Bend It Like Beckham creator Gurinder Chadha plans to invite England’s women World Cup team to see the new stage musical based on her hit 2002 film.
The musical follows the lives of two football-loving girls who come from two completely different ways of life and yet come together to play the game they love. The stage production opened two days after the women’s England squad won a place in the quarter-final against World Cup host nation, Canada.
Chadha told the BBC that “It’s fantastic timing for us that it’s the Women’s World Cup. It’s even greater now that the England team are doing so well. As soon as they get back to Heathrow that’s the first thing we’re going to do -invite them all, and maybe they’ll take a bow themselves.”
At the curtain call of the new musical’s opening night on Wednesday (24th June), the cast unfurled a banner in support of the England’s women’s squad.
The musical stars Natalie Dew in the lead role of Jess, a Punjabi Sikh teenager forbidden by her family to play football. The role was originally played in film by Parminder Nagra. Lauren Samuels plays Jules – the character who kick-started Keira Knightley’s career – while Jamie Campbell Bower also features as the girls’ football coach, Joe – who in the film was played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
The England team’s Casey Stoney was a consultant for the musical’s football choreography.
Bend It Like Beckham is at the Phoenix Theatre and booking is available until 24th October 2015.
Watch a trailer for the new musical below.
