Talented performers drift through sensational songs in The Drifters Girl, a disconcerting jukebox musical that strives to tell the story of an ever-changing line-up of singers.
The story, which is a frustratingly surface-level affair, follows headstrong southern girl Faye. She marries The Drifters’ manager, George Treadwell, and then sets about transforming the fluctuating band of rhythm-and-blues vocalists into a flourishing brand. When George unexpectedly dies, Faye Treadwell finds herself fighting to be taken seriously as one of the first female African American managers in a sexist and racist industry.
Faye relays her experiences from 1954 onwards to her daughter (credited as ‘Girl’ but essentially a bare-bones outline of real-life Faye’s daughter Tina Treadwell, who was consulted throughout the musical’s writing and development process). The entire narrative is basically Faye explaining what she did and why ahead of a court case to secure copyright of the ‘Drifters’ name.
The show tasks just six cast members with transporting an audience to the era of classic soul and charting the trailblazing efforts of a strong black woman who refused to give up on the group she loved. Disappointingly, with only four men portraying a dizzying succession of singers and assorted supporting characters, trudging along on the Treadwell treadmill soon gets tedious.
