Girlfriends (1986)

Howard's second musical, Girlfriends, was first performed at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre, in May 1986. Howard wrote the music and lyrics, based on the book he had written in collaboration with Richard Curtis and John Retallack. Girlfriends is cast for twelve women and two men, with a band of six, and is set on an Airforce base during World War 2. Its first cast included Maria Friedman, Jenna Russell and Carla Mendonca. Its season in Oldham was a sell-out, with enthusiastic reviews and audiences.

Girlfriends was substantially revised and produced in October 1987 at the re-opened Playhouse Theatre in London, starring Hazel O'Connor and David Easter, but the show was later reworked along the lines of its Oldham version in 1992 and performed at the Arts Theatre. It received its US premiere in May 2003. The website for this production can be found here. Their Washington Post review is at the bottom of this page. The US version of Girlfriends was performed again in the summer of 2004 in Arlington, VA, as part of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, World War II Memorial Dedication Celebration, America Celebrates the Greatest Generation. July 9 - August 1, 2004. The comprehensive website devoted to this production can be found here.

[revising Girlfriends, Great Rollright Oxfordshire, Summer 1987]

Here Howard explains what motivated him to write Girlfriends... "Since my first musical The Hired Man was dominated by men, I felt I needed to redress the balance by finding a subject in this second piece that would be mainly about women, so when I read Mary Lee Settle's brilliant autobiographical account of her wartime experiences in the WAAF, All the Brave Promises, I suspected I might have found my subject. All the Brave Promises itself would not easily have adapted to a dramatic form, so I began to research the subject in a general way, reading WAAF diaries, plundering the RAF archives for every scrap they had on the WAAF, talking to ex-WAAF and reading the scanty published material that exists on the subject. Eventually, in collaboration with John Retallack, a story and form began to emerge for Girlfriends.

[Rehearsals, June 1986, Oldham]

[WAAF Peggy Meek(207 Squadron) loading bombs onto bombers: WAAH Association archive]

The Second World War is largely responsible for the way we live our lives in Britain today; the questions it raises for all modern Europeans are extremely pertinent. Immersing myself in the stories of the WAAF, I was amazed that more had not already been written about them. They came from every class, region, religion and background and they undertook an enormous variety of jobs, skills and responsibilities. They were companions, colleagues and partners to the bomber crews, of whom only one in five could be expected to complete a tour of 30 operations. During the low ebb of 1941, the period of this musical, the personnel on Bomber Command stations saw at first hand the appalling losses incurred from a war of attrition by air. Yet they were, despite everything, lively, funny, tough and courageous. Girlfriends is not a documentary picture of the WAAF, but it is a celebration of them. I hope it does them justice."

[Phyllis Dike, WAAF]

What the critics said...

"This production production registers two very important firsts: the reopening of one of London's loveliest theatres after nearly forty years and the celebration of the war-time role of the Women's WRAF... John Retallack and Howard Goodall, the co-authors, give us a piercingly faithful picture of a typical group of WRAFs, their struggles with discipline, their comradeship, solidarity and humour, and above all, their hard, unglamourous lives... It is 1941 and the beginning of the dreadful Harris bomber offensive which was supposed to bring Germany to its knees but in fact was a slaughterhouse for the cream of the RAF. The women pack parachutes, clean spark plugs and staff the control tower during the night watches of the listen-out for lost and damaged bombers... The best musical in town makes Phantom and Les Miserables look the trash they are." Michael Vaughan, The Morning Star

[FO Smith & senior NCOs 103 Squadron]

"Clever lyrics sustain both character and story, Goodall's highly individual score reflecting his operatic and film writing experience. Even when most forcefully recalling the Forties, an orchestral commentry is maintained, not detracting in the least from reminders of the Andrews Sisters and the dance rhythms that accompanied the jitter-bug. There are haunting solos and skilful harmonic passages, demands easily met in a whole range of moods..." Stella Flint, Plays and Players

A short history of Girlfriends

Girlfriends was originally commissioned and premiered by the Oldham Coliseum in May 1986. Its book was based on a first draft by Richard Curtis, and was structured for that production with considerable input from the show’s director, John Retallack. Additional book advice came from Lise Mayer. Sources and research material for the subject came from various quarters- Mary Lee Settle's autobiographical account of her wartime experiences, All The Brave Promises, diaries and files from the RAF's archives in Hendon, and surviving members of the WAAF. Its success in Oldham eventually led, after a series of false starts, to a production a year later which re-opened the Playhouse Theatre on London's embankment. For the West End, the piece had been comprehensively rewritten: the plot, characters, lyrics and score were almost those of a wholly new musical, bearing almost no resemblance to the Oldham version. For five years after the closure of the show in London the score and scripts lay in a metal filing cabinet untouched. Then, after a highly successful Concert Revival of The Hired Man in March 1992, I took the two versions out of their confinement and began a revision of Girlfriends to restore the exuberance and innocence of the Oldham original.

Characters: Amy, Lou, Jasmine, Sally, Jane, Pam, Janet, FO Woods, Guy, Gareth; company of WAAFs.

["When you first put on that uniform...", Oldham]

BACKGROUND

On June 28th, 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was formed. The conflict began on September 3rd, 1939, and recruiting into the ranks of the newly formed WAAF started. At its peak strength, in 1943, WAAF numbers reached over 180,000, with over 2,000 women a week joining up. One of the many tasks the WAAF undertook during the War was keeping the barrage balloons afloat over the cities of England, mending and patching these silvery monsters. By 1943 the WAAF formed 47 per cent of the entire personnel of Balloon Command, with 1,029 sites staffed by all-women crews. Many other WAAF found themselves posted to Fighter Command Headquarters to become plotters and they proved themselves so adept at this task that by 1940 all the plotters were women. Others went to train as radar operators - many of these WAAF came under very severe bombing at the start of the Battle of Britain, and there were citations for bravery for a number of them. Others became teleprint operators and telephonists, or codes and cipher officers. Many of these officers worked at Whitehall, and all the top secret messages for the Prime Minister and the War Cabinet passed through their hands.

With over 2,000 new recruits a week pouring in at the height of the war, the administrative and training staff of the WAAF played a very important role. Each new recruit had to have a medical examination, had to be kitted up in her new uniform, fed, lectured to and drilled. Another important area of WAAF work was in maintenance, where the women substituted for the men on certain stations. They repaired instruments from the planes, and they tested spark plugs - something that sounds rather mundane, but the nimbler fingers of the women were invaluable in this job. Eventually, some WAAF became trained flight mechanics who flew in the aeroplanes on their testing flights, ensuring that everything was functioning correctly. They also substituted for electricians, were employed in driving much of the motor transport around the bases, and they did a lot of armourer’s work, cleaning and testing the guns. They also learnt to develop, print and make up photographic mosaics to help with photo reconnaissance. If they were judged to be completely reliable, they packed parachutes, and many airmen had cause to be grateful to the expertise of the WAAF who did this task. Predicting the weather correctly was vitally important when a bombing raid was planned, and many WAAF learnt how to draw weather charts from columns of figures supplied to them, although they didn’t actually get to predict the weather. Another vital piece of equipment on a raid was an accurate map, and many WAAF were employed in tracing maps for the aircrew to carry. Other WAAF found themselves dispatch riding, looking after the carrier pigeons that were often used to carry important messages, operating wirelesses and Morse code machines, tailoring and cobbling, cooking and working as medical trainees, dental clerks and chiropodists. In 1941 batwomen were introduced to the RAF Officers Mess, but only after there had been some discussion as to whether it was all right for a batwoman to take an RAF officer his cup of tea in the morning!

The war finally ended in 1945, and by May 1946 more than half the women in the service had been demobilised. The WAAF faced an uncertain future. However, the decision to replace the Auxiliary Air Force with a permanent Air Force was taken in 1948, and the Women’s Royal Air Force was formed. This has been a sister to the RAF ever since. Girlfriends takes place in 1941- a year of crisis and loss in Britain. Cities were being reduced to rubble by air raids, Atlantic convoys being picked off like ducks at a fair by U-boats, and its armies were in retreat throughout the world. The Americans were not to enter the war until the beginning of 1942. Losses were particularly alarming for the RAF. There was some debate as to whether the bombing strategy of German cities was as effective as it was generally supposed. Even Churchill compared the daylight raids on U-boat bases in Rotterdam with the Charge of the Light Brigade. Between April and August no fewer than 1301 bombers were written off. The chances of an airman completing his first tour of 30 missions were very poor indeed. About one in five survived. Due to an acute manpower shortage in skilled RAF trades especially, 1941 was also the year of the greatest expansion of the WAAF, its numbers rising by the summer to nearly 150,000 women. They were recruited from all areas of the country and all classes and backgrounds, and Girlfriends is set amongst their lively and courageous ranks.

["Bloomin' Cap...", Oldham]

Original Cast (Oldham): Carla Mendonca, Maria Friedman, Jenna Russell, Tracey Halsey, Clare Burt, Fletcher Mathers, Liz Morton, Carol Kingdon-Noakes, Nelly Morrison, Tina Jones, Andrew C Wadsworth, Gareth Snook; musical director Kate Young, directed by John Retallack, designed by Judith Croft, choreographed by Sheila Carter.

Original Cast (London): Caroline Mander, Fletcher Mathers, Tracey Halsey, Jenna Russell, Sara Weymouth, Donna Champion, Clare Burt, Julie Jupp, Norma Atallah, David Easter, Hazel O'Connor, Tina Jones, Jacqui Cryer; musical director Kate Young (assistant MD Helen Ireland), designed by Bill Dudley, directed by John Retallack.

["Much more than a peck...", Oldham]

A vocal score of Girlfriends for perusal is available by clicking here (Sibelius Scorch)

The script of Girlfriends is available for perusal here

['In the messes and clubs....", Oldham 1986]

["First Day...", Oldham 1986.]

["Before the war..." , Oldham]

["Pack 'em! Pack 'em!", Oldham]

["Talk of Victory...", Oldham]

[The Oldham cast, plus fighter plane]

[The Playhouse Theatre, London Embankment, October 1987]

The WAAF Association, with many useful links, can be found here.

A list of many other really interesting and immensely helpful links, unearthed by the tireless and enterprising team at Sandy Spring and Fallen Angel can be found here.

What the US critics said:

A Successful U.S. 'Girlfriends'

By Michael Toscano, Special to the Washington Post Thursday, May 15, 2003;

It's not often one experiences the American premiere of an English musical in a church basement; in fact, it seems entirely unprecedented. But that is exactly the experience Sandy Spring Theatre Group has created with "Girlfriends," Howard Goodall's celebration of Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the early, dark days of World War II. The troupe has taken over a basement theater of Rockville's Millian Memorial United Methodist Church and turned it into a serviceable black box venue for their spirited production of Goodall's operatic opus.

"Girlfriends" has had a checkered experience in England. The initial outing, back in 1986, was deemed a success, but substantial reworking of the material doomed a subsequent staging to critical and audience rejection. Goodall, famous on both sides of the pond for his television work with Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean," "The Black Adder"), has apparently restored the successful material in what might be described as Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Stephen Sondheim.

About 40 songs, reminiscent of both cinematic scores and opera, are woven together with minimal dialogue. Musical themes reappear repeatedly in the vocalization, backed up here only by a New Age-sounding piano accompaniment, rather than the six-piece band used in previous productions. There is no period music, except a brief snippet of a Glenn Miller record. Directed by Stan Levin, and with long-distance support from Goodall himself, "Girlfriends" can be deemed a success, blessed with several outstanding performances in the lead roles, although some of the secondary parts had uneven singing.

This is a stripped-down effort, with the institutional feel of the small theater actually enhancing the ambiance of the bomb shelters, barracks and other less-than-glamorous sites of the story. This not a history of the WAAF, focusing instead on the relationships the women have with the various flyboys with whom they serve, the word serve often taken literally. ("Make some bloody tea!") The women came from all walks of life to assist the bomber crews trying to repel the Nazi assault, and "Girlfriends" does show them gaining acceptance and graduating from traditional female roles to the more demanding tasks of packing parachutes, loading bombs and staffing the control towers. The crucible of war also makes for intense relationships, with their attendant infatuations, jealousies and rejection. Mia Reeves as Amy, Laura Jeanne Ingalls as Lou and Joshua Davis as Guy are the threesome at the show's center. Amy and Lou are best friends, Amy and Guy are a love match, but Amy says "no" and Lou says "yes," so guess which girl gets Guy for the second act.

Coloratura Reeves and mezzo-soprano Ingalls have beautiful voices and carefully calibrated acting combining fire and ice. They join Davis, his sweet tenor soaring, in the haunting ballad "My Heart Lies Somewhere Else." Davis and Ingalls spill hot emotion and anger as they break apart in "Remember." Davis matures his character, passing from callow lad with an old man's demeanor, in that way of the well-bred British, to a battle-hardened, clear-eyed man. Another strong performance is turned in by Rebecca A. Herron, as the fun-loving Glasgow lassie Jasmine, who undergoes significant change with war's heavy toll. She also gets through some of the more awkward lyrics, including "I'm losing weight, I'm two weeks late, it's half-past eight," in the tribute to wartime hardship, "This Bloomin' Cap."

Unfortunately, secondary leads Salima Chadly as Sally Sparrow, Mike Martin as Guy's pal Gareth and Faith Evans as Jane are not up to the complicated vocal passages, their voices often weak and gratingly flat. But despite some vocal flaws, the music remains hypnotically beautiful, the acting capable, and Levin's lively direction keeps the hardworking cast maintaining their energy over three hours. It is a worthwhile effort and a worthy introduction to Goodall's work.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Further notes and thoughts by Howard Goodall on Girlfriends can be found here.

[Orchestral Full Score: Oboe: Clarinet: Sop Sax: Alto Sax: Trumpet: Kbrd 2: Cello: Bass]

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