Beverley Knight and Adam J Bernard in The Drifters Girl at the Garrick Theatre, London. Pictures: Johan Persson
The Drifters Girl continues at the Garrick Theatre, London.
There is so much that is perfect about The Drifters Girl, the musical that tells the story of Faye Treadwell (Beverley Knight), a woman of colour who broke into a male-controlled music industry more than 60 years ago. So we have the inspirational story of Faye Treadwell, from Arkansas, who managed, recruited and let go the 60 male singers who passed through the Drifters name.
This show has been co-created by its performers which is also a kind of showbiz democracy and the resulting production is so professional and so beautifully presented with singing voices that are to die for and song tunes with melodies we love. Director Jonathan Church, well-known for his shows coming out of Chichester, and now Bath, is happy to let these guys and gals take centre stage as creators. We hope there’ll be no legal battles the way there was over the Drifters name!
The five are Beverley Knight who is well known in British musical theatre and who made her West End debut as Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard; Matt Henry (who has legs up to his armpits, how did we miss him for the English rowing team or as a fast bowler?) and became award laden with awards for his role as Lola in Kinky Boots; Adam J Bernard who plays Faye’s husband George Treadwell, originated the role of Jimmy in Dreamgirls and, like Henry, won an Olivier Award, for that show; Tarinn Callender who starred as Bob in Come From Away and created the roles in Hamilton, London of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison; and Tosh Wanogho-Maud, perhaps less well known apart of course from his role as the footman in Bridgerton, but who also played Jimmy in Dreamgirls and takes on standout singing roles here as Ben E. King in ‘Stand By Me’ and the Drifter who died so young, Rudy Lewis.
Adam J Bernard, Tarinn Callender, Matt Henry, and Tosh Wanogho-Maud in The Drifters Girl
The Drifters songs are from several decades, starting in the 1950s when Stephen Sondheim was writing the lyrics for West Side Story, through the 1960s when their tunes like ‘Under the Boardwalk’, ‘On Broadway’ and “Up oOn the Roof” competed in the charts with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, to the 1970s, when there were fewer hit parade hits but Faye’s Drifters continued to tour, some of the time in the UK.
The cast take on all the different roles, the wonderfully exaggerated British accents of Roger and Roger or the Brummies for the UK tour and with a giant leap of the imagination they play Peter, Paul and Mary. I think that was Henry in the long blonde wig! Henry also imitates Bruce Forsyth for the Sunday Night at the London Palladium show.
So are we to condemn The Drifters Girl because it is about exploited male singers or to commend it for giving its cast co-creation roles? You do know the von Trapp singers caught the train out of Austria, they didn’t flee over the mountains from the Nazis in The Sound of Music.
Faye Treadwell’s daughter Tina had the original idea. Her daughter, who is left in the US for the UK tours, is played alternately by Dara Ajagbe, Amari Brown, Arabel Harley and Savanna Musoni.
What is quite special is that they wear the waved wigs of the 1950s and 60s, stylised suits and their dance routines with exaggerated hand movements don’t in any way cause any derogatory giggles as professionalism is rooted in this show. Anthony Ward’s set is simple, textured boards and moving apertures with great lighting, so we can change location without clunky set changes. Knight’s outfits are ageless.
Knight’s songs are to do with the love for her husband, great ballads of love and loss – ‘Harlem Child’, ‘There Goes My First Love’, ‘I Don’t Want To Go On Without You’ – and her singing is sublime.
In my opinion The Drifters Girl is a five star show. Enjoy!
Lizzie Loveridge
This review has been published with the kind permission of TheatreVibe
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