BWW Reviews: MADE IN DAGENHAM, Adelphi Theatre, November 5 2014

It's 1968 and the women sewing the car seats for Ford Cortinas are not happy. They've been stitched up by their menfolk (on the line and in the boardroom) to keep them classified as unskilled, paid little more than "pin money" (though its their wages that keep their working class households afloat). But that won't wash in that revolutionary year and neither will half-hearted attempts to iron out the problems through the union, which is more committed to solidarity based on gender rather than class. Until a hero (well, a heroine) emerges - step forward housewife, mother and avowedly non-political Rita O'Grady.

Made in Dagenham The Musical draws on some big guns to take the Billy Elliot route from screen to stage. Award winners all,Richard Bean has written the book, David Arnold the music, Richard Thomas the lyrics and Rupert Goold takes on the directing - yes, they are all men. But the biggest name is film star, Gemma Arterton, who leads the women, and the musical, as Rita. So do they make a Mustang or a Fiesta?

Actually, it's probably more a Mondeo, for the show is a middle-of-the-road crowdpleaser with spectacular sets, songs ranging from the rock anthem "This is America" to the power ballad, "We Nearly Had It All". Arterton sings pleasingly, but never quite shakes off the Hollywood glamour, starting out as a machinist who looks and walks like a Hollywood superstar and finishing up as a strike leader who walks and talks like a Hollywood superstar. For her big closing number, "Stand Up", this working class woman flexing her politocal muscles takes to a podium to rouse the audience - good, but it's no "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".

She gets good support from Adrian Der Gregorian as her husband Eddie, who claims that he is so good to her that he hasn't hit her even once and Sophie-Louise Dann is an eerily effective Barbara Castle, the leftwing firebrand who preaches pragmatism in her anthem, "In An Ideal World". There's good work too from Naomi Frederick as the middle-class graduate wife of the factory's MD whose ambitions are as stifled by sexism as much as those of her working class sisters.

If the show cruises at a comfortable 70mph through the musical numbers, the comedy never really gets out of second gear. There's an overly familiar set of cookie-cutter characters in the factory and the jokes are broader than most pantos will venture next month. (Is a woman swearing like a squaddie still funny in 2014? It seems so.) Mark Hadfield plays Harold Wilson as a Monty Pythonish buffoon, short shrift for a man with an outstanding academic record and whose government passed the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 - easy, but unfair, laughs. And America appears to be the strident USA! USA! USA! of the First Gulf War and not the nervous, divided, insecure USA of the Vietnam War.

But this is not a history lesson (though it is a curious mix of historical accuracy and inaccuracy), it's a musical comedy that mixes a strong and relevant story (for women in this country are still paid less than men, regardless of what the law says) with big West End production values. That said, better songs, better sets and better jokes weren't enough to save "I Can't Sing" earlier this year, so let's wish Made in Dagenham well.

Made in Dagenham continues at the Adelphi Theatre.

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