Music legend turns master storyteller as Tommy Steele takes to the stage to narrate the extraordinary tale of the world’s most famous big band leader, accompanied by a live 16-piece Glenn Miller orchestra and a full supporting company of singers, dancers and actors.
Tommy Steele was Britain’s first rock ‘n’ roll star. Dubbed the UK’s answer to Elvis Presley, he landed his first UK No.1 with Singing the Blues in January 1957, reaching the top spot before Elvis, who didn’t land his until the June that year. The big screen soon beckoned for Tommy, and that same year he filmed The Tommy Steele Story, which dramatised his rise to fame and was one of the first British rock ‘n’ roll movies. A soundtrack of the same name was released to coincide with the film’s opening and became the first album by a UK-based act to reach No.1.
His legendary career includes over twenty hit singles, twelve hit movies and countless award-winning stage musicals such as Half a Sixpence, Hans Andersen and Singin’ in the Rain.
In recent years, Steele has starred as Christmas miser Ebenezer Scrooge in Bill Kenwright’s spectacular production of the festive musical, which enjoyed two successful runs at the world-famous London Palladium. It was a role that also made Steele the theatre’s all-time record breaking performer, having headlined more performances than any other star in the history of the Palladium.
It’s been seventy years since Glenn Miller vanished over the English Channel as he flew to Paris to entertain the troops during the Second World War. Did he crash? Was he shot down? Will the mystery ever be solved? His music defined an era; his disappearance stunned the world, and now the story of one of the most iconic musical figures of the 20th century will be brought to spectacular life in a brand new production, led by one of our biggest ever stars. It promises to have audiences on their feet jiving, swinging and jitterbugging and taking them back to the big band days of the 1940s.
The Glenn Miller Story is directed and produced by Bill Kenwright, who also directed Whistle Down the Wind, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Blood Brothers and recently Evita at the Dominion Theatre in the West End. It is choreographed by Olivier Award winner Bill Deamer (Evita, Save The Last Dance For Me and Top Hat).
