More stars announced for NOW That’s What I Call A Musical

They are the latest names to be confirmed for the 80s-themed show, directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood. 

Opening in Aylesbury on 6th September, the musical celebrates 40 years of the compilations brand NOW That’s What I Call Music, which has sold an estimated 200 million copies worldwide. It is filled with hits from Whitney Houston, Wham!, Blondie, Tears For Fears, Spandau Ballet and more. 

Melissa Jacques, who recently appeared as Shelley in I Should Be So Lucky (UK and Ireland tour) will star as April from 6th September up to 7th December (Brighton). Sam Bailey, who received her big break as a singer-songwriter when she won The X-Factor in 2013, will then take over the role from 14th January (Southampton) to 12th April 2025 (Wimbledon). 

Bailey’s theatre work includes Mamma Morton in Chicago (UK tour), Betty Simpson in Fat Friends the Musical (UK tour), Vampires Rock (UK tour), Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (UK tour and London Palladium) and most recently Miss Hedge in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (UK tour). 

Melissa and Sam join the previously announced Nina Wadia, who will star as Gemma as well as an array of guest stars playing themselves at certain performances and singing the songs that made them NOW icons.

Sinitta will perform in Aylesbury, Sheffield, Canterbury, Nottingham and Norwich with Sonia in Newcastle, Cardiff, Milton Keynes and Brighton, Carol Decker in Truro, Belfast and Woking, and Jay Osmond in Bradford.

In 2025 Sinitta will be appearing in Dublin, Hull and York with Sonia in Southampton, Southend, Bristol, Liverpool, Wimbledon and Birmingham and Carol Decker in Oxford. 

About the musical

It’s Birmingham, 1989. Two school friends, Gemma and April, are busy with very important business - planning their lives based on Number One Magazine quizzes and dreaming of snogging Rick Astley.

Cut to Birmingham 2009 and it’s the most dreaded event of their lives– the school reunion. Drama, old flames and receding hairlines come together as friends reunite and everything from the past starts to slot into place. The biggest question is: what was with all that hairspray?