Joan Littlewood’s Oh What A Lovely War opens at Oldham Coliseum from September 8 to 30.
Performed as an end-of-pier show by a troupe of entertainers, it relives the First World War through song, dance and visuals.
First performed in 1963, the musical challenged attitudes towards the conflict by telling the story of the war from the perspective of the soldiers in the trenches. It won a Tony Award in 1965 in its first New York production on Broadway.
Oldham Coliseum’s production will be performed by an ensemble of actor-musicians, featuring songs "It’s A Long Way To Tipperary", "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag", "Goodbye-ee", "And When They Ask" and "Keep The Home Fires Burning".
This year marks the centenary of Passchendaele—The Third Battle of Ypres, which took place from July to November 1917 for control of the land south and east of the Belgian city. The battle became infamous not only for the scale of casualties, but for the mud which eventually became so deep that soldiers drowned. It was one of the major engagements of the First World War with an estimated 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German casualties.