Girl's Night Out at Theatre Royal (From Ealing Times)

Girl's Night Out at Theatre Royal

8:43am Wednesday 14th July 2010 in

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WELL, the clue was there in the title. If you are a girl and you’ve ever been out, then there is no way you won’t love this wonderful show that is bringing its glow-in-the-dark bunny ears to the Windsor Theatre Royal this week.

The show can be summed up by the music it includes – I will Survive, Dancing Queen – cheesy and a tad over-played, but so catchy, and guaranteed to get you wiggling!

Girls Night Out is written by Louise Roche, a first-time playwright, who decided to bring to life the antics of her own friends and their nights out in Milton Keynes.

The show has since evolved into an international smash hit, and goes to show that girls everywhere can find themselves in one of the four stereotypes that walk the stage: the dowdy schoolteacher with the bad dancing, the rich business woman who hides her insecurities, the ditzy blonde who laughs too long at jokes and the crazy one in the leopard pant-suit who drinks like a fish.

The girls are on a night out (you guessed it!), watched-over by their long-deceased pal Sharon (she fell off the back of a moped and sports the token angel wings) who fills us in on the background that give these 2D stereotypes their emotional core. Their complicated stories are slowly unravelled as the night progresses, interspersed with explosions of karaoke and dancing.

I can only wish that real-life karaoke was as good as this! The girls all have outstanding singing voices, especially Katie Paine who plays the ditzy Anita, and with their girly dance routines (yes there were lots of Travolta fingers in the air!) you just can’t help but get sucked in by positive energy that bursts forth. Even the elderly gentleman in the front row was swaying to Dancing Queen!

The show is perfectly balanced with moments of seriousness and ridiculousness – Liza crawling on the toilet floor to locate which cubicle Carol is in so she can confide about her pregnancy scare – and so adds a depth and honesty to these humorous but clichéd characters. You can’t help but love them all.

And whether you are the girl that gets tired at 11pm or the one that sprays perfume in her hair before hitting the dance floor, you will see yourself on that stage and laugh along with their silliness!

But jokes and the dance routines aside, this is ultimately a show about friends. And as Sharon realises as the show reaches its warming finale: They’re not perfect, but they’ve always been there for each other. That’s about as good as it gets. I left the theatre with a huge smile on my face and was buzzing all the way home. Get down to Windsor and share in the joy!

The show runs from Monday 12th to Saturday 17th July at the Theatre Royal Windsor. Tickets are £10 - £26.50 and are available from the box office on 01753 853888. Shows Monday-Thursday 8pm, Friday 8.45pm and Saturday 4.45pm and 8pm.

www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk