This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour saw The Drifters Girl at the invite of Birmingham Hippodrome.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Review: The Drifters Girl at Birmingham Hippodrome
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐A great night out!
Directed by Jonathan Church, Book by Ed Curtis, based on an idea by Tina Treadwell
Faye Treadwell was one of the first African-American female managers, and this story covers a huge period of change for the group she managed, The Drifters. The Drifters Girl focuses on this story with Faye Treadwell (Carly Mercedes Dyer) narrating to her daughter referred to as Girl (Jaydah Bell-Ricketts).
You’ll be hard-pushed to find a slicker, smoother run production than this, with just six onstage performers including the four male actors; Miles Anthony Daley, Ashford Campbell, Daniel Haswell and Tarik Frimpong playing the rest of the characters. The vocals alone gave this production five stars!
I didn’t know that much about The Drifters themselves other than them having a huge number of hits including Save the Last Dance for Me, Under the Boardwalk and Saturday Night at the Movies. Plus hits performed by former Drifters including Stand By Me by Ben E King. This production explored the turbulent turn-style members group through their music with surface exploration into their characters, focusing on their working relationship with Faye Treadwell.
The set was made up of soundproofing foam squares with huge amounts of digital projection to build the world of The Drifters Girl, the first half was one hour, with the second half clocking in at fifty-five minutes (plus a 20-minute interval).
A great night out! The Drifters Girl is at Birmingham Hippodrome until 20th April. Book tickets here: birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/the-drifters-girl.
