65 Brunswick Road : The Musical

Set in Birmingham, Liverpool, Malvern and Worcestershire, 65 Brunswick Road - The Musical, by Shirley Thompson has been adapted from the author's 2017 Family Saga, 65 Brunswick Road.

When Tommy Shelby, Steve Knight's principal character in The Peaky Blinders, first rode onto our television screen, viewers were presented with a battle-scarred, but still relatively young veteran, from the Great War. Meanwhile, in the neighbouring, real-life streets of Balsall Heath and Sparkhill, the Wareing family of eight children (and a musicallygifted mother, Lilian) struggled to cope with their invalid father's return to 65 Brunswick Road, fresh from the hell-hole of Gallipoli. Harry Senior, the author's grandfather, having contracted meningitis, returned home as a self centred, ruthless stranger. With a Good Old Days MC introduction, by Comedian, Entertainer and Papal Knight, Don Maclean, it features 12 of the author's newly composed songs. A Power Point display runs throughout, linked by five Edward Elgar compositions - the composer and Shirley's maternal Great Grandfather, Eustace Baylis, having been schoolboy friends. Introductory pages are followed by the main script, interspersed with song scores. All scenes are slide-illustrated, to correspond with the Power Point Disc (included). Music for the show's five 'a cappella' songs is in the Appendices. Add a diverse range of characters, plus shades of Oliver Twist, and we have an exciting new musical - just ripe for performance!