Good golly, Miss Molly! Review – People Power Through Upbeat Rock ‘n’ Roll | stage

AAt some point midway through the second half, you noticed how much Bob Eaton’s show was insinuatingly affecting you. Even then, you have no reason to see it as anything more than one of those delightful slices of social history, the kind that characterizes the shared experiences of pop music and politics, leavened by a soundtrack of rock ‘n’ roll standards and given a local flair with nods to disappearing landmarks like the steelworks of Shelton Bar.

Eaton was at the forefront of performing for actors and musicians when he premiered Good Golly Miss Molly! for the New Vic in 1989, and its story was topical. The film follows the residents of Hawes Street in Tunstall, who resisted a council plan to demolish their homes as part of a slum clearance programme, putting forward a successful case for home improvement instead.

The director noted that music is the glue that holds a community together, and that the story could be told through the lens of a band coming together for nostalgia at a social club. The titular Molly (a beautifully understated Shirley Darroch in the Eton revival) will transform from aggressive schoolgirl to lead singer, NUM employee and head of the Residents’ Association, finding self-actualization on the way.

This is the part of the story that is not immediately clear due to the various family feuds, pregnancies and trips back and forth to London. But when you get home, barricaded by the enormous company mixing, orchestrating and swapping instruments, it’s as if the angst and longing of the songs are the perfect expression of working-class struggle Good Golly Miss Molly! describes.

It would have more impact if the conflict were fully explored. The details might have been more widely understood in 1989, but the play offers only a superficial idea of ​​what residents have to lose and, in the form of sympathetic councilman Eddie (David Ahmed), only a vague impression of the forces they face. However, there is a joyful feel to the music that draws us into the action – literally for those sitting in the front row – giving a boost to the company’s 40th anniversary season.