This handsomely restored venue kicks off a season curated by women with a musical about the all-female gangs that were a feature of Victorian London. It’s a good subject and Jo Collins’s score is lively but, in trying to hit a number of targets simultaneously, the show ends up missing most of them and scattering its firepower.
Lil Warren’s book and lyrics partly aim to be a localised version of The Threepenny Opera: a reminder, as the Walworth Road Elephants engage in a turf war with the rival Bethnal Green Oranges, that gang warfare offers an ironic echo of cut-throat Victorian capitalism.
The political point then gives way to a lesbian love story, with strong hints of Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet, in which two girls defy the gang ethos to seek their fortunes on the stage. On top of all that, the show attempts to recreate the vitality of the music hall with a robust host leading us in communal choruses. No sooner has the show fixed on one style than it quickly switches to another.
It is intriguing to learn of the tribal conflicts of the time with the Irish families of south London vying for supremacy with the Jewish communities of the East End. Collins’s songs, especially The One I Love, have their own charm and Susie McKenna’s production deploys a versatile, 10-strong cast in which Sinead Long, as an aspiring star, and Rebecca Bainbridge, as a sadistic knife-wielder, stand out. But it’s a show that never seems sure whether it wants us to see these female gangsters as militant fighters for freedom or victims of Victorian social barbarism.
•At Hoxton Hall, London, until 10 February. Box office: 020 7684 0060
