It’s Clocks Away! next week for the annual Marsden Summer Show, a juke box musical featuring songs from singalong spectaculars such as Spamalot, Rocky Horror, Wicked and Dirty Dancing.
Written by local lad Andrew Sloman, who also penned last year’s summer show, High & Blighty, for Marsden Parish Church Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, the musical comedy is a new adventure but features some familiar characters.
High & Blighty was written to commemorate the start of the World War I centenary and followed the madcap adventures of two airmen, Bunny and Ginger, in their quest to return home after being frozen inside an Alpine glacier for almost a century. The story ended with the heroes accepting an offer to settle into a rest home built on the site of their old barracks.
Clocks Away! finds the same intrepid airmen, played by Christopher Sleigh and Robbie Pogson, under the thumb of barb-tongued Nurse Crotchet (Elaine Thomson) in a plot that bears more than a little resemblance to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
However, Bunny and Ginger resolve to escape and travel back in time in a bid to prevent the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and stop the First World War.
Andrew, a former town centre manager with a background in youth theatre, describes the story as wacky and surreal: “It both celebrates and parodies some of the best-loved contemporary musicals.”
He explained how Clocks Away! was put together: “We started off by looking at the musicals we wanted to feature and then I structured the plot and story with a Pythonesque approach. It’s essentially a super variety show in the same vein as Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You.”
This year’s musical has taken its inspiration from Moulin Rouge, Star Trek and Liverpool in the era of The Beatles. A love interest for Bunny, Woolete (Katie Hoyle), has been based on Moulin Rouge’s Satine.
Clocks Away! is directed by Dan Killeen, with Dawn Leigh as choreographer and Craig Ball the musical director. It features a cast of 18 with a live band and runs from Tuesday, July 22, to Saturday, July 26, at Marsden Parochial Hall.
Tickets are available from marsdenoperatic.ticketsource.co.uk (03336663366) or by calling in at Duncan’s Hairdressers in Marsden.
The show also has a serious aim, to raise funds for the Combat Stress charity, which works with former armed forces personnel struggling with mental health issues.
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