Manchester pub to stage live Coronation Street

From The Natter

Corrie fans can get a chance to be part of Coronation Street when three classic scripts by Jack Rosenthal are performed in the Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester in January 2012.
For the first time ITV has given permission for the scripts from 1968 to be performed live, with the traditional Manchester pub becoming the Rovers Return for two weeks.

Landlord Gareth Kavanagh said: “We are hugely grateful to ITV and Jack’s family for allowing us to stage these episodes and can’t wait for you to see them. These brand new, full cast dramatisations will take place in the ground floor of the Lass, making them a totally immersive and dramatic presentation.”

The first two episodes cover the wedding of Dennis Tanner and Jenny Sutton with a host of well-loved characters such as Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Elsie Tanner, Annie and Jack Walker and Albert Tatlock. They will be performed in the main pub with the audience becoming the onset extras. Complementing these two classic slices of Sixties writing is a new adaptation of Coronation Street’s episode 788, which centres on Stan Ogden treating Hilda to a slap-up Chinese meal, which will be performed on the stage upstairs.

They will be performed by a new cast brought together by June West, the Street’s casting director for over 15 years, and directed by theatre stalwart Helen Parry. Rumour has it a few familiar faces have expressed an interest in playing the classic characters!

Episode one will be on Monday (Jan 9th at 6pm, 7.30pm and 9pm), episode two on Tuesday (Jan 10th at 6pm, 7.30pm and 9pm). The standalone Ogdens’ episodes are on Wednesday (Jan 11th at 7.30pm and 9pm) and Thursday (Jan 12th 7.30pm and 9pm). Then on the Sunday the Ogdens is repeated at 4pm, followed by an omnibus edition of the first two episodes of 6pm.

To complete the tribute, the Lass will also be staging Hot Fat, a Jack Rosenthal Play For Today from 1974 that was lost when the tapes were wiped by the BBC. That will be on Friday Jan 13th at 6pm and Sunday 15th at 1pm and explores how friendships and deals are made and broken in a sauna.

Rosenthal is one of the north’s greatest literary sons and author of classics like the BAFTA award-winning Bar Mitzvah Boy, The Evacuees and Spend, Spend, Spend – about the pools winner Viv Nicholson.

There will only be 30 tickets for each intimate performance and tickets will go on sale on December 9, Coronation Street’s 51st anniversary.

It’s all part of Midwinter Lassfest from January 2-29 with the Lass O’Gowrie in Charles Street becoming a one-venue fringe festival, hosting an amazing 70-plus events.

Tickets are available on the door or via www.wegottickets.co.uk by searching for the Lass O’Gowrie or following the links over at www.lassfest.co.uk. Please note, priority will be given to online advance orders.

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