The 1960s heralded a new era of activism and the Women’s Liberation Movement was born.
It is this political backdrop which inspired the writers Bella Wright and Carleigh McRitchie to write the book, the music and lyrics for The Gardening Club, writes Linda Emmanuel.
Plus, the musical supervision by Eli Younger and direction by Tara Noonan worked magnificently to bring this new pop-rock musical to life.
The setting is 1960s Georgia, USA. Five women, Phoebe Larson (Emma Wallace) a receptionist with dreams of becoming a front-page reporter, Betty Collins (Olivia Taylor-Quinn) a brave nurse and fierce friend, Sheila Watson (Hannah Greensmith) the picture-perfect housewife, Maggie Martin (Emma Espada) a sexually free-spirited teenager, and Vicki Martin (Lola Garlick) Maggie’s younger bookworm sister looking for an adventure. With a desire for equality and justice, they make a pact to join forces to run an illegal birth control pill operation under the cover of a gardening club.
The 16 songs written cover many themes such as reproductive rights, sexuality, societal expectations and falling in love, in the most energetic of styles, especially Nurse Betty’s self-exploration song, (if you know what I mean) to reaching her ‘Happy Ending’, which brought the house down. Then the witty sweet love story duet between Vicki Martin and Miles Bourne (Richie Paisley) ‘Teach You to Touch Me’ made many in the audience remember their first relationship fumbles, and ‘The Perks of Being a Man’ sung by characters Luke Barnes, the bad boy womaniser(Isaac Moore), Miles Bourne, Cliff Watson Managing Editor of the Newsroom (Harry Belton) and ensemble.
This collective of 11 cast members kept up the pace and worked extremely well together, each thoroughly enjoying their roles, which shone through.
At times the music levels made some of the songs a little challenging to hear but the emotions, the fun and the story telling conserved the audience’s attention, gaining applause after each song and rightly so; there were beautiful voices on that stage.
This musical explores themes of sex and abortion and contains mature language and situations. It is refreshing to view them in a new way, as this musical has been confident to do.
The Gardening Club is brought to us by Nowhere Girls Theatre Company founded in 2024 and is dedicated to bold feminist storytelling. It will be very interesting to see what the future brings for this team.
If you can get a ticket, do so.
On at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio until 27th September 2025
Booking and full details: https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-gardening-club-a-new-musical-premieres-season/studio-at-new-wimbledon-theatre/
