Faith Reclaims Northern Soul for New Generation???

Watch out for Keeping the Faith, a promising and politically charged, new British musical based around Northern soul hits from the 1970s. Written and directed by Fiona Laird, it was developed earlier this year with students at the Central School of Speech and Drama and remounted this month for a producers’ showcase in London with the aim of a full-scale commercial production in 2011.

Set in 1979, in the weeks leading up to the General Election that ushered in Margaret Thatcher and a Conservative government that “changed Britain forever”, the story flips between the political wrangling at Westminster and a group of young, unemployed friends in Wigan, who find escape from their woes every Saturday night at the town’s famous nightclub, the Wigan Casino. It’s Billy Elliot meets The Full Monty (the UK one) and A Slice of Saturday Night. Songs include “Turning My Heartbeat Up”, “Do I Love You? (Indeed I Do)”, “More Today Than Yesterday” and “I Go to Pieces”.