On 29th June 1982 this musical was first presented at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and it was such a success that it transferred to the West End where Tom Courtenay played the part of Andy Capp. It has since then been produced at the Newcastle Playhouse with Tim Healy and Bobby Pattinson.
The show, of course, is based on the cartoon character created by Reg Smythe of West Hartlepool which has appeared in the “Daily Mirror” every morning since 1958. The universal popularity of the Andy Capp figure is obvious – he appears in 48 countries, in 13 languages – in Germany he is called Willi Wacker!!! It was the inspiration of Alan Price and Trevor Peacock to use the thousands of cartoon situations created by Reg Smythe to form the basis of one of the funniest of recent musicals. It is the story of a WAR – the war between the sexes… and we still await the results!
