Rock Follies – Minerva Theatre, Chichester

Angela Marie Hurst, Carly Bawden and Zizi Strallen in Rock Follies at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester. Picture: Johan Persson

Rock Follies continues at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester until 26 August 2023.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

I was a child when the Rock Follies hit the small screen in 1976-77, but I do remember listening to older teenage girls talking excitedly about the 12-part series, and I must have heard some of the songs because I got a wave of memories when I heard the music again: corduroy flares and orange formica, the Thames TV theme (“here they are now, Morecambe and Wise”, we used to sing to it) and a sort of grittiness and rawness to the drama that I found slightly disturbing.

For many young women, the show was a revelation: these characters were nothing like the two-dimensional stereotypes we usually saw on the box – brainless giggly buxom dolly birds, frumpy mums, naughty sexy housewives… These women were real, ordinary, articulate, funny, powerful and vulnerable. Several real female bands and singers cite the Little Ladies (the name of the trio in Rock Follies) as their inspiration.

One man behind me sang along with all the songs and there were many in the audience obviously remembering the show with fondness.

The story of the stage show pretty much follows the original TV drama: three performers are cast in a 1930s musical which is dreadful and decide to set up a rock trio instead. They battle their way through grimy pubs and clubs, dodgy gigs with male stars who see them as backing singers rather than the support act, dodgy record label execs who want them to be sexy, and the machinations of their manager who wants to mould them.

Obviously, Dominic Cooke’s production (book by Chloë Moss) needs to appeal to fans of the original but also new audiences, and they’ve succeeded. It dispenses with a few male characters from the TV version to give it a more 2020s viewpoint. There’s a fair bit of talk about women’s lot in 1970s Britain (echoes of 9 to 5) and the relationships the three have with men are slightly two-dimensional but I imagine the idea is to give more background info for a new audience. ‘This is what life was like in the 1970s, kids.’

It’s a long show. The first half is rather tongue-in-cheek: communes, free love, earnest philosophical and psychological debate are all played for comic value. The sisterhood holds out, the Little Ladies are making it, and it’s all looking good. Act II is a lot grittier – there are factions and fallouts. The constant touring is taking its toll. A new singer is brought in, Anna (Carly Bawden) feels sidelined and realises she’s being pushed out – hitting the bottle and drugs to get her through.

A scene in the recording studio where she’s replaced as lead singer on her own song is played deftly; the resentment and hurt, the resignation on her face is a heart twinge moment.

All three lead actors are superb – with voices to match. Bawden as the Cambridge-educated Anna, Angela Marie Hurst as the powerhouse Dee and Zizi Strallen as the mediator and sweet-hearted Q, worke their leather-clad arses off for three hours – bloody marvellous.

Ensemble acting is also fantastic – a fast-shifting array of wigs and outfits, accents and characters. Tamsin Carroll, Sebastien Torkia, Fred Haig, Samuel Barnett, Stephenson Ardern-Sodje and Philippa Stefani are all excellent in their various roles, supported very ably by Bella Brown, Collette Guitart, Peter Houston, Matthew Malthouse, Antoine Murray-Straughan and Harriet Watson.

Howard Schuman and Roxy Music’s Andy Mackay’s songs (great work from musical supervisor, arranger and co-orchestrator Nigel Lilley) are all taken from the original and performed with great choreography by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille.

Vicki Mortimer’s set is a simple club-type stage with the band above, and then flight cases wheeled in to become seats, beds, dressing tables… All very slick and works perfectly in the Minerva space.

The finale, a happy ending as each woman finds fulfilment and peace, brings the trio back together as they were at the outset, singing their hearts out for the performance highs.

There was a standing ovation and what was really lovely (and brought a tear to my eye) was seeing Rula Lenska (the original Q) in the audience standing, singing along and obviously loving it. An absolute gem of a show.

Kat Wootton