Shirley Valentine tour with Jodie Prenger

Jodie Prenger - the performer who found fame when she appeared on Andrew Lloyd Webber's TV show, I'd Do Anything - is set to star in the UK tour of the musical Shirley Valentine. The 30th anniversary production and new UK tour will open in Bromley in March 2017, and Prenger will take on the title role in Willy Russell's comedy. After competing for a part in Lloyd Webber's Oliver!, Prenger was subsequently cast as Nancy in his 2009 production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Her recent theatre credits have included UK tours of Tell Me On A Sunday, Calamity Jane and One Man, Two Guvnors. Taking the form of a monologue, Shirley Valentine is a one-woman play about a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife whose life is transformed after a holiday in Greece. Glen Walford will return to direct the 30th anniversary production, three decades later. Russell is best known for plays such as Educating Rita and Blood Brothers. Shirley Valentine premiered at the Liverpool Everyman in 1986, and had its West End premiere in 1988 starring Pauline Collins, who later starred in the Oscar-nominated film adaptation alongside Tom Conti. The new tour opens at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley on 2 March 2017, and then tours to Birmingham, Woking, Richmond, Milton Keynes, Leeds, Bath, High Wycombe, Sheffield, Glasgow, Canterbury, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Coventry, Swindon, Salford, Cardiff, Tunbridge Wells, Shrewsbury, Brighton and Malvern, with further dates to be announced. Prenger will have the chance to bring this both gritty and warm character to life across the country, as an acclaimed actress in her own right. Her energy and drive are second to none, and will see Shirley Valentine live again through the revival, vulnerable and full of heart.