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Half A Sixpence

This stage version of Half A Sixpence, the musical adaptation of H.G. Wells’s novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, is a completely fresh adaptation which reunites Stiles + Drewe with book-writer Julian Fellowes (Oscar-winning screenwriter and creator of Downton Abbey) who the team worked with on the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh stage adaptation of Mary Poppins!. The score is inspired by and features several of composer David Heneker’s exhilarating songs from the original production, including Flash Bang Wallop, Money To Burn and Half A Sixpence.

Half A Sixpence opened to 5 star reviews at Chichester Festival Theatre in July 2016 before transferring to London’s Noël Coward Theatre in October 2016.

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"So warm you feel you’re basking by the seaside…pure gold"

Daily Telegraph

"Flash, bang, wallop, what a show! welcome to the undoubted hit of the summer, possibly the year"

Evening Standard

"Half a Sixpence ‘comes up as bright and shiny as a new penny’"

The Times

"It feels like the end of a hosepipe ban on happiness"

The Arts Desk

Story

Arthur Kipps, an orphan, is an over-worked draper’s assistant at Shalford’s Bazaar, Folkestone, at the turn of the last century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who, along with his fellow apprentices, dreams of a better and more fulfilling world, but he likes his fun just like any other, except not quite. When Kipps unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society, it confuses everything he thought he knew about life.

Watching him wrestle with his new identity is his childhood companion and not-quite girlfriend, Ann Pornick, who sees with dismay how Arthur is being made over in a new image by the beautiful and classy Helen Walsingham. She is always there with helpful hints on how Arthur could improve himself and make his life richer and more meaningful, if only he would believe in himself, and listen to her. Both of these young women love Arthur – there is no doubt about that – but which should he listen to? With the help of his friends, Arthur learns that if you want to have the chance of living the right life, you need to make the right choices.