"Made In Dagenham" by Kaleidoscope Players

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

The musical is based on the 2010 film "Made in Dagenham", which in turn centred around the true-life events of the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968.

Rita O'Grady acts as the spokesperson for a group of female workers at Ford's Dagenham plant, who go on strike to fight the inequality that becomes apparent when women workers were to be paid less as they were classed as unskilled. In contrast, their male colleagues were classed as skilled and ultimately received more pay. But these actions, while causing problems at work, also put the O'Grady family unit under great stress.

When the American bosses fly in and lay off 5,000 men as a result, including Rita’s husband Eddie, cracks begin to show in the women’s solidarity. Risking her marriage and friendships, Rita continues her efforts for equality and gives a rousing speech at a televised Trade Union Conference, leading to the passing of equal pay within the union back in 1970.

Alice Goodall plays Rita, both being little powerhouses. There's a great energy needed to play Rita and Alice has this, as well as emotion when she reads the letter left by Eddie in the second half. Alice produces some really good vocals as well.

Rita's husband, Eddie, is played by Michael Panichi. There are several scenes involving Michael that I really enjoyed; the one when he has forgotten their tenth wedding anniversary and Rita and Eddie perform “I'm Sorry I Love You”, both Alice and Michael play to their strengths in this scene. the other, again involving both Alice and Michael, is "The Letter".

This is one of my favourite tracks from the soundtrack and it was delivered by Michael with passion. It was a shame that the sound at this time was not that great which made it sound like Michael was shouting, which he wasn't.

The girls in the factory are Sandra (Samantha Hempsall), Clare (Charli Twyford), Cass (Rebekah Street) and Beryl (Kerry-Ann Roe). These are a feisty lot and quite obviously starved of male attention, the characters by the way, not the actors! Samantha, who I saw not long ago in "Confusions", I imagine had great fun playing Sandra, the outrageously confident one. Likewise, Kerry-Ann with her foul-mouthed character Beryl; always fun to hear someone swearing to great comedy effect.

The other factory girls were played by Michelle Bradford, Hannah Bradford, Deb Weetman and Fran Nolan.

Harold Wilson is played by Ray Elliott, and for me another highlight. This is a lovely comical, as well as satirical role and Ray delivered brilliantly.

Playing Wilson's aides are Heather Slonimski, Michelle Bradford and Dan Goodall and get to perform "Always A Problem” complete with choreography.

Playing Barbara Castle is Josephine Walker. Anyone who can remember Barbara "fiery like her hair" Castle will know that she didn't mince her words, jut the men that got in her way, and Josephine's portrayal was superbly acerbic. Barbara's big song is “Ideal World” which has some brilliant lyrics.

Mr Hopkins, the managing director of the Ford factory in Dagenham, is played by Dan Goodall. This is such a wonderful character and also gets to feature in another of my favourite scenes in the musical where he has come home for tea and there is a discussion with his wife about their son being caned by the headmaster. The writing for this part of the musical is acutely funny, and both Dan and Amy's timings were spot on for this scene.

Mrs Lisa Hopkins, a repressed but not for too long, women's lib supporter is played by Amy Bradford. Loved the RP accent from Amy as well as the attitude provided for the character.

Union representative Monty is played by Ron Murfin. There's a nice mix of comedy and pathos involved with Monty as the true depth of one of his past relationships is revealed.

Fellow union colleague Connie is played by Alison Barrett. A good strong performance tinged with sadness for Connie in the second act.

E. Montgomery Ashford plays Mr Tooley, the American Executive for Ford Motors who comes over to sort the strike out. Here is another great character role, played beautifully, and just listen to the lyrics of his big song "This Is America", they have comedy packed into every line.

E. Montgomery also plays Mr Buckton, the school headmaster. This role also includes tongue-twisting script sections. Now, I'm not 100% sure of this but I think he also was in the scene where Eddie was singing to Rita outside the pub where he had forgotten the anniversary, but if he was, there was a really long note in there which was held for an eternity, showing a controlled and powerful vocal.

James Bennett played Barry, the young worker at the factory who is a bit of eye candy for the women in the factory. James also got to show off his vocals as Cortina Man; the grin never left his face and at the end I was expecting one of those flashes of light from the grin that you see in corny toothpaste ads. By the way, I love that jacket and shoes for Cortina Man. James also played Mr Tooley's sidekick, Adams, with sharp suit, reminiscent of something from the film "Men In Black".

During the incredibly corny song, “Cortina”, sung by Cortina Man, there's an equally corny dance number which stars the Cortina Girls, Amy Bradford, Hannah Bradford, Caitlin Wright and Katie Walford.

Chubby Chuff, a comedian in the factory worker's local, is played by Barry Smith. I'd actually believe that this man was a comedian as he has the delivery for a comedian, as well as the drollness.

Martin Weston plays Bill and Mr Hubble. His little outbursts of non-PC ness while at the table during a meeting between union leaders and plant management, were funny, as is most comedy that is non-PC in my opinion. Mr Macer, also present at the meeting is played by Paul Margett, trying to keep everything on the level.

The O Grady children are played by Rosie (Sharon) and Henry (Graham); both I feel destined for a future in musical theatre if their confidence on stage is anything to go by.

Directed by Deb Weetman, this musical is a perfect choice due to the ratio of women to men roles.

Musical Director is Charlotte Daniel, who led her five musicians, and herself. I thought that there were more musicians there due to the roundness of the sound.

The Lighting Design is by Aaron Mace. Simplicity is often all you need for lighting a show. Now, don't get me wrong, to me the lighting design looked a simple affair; it probably takes a lot to look as simple as it did, but it did the job and that's all you need.

The sound side of the show plagued throughout with mic packs cutting out, and when the actors were singing, and this happened, we didn't get to hear the vocals at all as the music was slightly louder than it needed to be. It looked to have been resolved as we went into the second act but the packs went again and we lost some of the humour in some of the songs because we didn't hear the lyrics. There was also leakage from actor's mics left up backstage unfortunately. I am sure that the sound guys will have this remedied for the remaining shows.

Choreographed by Josephine Walker, Amy Bradford and Alison Barrett, there's plenty of energy in some of these dance sections, especially in the big number that closes the first act "Everybody Out".

Samantha Moss is the Producer for this musical.

The costumes for this show were brilliant, as were the wigs. There was one wig that was the spitting image of a young Lulu's hair, and forgive me but I can't remember who wore this wig, but it really made her look like Lulu as she was in the Sixties as well. Love the look of all the costumes, wigs and make up.

It's a great, fun musical with heart and soul. It just needs a bit of tweaking in parts and the sound sorting, but that aside I really enjoyed everything I saw. This was my first time seeing a production by The Kaleidoscope Players, and I hope that it won't be my last.

"Made In Dagenham" is at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 15 July, when everybody'll be out!

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