insulting.
So how is “School of Rock” doing? They do need to clean up a few things – the pacing at many points was off, especially on the kids’ deliveries but also with the adults, who also need to work on their accents. I wish they could still make edits (like cutting most of the grown-ups’ songs and scenes), but alas this show has been frozen for years now. Even so, it’s overall a wonderful time at the theatre and you can’t help but enjoy yourself. Watching the band perform live is exciting and the vibe is so happy and exuberant. And while the movie may better, this is a worthwhile adaptation and a guaranteed good time.
INFORMATION
If you are going alone, may I suggest/demand that you get seat G30 in the stalls. For only $35 (that’s pounddollars), I had a ROW TO MYSELF. It was the best. The side stalls sections are roughly triangle shaped, with the widest part/longest rows at the stage and tapering backwards until you get to the one-seat row, and it was the best treat ever! No noisy neighbors! No elbow jabs! Honestly it was the best seat ever. You can see here what it looks like: Seating Chart http://www.theatremonkey.com/GILLIANLYNNEstalls.htm
ALW renamed this theatre after famed choreographer (of “Cats” and “Phantom” to name two of her endless achievements) earlier this summer, and then like right after Lynne passed away. She was 92 but I think the moral ‘don’t let ALW name theatres after you’ still stands.
London’s “Made In Dagenham” Is Super Lame, When It’s Not Super Offensive
The “fun” starts even before the performance starts. Symbolizing the half-assed attempt at zaniness to come, the show curtain reads “Made In Dagenham” in kooky block letters in varying ‘60s flower power prints – as a random maid scrubs the edge of the stage. (I assume this person and/or action will factor in later. You know what happens when you assume!)
The curtain rises – to reveal the title still spelled out as it was! How is this possible! Oh, because they are giant Lucite block letters actually on the stage and in the house set. Big block letters used as random set pieces. Just like next to the main character’s bed and in her kitchen and pantry and stuff. Letters. In future scenes, random ‘A’ and ‘E’ 5-foot blocks will appear on the stage. I would love if someone explained why. My guess is because they wanted to distract us from thinking about how bad this show is.
“Made in Dagenham”, the new London musical inspired by the film of the same name, tells the true story of how female Ford factory workers in Dagenham fought for equal pay in 1968. That event, incredible and wonderful and inspiring as it is, should be perfect fodder for a musical. Unfortunately, the creative team didn’t deem the importance of this story important enough, and they made this musical adaptation with amateur and offensive music, beyond unnecessary book scenes, poor character development, lack of editing, and all-around crappiness.
You need a compelling reason to turn a story into a musical. That is step 1. It can’t just be because you want songs in your story. This show satisfied step 1. It’s a great idea for a musical! But step 2 is vital: The music and lyrics need to work. The music needs to enhance the storytelling, not replace it, and it definitely cannot drag the story down. Dagenham’s music brought the whole show crashing down.
It starts with Gemma Arterton, who may have been a Bond girl at one point but will now forever be haunted by “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”, at home with her oaf of a husband and her two little kids. She’s singing a song repeating that if you want anything done, you should ask a busy woman. And she irons and cleans and cooks and stuff. It sets the stage for the time period well, the height of women as housewives, but it doesn’t do anything for the story. The song is too lame, in lyrics and pacing, to open a show. Luckily, even though Gemma isn’t much of a singer, she has a lovely stage presence (and deserves better).
At breakfast, Gemma, as Rita O’Grady, tells her aspiring doctor of a young daughter to remember that girls are nurses, not doctors. Good start to the day! The book writer obviously meant for this opening remark to allow us to track Rita’s journey from brainwashed subordinate and housewife to brave gender equality pioneer. Great idea. However, we don’t see such a journey at all. The play shows Rita as timid and complacent in this struggle, and then all of a sudden she’s giving a rousing speech to Ford execs. There is absolutely no journey, no growth. Zero to sixty in half an act.
Of course it’s wonderful when Rita does stand up for women’s rights, but it comes out of nowhere. This is the main point of this show, her journey and her struggle, and it is missing. Any semblance of character development is hard to notice. And then all of a sudden Rita herself is leading the strike, going to neighboring towns to get their factory workers to strike with the Dagenham girls (it’s girls in this show, never women, which is important to demonstrate part of the struggle, but I don’t actually think this was deliberate).
The big ‘let’s all go on strike song’ is one of the saddest parts of the show. It’s the end of Act One, and it goes on for a good 10 minutes, but it’s completely lacking in energy, in wit, in anything positive. Rita is on top of moving stairs, singing ‘Everybody out!’ (the name of the song) over and over. People are dancing and holding signs and stuff below her, but it feels like nothing is happening. ‘Everybody Out’ works a few times when the accompanying lyrics are indeed about striking, but mostly it feels like advice for the audience.
I may have groaned the most during Act Two’s obligatory Things Are Getting Hard song. The strike is hurting everyone, and the girls are losing hope. So they sing a song called – I’m not kidding – “Storm Clouds Montage”. Characters say things to each other, different interactions occur, and in between each spotlight, the chorus sings “Storm clouds on the horizon, tension in the town.” Does it get any triter than that? It doesn’t. And this prolonged number is pretty much this line repeated over and over and overrrrrr again as other crap happens but you don’t even realize it because you are too stunned by this awful lyric that you know everyone thought was super sophisticated.
I would direct you to youtube videos of some of these songs, but just take the titles or lyrics I provide and try to sing them, and you will pretty much have the right melody on your first try. That’s apparently how this show was written. During most musical numbers, I was struck by how similar the songs were to those too long, forced-rhyme poems that bridesmaids and sisters always recite at bridal showers. You know the type. “As soon as we saw you and Dave together, we knew you would love each other through all kinds of weather.” That’s what this music is like. A lyric from one of these songs is (as far as I can remember) “I have no doubt, I know what this is all about.” They also rhyme ‘loads’ with ‘sod’ in a repeating motif. I have never groaned so much. Even during the Spice Girls musical, I was more in awe of its awfulness than in pain. Not the case here.
I don’t know how this music got the green light. Aside from the trite, childish lyrics, the music offers no new melodies. It’s all familiar. Worse yet, too many songs end with a crescendo into a key change, the most well-known device for tricking listeners into thinking a song is moving and powerful. They double up on the end-of-song power punch by having one of the girls belt some riffs all the freaking time, another trick. Both of these at the same time just look super desperate.
The book is a big old mess too. It makes me so sad that this wasn’t edited at all. This show is a first draft script, I am telling you. There are wayyy too many storylines occurring: 1) the strike, 2) Rita’s marital problems because her man isn’t okay with her fight, 3) Rita’s son being abused at school, 4) a Ford executive’s wife being bored as a housewife, 5) who ALSO has an abused son in the school, 6) the prime minister and his cabinet trying to stop the strike, 7) a new Secretary appointed to deal with the strike, 8) one of the girls dying of cancer one night after diagnosis. What the hell. First, obviously, the cancer bit was not done well at all; there is too much going on for that to feel anything but cheap. Also, there is absolutely NO reason for the school abuse thread. None at all. It’s such a waste of story telling that I still can’t believe it made the cut. It allows Rita to meet the exec’s wife, who helps their cause so much by lending Rita a dress to wear at her big speech, but they could have met much more simply. I can’t believe how stupid. The same goes for the prime minister. His only real purpose is to get cheap laughs from the audience by walking hunched over and making easy gross jokes. I had hopes that the new Secretary of Fighting the Unions, a woman, would help the factory workers in their fight, but she ends up being on the wrong side because she’s part of the government. Meaning, her plot line was entirely unnecessary. Her opposition doesn’t spur the strikers on even more or anything. It’s just empty.
For a show about fighting sexism, it’s surprisingly sexist. You could tell it was directed by men and that the book, music, and lyrics were also written by men. Somehow, they make a show about fighting for gender equality sexist. It’s quite a feat. In the first factory scene, when we get to meet all the female workers, all they talk about is sex. One woman asks everyone if they are ‘getting any’, and they make jokes and talk about it because all women can ever talk about is men, right? Apparently that’s what these writers think. It IS the only thing worth talking about right girls! Ugh. Worse, when they have their chance of telling the union leaders all the changes they want, their list goes: “equal pay, chocolate that doesn’t make you fat, perfume, the same rights as the male workers, and OH! more chocolate!” I’m not joking. Later, Rita gets a big tearjerker number when her husband leaves her because obviously the husband will leave once the wife starts doing something important that isn’t making him dinner. She cries instead of using some of her newfound strength to convince her husband and everyone else that the fight is important and that he should make his own dinner. It’s offensive that this tearjerker ballad is expected because it’s a female protagonist, NOT because of sexism back then but of sexism now. In other shows, male characters facing important struggles rarely get the tearjerker ballad about how nothing is important without their wives, yet for female characters it is nearly obligatory. I am sick of it.
What pushed me over the edge was the opening Act Two number “This is America”. Because the strike is causing the factory to lose money, the American Ford executives have to come over. They sing a song about how Americans get shit done and how English people, women, shorter men, and anyone who isn’t the main exec is a ‘faggot’. The guy says faggot at least 10 times. It is awful. But worse is the song, written solely for cheap laughs (that sadly they get a lot of) by making fun of Americans. It’s beyond offensive, not to me as an American but as a person who is alive on this earth. It’s one thing to make good-natured fun of Americans, with jokes as stale and tired as vegan jokes but good-natured and harmless mostly. It is quite another thing to include lyrics that actually are harmful, that forgo the promise to be good-natured and instead rely on ignorance. I don’t understand how the producers haven’t changed these lyrics yet. An army tank rolls in, all the chorus girls in camo bikinis holding machine guns. Gay jokes are made, women are reinforced as being for show. And at one point, the exec actually sings, “Our cops have guns and will blow you away.” Now. At this time. When cops are actually killing unarmed civilians with those guns, this piece of shit song in a piece of shit show IS STILL SINGING THIS LINE.
I wanted to like this show. Even though it was not good, I always always want plays to succeed. Even though it wasn’t great, I was still planning to tell people “Eh it’s not great but you’ll probably enjoy yourself.” But how the people behind this show could leave these lyrics in this song, knowing what is going on in America, I don’t understand. The producers never responded to my complaints about this line and others like it, and now I have no qualms calling bullshit. This is not okay. Another unarmed black man was shot by cops yesterday, did you see that? It’s in the news over here even. But don’t let that keep “Made In Dagenham” from laughing about it. And no, the lyrics in this song are not presented as a serious reflection on our society. They are included for laughs. And yes, the audience laughs. Shame on everyone involved until they make changes.
Also, that random maid? She shows up in most scenes in the background, cleaning things or just listening. It makes no sense. Piece. Of. Crap.
You need a compelling reason to turn a story into a musical. That is step 1. It can’t just be because you want songs in your story. This show satisfied step 1. It’s a great idea for a musical! But step 2 is vital: The music and lyrics need to work. The music needs to enhance the storytelling, not replace it, and it definitely cannot drag the story down. Dagenham’s music brought the whole show crashing down.
It starts with Gemma Arterton, who may have been a Bond girl at one point but will now forever be haunted by “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”, at home with her oaf of a husband and her two little kids. She’s singing a song repeating that if you want anything done, you should ask a busy woman. And she irons and cleans and cooks and stuff. It sets the stage for the time period well, the height of women as housewives, but it doesn’t do anything for the story. The song is too lame, in lyrics and pacing, to open a show. Luckily, even though Gemma isn’t much of a singer, she has a lovely stage presence (and deserves better).
At breakfast, Gemma, as Rita O’Grady, tells her aspiring doctor of a young daughter to remember that girls are nurses, not doctors. Good start to the day! The book writer obviously meant for this opening remark to allow us to track Rita’s journey from brainwashed subordinate and housewife to brave gender equality pioneer. Great idea. However, we don’t see such a journey at all. The play shows Rita as timid and complacent in this struggle, and then all of a sudden she’s giving a rousing speech to Ford execs. There is absolutely no journey, no growth. Zero to sixty in half an act.
Of course it’s wonderful when Rita does stand up for women’s rights, but it comes out of nowhere. This is the main point of this show, her journey and her struggle, and it is missing. Any semblance of character development is hard to notice. And then all of a sudden Rita herself is leading the strike, going to neighboring towns to get their factory workers to strike with the Dagenham girls (it’s girls in this show, never women, which is important to demonstrate part of the struggle, but I don’t actually think this was deliberate).
The big ‘let’s all go on strike song’ is one of the saddest parts of the show. It’s the end of Act One, and it goes on for a good 10 minutes, but it’s completely lacking in energy, in wit, in anything positive. Rita is on top of moving stairs, singing ‘Everybody out!’ (the name of the song) over and over. People are dancing and holding signs and stuff below her, but it feels like nothing is happening. ‘Everybody Out’ works a few times when the accompanying lyrics are indeed about striking, but mostly it feels like advice for the audience.
I may have groaned the most during Act Two’s obligatory Things Are Getting Hard song. The strike is hurting everyone, and the girls are losing hope. So they sing a song called – I’m not kidding – “Storm Clouds Montage”. Characters say things to each other, different interactions occur, and in between each spotlight, the chorus sings “Storm clouds on the horizon, tension in the town.” Does it get any triter than that? It doesn’t. And this prolonged number is pretty much this line repeated over and over and overrrrrr again as other crap happens but you don’t even realize it because you are too stunned by this awful lyric that you know everyone thought was super sophisticated.
I would direct you to youtube videos of some of these songs, but just take the titles or lyrics I provide and try to sing them, and you will pretty much have the right melody on your first try. That’s apparently how this show was written. During most musical numbers, I was struck by how similar the songs were to those too long, forced-rhyme poems that bridesmaids and sisters always recite at bridal showers. You know the type. “As soon as we saw you and Dave together, we knew you would love each other through all kinds of weather.” That’s what this music is like. A lyric from one of these songs is (as far as I can remember) “I have no doubt, I know what this is all about.” They also rhyme ‘loads’ with ‘sod’ in a repeating motif. I have never groaned so much. Even during the Spice Girls musical, I was more in awe of its awfulness than in pain. Not the case here.
I don’t know how this music got the green light. Aside from the trite, childish lyrics, the music offers no new melodies. It’s all familiar. Worse yet, too many songs end with a crescendo into a key change, the most well-known device for tricking listeners into thinking a song is moving and powerful. They double up on the end-of-song power punch by having one of the girls belt some riffs all the freaking time, another trick. Both of these at the same time just look super desperate.
The book is a big old mess too. It makes me so sad that this wasn’t edited at all. This show is a first draft script, I am telling you. There are wayyy too many storylines occurring: 1) the strike, 2) Rita’s marital problems because her man isn’t okay with her fight, 3) Rita’s son being abused at school, 4) a Ford executive’s wife being bored as a housewife, 5) who ALSO has an abused son in the school, 6) the prime minister and his cabinet trying to stop the strike, 7) a new Secretary appointed to deal with the strike, 8) one of the girls dying of cancer one night after diagnosis. What the hell. First, obviously, the cancer bit was not done well at all; there is too much going on for that to feel anything but cheap. Also, there is absolutely NO reason for the school abuse thread. None at all. It’s such a waste of story telling that I still can’t believe it made the cut. It allows Rita to meet the exec’s wife, who helps their cause so much by lending Rita a dress to wear at her big speech, but they could have met much more simply. I can’t believe how stupid. The same goes for the prime minister. His only real purpose is to get cheap laughs from the audience by walking hunched over and making easy gross jokes. I had hopes that the new Secretary of Fighting the Unions, a woman, would help the factory workers in their fight, but she ends up being on the wrong side because she’s part of the government. Meaning, her plot line was entirely unnecessary. Her opposition doesn’t spur the strikers on even more or anything. It’s just empty.
For a show about fighting sexism, it’s surprisingly sexist. You could tell it was directed by men and that the book, music, and lyrics were also written by men. Somehow, they make a show about fighting for gender equality sexist. It’s quite a feat. In the first factory scene, when we get to meet all the female workers, all they talk about is sex. One woman asks everyone if they are ‘getting any’, and they make jokes and talk about it because all women can ever talk about is men, right? Apparently that’s what these writers think. It IS the only thing worth talking about right girls! Ugh. Worse, when they have their chance of telling the union leaders all the changes they want, their list goes: “equal pay, chocolate that doesn’t make you fat, perfume, the same rights as the male workers, and OH! more chocolate!” I’m not joking. Later, Rita gets a big tearjerker number when her husband leaves her because obviously the husband will leave once the wife starts doing something important that isn’t making him dinner. She cries instead of using some of her newfound strength to convince her husband and everyone else that the fight is important and that he should make his own dinner. It’s offensive that this tearjerker ballad is expected because it’s a female protagonist, NOT because of sexism back then but of sexism now. In other shows, male characters facing important struggles rarely get the tearjerker ballad about how nothing is important without their wives, yet for female characters it is nearly obligatory. I am sick of it.
What pushed me over the edge was the opening Act Two number “This is America”. Because the strike is causing the factory to lose money, the American Ford executives have to come over. They sing a song about how Americans get shit done and how English people, women, shorter men, and anyone who isn’t the main exec is a ‘faggot’. The guy says faggot at least 10 times. It is awful. But worse is the song, written solely for cheap laughs (that sadly they get a lot of) by making fun of Americans. It’s beyond offensive, not to me as an American but as a person who is alive on this earth. It’s one thing to make good-natured fun of Americans, with jokes as stale and tired as vegan jokes but good-natured and harmless mostly. It is quite another thing to include lyrics that actually are harmful, that forgo the promise to be good-natured and instead rely on ignorance. I don’t understand how the producers haven’t changed these lyrics yet. An army tank rolls in, all the chorus girls in camo bikinis holding machine guns. Gay jokes are made, women are reinforced as being for show. And at one point, the exec actually sings, “Our cops have guns and will blow you away.” Now. At this time. When cops are actually killing unarmed civilians with those guns, this piece of shit song in a piece of shit show IS STILL SINGING THIS LINE.
I wanted to like this show. Even though it was not good, I always always want plays to succeed. Even though it wasn’t great, I was still planning to tell people “Eh it’s not great but you’ll probably enjoy yourself.” But how the people behind this show could leave these lyrics in this song, knowing what is going on in America, I don’t understand. The producers never responded to my complaints about this line and others like it, and now I have no qualms calling bullshit. This is not okay. Another unarmed black man was shot by cops yesterday, did you see that? It’s in the news over here even. But don’t let that keep “Made In Dagenham” from laughing about it. And no, the lyrics in this song are not presented as a serious reflection on our society. They are included for laughs. And yes, the audience laughs. Shame on everyone involved until they make changes.
Also, that random maid? She shows up in most scenes in the background, cleaning things or just listening. It makes no sense. Piece. Of. Crap.
1 Comment
So true Randi and how it resonance not only the Jewish population but all of us.
Bravo another wonderful review