I Should Be So Lucky offers "fabulous show for right now" - Mayflower dates

As Debbie, the mind behind the hit Nativity! franchise, says: “There are some of the ingredients the same but not the children obviously! But it is uplifting with some great characters and relatable things happening and a lot of escapism. We opened in November in Manchester, and the people that came to see it were just so wildly interactive. It was fantastic but the point is the show can take it. The cast really loved it and the response from the audience just gave them energy which is brilliant because it's a real high energy show. It's a celebration of love and family and you just want the audience to come out feeling energised and uplifted and just having been part of a lovely celebration and having had the chance to sing along as well.”

The show offers the Hit Factory songs you know and love – finally on stage in an all-new, feel-good musical, the songs that were the soundtrack to a generation which featured music from pop royalty including Kylie Minogue (I Should Be So Lucky), Rick Astley (Never Gonna Give You Up), Jason Donovan (Especially for You), Bananarama (Love In The First Degree) and more, all intertwined in a story of love, laughter and last-minute getaways. The show is a chance to dive deep into the heart-warming and rib-tickling tale of Ella and Nathan – a star-crossed couple with wedding jitters and tropical dreams. Will their love sail smoothly or are stormy break-ups ahead? Only time and tunes will tell…

“The whole thing started as an approach to me from the producers saying they were looking for somebody to create a story around the songs, and they thought of me! I was very excited and I met Mike Stock in the first instance having listened to a lot of the back catalogue and we talked about some of the ideas that I had. It was lovely to have that opportunity to run through all those songs again and it was really interesting to be listening to those songs in a different context. It's one thing listening to them in a nightclub and you're dancing along but when you're listening to them thinking about a musical then you are listening to them in a different way. And this was different because usually when you're working on a new musical you are working with the composers on the material so you do actually have an input into the lyrics or even what the lyrics might be but with this one it was completely different because all the songs were already there. I was listening and I was hearing and I was looking at the lyrics and thinking how they would fit into a story, and so an original story started to emerge.

“The songs were there, hundreds of them but generally, if you put it at its most simple, the songs are all about love. Whether they are up tempo songs or ballads or whatever, they are songs about love in all its different forms, unrequited love, love that is breaking down, first love that is just starting up. It's all there… and I just put some of the songs together and the show starts at a wedding, a great way to start with the big explosion! But it is a wedding that goes wrong!”