Fat Friends – The Musical has postponed its forthcoming tour dates. The musical version of Kay Mellor’s TV series was due to open in Dartford this week and was to have toured until July, but all scheduled performances have been halted. The show’s website has posted : "We regret to inform you that due to recent and ongoing Covid-19-related events and their direct and detrimental impact on the production of Fat Friends – The Musical, this show has sadly had to postpone its scheduled UK and Ireland tour and we are now looking into rescheduling with alternative dates." The show, with music by Nick Lloyd Webber, had a cast including Lee Mead, Sherrie Hewson, Jessica Ellis and Les Dennis. Mead told fans online that he was "very sad" the tour had been postponed and hoped it would go ahead soon. Cancelled dates include Leeds Grand (February 21-March 5); Liverpool Empire (May 23-28); Bradford Alhambra (May 30-4 June) and The Lowry, Salford (June 6-11).
Producers are confident the production will return at a later date.
Fat Friends is only the latest show cancelled by coronavirus problems; while many more have had to close for a period while cast members isolated due to the virus.
Earlier this week Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester got round the worst effects of almost two weeks of closures of its hit Christmas production of The Wiz by getting rights holders to agree to the theatre streaming a recording to replace the "missing" shows, and only to the same number of ticket buyers who might have seen the lost live performances.