New Pop-Rock Musical THE GARDENING CLUB is Coming To New Wimbledon Theatre This September

After a run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024 and presented with the support of ATG, The Gardening Club will make its London debut at the Studio at the New Wimbledon Theatre this September.

The Gardening Club is a new pop-rock musical set in 1960s Georgia, USA, where five women run an illegal birth control pill operation under the cover of a gardening club. A nurse, a journalist, a housewife, and two teenage sisters join forces to quietly distribute contraception to the women of Savannah at a time when it was banned for unmarried women in many states.

The show tackles themes of bodily autonomy, self-discovery, and first times, with a contemporary edge and a bold, pop-rock score. Following its sold-out debut and successful Edinburgh Fringe run, The Gardening Club is now heading to New Wimbledon Theatre Studio as part of ATG's Premiere Season from September 18th-27th, 2025.

The show is the debut musical from writing duo Carleigh McRitchie and Bella Wright, who met while studying at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), a proud sponsor of the upcoming London production.

Wright, raised in Montana's community theatre world, and McRitchie, a New Hampshire native with roots in classic rock and garage bands, began writing together in 2021. What started as a "What if?" conversation quickly turned into a three-year creative partnership marked by daily writing sessions, deep research, and a shared passion for telling stories that matter.

"We wanted to write the kind of show that would cause conversation," says Wright. "Something honest, messy, and loud. Something that dares to speak the unspeakable."