Quantum of Solace’s Gemma Arterton will star in the theatrical version of Made in Dagenham.Karen Ballard/The Associated Press
Just For Laughs Theatricals is getting ready to roll a new show off the assembly line – the Canadian comedy giant's first West End musical as lead producer.
Made in Dagenham, based on the 2010 British movie of the same name about a sewing machinist strike at a Ford car plant in 1968, is set to open at the Adelphi Theatre in London next October.
Former Bond girl Gemma Arterton will star as a woman who stands up to her bosses and her union after female workers at the plant have their pay grade dropped to "unskilled." Richard Bean, playwright behind the transatlantic hit One Man, Two Guvnors, is writing the book, while David Arnold (composer for five James Bond films) and Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer: The Opera) are the team behind the music.
Rupert Goold, director of such offbeat London hits as Enron and American Psycho: The Musical, is slated to direct.
JFL Theatricals, a subsidiary of the Quebec comedy company run by Montrealer Adam Blanshay, launched just over a year ago. It has quickly made a name for itself co-producing such shows as last year's Tony-winning musical, Kinky Boots (also set in a British factory), and the coming Broadway shows Rocky and Bullets over Broadway.
But Made in Dagenham is the company's first original musical as lead producer. It is joined on the project by Stage Entertainment, a Amsterdam-based production company, and Glass Half Full Productions, a London-based production company that is also managed by Blanshay along with Gareth Lake.
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J. Kelly Nestruck