Photo Flash: First Look at MONKEE BUSINESS THE MUSICAL at Manchester Opera House

MONKEE BUSINESS THE MUSICAL, featuring exotic locations, far out cars, groovy spies and The Monkees' biggest hits, is swinging into the Manchester Opera House for its world premiere, follwed by performances at the Glasgow Kings Theatre and Sutherland Empire.

Take a look at the Monkees production shot below!

It's the story of four innocent boys who fall prey to an evil record producer and are tricked into impersonating one of the biggest bands in the world. As they struggle to conceal their own personalities, a frantic world tour leads to entanglements with a harem of sexy Russian spies, an army of Tower Beefeaters and a railway carriage full of nuns.  

From the producers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Spamalot, Monkee Business the Musical will pay homage to both the crazy chaos of the Emmy Award winning TV series and the brilliant music of The Monkees featuring hit after hit including I'm A Believer, Last Train to Clarksville, Hey, Hey We're The Monkees and the smash hit Daydream Believer alongside many more iconic songs from the era like My Boy Lollipop and You Don't Have to Say You Love Me.

Made instant world-wide stars by the famous 1960s TV series, The Monkees, made up of Manchester-born Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith, became one of most successful bands of their generation – at one time even outselling The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - releasing 121 songs on nine albums and influencing many future artists.

The cast includes: Ben Evans (Chuck – posing as Davy  Jones), has a wealth of West End credits already including Jersey Boys, Les Miserables, Olvier! Mamma Mia! and The Lord of the Rings; Oliver Savile (William – posing as Peter Tork), after graduating made his professional debut in the UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and has recently been touring the world in the international tour of Mamma Mia!; Stephen Kirwan (Andy, posing as Micky Dolenz) made his West End debut in Cameron Macintosh's Mary Poppins. He has also toured the UK in Fiddler on the Roof and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Most recently Stephen has appeared as Claude in the European tour of Hair; and Tom Parsons (Mark – posing as Mike Nesmith) has appeared in the West End in Mamma Mia! and most recently as Nicky/Trekkie in Avenue Q. 

Joining Ben, Oliver, Stephen and Tom in Monkee Business the Musical, playing the role of the boys' unscrupulous manager Joey Finkelstein will be the extremely familiar face of Linal Haft. Linal – most recently seen as Harry Gold in Eastenders – has a wealth of theatre, film and television credits to his name. Theatre includes Slaughter City (RSC), Happy Birthday Brecht (National Theatre), The Old Neighbourhood (The Royal Court) and most recently the award winning Burlesque at Jermyn Street Theatre. TV includes Minder, Shine on Harvey Moon, Great Expectations, Vanity Fair, Rome and the aforementioned Eastenders with films including Moulin Rouge. 

Monkee Business the Musical is written by Peter Benedict (Naked Flame, Fire Down Under, Deadlock), directed by David Taylor (Cats, The Prisoner of Second Avenue), choreographed by David Morgan (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and produced by the madcap Michael Rose Ltd in conjunction with the seriously-off=the-wall Ambassador Theatre Group.

Monkee Business is premiering at the Opera House as part of Manchester Gets It First,  Ambassador Theatre Group's commitment to making Manchester the UK's official city for launching theatre's biggest and best new musicals, a scheme which has won the backing of the city council. Ghost the Musical was the first MGiF show, and last month saw the second, the record-breaking All New People – written by and starring Zach Braff. 

The Manchester run of Monkee Business The Musical will be dedicated to Davy Jones, a wonderfully talented musician whose songs brought happiness to millions of people around the world.

Manchester Opera House
Thursday 29 March - Saturday 14 April 2012
Box Office 0844 871 3018

www.atgtickets.com/manchester

Glasgow Kings Theatre
Tuesday 17 - Saturday 21 April 2012
0844 871 7648
www.atgtickets.com/glasgow

Ben Evans, Oliver Savile, Stephen Kirwan, and Tom Parsons,