Last Updated on 5 July 2021 by Showcall Editorial Team
Nick Stimson and Jimmy Jewell’s comedy show, NHS The Musical, is returning to Theatre Royal Plymouth
Theatre Royal Plymouth is to stage a new production of a musical celebrating and satirising the NHS.
NHS The Musical, written by Nick Stimson and Jimmy Jewell, will run in The Lyric space at the theatre from 17 to 25 September 2021. The original show premiered in The Drum at Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2006.
Tying in with the 73rd birthday of the NHS, the comedy show is informed by first-hand accounts from NHS staff, promising “songs, satire, sass”.
Directed by Stephen Fletcher, it will feature a cast of seven alongside a band of seven, all live on stage. Casting is to be announced.
Adrian Vinken, CEO of Theatre Royal Plymouth and executive producer of NHS The Musical, said: “We commissioned the original show to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the health service. Although essentially a love song to the NHS, audiences really loved its hard-hitting satire.
“A couple of years ago, with the NHS under siege on many levels, we decided the time was right to update the show to reflect current circumstances but then Covid hit and the NHS was placed front and centre in the life of the whole nation. The show is a timely celebration of what the NHS means to all of us.”
The new production has been made possible thanks to a grant from the Weston Culture Fund which was set up by the Garfield Weston Foundation to help arts and heritage organisations affected by Covid-19.
Philippa Charles, director of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “The Weston Culture Fund honours the UK’s creative and cultural organisations which, while battling huge challenges of their own, endeavour to make life better for the rest of us. We’re therefore especially pleased to support this new production of NHS The Musical at the Theatre Royal Plymouth as it pays tribute to the heroes seeing us all through the pandemic.”
Tickets are on public sale now, with discounted tickets available across the run for NHS staff.
