Neil Morrissey will play Duncan in Fourteen Again, the new musical built from Victoria Wood’s songs, when it reaches the Menier Chocolate Factory this winter. He joins Ria Jones and Sally Ann Triplett, who were already confirmed for the London run.
Neil Morrissey, a Victoria Wood collaborator from the first West End staging of Acorn Antiques: The Musical!, has joined the London premiere of Fourteen Again at the Menier Chocolate Factory as Duncan. He completes the trio at the centre of the show alongside Ria Jones as Lou and Sally Ann Triplett as Peggy, both of whom were announced earlier.
Jonathan O’Boyle directs. Previews start on Saturday 21 November 2026, press night is Wednesday 2 December, and the run is booked until Saturday 27 February 2027.
The casting gives the production a strong Acorn Antiques connection. Morrissey and Triplett were both in the musical’s company at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and Jones played it on tour around the UK.
Morrissey’s West End credits also include The Crown Jewels at the Garrick Theatre. On screen he is still best known as Tony in Men Behaving Badly and Rocky in Boon, and his other series include Waterloo Road and The Good Karma Hospital.
Jones and Triplett are both coming back to the Menier, Jones after Habeas Corpus and Triplett after Take Flight. Jones’s credits also include Sunset Boulevard at the London Coliseum, while Triplett won a WhatsOnStage Award for Anything Goes at the National Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and has appeared on Broadway in Finding Neverland and The Last Ship.
The musical began life this spring at The Victoria Wood Theatre in Bowness-on-Windermere. The venue, formerly The Old Laundry Theatre, took Wood’s name this year, ten years after her death, at the instigation of producer Charlotte Scott and designer Roger Glossop, the married couple who were among her closest friends and collaborators. They asked Tom MacRae, who wrote the book and lyrics for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, to fashion a new piece from her songbook, and Fourteen Again became the first production under the theatre’s new name. Wood’s ties to the building ran deep: she opened it, served as a trustee and performed there many times.
The story starts at a local Slimming Club, where Peggy runs into Lou, her closest friend at school, for the first time since they were teenagers. Back then nobody could keep up with the pair; now both have faded, and what follows turns back towards who they used to be, by turns funny, tender and painful, with Wood’s songs driving it forward.
Victoria Wood wrote the music and lyrics, with book and additional lyrics by Tom MacRae. Joining O’Boyle on the creative team are Nigel Lilley (musical supervisor, arranger and co-orchestrator), Sammy Murray (choreographer), Roger Glossop (set), Caroline Hughes (costumes), Jason Taylor (lighting), Sam Glossop (sound), Leo Flint (video) and Archie McMorran (musical director and co-orchestrator). Matt Gillett is assistant director and choreographer, with Caroline Dalton as associate set designer and Harry Greatorex as associate sound designer. The understudies are Jayne Ashley and Matt Gillett.
Tickets for Fourteen Again at the Menier Chocolate Factory are on sale now.
