REHAB – The New Musical
WELCOME TO REHAB … SEPTEMBER 20, 21, 22, 23 UNION THEATRE, SOUTHWARK.
REHAB, the utterly addictive yet fabulous comedy musical conceived by Grant Black and Murray Lachlan Young – and realized by Elliot Davis – has announced details of its first public performances this autumn. The soon-to-be-iconic stage show – nothing like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show – will be premiering at the Union Theatre in Southwark on 20, 21, 22 and 23rd September. Cast members include Jonny Labey, John Barr, Dermot Canavan, Raya Clark, Jacqui Du Bois, Christopher Doyle, and Tom Murphy. Tickets are priced at £15.
REHAB centers around rock star Kid Pop (nothing like Robbie Williams) reluctantly consigned by the authorities to The Glade, a rehab centre for (as it happens) cross dressing room mates, tanning addicts, group therapy and terrible food. Subsequently, we learn that Pop’s friendly PR/pop impresario Malcolm Gladwell (nothing like Max Clifford) has ulterior motives for wanting to exploit his oh-so-delicate boy-charge, can smell a killing and needs cameras and action inside. Cue the arrival of the gorgeous, sensitive Lucy, a woman who will plunge them Into a life-threatening dilemma. Welcome to Rehab.
Rehab features some of the most irresistible and downright funny tunes yet to appear in the West End: swoon as judge and jury sing the opening number ‘Wanker’ – “My credit card is platinum my cock is solid gold”; pontificate as our erstwhile hero warbles/munches his way through love song ‘Cheese’ (not at all based on Blur’s Alex James) – “Then a stinky Gorgonzola and a gooey Dolchelata”; gawp in recognition as yet another of our protagonists acknowledges the independent truth that ‘Simply Everyone’s Taking Cocaine’ – ‘’I’ve been having it blown up the old Khyber pass.’ Yes, Rehab is that rare gem indeed – a pop-tastic, rock bottom to redemption journey of the soul. Hearts must be broken and songs must be sung as the deeply lovable and flawed cast-of -characters seek the ultimate goal: love, peace, serenity and slightly better fish pie.
About the Rehab authors:
Grant Black worked in various publishing companies – although his first management role was with Adam Ant – before running Trevor Horn’s publishing company, Perfect Songs. He is now an international multi-platinum award-winning songwriter who has had hits recorded by Alicia Keys, Craig David, Sarah Brightman, Run DMC, JLS, Olly Murs and Corrinne Bailey Rae.
Murray Lachlan Young is an award-winning poet who leapt to fame when he signed a £1milliion record deal with EMI Records at the height of Britpop in the mid 1990s. He is also a stand up performer, broadcaster – currently BBC6 Music’s poet-in-residence – playwright, screenwriter and children’s author. He has just finished the Ferarri 70th anniversary poem and his 2017 verse collection “How Freakin’ Zeitgeist Are You?” is an Amazon number one best seller.
Elliot Davis is an award-winning writer whose theatre shows include the Olivier-nominated Loserville, the What’s-On-Stage-nominated Soho Cinders, Peter Pan – the revised book with Stiles and Drewe, Out There, Best Friends and Butterflies, (which won both the Ticketmaster Composer Award and the Vivian Ellis Award for Best New Musical) and What I Go To School For – The Busted Musical. Davis recently scripted Becoming Nancy, a new musical to be directed by Jerry Mitchell and his first BBC feature film screenplay stars Geoffrey Rush and shoots in February 2018.
Davis is a prolific BBC music documentary maker and the inaugural recipient of the JJ Screenwriting Bursary in association with BAFTA.
You can’t sue us: remember, we are all in Rehab.