Francesca Pimm, Wendi Peters and Ashlee Young in Salad Days. Photo: Mark Senior. Having charmed audiences around the world with their award-winning Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado, Regan De Wynter Williams returns with one of Britain’s best- loved and sunniest musicals with TV and West End star Wendi Peters (Coronation Street, ITV; Hetty Feather, BBC; White Christmas, Dominion Theatre). Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds’ musical is an absolute romp of polite naughtiness and saucy encounters, with an energetic and peppy score featuring songs such as ‘We Said We Wouldn’t Look Back’, ‘Look At Me, I’m Dancing’, and ‘We’re Looking For A Piano’. It puts a smile on your face and a tap in your toes. Director Bryan Hodgson comments, I am thrilled to be able to stage Salad Days again this autumn - it serves as one of the greatest romps in musical theatre history, and really brings us a timeless sense of enjoyment and nonsense, which is always welcome in counteracting the sometimes overwhelming seriousness of today. With the fabulous Wendi Peters joining the cast too, it will simply be a fun and delightful evening out, and I cannot wait to get the magic piano and spaceship ready for its latest trip around the charming British countryside! Written in 1952 as a summer musical for the Bristol Old Vic, Salad Days then transferred to the Vaudeville where it ran for 2,283 performances. Salad Days is a phrase first coined in Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra, referring to Anthony’s youth; the show tells the light- hearted tale of recent graduates Timothy and Jane. Unhappy with their pushy parents, they decide to get jobs and take on the responsibility of looking after a piano in a park! Little are they prepared to deal with the magic and madness that follows. Casting for Salad Days includes Wedi Peters (Lady Raeburn/ Aunt Prue), Mark Anderson (Timothy), Jessica Croll (Jane), James Guilliford (Nigel), Francesca Pim (Fiona), Megan Armstrong (Rowena), Jon Osbaldeston (Timothy's Father/Uncle Clam/Williams), Jay Worthy (Inspector/Manager/Zed), Maeve Byrne (Asphyxia), Nathan Elwick (Inspector Boot), Lewis McBean (Ambrose/Tom/Fosdyke), Callum Evans (Troppo), Ashlee Young (Marguerite), Valerie Cutko (Timothy's Mother), Dan Smith (Tramp/Onstage MD), Victoria Nicol and Bradley Judge.

It's a show that famously inspired a seven-year-old Cameron Mackintosh to fall in love with the theatre, and this production made me realise why that might be (The Stage). Salad Days is directed by Bryan Hodgson, choreography by Joanne McShane, musical direction by Eliot Styche, costumes and set design by Mike Lees, lighting design by Tim Deiling, sound design by Tony Gayle Audio, and casting by Adam Braham.