It’s Different for Girls continues at the East Riding Theatre, Beverley until 23 September.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
The story of the all-female group Mandy and the Girlfriends who, amazingly for the time, actually played their own instruments, will be familiar to anyone who lived in Hull during the 1960s.
Director Becky Hope-Palmer conveys a potent message by changing the band’s name to Sindy and the Girlfriends, thereby establishing an association with the popular Sindy Doll of that time.
With rival Barbie, Sindy was a children’s toy much derided by feminists. Indeed, Annie Kirkman, as lead singer Sindy, is distinctly doll-like in hairstyle, costume and deference (costume design is by Tiff Wilkinson-Morris).
Certainly the robotic movements of the band in the opening number (the Ronettes’ song ‘Be My Baby’) suggests the manipulation of plastic automata as the girls acquiesce to blatant exploitation in workload and pay. However, visually, the routine is more reminiscent of dance moves from the 1980s rather than the 60s…
The plot begins with the formation of the band, even though none of them can play an instrument. However, success soon follows with gigs in the clubs and pubs around Hull.
The second half of the show sees the girls taking a first tour abroad and engaging in some life-changing experiences. An extremely simple wooden frame suggests a Ford Transit (set design is by Ed Ullyart) that transports them to a succession of American army bases in Germany. The girls begin to break free of the strangle-hold of their up-bringing and encounter life warts and all.
Abey Bradbury, playing Betsy, the band’s drummer, provides the main comedic drive to the action.
More introverted, and certainly more conventional in conforming to society’s expectations, is keyboardist Vicki (Rachel Barnes), who dreamily talks of ‘give and take’ in marriage when it is clear that all the giving will have to come from her.
Sophie Coward is Mitzi, the band’s bassist, with Alice Rose Palmer as Poppet, the somewhat dim backing vocalist, whose voice actually rivals that of lead singer Sindy.
All five girls sing well with some highly affecting harmonies. As themes of manipulation and control begin to emerge more overtly, a powerful political point materialises from a rendition of Sandie Shaw’s ‘Puppet On a String’. There was always something sinister behind that jaunty rhythm.
Cast members double as manager, boyfriends and soldiers. These roles do not always come across clearly and some of the secondary characters lack definition.
The formidable manager, Mrs Smith, is played by at least three of the cast, although a signature leopard skin coat and extravagant glasses do help to identify her on each appearance.
The best of the original songs, ‘It’s Different for Girls’ (not the Joe Jackson version), closes the show but the key points about the endemic nature of inequality have been made long before the recitation of statistics for 2017. Such hammer blows are rather redundant given the show’s direction of travel.
Mike Tilling
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