Blonde woman in red dress playing the trumpet
Group of performers playing instruments

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Blonde Bombshells of 1943

An Octagon Theatre Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre & Theatre by the Lake co-production by Alan Plater –

About Blonde Bombshells of 1943

The Blonde Bombshells take to the stage once more!

A warm and witty musical play filled with glorious live swing performances of 1940s classics by Glenn Miller, The Andrews Sisters, George Formby and Fats Waller.

The Blonde Bombshells, the most glamorous all-girl swing band in the North, loses members every time it plays a GI camp. Now there’s an important BBC job in the offing and Betty needs to find new musicians fast!

Among those drafted are an innocent schoolgirl, a nun and a draft-dodging drummer not afraid of donning a frock (if it keeps him out of National Service). With her motley line-up complete, Betty and her band prepare to dodge Hitler’s bombs and make the dangerous journey for the performance of their lives.

Blonde Bombshells of 1943 returns to the Octagon stage this summer in a lavish new production featuring live music and stellar performances.

4 Stars

perfect summer treat

- The Bolton News
4 Stars

music is just stunning

- Manchester Theatres
4 Stars

Glorious

- Theatre Reviews North

Image gallery

PRODUCTION IMAGES

  • Group of women in 1940s clothes laughing around a piano
  • Group of performers in red dresses playing instruments
  • A woman playing a double bass with a nun singing next to her
  • woman playing ukulele
  • Group of performers playing instruments
  • Blonde woman in red dress playing the trumpet
  • World War 2 bomb in centre of stage with women looking at it
  • A group of women in 1940s clothes next to a drum kit
  • 3 women in red dresses singing

Cast

  • Verity Bajoria

    May


    Verity is an actor-musician originally from the North East. She graduated from Guildford School of Acting in 2022.

    Theatre credits:Tales of A Thousand and One Nights (UK Tour); Atrocities in Arkham (Drayton Arms Theatre); The Light Burns Blue (Guildford School of Acting).

    She is very excited to be joining the cast of Blonde Bombshells of 1943.

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  • Lauren Chinery

    Liz

    Lauren trained in Musical Theatre at PPA, Guildford.

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  • Georgina Field

    Betty

    Theatre credits:Gods and Dogs, Little Lily Harley, Oberon’s Cure, The Commercial Traveller, MacByrd, The Comedy of Babi Babett, Harlequin Goes to the Moon, Who Saw Marjory Daw, Gentle Harry’s Farm, IK’R’US INC (Rude Mechanicals); Midlife Cowboy (Pleasance); Roll Over Beethoven (Coventry Belgrade); The Great Gatsby, Godspell, Two & Two Make Sex, Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, Noises Off, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Perfect Pitch, Abigail’s Party (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Theatre Clwyd); A Mad World my Master (New Wolsey Theatre).

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  • Stacey Ghent

    Miranda

    Stacey (She/Her) is a hard of hearing actress, born and raised in South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

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  • Rory Gradon

    Patrick

  • Sarah Groarke

    Vera

    Sarah trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where she was the recipient of the Peter Ackerman Comedy Prize.

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  • Alice McKenna

    Grace

  • Gleanne Purcell-Brown

    Lily

    Gleanne (She/Her) graduated from The Urdang Academy in 2016 with a First Class BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre. Gleanne features in the BAFTA and Oscar nominated feature film Living with scenes opposite Bill Nighy and Tom Burke - it is now out in UK cinemas and on Amazon Prime. Gleanne can also be seen in the most current Center Parcs advert. In 2022, she played Peggy, the leading female in Playboy of the West Indies at The Birmingham Rep Theatre.

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Credits

  • Zoë Waterman

    Director

    Zoë is co-director of Illumine Theatre. She was the Associate Director of the New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent 2018-19 and won the New Wimbledon Theatre’s Emerging Directors Award in 2007.

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  • Jess Curtis

    Designer

    Jess trained at Motley.

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  • Greg Last

    Musical Director

  • Sundeep Saini

    Movement Director

    Sundeep (She/Her) is an Offie nominated movement director & choreographer.

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  • Richard G Jones

    Lighting Designer

    Richard lit the actor musician Broadway Production of Sweeney Todd at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre New York, for which he won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design. He lit the original production of The Railway Children at The National Railway Museum in York, there have since been various productions at London Waterloo, Toronto and the purpose-built Kings Cross Theatre where it ran for over two years. For the past twelve years he also lit the arena tours of Strictly Come Dancing the Live Tour.

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  • Christopher Bogg

    Sound Designer

    Christopher trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in Theatre and Performance Technology, graduating in 2003. He has designed for plays and musical theatre in the UK and abroad.

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  • Ryan McVeigh

    Assistant Director

    Ryan is a Northern Irish theatre director and dramaturg based in Bolton. He is the resident Assistant Director at the Octagon Theatre. Ryan is also the founder of Taboo Theatre, a new theatre company giving rise to underrepresented voices and raising awareness of taboo topics present in our society for the stage.

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  • Howard Gray

    Orchestrations

    Howard was the original Musical Director and Orchestrator on, Blonde Bombshells at Leeds Playhouse in 2004. After a re-write from Alan Plater and some new musical arrangements from Howard, the show moved to the Octagon Theatre Bolton and then onto Hampstead Theatre. The show was awarded the MEN ‘Best Production Award’ of 2006. It has subsequently toured the country on several occasions and even gone to Malaysia. More recently, the show has been a co-production between Oldham Coliseum and the New Vic, Stoke, plus a fringe production in London.

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  • Sarah Hughes

    Casting Director

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