Dreamboats and Petticoats

Jul 27 2010 By Barry Dix

Dreamboats and Petticoats at the Theatre Royal, Windsor

HALF a century ago Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told us we had never had it so good.

He certainly wasn’t referring to the pop charts – but he could well have been.

The glorious mixture of rock ‘n’ roll, big ballads, instrumentals, a cappella groups and girl singers with hair-dos like candy floss, which still dominated 50 years back, provided what was arguably pop’s finest hour.

Jukeboxes, trannies and youth club dances reveberated to the likes of Elvis and Orbison, Cochran and Berry.

In those pre-Beatle days, America’s dominance of the music scene was beginning to fade, but they weren’t going to bow out quietly.

You didn’t have to be there to realise the power and beauty of those mesmerising tales of teenage love and unrequited lust. That’s proved by the never-ending interest in those years – the cars, the fashions, the stars, the products – but most of all that wonderful music.

A few years back a shrewd record company executive had the idea of putting out a compilation album of the hits of the late fifties and early sixties, no doubt to the chagrin of trendier, more cynical colleagues.

He had the last laugh – Dreamboats and Petticoats, along with a second volume, sold more than two million copies. A third album went straight to the top of the compilations chart.

On the back of the success, a musical version for the stage was put together, written by Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks, the duo behind TV favourites like Birds of A Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and The New Stateman.

It opened at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley in February last year and, like the albums, was an immediate hit.

More than a million people have now seen this nostalgic, feelgood show – and, as well as transferring to the West End, it’s now on a 35-week national tour.

It rolls into the Theatre Royal at Windsor next week with it’s all singing’ all dancing young cast, directed by Bob Tomson.

It’s no surprise the venue is on the tour as Theatre Royal owner Bill Kenwright is a huge fan of the era’s music – he’s been presenting an entertaining show on Radio 2 over the past few weeks.

Take note: many of the venues have sold out of tickets during the tour so don’t hang about if you intend booking.

And then, even if you’re not Bobby’s Girl or Runaround Sue and it’s some years since you were Only Sixteen, you’ll be taking Three Steps to Heaven amid a non-stop, hedonistic swirl of sight and sound and some of the greatest pop songs ever written.

Dreamboats and Petticoats is at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, from Monday next week (August 2) to Saturday, August 14.

Contact the box office on 01753 853888.