Howay the lads! Gerry and Sewell score a West End run
From a Whitley Bay attic to the West End stage, Jamie Eastlake’s homegrown hit secures two-week run in London’s Theatreland as Newcastle Theatre Royal backs lightning-speed transfer
The January transfer window may be weeks away, but one big North East move to London is already a done deal.
Gerry & Sewell - the Geordie-soaked stage hit that began life in a 60-seat attic theatre in Whitley Bay - is heading to the capital’s Aldwych Theatre for a two-week West End run in the New Year.
Written, directed and produced by Blyth-born and Olivier Award winning Jamie Eastlake, co-produced by Newcastle Theatre Royal and supported by Newcastle United Football Club, Gerry & Sewell’s transfer is a genuine coup for regional theatre: a locally created play leaping from a fringe stage to West End in just three years.
With previews due in barely eight weeks, it’s an audacious, against-the-odds achievement that mirrors the story it tells.
Based on Jonathan Tulloch’s novel The Season Ticket and the subsequent film Purely Belter, the show follows two Gateshead lads from the wrong side of the Metro tracks determined to scrape together the cash for Newcastle United season tickets.
Mixing live music, puppet dogs and the odd star cameo Gerry & Sewell is a raucous yet tender celebration of a particular slice of Newcastle life. At once a local love letter and a universal tale of resilience, loyalty and hope, it’s a funny, moving tribute to black-and-white dreams and the people who dream them.
After sell-out runs at Laurels, Live Theatre and the Theatre Royal last autumn, the acclaimed production had already secured another week-long run of fixtures at the Theatre Royal in June 2026 - but when the chance arose to take it to the West End, the team didn’t hesitate.
“It’s happened fast - very fast,” says Jamie Eastlake. “The story of Gerry and Sewell is all about chasing a dream, overcoming adversity, being the little guys trying to be someone. The fact that this show started in a 60-seater pub theatre and now is transferring to the West End feels like everything at its core is being mirrored.
“Young people from the North. From nowt. Their stories deserve to be told. Everywhere.”
For Marianne Locatori, chief executive of Newcastle Theatre Royal, the move is both artistic and symbolic. “The North East region is rich in storytelling and having had the opportunity to work with Jamie and the Eastlake Productions team to present this fabulous tale on our own stage, we are delighted to be part of the next chapter of Gerry & Sewell.
“It’s really rare to get any space in the West End, and West End theatres are very choosy about what they put on their stages,” she says. “It’s ambitious, but it really was an opportunity which we just couldn’t pass up.”
Mounting a commercial West End production normally takes months - and deep pockets.
The original cast - Jack Robertson, Dean Logan, Becky Clayburn and Erin Mullin - have all signed on while casting is currently underway for the roles of Dad and Mam, played by Bill Ward and Michele Heaton as neither are available for the West End dates.
Meanwhile Jamie is revisiting the script and says additional characters may well be en route.
The creative team is also being expanded - and then of course there was the task of securing enough financial backing to underpin the considerable costs involved.
“Budgets are six or seven times what they were here,” says Jamie. “But we’ve run it all and it’s totally viable. I’ve shaken a lot of hands - and wallets!”
Located in the heart of London’s Theatreland, the Aldwych is a mainstay of the West End and was most recently home to the showstopping TINA - The Tina Turner Musical - starring Consett’s Zoe Birkett.
From January 13 to 24, the venue will be bathed in black and white with Newcastle United cheerleaders Wor Flags once again coming on board to make sure the Toon colours are front, centre and skywards.
While some dialogue will be fine-tuned for a broader audience, Jamie insists the play will remain “unashamedly Geordie”. “You can’t soften it,” he says. “It’s about where we’re from.”
For Marianne, the exciting project epitomises what the Theatre Royal’s recent producing revival and local talent-supporting Open Door initiative aim to achieve: “It’s about demonstrating that regional voices belong on national stages, that the creative ecology of the North East can feed directly into the heart of Theatreland.”
Jamie adds: “When we launched the very first season at Laurels in 2021, I stood on that tiny stage and promised everyone that a play they saw in that room would end up on a stage in the West End.
“I never dreamed it would be this quickly, but can’t wait to see our story being told at the top of The Strand.”
Tickets for the London run of Gerry & Sewell (January 13-24, 2026) are available from today (Friday, November 14) - visit nederlander.co.uk/whats-on/ for more information.
The Newcastle Theatre Royal run kicks off on June 9 (Blaydon Races day, obviously!) and runs to June 13, 2026. Tickets from theatreroyal.uk