Oor Wullie leaps from page to stage with new theatre musical

Oor Wullie the Musical is coming to the Adam Smith Theatre from March 9-11 as part of the production’s big World Premiere Scottish Tour.

Wullie will be joined by Fat Boab, Soapy Soatar, Wee Eck and PC Murdoch on an adventure which will hopefully result in him being reunited with his missing bucket!

The musical’s creators say it will see Wullie and his pals learn new lessons about accepting people’s differences and what it means to be Scottish in modern-day Scotland in 2020.

The production is partly set in the fictional town of Auchenshoogle, where the comic strip stories take place and features a new female incarnation of school bully Basher McKenzie, as well as significant roles for Wullie’s love interest Primrose Patterson, while a female actor, Annie Louise Ross, will be playing the part of PC Murdoch.

The musical will also include a brand new character called Wahid, who befriends Wullie in this adventure.

Director Andrew Panton, Dundee Rep’s artistic director who is originally from Burntisland, said: “The great priviledge and honour in bringing Oor Wullie to the stage is that everyone has an idea of what he should look and sound like – everyone has ownership over this most loved comic strip character, most famous in Scotland, which is a brilliant thing.

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“But it is also a challenge because we need to deliver for Grandpa Joe who has been living with Oor Wullie for most of his life, the wee girl who has just seen the strip for the first time and everyone in between.

“What we were really keen to do was respect the origins of where Wullie came from over 80 years ago but also create a world in which he can exist but in a contemporary Scotland and I think that is what we have achieved.

“People are getting the Oor Wullie that they want but they are also getting him talking about things that are happening in a contemporary Scotland – for example looking at what it means to be Scottish and how this is quite a different thing now to what it was 80 years ago. The musical also looks at what we mean by home, friendship and community.

“It’s making people think a bit about these issues as well as entertaining them along the way.”

The show was developed 18 months ago and has recently had a successful run at Dundee Rep with it proving to be so popular that people were coming back two and three times with different family members to see the show. Andrew continued: “To be sharing it now across Scotland is really brilliant. I am originally from Burntisland and I feel as if I grew up in the Adam Smith Theatre because I was in the pantos there as a kid. “It is really lovely that the tour is finishing in Kirkcaldy and really exciting for me.”

Tickets are available HERE www.onfife.com