''The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾'' is a stage musical based on the young-adult novel of the same name by Sue Townsend. It features book and lyrics by Jake Brunger and music and lyrics by Pippa Cleary. The musical made its world première at the

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

in Leicester in March 2015, followed by a London production at the

Menier Chocolate Factory The Menier Chocolate Factory is a 180-seat off-West End theatre, which comprises a restaurant, bar and rehearsal rooms. It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory at 53 Southwark Street, a major street in the London Boro ...

in summer 2017 and a West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre from June to September 2019.

Productions

Leicester (2015)

The musical was announced to make its world première at the

in Leicester (the title character and author Sue Townsend's hometown) from 7 March to 4 April 2015, with an official opening on 17 March. The production was directed by Luke Sheppard, designed by Tom Rogers, choreographed by Tim Jackson. It was revealed upon the announcement by Townsend's husband, Colin Broadway, that Townsend had been working with the writers, Brunger and Cleary on the musical from 2012 to before her death in 2014.

Off-West End (2017)

The musical made its London debut in a new production at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark from 14 July to 6 September 2017, with an official opening on 26 July. The new production was again directed by Luke Sheppard and designed by Tom Rogers with new choreography by Rebecca Howell. The new production was presented by the Menier Chocolate Factory and Curve in association with Anthony Clare and David Ian Productions. The cast from this production recorded the Original London Cast Recording which will be released on 28 June 2019 to coincide with the West End production.

West End (2019)

The Chocolate Factory production opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on 15 June 2019, playing a limited season, featuring a new cast (with the exceptions of

Rosemary Ashe Rosemary Ashe (born 28 March 1953) is an English stage actress and singer. Early life and training She was born to Philip Stephen Ashe and Dorothy May (née Watts). She attended Lowestoft Grammar School before studying at the Royal Academy of ...

returning as Grandma from the Curve production and John Hopkins as Mr Lucas / Mr Scruton and Lara Denning as Miss Elf / Doreen Slater returning from the Menier Chocolate Factory production). The production was due to finish on 12 October 2019, however it was announced that it was due to close two weeks earlier than planned on 28 September 2019.

Cast and characters

NB: The role of Mrs Lucas was cut for the London production.

Critical Reception

Leicester

The world premiere at Leicester's Curve Theatre Theatre received 4 stars from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Lyn Gardner Lyn Gardner is a British theatre critic, children's writer and journalist who contributes reviews and articles to ''The Stage,'' '' Stagedoor'' and has written for ''The Guardian''. Theatre critic and educator A graduate in drama and English from ...

in ''The Guardian'' wrote that Mole was "a home-grown hit for the Curve... a show constantly paying neat homage to previous British musicals and the traditions of the TV sitcom, and yet always staying distinctive and true to its source material... a quaint, unassuming little charmer". Dominic Cavendish in ''The Telegraph'' wrote that "this all-singing, all-dancing Mole comes up trumps; in fact, it's so good it could burrow its way to the West End... the evening does that rare thing: it makes you laugh, tugs at your heart-strings and honours the spirit of the original while being playfully inventive... this fresh, funny, stirring spin on a Thatcher-era classic may be around for a long time to come." Dominic Maxwell in ''The Times'' wrote 'it's no small achievement to make this first musical version such a lively, evocative pleasure... amusing and affecting enough to leave you glowing... a thoroughly charming evening: faithful to the book but with a tenderness of its own.'

London

The 2017 London production at the Menier Chocolate Factory received 5 stars from ''

The Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after bei ...

'', ''

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'' and '' Whatsonstage.com'', with 4 star reviews from ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Times'' and ''The Guardian''. Michael Billington in ''The Guardian'' described it as "A fresh and funny show from the young songwriting team of Jake Brunger (book and lyrics) and Pippa Cleary (music and lyrics). They clearly have the potential to inject new life into the anaemic British musical" with Fiona Mountford in ''The Evening Standard'' calling it 'a perfectly realised new British musical'. Ben Brantley also positively reviewed the musical in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', describing it as "a delightful new musical".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, The 2015 musicals Musicals based on novels Adrian Mole British musicals Plays set in England