Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Ovation presents the world premiere of

A new musical inspired by the life of

Jimmy 'Schnozzle' Durante

A TOUCH OF FROST SAVES GATEHOUSE SHOW

Ovation have confirmed that the opening of their new Musical Goodnight Mrs Calabash, based on the life of American entertainer Jimmy Durante, has now been re-scheduled and previews will begin on Saturday 26^th May.

The curtain was due to rise last week.   However, Ovation were forced to postpone the opening of the show due to the sudden departure, for personal reasons, of the actor playing Jimmy Durante.

In the great show biz tradition of 'saving the show', actor Tim Frost has put his life on hold and come to the rescue.  At short notice, Tim, star of Ovation's critically acclaimed Play It Again Sam, returns to the Gatehouse to take on the challenging and demanding lead role with a goal of opening the show with just four days of rehearsal ready for a preview on Saturday 26th May.

For author Tony Day, who has spent over twenty years writing and developing the show, the last month has proved to be a very difficult time.  Two weeks after rehearsals had started, Tony's wife died in her sleep.  She was an incredible inspiration for him and a driving force behind urging Tony to get the project off the ground.

  Everybody at the Gatehouse has committed their time and effort to ensure that Tony's work is performed and the whole production team have rallied round for the emergency rehearsals.   

 Ovation and the 'Upstairs' team would like to thank all those theatre-goers for their patience with the delay - we believe it will be worth the wait and that in the words of Jimmy himself:

"This is the moment we've all been waiting for".