Woody Sez returns to London for the first time in over a decade

London gets its first look in more than a decade at Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, the folk musical that has been touring the world since it first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Presented by Underbelly and Woodrow Theatricals, the show plays a two-week engagement at the Underbelly Boulevard Soho from 8 to 19 September, arriving straight from a five-star return to this summer's Fringe.

David M. Lutken, who devised the piece and has played Guthrie around the world, reprises the part here. He is joined by David Finch, Nyssa Grant and Raquel Chavez, and between the four of them they handle more than twenty instruments, passing them back and forth as the cast move between narration, character and song. The effect is less a conventional book musical than a folk session that happens to tell a life story.

That story is assembled almost entirely from Guthrie's own words. Lutken built the show with original director Nick Corley and original cast members Darcie Deaville, Helen Jean Russell and Andy Tierstein, drawing on the autobiographical Bound for Glory and American Folk Song, on letters and diary entries, and on the newspaper column Guthrie wrote in the 1930s and 40s under the title 'Woody Sez'. Around two dozen of his songs are threaded through the writing, carrying the audience from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression to union halls and radio studios, on to his wartime service with the Merchant Marines in North Africa, Sicily and the UK, his years in New York, and finally his death from Huntington's Disease in 1967.

The production has an unusually long history for a fringe-scale show. It premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2007, came back in 2009, and has since been staged more than eighty times worldwide, including a West End run at the Arts Theatre and an Off-Broadway production at New York's Irish Repertory Theatre in 2017, plus dates across the United States, Europe, China and the Middle East. Throughout, it has been made with the backing of the Guthrie estate; Lutken has worked with the family and with Woody Guthrie Publications for decades.

Critics at this year's Fringe were emphatic. A Young(ish) Perspective called it “truly brilliant… Lutken is simply awe inspiring… A wonderful piece of gig theatre,” while Counterculture wrote that “the musicianship is exceptional. Every instrument is played with assurance, every harmony feels earned, and there is a warmth to the performances that draws the audience into Guthrie's world.” Both awarded five stars, as did Edinburgh Reviews and Mervyn Stutter's Pick of the Fringe.

Lutken is a Broadway veteran whose credits there include Inherit the Wind, Ring of Fire, The Civil War and The Will Rogers Follies, and who this year picked up a Drama Desk win for Best Orchestrations for The Porch on Windy Hill. His Guthrie has already earned him Helen Hayes and Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Actor.

Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie runs at the Underbelly Boulevard Soho, 6 Walker's Court, W1F 0BT, from 8 to 19 September. Performances are at 19:00, with additional 15:00 shows on Saturdays and a 14:00 matinee on Sunday. Running time is 80 minutes. Press night is 9 September at 19:00.