HEAD OVER HEELS Will Make European Premiere in January 2023

The European première of Head Over Heels will take place the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester next year. Originally written and conceived by Jeff Whitty, it is adapted by James Magruder, and based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney, with songs from The Go-Go's. Directed and choreographed by Tom Jackson Greaves, Head Over Heels is a bold musical comedy set to the music of the iconic 1980's all-female rock band The Go-Go's. The production opens on 31 January 2023, with previews from 26 January, running until 4 March.

Director, Tom Jackson Greaves said today: "Head Over Heels has been on my radar since its inception. Its colour, pride and joy combined with the music of The Go-Go's is a delicious recipe. There are very few new musicals that excite me as much - from its portrayal of queer experiences to its comment on the patriarchy, with its mounds of silliness - the piece is a breath of fresh air within the art form. It's a rebellion against the confines of history. It's a celebration of uniqueness. It's the perfect antidote (and in some ways challenge) to the world's darkness in 2022 and I couldn't be more excited to share it with Manchester."

This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980's all-female rock band The Go-Go's, including the hit songs, We Got the Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed, Vacation, Belinda Carlisle's Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Mad About You.

A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction-only to discover the key to their realm's survival lies within each of their own hearts.

Tom Jackson Greaves is a theatre maker based in the UK, specialising in creating cross-art-form, collaborative work with movement at its heart. Greaves is an Associate Artist at The Watermill Theatre, and he has won the 2012 New Adventures Choreographer Award. As a director his credits include Whistle Down the Wind and The Jungle Book (The Watermill Theatre), Brother (Southwark Playhouse), Extraordinary Women, Lucky Stiff (GSA), High Fidelity (Turbine Theatre) and Run For Your Life (Kneehigh). His credits as choreographer/movement director include The Book Thief (Bolton Octagon), The Da Vinci Code, Zog and The Flying Doctors, Priscilla Queen of the Desert (UK tours), Rent (Hope Mill Theatre), Amélie (The Other Palace), King John (RSC), , Miracle on 34th Street, Paint Your Wagon, Fiddler on the Roof (Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse), The Audience, Billionaire Boy (Nuffield Southampton), Macbeth, Sweet Charity, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, The Borrowers, Romeo and Juliet (The Watermill Theatre), Spring Awakening (Hope Mill Manchester), Teddy (The Vaults/UK tour), Boudica (Shakespeare's Globe), The Life (Southwark Playhouse), Peter and the Starcatcher (Royal and Derngate), The Glass Menagerie (Headlong) and The Crocodile (MIF)

The Go-Go's are band members Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin and they will forever have the beat! These female pioneers formed The Go-Go's in 1978 and were an integral part of the LA punk scene. The Go-Go's made history as the first, and to date only, all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to ever top the Billboard charts. Their 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, was #1 on the charts for six consecutive weeks and it remains one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Other albums include Vacation (1982), Talk Show (1984) and God Bless The Go Go's (2001). With a 1982 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a 2021 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a place in history that no other band can claim, it is assured that the Go-Go's will keep going with a classic catalog of songs that transcends time, trends and genres.

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