A new jukebox musical based on the life of Tom Jones will premiere in the UK this September but banish all thoughts of medallions and chest hair - What's New Pussycat? will use Jones’s songs to tell the story of the other Tom Jones from Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel.
The Guardian reports that songs such as Delilah, Sex Bomb and The Green, Green Grass of Home will feature in the show, which premieres at Leeds Playhouse this autumn.
What’s New Pussycat? was penned byTony-award winner Joe DiPietro, who previously worked on the West End musical hit Memphis in 2014.
The new show will update Fielding’s celebrated novel about the adventurous renegade, which was made into a 1963 movie starring Albert Finney and Susannah York, from the mid-18th century to London’s swinging 1960s.
Renowned choreographer Arlene Phillips is working on the show alongside director Luke Sheppard, who is currently enjoying success with & Juliet, a version of Shakespeare's tragedy with songs by the Swedish pop producer and hit machine Max Martin.
Sheppard said that the first staged reading for What’s New Pussycat? "left me flying high", adding Jones’s music, "has such range it can break your heart one moment and have you on the dance floor the next".
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