We continue our Labor Day Fest, with another little-known song about labor from a musical. This one, though, isn’t from a Broadway musical, but rather one on the West End, and isn’t just little-known here, but almost unknown. However, its source material may not be.
It’s the 2014 musical, Made in Dagenham, which is based on the 2010 movie of the same name. The film, which was a dramatic comedy, had a very impressive cast – Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough and Richard Schiff, among others.
The stage musical adaptation had a notable cast, as well, in its own well, starring Gemma Arterton, known for her movie roles in such films as Quantum of Solace, The King’s Man, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and Clash of the Titans, as well as the recent BBC-PBS mini-series, Funny Woman, and on stage in Saint Joan for the National Theatre.
The musical and film are based on the true story in 1968 of the first strike ever by women that started the British women’s labor movement. It began when 187 women at the Ford auto plant of 55,000 men in Dagenham, England, learned that their work as sewing machinists making car seat covers had been downgraded to “unskilled,” and so their pay accordingly cut at the factory. The women went on a small strike, but the strike gained support and grew, and further, without seats, the cars couldn’t be built, and the strike became a landmark moment in the labor relations. In the end, it led to England’s Equal Pay Act of 1970.
The musical got mixed, though generally positive reviews. It didn't run long, but did play for six months. The show has music by David Arnold, lyrics by Richard Thomas. This is the number, “Everybody Out,” performed on a TV charity fundraising benefit for Children in Need.
(SIDE NOTE: One thing I like in the video is how at the end, when the hosts come on stage, they focus -- understandably -- on Gemma Arterton, but she keeps doing her best to draw in attention on the full company.)
