Skip to main content

Blonde Bombshells of 1943 by Alan Plater. Director Mark Babych. Musical Director Howard Gray.

Wartime Comedy with Swing Band Classics. Great Fun.

A glamorous Northern all-girl swing band keeps losing members, particularly when American GIs are stationed nearby. Band leader Betty needs to recruit fresh talent for a BBC broadcast and she gets a schoolgirl, a nun, an upper-class tart and a draft dodger.

Alan Plater has written a very funny script and the comic timing is spot on. The versatile cast astonish and delight; switching with ease from acting, to a wide range of instruments, then singing. The cool bluesy songs are all beautifully delivered; they’re sultry and sexy, moody and touching.

Rosie Jenkins stands out as Miranda, the upper-class tart; she has great lines to deliver and her entire performance is bright and funny. She’s a joy to watch and, while she sings ‘Body and Soul’, the audience becomes very still.

Pam Jolley executes ‘Ribbon Bow’ very well but disappoints as Elizabeth, the sixth former, instead coming across as an over-excited ten to twelve year old but, apart from that distraction, it’s a terrific show, full of great music and fun.

Musical Director Howard Gray has come up with a range of songs from wistful and heartfelt to cheerful and funny; the first half of the show features soulful jazz and swing including ‘Memories of You’, Body and Soul’, ‘When I Grow Too Old To Dream’ and, in the second half, during the show scene, with the band glammed up in red satin and blonde wigs, he ups the tempo with ‘Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree’, ‘Wish Me Luck’, ‘Goodbyee’, and ‘The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’. The cast hop from one thing to another with barely time for breath. Everyone goes home smiling.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GLORIOUS 39. Dir Stephen Poliakoff. 2009

Glorious 39 strips away illusions. Poliakoff presents the apparent idyll of an English aristocratic family headed by genteel patriarch Lord Keyes (Bill Nighy). He presides over a country estate in Norfolk and his elegant townhouse in London – a world of golden light, romantic ruins, servants, house parties and happy children. But this is 1939, a mere 21 years since the Great War, the war to end all wars, in which millions died, Britain was crippled with war debt, and the English country house system which he so values was almost annihilated. There are many references to the ancientness of his family and tradition, but now, few male servants remained alive or unmaimed to work the English landscape or to be in service to the old families. Fearing domestic and political upheaval, appeasers such as Keyes sought to prevent Churchill leading the country and taking Britan to war, and to buy off Hitler to preserve British cultural and national identity. Nighty is excellent, contro...

LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. Dir. Julio Medem 1998

I should have done some research before going to see this because I thought it was going to be about lovers in the Arctic Circle. Instead of being transported to the icy wastes of an unfamiliar landscape the film is set in urban Spain, but in a very cold Spain with wind, rain and everyone in thick jumpers. Shot in near monochrome, the effect is cold and the Spartan interiors of apartments provide a bleak, comfortless setting for love to blossom. Otto and Ana meet as children and are attracted to each other due to the nature of coincidence, and coincidence plays a large part in the narrative. The two children are engaging and there are some comic scenes between them when young and, later, as teenagers, with trysts in the night and their love kept secret. However, once they’re older the story loses momentum and, at times becomes surreal and confusing as the viewpoint moves in and out of the two characters’ imaginations. Otto suffers an extreme grief reaction when his mother acci...

HARRIET. Dir. Kasi Lemmons. 2019

Astonishing true story of early freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman, enslaved in the Southern states of America. Despite her marriage to a freeborn African-American, she was unable to protect any of their hoped-for children from being born into that same slavery, and being owned by the farm proprietor. Her overpowering sense of injustice compelled her to act. She escapes, and eventually becomes one of America’s great heroes. Her audacity is astonishing, the level of courage she sustained, her extraordinary tenacity and physical endurance, not to mention cunning and excellent planning. One of those qualities would be worthy of high praise but she is exceptional for having all of them, created by her determination to rescue her family and then other captives. She was responsible for the escape of almost 300 slaves Her religious faith was absolute and she felt guided by God to help others, aided by Abolitionists and free African-Americans. Filmed in glorious colour, with deft...