Jukebox musical, Dreamboats and Petticoats, arrives at the gorgeous Theatre Royal Brighton this week, for its 10 year anniversary tour.

Set at a British youth club in the early sixties, Dreamboats and Petticoats follows a group of budding young musicians competing in a national song writing competition. Sparks fly amid a series of teen romances, rivalries and rock ‘n’ roll anthems.

Inspiration for the production came from the chart-busting success of a series of compilation albums – the first released in 2007 – which featured some of the biggest tunes of the rock ‘n’ roll era of the 1950s and 1960s. Encouraged by the waves of nostalgic enthusiasm that ensued, music from the albums was pieced together into the West End musical of the same name, making it a “jukebox” musical in a similar vein to Mama Mia! or We Will Rock You.

Maurice Gran, who co-wrote the stage play with Laurence Marks, recounts “someone came to us and said ‘listen to these wonderful songs on this wonderful compilation album called Dreamboats and Petticoats. Wouldn’t you love to turn it into a musical?’ And we thought, yeah that’s a pretty good idea actually.”

Noting the music as “innocent” and “very ‘of an era’”, he continues “it was nice to look back to that period and see if we could take all of those songs and figure out a way to turn them into a story, to use them to chart a romance, because a good musical like this has got to be a romance!”

The musical features rock ‘n’ classics such as Let’s Dance, C’mon Everybody, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, To Know Him Is To Love Him and Let’s Twist Again.

Dreamboats and Petticoats plays at 7:45pm at the Theatre Royal Brighton Monday 2 – Saturday 7 October, plus 2:30pm matinees on Thursday 5 and Saturday 7.

Tickets: From £15

Featured Image: Pamela Raith Photography

Categories: Arts Theatre

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