By George: The Chip Shop Musical

Backstage Pass

The By George Story

Demos

Stage Script

Podcast: From Page to Stage

The By George Set

By George: The Chip Shop Musical was written following the success of a Millennium show. The follow-up was to take 23 years to reach the stage...

Rich recalls:

My knees gave way and I sat in an alcove sobbing - and I knew I'd never feel that way again. I was wrong.

It was September 2000 and I'd just finished the opening chorus number, on the opening night of 'Curtains' with the rest of my Woodhouse family. On the way back to Lawrence Batley Theatre's dressing room no.3, I was overwhelmed with joy to hear the fallback speaker crackling with audience laughter and that - as the blubbing alcove-dweller would repeat for many years - was the happiest moment of my life. To hear a packed audience roaring with laughter and to watch them enjoying the songs and the spectacle of a musical that's lived only in your head for so many years was utterly magical. On the last day of the run, the society's then Chairman, Alan Warmby, took me to one side and asked: "Have you got any more of these?". The answer was "Yes."

However, amidst the discussions of perhaps staging a chip-shop musical called 'Wi'Bits' in 2002, something else happened on that opening night; an entertainment agent was in the audience and approached me to audition for some professional work. A pantomime at Leeds City Varieties, a stint as a singer at Alton Towers and twenty years as a cruise director later, 'Wi'Bits' was a vague memory.

I'd quit the sea life by the time 2020 rolled around, ditching the Captain's cocktail parties, the shore excursions and the now-creaking enthusiasm, for a mountain of ideas and projects I wanted to work on. A play, a few apps and that chip-shop thing.

By this stage, I'd got a rough outline of a plot based around the traumas of Brexit and social isolation, and songs included 'Princess' - a seven minute character examination. It was hardly a must-see.

So, the saviour of 'Curtains', my sister-in-law Maria, grabbed her red biro and attacked the script. When she edited and starred in that first show, she was yet to become my sister-in-law, but similarly had learned a great deal from the haphazard, seat-of-the-pants 2000 production and the many plays she'd performed in since - including a recent spell on Broadway. Half way through her edit, Maria put her pen to one side and told me my chip-shop musical was incoherent, ill-disciplined and unstageable. She put it nicely and she was absolutely right.

Maria finds editing tricky if she can't visualise what she's reading - which meant getting to grips with what the stage would look like. One sketched plan later, and suddenly the musical seemed, miraculously, to take shape. Side-plots were shelved. The tone was lightened. Comedy was ejected at some points and injected at others. Characters and songs were axed. Over the course of the editing and development process, 33 individual songs have appeared in the show. There are now 18.

There were three substantial edits to follow over the course of the pandemic. 'By George' - as the show was now called - was ready to be seen by local societies with a view to staging it. Woodhouse and, particularly, current Chairman Neil Broadbent backed it from the off. But another interested party was the theatre itself under the management of its newly promoted Chief Executive Becky Atkinson. With both theatre and society enthusiastic about the project, Neil and Becky discussed joining forces and, with seemingly no fuss or issue, 'By George' had two driving forces and a writer who couldn't believe he was going to get another alcove moment.

Once the project received its green light and an opening date, development came to the fore. The ultimate success of 'Curtains' was down to the luck of having a superb cast, musicians that could improvise from the sparse score hurled at them and the youthful exuberance required to be re-writing up-to-and-including the day the show opened. I was determined that 'By George' would be very different.

Two table reads among friends identified plot holes and pacing issues, but also highlighted that the script had hidden gems in its minor characters. Subsequent edits eradicated the flaws and allowed the gems to glisten. An Lawrence Batley Theatre development day with the stage set taped out proved that even the toughest scenes were possible.

And so the production team took a deep breath and announced a casting call. Maria and I mentioned to each other that we were prepared for disappointment and compromise whilst driving to the theatre on the morning of the auditions. But eight hours later, we were with the casting committee and theatre management in The Slug and Lettuce, completely elated. The show was not only fully cast, but handsomely so. Many performers had emerged unexpectedly and simply blown the panel away. The skill of the auditionees in nailing traits in a character that had never been seen before was beyond anything we could have dreamed.

Next came collaboration. The show stopped being mine. With every meeting the show gathered its own momentum. James Clare and the Lawrence Batley Theatre team offered an immense contribution to staging and production, Neil's incredible knack for helming a show added fresh insights - as did some obscenely talented friends, suffused in musicals, who leant their gifts so generously.

Keira, Rob, James, Harrison, Bianca and John have shaped the score. Listing each of their contributions would be impossible, but without any one of them this show would simply not sound as good. Each gave me a masterclass in how to score correctly and inspired eureka moments. Adding a violin - then hearing Bianca improvise a soaring countermelody, learning that drum parts are better left sparse, and, having a guitarist emulate a whole orchestra with the push of a pedal - were all highlights of my interactions with these breath-taking artists.

But that was the pattern of every collaboration. I'd walk into props, staging or publicity meetings expecting there to be a barrier or cap to the creativity. Not once during this entire process has anyone said 'no' - in fact, more often than not, the response has been 'oh yes we can do that, and have you thought about this, we can do that too'.

Throughout the production I've had the pleasure of the company of Matt Ogden for a series of podcasts. We made a pact early on that we would explain each week 'By George's journey from page to stage - all the good stuff and all the bad. We joked that if something went wrong it would make for a much better story. It turns out. we didn't need incidents, just enthusiasm.

rhank you lo everyone who has contributed to 'By Gcorg •'s premiere run: to the cast, crew, co ordinators and company who've brought th1~ wry personal proJect to vibrant life, but ,,l~o lo you, for buying a ticket and supporting ,111 unknown show and undoubtedly made a q1uw11 rn,in's knees give way once again.

By the way, if anyone asks me "Have you got any more of these?". The answer is "Yes."

The auditions on May 4th 2025 at LBT Huddersfield will be set to the backing tracks provided below. The ones marked with a star (*) are the tracks which will be played at the audition. The demos are provided simply as a vocal guide and are not intended to inform singing style or accent. For smaller named roles of any gender, please audition using the 'Company' material and specify on the day if you'd like to be considered especially for one character.

Demos

Yorkshire Born and Bred

Aren't We Outrageous?

My England and I

It's Your World

By George: The Chip Shop Musical stage script