Raising their voices: Rachael Wooding, left, Jessica Daley, Emma Crossley, Bobbie Little, Syndey Isitt-Ager, Kayla Carter, Ashleigh Gray and Caroline Sheen in York Theatre Royal’s world premiere of Military Wives The Musical. Picture: Danny With A Camera
AFTER Sir Gary Oldman’s spring return to York Theatre Royal after 35 years in the banana-munching, tape-spooling Krapp’s Last Tape, here comes the second Theatre Royal coup of 2025.
Again opening with a week of previews before press night, Debbie Isitt’s Military Wives The Musical is receiving its world premiere.
This has HIT written all over it. Isitt is the BAFTA-winning writer-director behind the Nativity! film and stage show franchise and the Stock Aitken Waterman musical I Should Be So Lucky. Likewise, Military Wives is a highly successful brand already, with a Gareth Malone TV series, a Christmas number one single and the 2019 film.
Military Wives writer-director Debbie Isitt in the rehearsal room. Picture: Danny With A Camera
Now Isitt’s musical brings together the best Isitt ingredients – comedy, high emotion, colourful, populist characters – fused with the pop appeal of chart hits and power ballads, and the Military Wives true story already familiar to many.
York is an apt location for this world premiere, given the long history of Strensall and Imphal Barracks and the proximity of Catterick Garrison up the A1. Last night’s performance was preceded by a special pre-show foyer performance by the Military WAGS Choir from Catterick Garrison, and the presence of military wives in the audience had a palpable impact on the response throughout.
All this will be music to Debbie Isitt’s ears. She had maximised the authenticity of her storyline by her detailed research, meeting wives from barracks and Military Wives choir members.
In the line of fire in Afghanistan: Billy Roberts, left, Joe Kelly and Adrian Hansel’s soldiers in Military Wives The Musical. Picture: Danny With A Camera
What results is a nascent musical that already feels complete, that ticks every box, that is much more than a mere jukebox musical, that has broad appeal, all-important momentum, comedy and tragedy in tandem.
The show carries the content warning of including “depictions of war and violence in a military conflict and themes of bereavement”. Plus haze/theatrical smoke. Tick. Pyrotechnics and loud noises/explosion effects. Tick. Strong language. Tick. Prop firearms. Tick. You have been warned. Tick.
Military Wives is billed as a “funny, feel-good story of female empowerment and the perfect harmony of laughter, emotion and fun in a joyous celebration of female friendship, courage and ‘unsung’ heroes”. That might suggest the target audience is female, but to a man, every man around your reviewer was drawn to its winning formula too.
Across the divide: Caroline Sheen, left, Ashleigh Gray, Syndey Isitt-Ager, Emma Crossley, Jessica Daley, Rachael Wooding, Billy Roberts, Joe Kelly and Adrian Hansel in a scene from Military Wives The Musical. Picture: Danny With A Camera
The words “joy” and “feel-good” jump out, but what makes Military Wives more than that is that it never hides away from the reality of war: the fear of death, of no return, of PTSD, of loss of faith, of the loneliness of absence.
All life (and death) is here on Katie Lias’s set of boxes, barbed wire and poppies as Isitt introduces us to the wives and their soldier husbands as the men head out to Afghanistan. Bex (Emma Crossley) and soldier partner Paula (Bobbie Little), struggling with IVF; Faith (Kayla Carter) and Luke (Adrian Hansel), questioning his faith (but not Faith); potty-mouthed, chain-smoking Krissy (Rachel Wooding), at loggerheads with Dale (Billy Roberts); posh, wasp-tongued Susannah (Caroline Sheen), “Snuffle Bottom” to husband Simon (Roberts), the colonel.
Jessica Daley’s ever-harassed Jenny and Stewart Wright’s ever-chirpy Dave the Welfare Officer in Military Wives The Musical. Picture: Danny With A Camera
We also meet newly-weds Sarah (Sydney Isitt-Ager) and Adam (Joe Kelly), yet to go on honeymoon; pregnant Terri (Ashleigh Gray); mother-of-five shopkeeper Jenny (Jessica Daley), the can of Pringles of the barracks (“have one and she can’t stop”).
On hand at all times is Dave, the welfare officer, (Stewart Wright), always perky, always coming up with a new idea, always available to help, and throughout he is Isitt’s primary source of humour (along with the putdowns of Wooding’s Krissy).
Into this world, where the women have been living separate lives behind closed doors, comes choir leader Olive (Bobbie Little) to bring them together through song. Isitt in turn brings together all social classes and the frictions that go with that, leading to a superlative Spice Girls gag.
Ann Summers’ night for the Military Wives: Emma Crossley, left, Rachael Wooding, Ashleigh Gray, Kayla Carter, Jessica Daley, Syndey Isitt-Ager and Caroline Sheen. Picture: Danny With A Camera
All the while, on the choir’s journey from Bicester show to the Royal Albert Hall, songs are suddenly interjected with gunfire and explosions in Afghanistan, climaxing in the Act One cliffhanger with parallel dramas of childbirth on a hilltop and a medical emergency on the warfront. The shadow of death is never far away, but so too are revelations of past loss, infidelity, dementia and fatherhood.
George Dyer, arranger, orchestrator, musical supervisor and musical director, is on superb form at the piano, for Adele, Coldplay and Pink hits alike, matched by the moving, amusing performances of Isitt’s West End cast –and that is surely where Military Wives will be heading.
Maybe a tour first, given that this world premiere was made in association the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, and Buxton Opera House. Just as Seven Brides For Seven Brides and The Railway Children made their way from York Theatre Royal origins to London, so will Military Wives.
Debbie Isitt’s Military Wives The Musical, York Theatre Royal, until September 27, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.