‘Shout! The Mod Musical’ at the Powerscourt Townhouse in Dublin from 6th to 11th May

Here's yet another take on Mod from outside of the scene - read the 'About Show' notes, look at the show's poster, and come to your own conclusions (looks like the typical diluted 'Swinging Sixties' kind of thing to me though where the term 'Mod' is used as a cover-all phrase)!!!

“A nostalgic nod to London’s Swinging Sixties takes to the Dublin stage from 6th-11th May with the Irish première of Shout! The Mod Musical. Since the original production – created by Phillip George and David Lowenstein – debuted off-Broadway in the mid-noughties, this hip musical comedy revue has sold out all over the US and UK; this Irish production, featuring an all-Irish cast, finally lands in Dublin’s new brand new Powerscourt Theatre in the heart of the city.

The musical follows five young female subscribers to a fictional magazine called Shout! - "the magazine for the modern woman" - as they come of age during the liberating 1960s that made England swing. From cover to cover, Shout! unfolds like a musical magazine and travels in time through the decade, chronicling the dawn of liberation of women. Just as Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Cilla Black and Lulu were independent women with major careers, English (and indeed Irish!) women were redefining themselves in the face of changing attitudes about women. Shout! and its all-female cast reflects that change through the unforgettable music of the era.

Described by a US newspaper as “a musical episode of Sex and the City”, Shout! contains showstopping new arrangements of classic pop anthems of the decade, including, “Downtown”, “Son of a Preacher Man”, “Goldfinger”, “I Only Wanna Be With You”, “To Sir With Love” and of course, the titular “Shout!”. The songs, and each girl's own unfolding story, are tied together by hilarious soundbytes from the period - from 60s advertisements for anything and everything - to lonely hearts letters answered by Shout! Magazine's advice columnist, who thinks each girl's problem can be solved with a "fetching new hairstyle and a new shade of lipstick".

Each of the five girls is denoted by a colour rather than a name - Yellow (loud, fun-loving and obsessed with Paul McCartney), Orange (married, with seemingly the perfect life and husband), Blue (posh, wealthy but on a voyage of self-discovery), Red (naive, geeky and totally lacking in confidence) and Green (a good-time girl, in possession of questionable morals!).

Though Shout! wears its heart on its sleeve, it also has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. The groovy blend of foot-stomping songs, eye-popping fashions, bouffant hairstyles, hilarious stories and mod musings, will make you want to throw your head back.....and SHOUT!”

Shout! The Mod Musical runs from Monday 6th to Saturday 11th May nightly at 7.30pm in the Powerscourt Theatre, on the top floor of the Powerscourt Townhouse, 59 Clarendon Street, Dublin 2 and is presented by Dublin's Do R Die Productions as part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and by kind permission of Josef Weinberger Ltd.