Whose #StageFaves diary would you like to get a peek into? Fortunately for them, their secrets are safe as it is Adrian Mole's diary that now has a cast full of brilliant #StageFaves attached to it, as the Menier Chocolate Factory have announced the full company for their brand new production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 – The Musical which opens in Adrian’s 50th birthday year.
Luke Sheppard directs Dean Chisnall (George), Lara Denning (Doreen), John Hopkins (Mr Lucas/Mr Scruton), Barry James (Bert), Kelly Price (Pauline) and Gay Soper (Grandma). Benjamin Lewis, Ilan Galkoff and Samuel Menhinick share the role of Adrian; Asha Banks, Georgia Pemberton and Lara Wollington (Pandora), Jason Rennie, Callum Mcdonald and Connor Davies (Barry), and Amir Wilson, Edward Hooper and Max Robson (Nigel).
Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary’s musical of Leicester’s favourite teen has undergone a period of further development since its original production at Curve in 2015, and Luke Sheppard’s new production will open at the Menier on 26 July at 3.30pm, with previews from 14 July, and runs until 9 September.
“Honestly. My family just don’t understand me. Perhaps when I am famous and my diary is discovered people will understand the torment of being a 13 3/4 year old intellectual” Adrian Mole.
Set in 1980s Leicester, Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, follows the daily dramas and misadventures of Adrian’s adolescent life. With dysfunctional parents, ungrateful elders, a growing debt to school bully Barry Kent and an unruly pimple on his chin, life is hard for a misunderstood intellectual who is only 13 3Ž4… To top it off, when new girl Pandora captures his heart, his best friend Nigel steals hers. Can Adrian win back her love and escape his chaotic family life?
With an infectious original score, this new adaptation rediscovers this much-loved novel and brings Adrian’s story to life once more.
