Taking its inspiration from a million selling compilation album of the same name Dreamboats and Petticoats - the musical played to a packed house at Bristol Hippodrome on Monday evening.
Beginning with a scene set in the present day where Grandfather, Bobby tells how he once nearly played in a rock band nearly 50 years ago to his granddaughter. We are then taken back to 1961 where a younger Bobby is auditioning as a lead singer in a pop group at the local Youth Club. However, Bobby soon finds himself not only struggling to be a performer and a songwriter but also trying to come to terms with his feelings for two girls, who are the extreme opposites of each other, Sue and Laura.
Scenarios set around a club outing to a fairground and Laura’s 16th Birthday party, are strung together with a collection of timeless pop classics from the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, including a duet of Del Shannon’s Runaway and Connie Francis’ Who’s Sorry Now performed to great effect by Josh Capper and Daniella Bowen as Bobby and Laura.
As with most songs in this production, all form an integral part of the narrative either describing a scenario or (as is frequently the case here) a character. Carolynne Good’s flirtatious Sue has no less than three classics – Runaround Sue, Little Town Flirt and Jezebel dedicated to her , while it becomes clear from the outset that Daniella Bowen’s Laura really does want to be Bobby’s Girl.
Dreamboats and Petticoats includes some outstanding performances of some truly wonderful pop classics by an energetic young cast and can be seen at Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday 17 April.
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