A WORLD premiere of a brand new play will lay bare the life of Britain’s most popular female entertainer of all time – in her own words – at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre next month.
Our Gracie is presented as a music-hall style piece set in the 1960s as Rochdale’s finest export Gracie Fields returns to the UK from semi-retirement in Italy to promote her newly-published autobiography, Sing As We Go.
While in the country, Gracie will come to Oldham Coliseum Theatre to present a stage version of her life, with songs and laughter, and in the service of truth, some sad bits too.
Her vibrant personality and rich, warm singing style transported her from above her grandmother’s Rochdale chip shop to international fame.
Her musical recordings have sold in their millions and she became one of the highest paid female movie stars in the world.
So great is her appeal that her war-time work boosting morale saw Hitler declare her an Enemy of the Third Reich.
In Our Gracie, she will be played by Rochdale actress Sue Devaney, who has recently completed an international tour playing Rosie in Mamma Mia.
Sue is a well-known face from television including roles as Jane in Dinnerladies (BBC), Liz Harker in Casualty (BBC) and Debbie Webster in Coronation Street (ITV), and she has appeared previously at the Coliseum in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Wake Up Little Suzie! and Good Golly Miss Molly.
Writer Philip Goulding is a Coliseum favourite, whose previous work includes Wake up Little Suzie!, Feels Like The First Time and Horse or River. His credits also include A Fine Bright Day Today and The Road to Nab End, both of which received four star reviews from The Guardian.
Our Gracie will be directed by the Coliseum’s Artistic Director Kevin Shaw, whose credits at the Coliseum include Hot Stuff, Dreamers, The Mist in the Mirror and Chicago, winner of two Manchester Theatre Awards in 2014.
Our Gracie runs at Oldham Coliseum Theatre from Friday 4 – Saturday 26 March 2016. Tickets can be booked on 0161 624 2829 or online: www.coliseum.org.uk
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