Victoria Wood and Tom MacRae’s Fourteen Again to have its London premiere at the Menier

Fourteen Again, a new musical with songs by Victoria Wood and a book by Tom MacRae, gets its London premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Previews begin on Saturday 21 November 2026, it opens on Wednesday 2 December and runs to Saturday 27 February 2027. Priority booking for Menier supporters opens today, with public booking on 9 September.

Ria Jones and Sally Ann Triplett reprise Lou and Peggy from the production that ran this spring in Bowness-on-Windermere. Both worked with Wood: Triplett created Miss Berta in the original West End Acorn Antiques: The Musical!, and Jones played Mrs Overall on the first national tour, which Wood directed. Full casting follows shortly.

The story starts at a slimming club, where Peggy runs into Lou, her best friend from school and unseen since they were teenagers. As girls nobody was funnier; as women they are shadows of that, and the evening works backwards and forwards through what happened in between.

MacRae, who wrote Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, was commissioned to build the show from Wood’s songbook by producer Charlotte Scott and designer Roger Glossop, her friends and collaborators. It opened the Victoria Wood Theatre in Bowness — formerly the Old Laundry Theatre, renamed this year on the tenth anniversary of Wood’s death. She had opened the venue herself, was a trustee and played there often.

There is a Menier connection in that history too: Wood directed her own play Talent there in a co-production with the theatre.

Jonathan O’Boyle directs, with musical supervision and arrangements by Nigel Lilley, choreography by Sammy Murray, set by Roger Glossop, costumes by Caroline Hughes, lighting by Jason Taylor, sound by Sam Glossop and musical direction by Archie McMorran.

Fourteen Again runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory from Saturday 21 November 2026 to Saturday 27 February 2027, with press night on Wednesday 2 December.