Made in Dagenham 10th Anniversary Concert – London Palladium

Made in Dagenham 10th Anniversary Concert at the London Palladium.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Making its West End premiere in 2014 to mixed but positive reviews, the original run of Made in Dagenham was not a success, so hats off to SISCO Entertainment Group for fielding a luxury cast for a single concert performance – it certainly paid off.

Act I is largely scene-setting with the female factory workers riffing about sex, weddings and the frustration of being expected to be subservient to men, domestically and in the workplace. The songs are catchy group numbers with a 1960s rock sound, occasionally breaking into a chorale. The plot thickens as the women are asked to sign a new contract which will class them as unskilled workers with a much lower pay rate as the men.

Connie (Katy Secombe, excellent in her solo ‘Connie’s Song’) is the union rep, a pawn of the management, as is Monty (Peter Duncan). A militant group of co-workers persuade Rita (Pixie Lott) to attend a management meeting with an American who flies in, and this results in the women striking. The language is inflammatory, talk of bimbos and women’s appearances, but very much of its time.

Act II heats up with the men being laid off by American Mr Tooley (Trevor Dion Nicholas), who blames the women for their suspension. Harold Wilson, a funny caricature from Gerard Carey, sits on the fence, wanting improved trade figures but also appeasing the unions. Barbara Castle, a superb, entirely believable Bonnie Langford, is promoted to Secretary of State.

Lott charts the gradual politicisation of Rita deftly, abetted by management boss Mr Hopkins’ (Richard Dempsey) wife Lisa (Zoë Rainey), who with a double first from Cambridge longs to be more than a housewife.

As we wend our way to the TUC meeting in Eastbourne at which a reluctant Rita, her marriage on the rocks, has been persuaded to speak, there is a meeting at the Houses of Parliament arranged by Castle culminating in Langford’s star turn with the song ‘In An Ideal World’. This final section is when the show emotionally engages the most, as Rita rejects the offer of 96% of the men’s pay rate, asking if Martin Luther King would have accepted 96% parity with white people for Black Americans.

Lisa Hopkins, referencing Emmeline Pankhurst and Rosa Parks as women who refused to take no for an answer, is stirring and resonated with the capacity audience. It’s certainly a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come in equal rights, not just for women but for many others, even if there is still a long way to go.

There are more powerful voices in the show, but Lott, regretting the breakdown of her marriage to Eddie (Killian Donnelly), peels away the layers in ‘We Nearly Had It All’ in the way we get with veterans like Bernadette Peters.

In an enormous cast of 23 principal actors and a 30-strong ensemble recruited from the London School of Musical Theatre, it’s impossible to praise every impactful performance, especially with many playing more than one role. Impressively off script, their commitment for a single performance resulted in a standing ovation.

Michael Bradley conducted the 11 musicians with verve. However, perhaps because of the nature of this type of event where there is limited rehearsal time in the venue itself, the sound was overpowering, and drowned the singers at times, the balance rendering the lyrics in the choral sections mostly unintelligible. In the upper tiers it was just about acceptable, I was in the Royal Circle, but many friends in the stalls, regular musical theatre fans, were left frustrated.

However, Shaun Kerrison’s staging was succinct, even with an array of microphones ranged across the front of the stage. In fact, the mike choreography was slick and the characterisations convincing.

Made in Dagenham is a period piece but makes its mark with the #MeToo movement. It reminds us how gender equality is hard won and that there are still many challenges to face.

With some trimming, the show – featuring a book by Richard Bean, music by David Arnold and lyrics by Richard Thomas – might have a different impact with greater success if revived today.

Leon Ferguson