Actress Gemma Arterton and director Rupert Goold at the launch of Made in Dagenham held at the Playhouse Theatre, London. Picture: Roy Tan
It has become the norm nowadays for there to be big launches for West End musicals a couple of months before opening night in order to rally as much press interest as possible, particularly via social media.
Last week it was the turn of Memphis, with leading performers Beverley Knight, Killian Donnelly and composer/lyricist David Bryan treating special guests to songs from the score, while today was the official launch of the musical Made in Dagenham which opens at the Adelphi Theatre on Wednesday 5 November, with previews from Thursday 9 October. Stage and screen actress Gemma Arterton has been cast in the lead role of Rita O’Grady.
Based on the 2010 motion picture of the same name, the show is set in Essex 1968. Like millions of other working women, each morning Rita O’Grady just tries to get her husband out of bed, get the kids off to school and get to work at the factory on time. But life changes forever when it’s announced that the girls in the sewing room of Ford’s Dagenham car plant will have their pay grade dropped to ‘unskilled’. Quickly drawing on a strength she never knew she had, Rita leads her friends in a battle against the might of Ford and the corruption of the Union supposed to protect them.
To give the audience (which included four of the original Essex girls who worked at the Dagenham plant) a flavour of what’s ahead in October, the ensemble sang five numbers with breaks inbetween for interviews with the creative team – director Rupert Goold (artistic director of the Almeida Theatre), librettist Richard Bean (writer of the global hit play One Man, Two Guvnors, The Heretic at the Royal Court, England People Very Nice at the National), Grammy award-winning composer David Arnold (James Bond series, Independence Day, Hot Fuzz, Sherlock and Little Britain) and Olivier Award-winning lyricist Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer the Opera, the Royal Opera’s Anna Nicole).
Goold suggested that the late 1960s and the women’s strike action had provided a great backdrop in which to draw out the story’s different characters and the accompanying love story, adding “the songs popped up as soon as we started working on the show”.
There was a hint that Richard Bean was having to get used to the constant rewrites synonymous with the making of a musical (half joking that when he worked at the the Royal Court, they sent him a letter if they wanted to change a word). However, he is obviously embracing the storyline, and recalled his days working in a factory as an 18-year-old and being “tortured” by all the women working there.
When asked about the humour of the piece, he added: “the characters have to get through a long day at the factory, a lot of humour comes from that.”
Composer David Arnold appeared to be enjoying the whole process, including the rewrites. He has also been happy with some of the differences between composing music for movies and the stage: “The great beauty of this is that the whole creative team sat down from day one to assemble the thing together, it has been a truly collaborative experience.”
A giggly Gemma Arterton mentioned that she had sung a bit of karaoke, but her performances in three of the musical numbers proved she has the vocal potential to provide some showstopping moments in October/November. In addition to the title number and ‘Everybody Out’, the track already released online (listen here), I rather liked the feisty ‘This is What I Want’ during which the factory workers tell the foreman just that (including the lyric ‘Spread some joy around the place, before we smack you in the face!’).
To demonstrate the range of the rather jolly score which certainly evokes the atmosphere of sixties Britishness, we also saw Mark Hadfield’s Harold Wilson (‘not an obvious balladeer from the 60s’, remarked Goold) who sings of his struggle with the balance of payments, and Adrian Der Gregorian, as Rita’s husband Eddie, giving a poignant rendition of ‘I Can’t Do This On My Own’. as he attempts to understand what is so important to his wife that she is never at home anymore. There was also a quick glimpse of Sophie-Louise Dann’s take on portraying Barbara Castle which looks likely to be a firecracker of a performance.
Goold concluded: “I hope audiences will leave the theatre invigorated by the issues raised, by the message of solidarity. I hope that it is a life-affirming message to take away with them.”
Joining Arterton and Gregorian in the cast are Steve Furst playing US Ford executive Mr Tooley, Mark Hadfield as Harold Wilson, Sophie-Louise Dann playing Barbara Castle, Sophie Stanton as Beryl, Heather Craney as Clare, Sophie Isaacs as Sandra, Julius D’Silva playing Ford Dagenham boss Mr Hopkins and Naomi Frederick as his wife Lisa.
Also joining the Made in Dagenham cast are Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Thomas Aldridge, Kate Coysten, Christopher Howell, Scott Garnham, Ian Jervis, Paul Kemble, Emma Lindars, Jo Napthine, Tracey Penn, Gemma Salter, Gareth Snook, Rachel Spurrell, Emily Squibb, Karli Vale and Rene Zagger.
Made in Dagenham is presented by Stage Entertainment, Glass Half Full Productions and Just for Laughs Theatricals and is based on the motion picture of the same name produced by Number 9 Films.
www.madeindagenhamthemusical.com
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