Dave's banking on musical success

At the launch of Bank of Dave The Musical: (l-r) Nikolai Foster, Rob Madge, Dave Fishwick, and Pippa Cleary. Photo Phil Tragen

The building-site-labourer-to-banking-mogul success story of Burnley lad Dave Fishwick is about to become a musical.

Bank of Dave The Musical will have its world premiere at the Lowry in Salford next May, then on to The Curve, Leicester – the two theatres have united behind the creation of a show that aims to mix “the humour of The Full Monty with the spirit of Billy Elliot”, as a launch event heard on Monday.

Subtitled A True-ish Story, the new musical has book and lyrics by Rob Madge - writer of My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?) - and currently playing the Emcee in Cabaret at London’s Playhouse Theatre. Its music and other lyrics are by Pippa Cleary, the first female British composer to have had three musicals produced in the West End, including The Great British Bake Off Musical and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾.

The show will be directed by Curve’s artistic director, Nikolai Foster, who already has a big list of hit musical productions in his CV, and who gave subject Dave Fishwick the tagline The Barnum of Burnley in the story based on an original screenplay by Piers Ashworth.

There have been two Netflix hit films about the Bank of Dave (or Burnley Savings and Loans Ltd, to give its proper name), and Fishwick’s autobiography was a best-seller. The musical version is promised to be “packed with heart, humour and cracking new music”.

The man himself was at the Lowry to send the show on its way, with some musical numbers performed by Rob Madge, Pippa Cleary and a team of musicians. Cleary said a number of the songs will need wide-range “Disney” type voices, and performed Nothing To Lose, to be sung by a pub landlady character called Maureen, about herself and her husband.

Madge added: “We’ll be transported to Vegas and see Dave as Elvis – but it’s really about the people of Burnley and the undervalued and under-appreciated communities that are the bedrock of this country”.

Introducing the story of “minibuses, mortgages and a man from Burnley”, presenter Michelle Eagleton revealed that Dave’s wife Nicola – with him at the launch - is also to be a character in the show, with a big power ballad to sing.

Dave said: “I hope it makes people feel warm inside. If a lad who sells buses from Burnley can do it, anyone can. And the show has to start here, in the North. We’ll have a right laugh, a good knees-up, and a swift half.”

More info and tickets here (Tickets for the Lowry run from September 24; for Leicester from October 7).