The Drifters Girl Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 1st May 2024 Review
The Drifters Girl is at the Playhouse Edinburgh until Saturday 4th May and with a soundtrack of classic songs to play with and a group name recognisable to so many people, this show does not have to work too hard to be a hit as so much of it is already in the memories of its audience.
As the announcement at the start of the show though clearly states, this is a theatrical performance and not a sing-a-long show and to leave the singing to the people on stage, so do not go to this one thinking it is a karaoke night out. This is a juke-box musical, so expect the people on stage to be there for their vocal abilities and not their dramatic ones, and at the speed this production is trying to compress 50 plus years of a story into, there is no space for anything but song after song, and looking around the audience tonight that is pretty much what people came to see and hear, and as always with this type of show that line between stage musical and tribute band performance becomes a little bit blurred at times.
The Drifters Girl is essentially the story of one woman, Faye Treadwell (Carly Mercedes Dyer), one of the very few female black music promoters of the 1950s/early 1960s, and her determination to keep the legal name to the Drifters (via Drifters Inc) that her husband George Treadwell (played in this performance by Matthew Dawkins) had established after purchasing from original lead vocalist Clyde McPhatter his share of the Drifters name. Matthew Dawkins also plays other roles in this show.
This show is called “The Drifters Girl” so quite rightly Carly Mercedes Dyer as Faye Treadwell is the central focus of the story and the show, and often her songs and vocal performances are simply far stronger and memorable than some of the actual group songs.
Breaking up the often tedious juke-box format are glimpses of Faye Treadwell’s life story as we start with her going to court to fight her claim for ownership of the Drifters name and telling her story in retrospect to her daughter, oddly known only as “Girl” here and performed by Jaydah Bell-Ricketts. The real life daughter, Tina Treadwell, has had close involvement with this show’s creation.
The four vocalists on stage all play multiple roles here as the many members of the group line up changes, and Tarik Frimpong (Clyde Mcphatter, Lover Patterson & others), Daniel Haswell (Johnny Moore, Gerhart Thrasher & others), Ethan Davis (for this performance tonight playing Ben E. King, Ruby Lewis & others) and again Matthew Dawkins, and it is here for me that problems start to arise. The first one is just the sheer speed that this show takes us through the history of the group and many of the songs, and there is no way around this, there is a lot to fit in here in a very small amount of stage time.
The second problem is that if you listen to Drifters’ records from their main chart hit period (50s to 60s) and their UK revival period (early 70s) then there are very distinctive differences in lead vocals and harmonies to be heard, and here with only four performers covering all the songs, that unique vocal identity of the different line-ups is lost. Adding more vocalists though would have probably made a touring show like this simply uneconomic to produce. Also tonight, Ethan Davis and Matthew Dawkins were changes to the main programme line up and they both did a very good job here. Matthew Dawkins was likeable as the opportunistic George Treadwell, but overall there were more than a few moments where that classic Drifters on stage choreography and the vocal harmonies were just not as tight as they should have been.
Everything in this show is running at a fast pace, but unless you are familiar with the music of the early years of Doo-Wop, the emerging sounds of soul music, and some of the main players of the time and their record labels, some people are ill defined and Jerry Wexler (Producer) and Ahmet Ertegun (co –founder of Atlantic Records) are just two examples of this.
Is this a story of chasing a musical dream or ruthless exploitation of a brand name at the expense of the many artists that performed in the Drifters over the years for little more than a weekly wage? The situation was a common one and many other groups were operated on this model where creativity and original material were always second place to record sales and profits. That decision is a personal one for everyone to make at this show.
It would have been good too for some credit to have gone to some of the great songwriters who wrote material for the Drifters over the years, giving this corporate identity hit after hit. Also credit should have been given to some of the great producers in the studio who helped make these recordings into such classic hit records too.
At the end of the day we have a personal but very one-sided view of not only the Drifters, but the ever changing members and dynamics of the group over the years, plus a glimpse into the often ruthless business of record companies. We only get part of the story here, and it would have been interesting to find out what the recording contract details of the band were with Atlantic records and what sort of payments the band members got from this too.
The creation of a band as a commercial vehicle is nothing new, and the use of the Drifters as a trademarked brand has allowed the name to live on until this day, as a version of the band is on tour right now.
Overall though The Drifters Girl is a typical musical of its genre, light entertainment that more than pleased this audience for an evening.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
As the announcement at the start of the show though clearly states, this is a theatrical performance and not a sing-a-long show and to leave the singing to the people on stage, so do not go to this one thinking it is a karaoke night out. This is a juke-box musical, so expect the people on stage to be there for their vocal abilities and not their dramatic ones, and at the speed this production is trying to compress 50 plus years of a story into, there is no space for anything but song after song, and looking around the audience tonight that is pretty much what people came to see and hear, and as always with this type of show that line between stage musical and tribute band performance becomes a little bit blurred at times.
The Drifters Girl is essentially the story of one woman, Faye Treadwell (Carly Mercedes Dyer), one of the very few female black music promoters of the 1950s/early 1960s, and her determination to keep the legal name to the Drifters (via Drifters Inc) that her husband George Treadwell (played in this performance by Matthew Dawkins) had established after purchasing from original lead vocalist Clyde McPhatter his share of the Drifters name. Matthew Dawkins also plays other roles in this show.
This show is called “The Drifters Girl” so quite rightly Carly Mercedes Dyer as Faye Treadwell is the central focus of the story and the show, and often her songs and vocal performances are simply far stronger and memorable than some of the actual group songs.
Breaking up the often tedious juke-box format are glimpses of Faye Treadwell’s life story as we start with her going to court to fight her claim for ownership of the Drifters name and telling her story in retrospect to her daughter, oddly known only as “Girl” here and performed by Jaydah Bell-Ricketts. The real life daughter, Tina Treadwell, has had close involvement with this show’s creation.
The four vocalists on stage all play multiple roles here as the many members of the group line up changes, and Tarik Frimpong (Clyde Mcphatter, Lover Patterson & others), Daniel Haswell (Johnny Moore, Gerhart Thrasher & others), Ethan Davis (for this performance tonight playing Ben E. King, Ruby Lewis & others) and again Matthew Dawkins, and it is here for me that problems start to arise. The first one is just the sheer speed that this show takes us through the history of the group and many of the songs, and there is no way around this, there is a lot to fit in here in a very small amount of stage time.
The second problem is that if you listen to Drifters’ records from their main chart hit period (50s to 60s) and their UK revival period (early 70s) then there are very distinctive differences in lead vocals and harmonies to be heard, and here with only four performers covering all the songs, that unique vocal identity of the different line-ups is lost. Adding more vocalists though would have probably made a touring show like this simply uneconomic to produce. Also tonight, Ethan Davis and Matthew Dawkins were changes to the main programme line up and they both did a very good job here. Matthew Dawkins was likeable as the opportunistic George Treadwell, but overall there were more than a few moments where that classic Drifters on stage choreography and the vocal harmonies were just not as tight as they should have been.
Everything in this show is running at a fast pace, but unless you are familiar with the music of the early years of Doo-Wop, the emerging sounds of soul music, and some of the main players of the time and their record labels, some people are ill defined and Jerry Wexler (Producer) and Ahmet Ertegun (co –founder of Atlantic Records) are just two examples of this.
Is this a story of chasing a musical dream or ruthless exploitation of a brand name at the expense of the many artists that performed in the Drifters over the years for little more than a weekly wage? The situation was a common one and many other groups were operated on this model where creativity and original material were always second place to record sales and profits. That decision is a personal one for everyone to make at this show.
It would have been good too for some credit to have gone to some of the great songwriters who wrote material for the Drifters over the years, giving this corporate identity hit after hit. Also credit should have been given to some of the great producers in the studio who helped make these recordings into such classic hit records too.
At the end of the day we have a personal but very one-sided view of not only the Drifters, but the ever changing members and dynamics of the group over the years, plus a glimpse into the often ruthless business of record companies. We only get part of the story here, and it would have been interesting to find out what the recording contract details of the band were with Atlantic records and what sort of payments the band members got from this too.
The creation of a band as a commercial vehicle is nothing new, and the use of the Drifters as a trademarked brand has allowed the name to live on until this day, as a version of the band is on tour right now.
Overall though The Drifters Girl is a typical musical of its genre, light entertainment that more than pleased this audience for an evening.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com