The bright lights of the West End beckon for Rotarian Joan Greening, who has achieved a life’s dream by having a show appear at London’s West End.
Joan, who has been a Rotarian for 22 years with the Rotary Club of Elthorne-Hillingdon in north-west London, is a published playwright who has been working in theatres all her adult life.
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At the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, Joan met composers Joel Goodman and Jan Osborne who had written the musical ‘Alan Turing – A Musical Biography’.
Joan Greening is a published playwright as well as being a member of Elthorne-Hillingdon Rotary Club.
In need of an extra edge to the production, they asked Joan to write the script and they took the new version back to Edinburgh in August 2023.
There, the show received four five star reviews and was nominated for a prestigious ‘Off West End’ award.
She explained: “This musical is a journey through the extraordinary life of Alan Turing.
“Alan was a genius, whose brilliant code-breaking brain saved approximately 14 million lives in World War Two.
“It takes us on a journey through the loss of his closest friend, his romance with a fellow worker, the moment he realises how to beat the Germans, and the growing awareness of his homosexuality. His treatment after the war was truly appalling and this brilliant, funny man was left in despair.”
Joan admitted her knowledge of Alan Turing was limited to seeing Benedict Cumberbatch play him in the film ‘The Imitation Game’, so she spent a lot of time reading up about the mathematical genius.
“For the musical, I haven’t written him as Benedict Cumberbatch played him. People say he was a funny man who had lots of friends, but someone who also liked to be on his own. You might describe him as an eccentric professor.”
After success at the Edinburgh Festival, Joel and Jan, who also produced the show, then asked Joan if she could lengthen the musical by half an hour.
Alan was a genius, whose brilliant code-breaking brain saved approximately 14 million lives in World War Two.”
Now, the show will be opening at Wonderville, Haymarket, on February 27th until March 3rd. It stars Joe Bishop as Alan Turing and Zara Cooke, and is directed by Jane Bowen-Miles.
This is the latest accolade for Joan, whose husband John is also a Rotarian at Elthorne-Hillingdon.
She has previously written extensively for television and theatre, creating the ITV situation comedies ‘The Cabbage Patch’ and ‘Troubles and Strife’.
Writing a script for a musical was a totally new departure for Joan who regularly takes period dramas to the Edinburgh Festival and on tour around the country.
She is now working on another musical with Joel and Jan about Nellie Bly, an American journalist who made her name for a record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days to emulate Jules Verne’s fictional character, Phileas
