CELEBRATING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF WILLY RUSSELL’S
SHIRLEY VALENTINE AT LEEDS GRAND THEATRE
Starring Jodie Prenger
Willy Russell’s heart-warming comedy Shirley Valentine premiered in 1986 and took the world by storm. In celebration of its 30th Anniversary the first major revival of this national treasure is at to Leeds Grand Theatre next week.
Shirley is a Liverpool housewife. Her kids have left home and she makes chips and egg for her husband while talking to the wall. Where has her life disappeared to? Out of the blue, her best friend offers her a trip to Greece for 2 weeks and she secretly packs her bags. She heads for the sun and starts to see the world and herself very differently.
The one-woman play stars much-loved actress Jodie Prenger as Shirley; Jodie commands the stage alone for eight performances from Monday 3rd to Saturday 8th April cooking chips and egg as she talks.
Of the revival, writer Willy Russell says; “It’s now thirty years since Shirley Valentine first walked onto the page, into my life and the lives of so many others. Shirley cooked her first meal of egg and chips on the stage of the Everyman Theatre Liverpool before then hoofing it down to London where she started picking up the string of awards she’d win in the West End, on Broadway and in the film that earned both BAFTAs and Academy Award Nominations.”
With a career spanning over four decades, Willy Russell is one of the most successful playwrights of his generation. His plays include Educating Rita, Blood Brothers, Our Day Out and Shirley Valentine.
He continues: “When producer Adam Spiegel introduced me to Jodie Prenger I knew in an instant that here was a formidable actress, one who possessed the grit and the warmth, the drive and the vulnerability, the energy and the heart to make Shirley Valentine really live again. How could any playwright resist that or deny the whole of the UK the chance to see Jodie bring Shirley to life?”
Jodie Prenger stars as Shirley Valentine at Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday 3rd to Saturday 8thApril
Tickets are priced from £19.50 to £34
Book online at leedsgrandtheatre.com or call Box Office on 0844 848 2700