ST LUKE’S BOMBED OUT CHURCH, LIVERPOOL – SATURDAY 29TH JULY 2023
REVIEWED BY MIA BOWEN
4****
This was my second year returning to the iconic St Luke’s Bombed Out Church for the fantastic multi award winning Liverpool Theatre Festival. It is the festival’s fourth year running at St Luke’s and was created during the Covid-19 pandemic to keep live performances going in Liverpool City Centre. This year’s festival is bigger and has a more diverse programme than the previous years, featuring a variety of cabaret, comedy, opera, musicals, family shows and drag acts. The festival offers new and emerging shows, creatives and performers a platform, while making live theatre accessible and with prices ranging from £10 – £28, affordable. The festival highlights the very best of Liverpool City Region’s homegrown talent, with a range of performers from the North-West and across the UK. Tonight’s show was performed by Edge Hill University Musical Theatre Students.
SHOUT! The Mod Musical was created by Phillip George and David Lowenstein and features songs from the swinging sixties. Set in London in 1966, the musical follows the lives of five girls only known by their colour of their clothing, as they navigate the trials and tribulations of tough situations in relationships. Although the five girls are very different, they all have one thing on their mind: Love. The yellow girl is the only American character, who travelled all the way to Britain in hope to see Paul McCartney. The Orange girl is married but suspects her husband is cheating on her. The Blue girl is very pretty and has the perfect life but later questions her sexuality. The Green girl, my favourite, is very promiscuous and has brief affairs with random men. The Red girl is a bit hopeless and insecure about her looks.
The songs are brilliant and woven together by sound bites of the letters, the five girls send to Gwendolyn Holmes, who works for the magazine ‘Shout!’ in an advice column and who gives them advice on how to deal with these situations.
The cast had the audience laughing and even dancing in the aisles. Shout! Is a real blast from the past.