Angry Housewives
Louise starred as Bev at Hammersmith Lyric Studio 29 April
- 10 May 1986. - In this troubled punk-rock musical Louise had the distinction
of being the only one of the four women originally cast in the show who was
still in it when it eventually opened!
Cast
Bev - Louise Gold
Wendy - Belinda Lang
Jetta - Leslie Duff
Carol - Shelia Brand
Lewd Fingers - Kevin Williams
Bev's Son, a Trainee Punk Rocker - Russell
Lee Nash
with Teddy Kempner and Neil McCaul (as
Jetta's Husband and Wendy's Husband, don't know who played which part)
Production Team
Authors – A. M. Collins &
Original Production – 1983 The Pioneer
Square Theatre,
Director – Art Wolff / Art Woolf
Sound Operator – Michael Pool
This musical is about four American Housewives who
decide brighten up their dull lives by forming a Punk Rock band, to enter a
Punk Rock contest, despite knowing zilch about Punk Rock. Most of the show
centres on them rehearsing, and trying to keep their intentions a secret from
their respective family and friends. The finale has the four women, entering
the contest, in pull punk gear, singing a rude song about cornflakes. This
production was troubled since of the four women originally cast: One leading
lady pulled put, another injured herself, and a third just disappeared! The
Choreographer was fired, and the first night was delayed, twice!
Besides Louise Gold, the other women originally
cast in the production included: Diane Langton, and, Mary Maddox.
The production was originally supposed to have opened on 27th March
1986.
Louise Gold and Diane Langton
did eventually appear together in another production with somewhat problematic
casting Follies, and have since gone on to appear
together in Mary Poppins.
Louise Gold, Teddy Kempner and
Neil McCaul all went on to become noteworthy members of the Discovering Lost
Musicals gang.
Puppeteer Louise Gold and Animator Teddy
Kempner were reunited in: Chicago &
Company, Broadway To Brighton, One
Touch Of Venus (1992 production), and Something
For The Boys.
Louise Gold and Neil McCaul
had previously appeared together in The
Pirates Of Penzance film and were reunited in Billy The Kid And The
Green Baize Vampire, Red Hot & Blue, Panama
Hattie and 110 In The Shade.
Belinda Lang went on to appear in the David
Kernan revue Move On.
Louise Gold returned to The
Hammersmith Lyric Studio ten years later to star in Lady Into Fox.
Neil McCaul had previously appeared
in The Royal Variety
Performance (1982), he has gone on to appear on television on A Week In The West End.
Belinda Lang may have gone
on to appear in Dear Ralph.
Twenty Two years later, found Louise Gold back on the West London
fringe, at The Orange Tree Theatre
in
Next Door’s Baby.
Critics Comments
“With Lesley Duff, the other attractively
different housewives are Louise Gold, Sheila Brand and Belinda Lang.” Francis
King, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 4 May 1986
“All of the girls have brassy melodic voices
and when they ultimately turn up in outrageous wigs, brass studded leather gear
and battered stockings, they make a tumultuous noise singing a rude song about
cornflakes.” Milton Shulman,
"Perhaps
the backstage dramas have helped but there is a certain exhilarating dynamism
in the way that Louise Gold, Sheila Brand, Lesley Duff and Belinda Lang attack
their parts, such as they are". Antoney Thorncroft, FINANCIAL
TIMES, 1 May 1986 - this review is worth reading in full as it is very
amusing!
“”I’m a human being. You’re just going to
have to deal with that.” Louise Gold’s Bev tells her punked-out son in one of
many lines that see, ;eft over from dog-eared me generation manifestos. But as
the unlikely quartet of women who form a rock group called Angry Housewives,
Gold, Sheila Brand, Belinda Lang and Lesley Duff can all put over a song, and
the lively score evinces a Broadway knowhow reminiscent of Kander and Ebb.”
Matt Wolf, CITY LIMITS, 1 May 1986
Links about Angry
Housewives
Sound Operator Michael Pool’s entry on The West
Yorkshire Playhouse’s site, CV of his work mentions this show: http://homepages.enterprise.net/micpool/CV.html
