Happy Days crowd funds its way to Lowry on nostalgia

"Sunday, Monday, Happy Days. Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days." For people of a certain age, just those words will spark memories of one of the iconic shows of the 1970s. Now the characters of Potsie, Joanie and, of course, The Fonz, have been recreated for a new musical version of the show.

As producer Amy Anzel explains, the show has been ten years in the making. Originally workshopped in the States by director Garry Marshall, she was involved as member of the cast and fell in love with the show.

Huge Following

When she moved to the UK five years ago, Amy realised that there was a huge following for fifties based shows, so she optioned the UK rights and finally has realised her ambition of getting the show on tour, although she admits that they are still tweaking it in response to audience reaction. The show was financed predominantly through the crowd-funding platform Seedrs and the £250,000 was raised fairly quickly from 345 investors, investing anything from £10 up to considerable sums of money.

Happy Days The Musical is an entirely new show, incorporating the infamous theme tune but also 21 original songs by award-winning songwriter Paul Williams. Williams is probably best known for Bugsy Malone but also wrote the music for The Muppet Movie and many of The Carpenters hits. Garry Marshall has written the storyline, marrying bits of several episodes along with new material, to create a plot where the characters are out to save Arnold's Diner.

Bucks Fizz

One of the stars of the show, Cheryl Baker, adds that Happy Days was part of an era where there were no videos and no pause button. Like many others she would watch the show each week and then wait impatiently for the next week's episode. She was therefore delighted to be part of the show, but admits that she likes wearing the wig for the show as she can take it off and return to being Cheryl rather than Marion Cunningham. But she did confess that there is a slight nod to her Bucks Fizz days which may have something to do with skirts and velcro!

Anzel admits that the roles have been cast to look as close to the TV series originals as possible and is amazed at how close they managed to get. But explains that since many people attending will have fond memories of the original they didn't want to damage those images. The show though is not just for those who remember the show but is family friendly and aiming to appeal to those from six to ninety six. The cast also includes former Emmerdale star Ben Freeman as The Fonz, Heidi Range from the Sugababes as his love interest Pinkie and the new talent of Emma Harrold as Joanie

Sugababe

Heidi Range is enjoying her debut in a musical, although she worked in theatre before her days in the Sugababes and had even been due to perform at the Lowry many years ago but instead joined the girl-group. In the original TV show Pinkie only appeared in three episodes but the role has been enlarged for the stage show, therefore Heidi has had the opportunity to develop the character much more than many of the other roles.

At the launch, Range belted out one of her main numbers "Legend In Leather" before being joined on stage by Cheryl Baker and Emma Harrold for the song "What I Dreamed Last Night." But the ladies were keen to emphasise that it is a real ensemble show, and that the cameraderie that comes over on stage is echoed off stage. Harrold says that although she had not watched the TV show before her audition, she has since watched a lot of it and got to know it. She saw how the TV show is all about the closeness of family and friends, and that the stage show is also very family orientated.

Coming to the Lowry in June

As the theme song says: "These happy days are yours and mine" – Amy Anzel and the seventeen strong cast seem determined to make sure that the nostalgia is shared with audiences around the UK.

Happy Days the Musical runs at The Lowry, Salford from 23 – 28 June 2014.