Using a garden chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons, truck driver Larry Walters defied all the odds - and aviation authority regulations - to make his lifelong dream a reality by flying 16,000 feet above Los Angeles.
Telling the story of that epic voyage, musical 42 Balloons soars into The Lowry, Salford (April 18-May 19), celebrated now with the release of song-from-the-show Lawn Chair Larry (see below).
Co-producer Wendy Barnes said, “It’s our passion to produce new musicals with original stories - and original scores by emerging artists and we can’t wait for audiences to discover 42 Balloons and fall in love with it as much as we have." Show creator Jack Godfrey said: “It's been about six years since I started writing the show after discovering the incredible story of Larry's flight, and it's extremely cool and slightly surreal to see it being realised fully for the first time." Back in 1982, Larry and his partner Carol Van Deusen convinced their friends and family to help Larry achieve his dream of flying. Now, featuring an 80s pop-inspired score, the show questions how far you would go to make your dreams come true.
Larry's flight was actually not as intended: he tethered his chair to his Jeep and only meant to rise to a few hundred feet, until the cord broke and he found himself three miles up and drifting first across an airport airspace and then out over the Pacific, where he was saved by a helicopter crew. He was fined thousands of dollars, but for a time became a national celebrity. Joining the previously-announced Charlie McCullagh (Bonnie & Clyde) and Evelyn Hoskins (Waitress) who are reprising their roles as Larry and Carol from 2022 West End concert performances of the show, will be Gillian Hardie (Blood Brothers) as Carol's Mum and Lejaun Sheppard (The Book of Mormon) as Ron.
The rest of the company is: Simon Anthony, Jordan Broatch, Maddison Bulleyment, Athena Collins, Morgan Gregory, Matt Jones, Luke Latchman, Rebekah Lowings, Jamie Pritchard, Laura Dawn Pyatt, Tinovimbanashe Sibanda and Natasha Wilde.
Info and tickets here