The secret diary of Adrian mole aged 13 ¾  is set in the city of Leicester in the eighties. Adrian is a spotty, misunderstood teenager who considers himself an intellectual and the story is fraught with family problems, unrequited love and teenage trauma. This is the first time a book in the Adrian Mole series has been converted to a musical and they sure did a good job!

The role of Adrian Mole for this West End casting was alternated between Rufus Kampa, Aaron Gelkoff and Michael Hawkins. Alternating the role of Pandora was Matilda Hopkins, Molly May Gibson, Riya Vyas and Rebecca Nardin. Alternating the role of Barry was Aaron Shaw, Charlie Stripp, Kobi Watson and Jack Gale. Alternating the role of Nigel was Cuba Kamanu, Jeremiah Davan Waysome, Albert Green and Regan Garcia.

Because it ended on a happy note whereas the book ended with Adrian having a depressing birthday, it left me with a happy satisfied feeling.  However, I was also annoyed because the diary does not follow Sue Townsend’s original storyline.

Adrian mole– what can I say? He is a weird sort of character but somehow I have found the books really gripping and have been unable to put them down. This boy who initially lived in Leicester moved to Ashby de la Zouch in the Midlands and spent his entire life hankering after Pandora Braithwaite. I started out with ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ ‘, followed by ‘The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole’, ‘The True Confessions Of Adrian Albert Mole’, ‘The Wilderness Years’, ‘The Cappuccino Years’, ‘Weapons Of Mass Destruction’. I am now reading ‘The Lost Diaries’ which is the last but one book before I move onto ‘The Prostrate Years’.

I was intrigued to see that there was a musical especially because in my opinion the story did not lend itself to musicality. However it was really well done and this musical is the story of the first book.

The cost of the tickets was exorbitant unfortunately. 

We also had to make a 4 hour round trip to London to see this musical which was a lot of travelling for one day and used a lot of fuel.   

It was interesting to see how the first book was converted into musical. I was a bit disappointed towards the end however because they changed the ending. 

I really enjoyed the musical and would be happy to see the later books also made into musicals. I was sad to hear that when Sue Townsend died in 2014 she was partway through another book entitled Pandora’s Box where she plans to wrap up the story. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend Adrian Mole the musical.

Seeing this has made me more interested in this art form. After more research, I have made a list of musicals I want to see such as “Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat”. 

I learnt that you can change a story to make it a more accessible to a younger audience as the Adrian Mole books are not child friendly.  This musical is a good example of that.

I thought it was interesting how there were very few actors and they all played several different parts and different roles and they managed to get changed into their various costumes very efficiently and seamlessly. I liked the various little motifs that followed the different characters in the different scenes that links things together.

The musical started with everyone counting down the New Year which was a contrast to end which was a call back to this countdown.  This is a great device for creative writing.

I am glad that I got the opportunity to catch this performance before the Covid pandemic struck. I would highly recommend this musical to anyone who enjoyed reading Sue Townsend’s books or even if you didn’t.

I am interested in potentially composing for musicals and writing like Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I would also like to try out orchestration for musicals and am going to consider becoming an orchestrator.

I am partway through book #6 - The Lost Diaries.  Reading all the Adrian Mole books and watching this musical has inspired me to write my own diary.  I started last year and religiously fill it in daily.