Save the Last Dance @ Darlington Civic

The music loving populous of Darlington have been very well treated recently, with David Essex last week and now a trip back into the sugar coated, popcorn smelling jukebox musical of the early 1960’s.  This latest offering from the Director & Producers who brought the massively successful nostalgia-fest of Dreamboats & Petticoats is another ‘lite’ tale wrapped around a never-ending soundtrack of bubblegum pop and teen angst blues.  The backstory of this show is that every song was penned by the same double act, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman – not two of the best known names in songwriting but a pairing who undoubtedly sat behind some of the eras biggest and best known sing-a-long hits from across the pond.  Whilst this makes for a playlist of hit after hit, it does at the same time mean that a lot of the songs are quite samey with an  American high school focus.  With 25 tunes spanning the 2 acts, it can make for a whole lotta moms apple pie. 

The story is quite a simple one, a brief glimpse into the stereotypical idea of life for teenagers in the early 60’s – desperate for some excitement and being seduced by the lyrics and ideals of American pop.  The two main characters set off on a weeks holiday, sans parents, to the ‘glamorous’  Lowestoft where they fall into the holiday romance trap of the local US Air Force base and it’s resident band.  Cue lots of soul searching solos as the youngest sister falls in love with the lead singer of the band, a black airman who was hoping for more racial tolerance in the UK compared to his deep south roots.  The story aims at underage love, but shys away, it stares at racial discrimination, but blinks and of course, ends, as all good stories do – with a happy ending.  Maybe I am being too hard, the story most certainly plays second fiddle to the songs but at times it just seemed a little too ‘lite’ – the diet, low fat, decaf version.

The two lead girls played their roles well; Megan Jones as Marie, the younger sister, played “love-struck” with the same wide eyed innocence seen from a young Haley Mills whilst Hannah Fredrick, as the older Jennifer’ had a sassy edge, but both are still a little ‘too’ nice & innocent to honestly believe they wouldn’t have ran a mile rather than take a lift from an unknown American airman.  What was very evident was that Hannah was clearly enjoying her time on stage and despite her character playing second to the younger sister, her scenes probably stood out more.  The resident airforce band can really play well, capturing the sound & style of the songs and ensuring that there was enough originality to know you’re not just listening to a recording.  At times the sound mixing meant that the vocals were in danger of being drowned out by the backing, but on the whole the audience, who were very obviously fans of the era, loved it.  I must just add that Graham Weaver who played Carlo, an Italian Brummie from Wolverhampton (with a very funny accent to boot) probably stole any ensemble performance – a great dancer, an amazing falsetto voice and according to quite a few sat around me, an excellent reason to stare !

What disappointed me was the portrayal that only American pop was being listened to by the teens of the time; there was a missed opportunity to show the two girls listening to the British hits of the day whilst still at home and then almost discovering the American tunes at the same time as finding the American base & band.  I know it was only a story, and basing it completely on the writings of Pomus & Shuman was a large part of the appeal, but by the end I had a real hankering for something more gritty, more real, more British – maybe I had just had a little too much apple pie.