The Birmingham Stage Company are enjoying a world first as their hit show TOM GATES live on stage is being turned into the latest novel by the bestselling author Liz Pichon. While books are regularly adapted for the stage, it’s a world first for a stage show to be turned into a book.
Tom Gates live on stage was written by author Liz Pichon with Birmingham Stage Company’s actor-manager Neal Foster and premiered in February 2019. The show has since been touring across Britain, winning over Tom’s many fans and introducing many others to Tom’s world.
The brand-new book is called Tom Gates: Spectacular School Trip (Really) and published by Scholastic on 3 October. It tells the story of Tom who is desperate to go on a school trip, but with three sad faces on the class achievement chart, it looks like he won’t be going anywhere. Will his song about chips get him into the headmaster’s good books? Will the dog stop eating his homework?
Neal Foster said today: “I am a huge fan of the Tom Gates books series and jumped at the chance to bring Tom to the stage but it was important to me that we presented a brand-new story, so I had the fantastic experience of writing it with the amazing author Liz Pichon. When Liz told me she wanted to turn it into her next book, all my dreams came true – to have our show go from stage to page is a real thrill.”
Author Liz Pichon said today: “The plot of the show is so funny I could see it would make a fantastic book. I’ve added lots of doodles all based on the live on stage show and fans of the books won’t be disappointed!”
The tour continues until 7 December 2019 with the remaining dates available at tomgateslive.com