A MUSICAL based on what was one of the country’s biggest magazines decades ago is to be staged in Malvern next year.
Jackie The Musical, choreographed by former Strictly Come Dancing Judge Arlene Phillips, is to be performed at the Grange Road venue in June as part of major UK tour.
The show is set in the days when the British weekly magazine for girls were selling like hot cakes.
Jackie accompanied millions of girls through their teenage years in the ‘70’s and 80’s and was the best-selling teen magazine in Britain for ten years, with sales rising from an initial 350,000 to a massive 605,947 in 1976.
The musical revisits those heady days, and tells the story of a 50-something divorcée, also named Jackie, who revisits her stash of magazines for the same reason she first read them nearly 40 years ago – advice on how best to navigate the opposite sex.
With her ex and a handsome new guy both on the scene, the valuable lessons she learnt as a girl begin to influence her future and Jackie discovers the one person in control of her life is her.
Former EastEnders and The Two of Us actress Janet Dibley plays the lead role as Jackie and is joined by a strong cast of names including Nicholas Bailey who is well known for his time in EastEnders as Dr Anthony Trueman.
Supported by Jackie publishers DC Thomson, former magazine Editor Nina Myskow joins the production as Editor-in-Chief,
She said: “I’m so proud to have been editor of Jackie in its golden years in the 70’s. It always was a girl’s best friend, but I could never have imagined then that its spirit of fun and warmth would live on to become a musical today.
“It’s such a brilliant idea, and I’m absolutely thrilled that I’m going to be involved, all over again. How exciting. And I can’t wait to see it, to hear the music, and to be transported back to a time when we were all young, and not just young at heart.”
Tickets for the show are now on sale by visiting www.malvern-theatres.co.uk or calling 01684 892277.
