Mature Times reviews The Drifters Girl at the Bristol Hippodrome.
Save The Last Dance For Me, Under The Boardwalk, Sweets For My Sweet, Saturday Night At The Movies. With songs like these, there’s no surprise to find that the group behind them are one of the biggest selling acts in music history – ever!
Reputed to have sold over 210 million singles and over 110 million albums we are of course talking about The Drifters, a group that was formed way back in 1953 by George Tredwell and the famed Atlantic Records founder, Ahmet Ertegun. And over 70 years later, the current version of the band still packs in audiences as they continue to tour and play those iconic hits live.
Over the years the band have had numerous line-up changes, so much so, that over 60 different members are known including such musical legends as Ben E King, Johnny Moore and Clyde McPhatter all of whom went on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But arguably the group would never have had the success that they did if it wasn’t for one person, one strong and indomitable lady, Faye Treadwell – the original Drifters Girl.
Faye was the manager that believed in the band more than any other person, she was the one who fought their corner, the one who drove them on and arguably the person that made them.
And her story and that of the band is now a smash hit musical that is touring the UK and Ireland for the first time ever, and tonight The Drifters Girl hits Bristol’s famous Hippodrome Theatre.
It’s all about the music
Nominated for Best New Musical at the 2022 Olivier Awards, as the story unfolds we get to feel the remarkable highs that success brought – the hit records, the fame and the sell-out tours, as well as the lows of legal disputes and personal tragedy that the group experienced on the long hard road to fame. But in the end it’s the music that gives the story its context.
You would think it’s all about the group, but it’s not. Following the death of her husband, Faye Treadwell (Carly Mercedes Dyer, excellent) takes over management of the group. As an African-America woman in the male dominated world of the music industry, you can imagine that she doesn’t have it easy. But it’s her drive, her ambition, her refusal to give up and her tenacity that see her through and is the real story here.
Throughout, The Drifters (Ashford Campbell, Tarik Frimpong, Miles Anthony Daley and Daniel Haswell) sing, dance and perform all those chart-topping hits that we are all familiar with. The four transition between characters as a way of emphasising the ever changing nature of the group itself – Treadwell likens the group to the New York Yankees saying you can change the players but not the brand – as members come and go, a bit of a roller coaster that is sometimes a little confusing. Perhaps that is one of the limitations of having just six actors on stage throughout the show.
Anthony Ward’s set design is minimalist to say the least, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it allows you to focus on the things that are important and that’s the story and the music.
Lighting is by theatre veteran, Ben Cracknell who uses the sparseness of the set to his advantage concentrating on what is most important – and that is what is happening on the stage.
But in reality this is a show all about the songs and let’s face it who ever let a good story get in the way of a good sing-a-long? The Drifters certainly don’t and by the end the audience is up, out of their seats and singing along to the closing number, a fitting end to a nostalgic trip back in time through music and one worth seeing for that alone.
The Drifters Girl is at the Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday 13 January and then tours nationwide through to May 2024. For more information and tickets follow this link.
