Stages: Boogie Woogie

Bugle Boy returns to Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre for a two week run

Whatever happened to Glenn Miller?’ remains as much a mystery today as when the iconic American band-leader went missing in mysterious circumstances at the end of World War 2. It ranks alongside other unsolved mysteries like, ‘Who really was William Shakespeare?’ or ‘What really happened to Lord Lucan?’

Playwright Den Stevenson became obsessed with making a musical about the great band leader when he was a booker for Glenn’s younger brother Herb Miller and his UK orchestra. Den honed his unique concept on English soil then polished and fine tuned the show on the other side of the pond, firstly down in Virginia and then up on Broadway where it was choreographed by Duke Ellington’s granddaughter, Mercedes Ellington.

The end product Bugle Boy now returns to Eastbourne for a two week run after a successful first year of touring, the very first and only Glenn Miller musical ever staged anywhere in the world. The show spans Glenn Miller’s life from leaving college to his untimely and mysterious disappearance in 1944, with all his famous tunes weaving through a love story as Glenn Miller searched tirelessly to find a unique musical sound. When his quest to find that Holy Grail finally succeeded he and his family only enjoyed the fruits of his search for a mere three years.For his family it all ended in tears but for future generations it left a musical legacy to keep everyone In the Mood!

The Bugle Boy – The Life Story of Glenn Miller
Devonshire Park Theatre, Tuesday 17-Saturday 28 July 2012 Box office 01323 412000
www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk

Resounding Success
Derek Jacobi returns to Chichester Festival Theatre during its 50th Anniversary season, in Heartbreak House, Bernard Shaw’s comic exploration of love and social mores. The notable cast also includes Emma Fielding and Ronald Pickup.

Bernard Shaw, the master of wit and social commentary, brilliantly debates money and morality, idealism and realism, as he chronicles a society teetering on the threshold of enormous change. On the brink of World War I, Ellie Dunn, her father and her fiancée attend a house party at the home of eccentric Captain Shotover. The guests are soon divided by Ellie’s pragmatic decision to marry for money, not love.

Heartbreak House, Chichester Festival Theatre, 01243 781312,
6 July – 25 August, 7.30pm/2.15pm, £10–£36