SALAD DAYS Opens Tonight at Theatre Royal Winchester

One of Britain's best-loved and sunniest musicals, Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds' Salad Days, heads to Theatre Royal Winchester from Monday 8 - Saturday 13 October. The production stars TV and West End star Wendi Peters (Coronation Street, Hetty Feather).

Wendi Peters has worked extensively on both stage and screen, but it was the iconic role of Cilla in Coronation Street which made her a household name. Wendi's other TV credits include playing Cook Jenkins in Hetty Feather and 'Podger' Pam Jolly in Bad Girls. Alongside her screen work she is much in demand on the stage with recent credits including Quartet (National Tour), Oh What A Lovely War! (National Tour) and White Christmas (Dominion Theatre).

Salad Days is an absolute romp of polite naughtiness and saucy encounters, with an energetic and peppy score featuring songs such as 'We Said We Wouldn't Look Back', 'Look At Me, I'm Dancing', and 'We're Looking For A Piano'. It puts a smile on your face and a tap in your toes and is the show that famously inspired a seven-year-old Cameron Mackintosh to fall in love with the theatre.

Salad Days is brought to Winchester by Regan De Wynter Williams who return to the Theatre Royal following their hugely successful productions of Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S Pinafore and The Mikado.

Director Bryan Hodgson comments, 'Salad Days is one of the greatest romps in musical theatre history, and really brings us a timeless sense of enjoyment and nonsense, which is always welcome in counteracting the sometimes overwhelming seriousness of today. With the fabulous Wendi Peters joining the cast too, it will simply be a fun and delightful evening out, and I cannot wait to get the magic piano and spaceship ready for its latest trip around the charming British countryside!'

Written in 1952 as a summer musical for the Bristol Old Vic, Salad Days then transferred to the Vaudeville where it ran for 2,283 performances. Salad Days is a phrase first coined in Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, referring to Anthony's youth; the show tells the light-hearted tale of recent graduates Timothy and Jane. Unhappy with their pushy parents, they decide to get jobs and take on the responsibility of looking after a piano in a park! Little are they prepared to deal with the magic and madness that follows...

Salad Days will be at Theatre Royal Winchester from Monday 8 to Saturday 13 October 7.30pm with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are available from theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk and from the Box Office 01962 840 440.