That Day We Sang—a play with music by Victoria Wood—which premièred at Manchester International Festival two years ago, returns to the city from next month through to January 18.
The show has been reinvented and re-orchestrated for the Royal Exchange’s unique space by Wood herself.
It is a big-hearted and nostalgic Manchester love story for all the family, set in the summer of ’69 but harking back to events 40 years earlier and the celebrated recording of a Manchester children’s choir.
It becomes a tale of two people trying to reconnect with who they were then and who they could be now.
The production will feature a 25-strong children’s choir, featuring youngsters from schools across Greater Manchester.
Victoria Wood says: “It is a play with songs, and dancing and insurance men. It’s a love story—played against a background of The Wimpy, The Golden Egg, Piccadilly Gardens… a very Mancunian story.”
The cast includes Dean Andrews as Tubby, best known for his role as DS Ray Carling in the BBC TV drama Life On Mars and the spin-off series Ashes To Ashes; and Anna Francolini as Enid, who was last seen at the Royal Exchange in A View From The Bridge.
An appearance by Victoria Wood in a rare in conversation event, to help fund theatre experiences for those unable to afford to take part, has helped to kick start the Royal Exchange’s Christmas fundraising drive with a ticket office rush.
All seats were snapped up in just one day once it was announced Wood would be joining friend and former Dinnerladies star, Maxine Peake for one afternoon only on Sunday December 15.