Reception: The Wedding Present Musical
“The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock’n’Roll era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!” – John Peel
Perfect Blue Productions and Engine House Theatre presents
Reception: The Wedding Present Musical
Written and directed by Matt Aston
Featuring the songs of David Gedge, Cinerama & The Wedding Present
The Warehouse in Holbeck, Slung Low, Leeds
Fri 22 August to Sat 6 September 2025
Press night Tues 26 August, 7.30pm
Reception: The Wedding Present Musical is a new musical by Matt Aston inspired by and featuring the songs and music of David Gedge and his bands The Wedding Present and Cinerama.
The premiere of the show this summer at The Warehouse at Holbeck coincides with the 40th anniversary of The Wedding Present and their debut single Go Out and Get ‘Em Boy.
The Wedding Present has charted a total of 18 singles in the top 40 of the UK singles chart, including an historic run of 12 singles -one for each month in 1992, which tied with Elvis Presley’s record for most top 40 hits in a single year.
The band was formed at Leeds University in 1985, and were part of the 1980s indie music scene that Prime Minister Keir Starmer talked about when he studied at the university in the mid-1980s. Leeds-born David Gedge and the band are still touring and releasing new music today.
The band’s music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms. Throughout their career Wedding Present have been led by Leeds-born vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band’s only constant member.
David Gedge said : “When Matt approached me with the idea of a Wedding Present musical, to say that I was surprised would be something of an understatement. I’d never previously imagined my songs being in a musical, but I was intrigued.
“That being said, I’m a big fan of ABBA and loved how their songs were used in Mamma Mia, and I’m always keen to try out new ideas. I know that the team have worked hard and am really excited to see the finished product.”
Reception: The Wedding Present Musical is the story of love, loss, break-ups and breakdowns … everything you’d expect from a Wedding Present song. The show is based around a group of Leeds University friends who keep in touch over five years of trials, tribulations and life events including a graduation ceremony, a funeral, a wedding and, of course, the accompanying reception.
The show will be staged at Slung Low’s The Warehouse in Holbeck in Leeds from August 22 to September 6, presented with a mixture of cabaret style table seating and more traditional raked seating.
The idea for a musical based around David Gedge’s songs came from York theatre-maker Matt Aston, the show’s writer and director. His previous work includes directing Line of Duty star Vicky McLure in Stephen Lowe’s Touched, James Bolam in William Ivory’s Bomber’s Moon and David Mamet’s Oleanna with Alistair McGowan.
Matt Aston says: “It was almost 20 years ago when I had the first inkling that a Wedding Present musical might work. David (Gedge) had returned to Leeds to perform a selection of his songs with the BBC Big Band for Radio 3. The arrangements for the songs were astonishing, as different as you could possible imagine but David’s lyrical and conversational storytelling still shone through.
“Then later seeing Wedding Present and Cinerama concerts backed with 16-piece orchestras and full choirs helped cement the thought that the songs could work perfectly in a musical.
“Early in 2019 I met Tony Ereira, director of Leeds-based record labels Come Play With Me and Clue Records, at – where else?! - a Wedding Present gig in Leeds, and the idea of getting the play off the ground started take shape.
Reception: The Wedding Present Musical will feature songs from across The Wedding Present’s 40 year career, Cinerama’s back catalogue and a new song which will be released to coincide with the opening of the show.
“Building the music and stories into a script for Reception: The Wedding Present Musical has been fantastic. The team and I are all very excited about premiering the show this summer,” says Matt.
Casting will be announced in coming months.
Tickets from £16.90, plus Wedding Guest table packages.
Box office - https://www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/reception-the-wedding-present-musical/
EDITORS NOTES
Matt Aston is a freelance director and Artistic Director of Engine House theatre. Credits include Touched, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Diary of a Football Nobody (Premiere) Nottingham Playhouse; Bomber’s Moon (Premiere)Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Nottingham, Lakeside Arts (plus West End transfer to Trafalgar Studios); Oleanna, Engine House and Nottingham Lakeside Arts; 4000 Days (Premiere) for Park Theatre; Zero (Premiere), Theatre Absolute; Red Riding Hood (Premiere) Engine House and Nottingham Lakeside Arts national tour; Beauty and the Beast, Lawrence Batley Theatre; Flat Stanley, Engine House and Nottingham Lakeside Arts national tour; Grandad’s Island (Premiere, also adapted by Matt) for Engine House and York Theatre Royal, national tour in 2018 and 2019; The Storm Whale by Benji Davies (also adapted by Matt) for Engine House, York Theatre Royal, Little Angel and the Marlowe, Canterbury; Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin, Theatre Royal Wakefield; Cinderella - the Panto with Soul, Theatre Clwyd; Sleeping Beauty - The Rock and Roll Panto, Aladdin - The Rock and Roll Panto, Cinderella - The Panto with Soul, Leeds City Varieties; Sleeping Beauty (co-director), York Theatre Royal; Robin Hood, Greenwich Theatre; Sleeping Beauty, Theatre Royal Wakefield; Cinderella, Theatre Royal Wakefield; The Snowflake (Premiere) (also adapted by Matt) for Birmingham Rep. Matt’s credits at Nottingham Lakeside Arts included Krapp’s Last Tape, A Visit From Miss Prothero, A Who’s Who of Flapland,The Happy Prince, The Retirement of Tom Stevens (Premiere), The Kiss (Premiere); Smile (Premiere) and Empty Bed Blues (Premiere); Twinkle Little Star by (co-production with York Theatre Royal). Through lockdown Matt produced and curated two outdoor Park Bench Theatre seasons in York. As part of the Summer 2020 season in Rowntree Park he directed First Love by Samuel Beckett, co-wrote and directed Teddy Bears Picnic and wrote the premiere of Every Time A Bell Rings. In 2021 he directed the premiere of The Park Keeper by Mike Kenny as part of the park’s 100th Anniversary celebrations. Matt’s projects for 2025 include Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea, a show for young people and their families inspired by the song of the same name. Matt received the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for the Encouragement of New Writing for his work on Lakeside’s Production of Stephen Lowe’s Smile.
The Wedding Present have had 18 UK Top 40 hit singles… not bad for a band that has, from its inception, stubbornly refused to play the record industry’s game. It all started in 1985 when Leeds-born David Lewis Gedge boarded a National Express coach in London with 500 records packed into a pair of his mother’s suitcases and, in this fashion, delivered the band’s debut single, Go Out and Get ‘EmBoy, to a distribution company in Yorkshire. That pioneering spirit has been at the core of the band’s philosophy ever since. From George Best, “ an unmitigated disaster” (NME), the first full-length release on their own Reception Records onwards, the band has charted an appealing if often eccentric course of its very own. In 1997 David Gedge set up another project Cinerama in which he indulged his love of film music. https://www.scopitones.co.uk/biography
Founded in 2000, Slung Low is an award-winning theatre company specialising in epic productions in non-theatre spaces, often with large community companies at their heart. Based in Holbeck, an inner city South Leeds Ward, we run two spaces - The Warehouse in Holbeck and Slung Low at Temple. Both venues are made available to other artists and community groups as performance and cultural spaces to anyone who needs them. The equipment and vehicles of the company are also lent to those who need. We also manage an ancient semi-natural woodland , approx 40 minutes drive from Holbeck. This has canopied outdoor classroom and acres of space to explore and learn in. It is open to the public and anybody who has need. Slung Low is one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations and supported by Leeds City Council. We believe that access to culture in a fundamental part of a happy life. We believe that actions, however small, can have big impact. We believe that access to culture can change our world for the better.
