SHOUT! The Mod Musical
Welcome to the swinging sixties, the era of…subcultures… new ideas…liberation? Watch as five teenage girls grow into women across the decade, following the advice from the Shout! Magazine agony aunt, whose ideas begin to seem more and more questionable.
The show was first performed as a stage reading that opened the first ever New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2004. It was then performed at various locations around America before being performed off Broadway at the Julia Miles Theatre in 2006. Licensing was made available through MTI Europe in 2009. The current production at Upstairs at The Gatehouse is produced by Gardner Hodges Entertainment.
The design of the show combines pop art and op art to create an almost psychedelic aesthetic. This show is definitely not afraid of colour. Pop art inspired light features adorn the back wall and the costumes showcase a range of styles from the era, with each of the girls being represented by a different colour. It must be said that it’s particularly exciting to see the band perform live on the stage and we love that their outfits co-ordinate with the set.
This musical is a jukebox musical, which is not a style to be underestimated. When carried out with careful consideration of how the lyrics within these songs aid the story and progress the plot, this style can tell very compelling stories.
However it must be said that we don’t feel that this musical used the style to it’s full advantage. There are about twenty songs and none of them seem to be able to carry the story, although they are sung exceptionally well by the cast.
To that end, we had a hard time connecting to the story because a lot of the time the plot gets lost in favour of the beautifully choreographed song numbers. The plot seems to explore the changing expectations and ideas placed upon women through the decade, through the medium of an agony aunt who gives advice to the girls, yet none of the ideas are explored in depth, nor are we allowed to get to know the characters particularly well. We aren’t sure about their motivations and we aren’t sure about their want, so their actions seem unmotivated a lot of the time, which in turns renders the songs redundant. We also found that this looseness leads to the conclusion of the plot seeming completely unfounded.
Whilst we can see that the story is trying to say that the sixties weren’t as easy or fun as they seem, we are still left wondering what the purpose of this musical is and why it’s being told now. It’s because of this that the show comes across as more of a sixties tribute concert than a musical.
Credit must be given to the choreography, which is energetic and consistently features a lot of sixties dance moves from the decade, which are carried out with flare.
The cast is incredibly strong to the extent that it’s hard to highlight a particularly stand out performer. They each bring a different flavour of performance energy to their archetypal character and very much conform to the personality type obviously dictated by the script, shown in the scene in which the characters are each assigned a personality type by the magazine.
It's audibly gorgeous and visually stylish but lacking in story and plot substance.
This production was reviewed on the 27th June 2025 at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London where it's currently running until the 20th July 2025 before heading to Canterbury and Windsor this Summer. Get your tickets for London here: Events for 01/07/2025
Review written by Megan O'Neill
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Photo credit : Supplied by production
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