Photo: Johan Persson

It’s yet another feel-good show. We all love a bit of success against the odds, especially when it’s based on a true story. It’s the tradition of Kinky Boots, Calendar Girls and Made in Dagenham.

Three young out of work performers form a female rock band in 1976/7 when it was a revolutionary thing to do. Of course they face opposition and there are many rows, disagreements and tensions along the way – not least with their three partners. It was (is?) very hard to be taken seriously in such a male-dominated industry.  In the end they achieve success and many people will have fond memories of the TV series Rock Follies.

Of course such a show will not work without a really outstanding trio at the centre and casting directors Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher have done a good job.  In their different ways Carly Bawden as Anna, Angela Marie Hurst as Dee and Zizi Strallen as Q all bring real talent and are convincing. The shifting dynamic between them is nicely caught too. Samuel Barnett makes Harry into a sensible decent pragmatic character who really does try to manage the group sensitively and Tamsin Carroll is suitably terrifying as the chain-smoking no-nonsense, snarling American manager, Kitty.

There is, of course, a lot of music (strong over-stage five-piece rock band led by MD Toby Higgins on keys) in this show. Some of the songs drive the narrative forward and others show us the girls in performance. Quite often a song segues suddenly from a work in progress being quietly composed to full performance and that’s directorially neat. It’s also pleasant to hear tuneful numbers rooted in an era before excessive bass destroyed melody. And once the group is out on the road it’s a simple but effective device to have the ensemble shouting Paris, Rome, Stockholm and so on every few bars to connote a big tour

In places Rock Follies is very funny. There’s an enjoyable scene, for instance, in which Stevie (Sebastien Torkia – good) struts his OTT, camp grunge and chauvinism while the girls are expected to pop cheerfully in and out of dustbins. Chloe Moss’s book provides plenty of acerbic, laugh-aloud lines too such as David (Fred Haig- pleasing) telling the sharply that they’re in the pop industry not the Socialist Workers’ Party.

Rock Follies is a CfT commission and this was its debut. I’m not sure that it’s likely to join the annals of Popular Shows although, if it’s published and the rights become available in due course, it could prove a  popular choice for amateur companies. Meanwhile it’s a perfectly decent show of its type and I – not generally a rock chick –  enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

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  Photos: Johan Persson

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