FIRST there was the television film The Last Of The Blonde Bombshells.

Next, Alan Plater wrote a then-and-now musical play with 24 characters for an American producer. But, when finance was not forthcoming, the Hull playwright slimmed it down to his "paperback version" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2004 with its actor-musician performances of the swing music of Glenn Miller, the Andrews Sisters and Benny Goodman.

Now he has trimmed his humorous and warmly sentimental play again, from ten characters to eight, for Mark Babych's touring revival, and out have gone the two oldies, musicians Elizabeth and smooth charmer Patrick in their modern-day guise. Instead, young grand-daughter Elizabeth (Pam Jolley in jeans) takes the audience back to "one helluva day" in the life of her grandmother, Liz (Jolley in schoolgirl plats), in wartime 1943.

The song If I Had A Ribbon Bow has memories drifting to the life-changing moment when naïve schoolgirl Liz attended auditions for the Blonde Bombshells, the all-girl swing band led by tough Betty (Allison Harding). Already in the line-up are the cynical Vera (Susie Emmett) and Grace (Barbara Hockaday), each seeking succour in the bottle, and the dry-witted Aussie pianist May (Andrea Getley).

Bomb shells go hand in hand with Bombshells and, amid the dust and debris of their bombed-out West Riding rehearsal room, they audition not only sweet Liz, but also a ukulele-playing nun, Lily (Georgina Field, with a Jane Horrocks' Lancashire accent), who sees none of the saucy innuendo in George Formby's In My Little Snapshot Album.

In bursts trumpet-blowing good-time army gal Miranda (Rosie Jenkins), a cut-glass socialite, or upper-class tart, with a tongue as loose as her suspender belt; a wonderful comic creation from a playwright who believes that "women are more interesting to write about".

That may be so here, but Plater also gives us the crooning, trilby-wearing Patrick (Oliver Chopping), who is seeking to continue his draft-dodging by taking up the drummer's post in a dress (recalling Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot). Amid the flinty, flirty humour, Plater allows female anger, hurt and empowerment to have its say too, before the second half concludes in a joyous radio concert performance in red satin by Babych's multi-skilled band of actor-musicians.

I miss the golden oldies, but these Blonde Bombshells are still a knockout.


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