Star of Topless: The Musical shares more details on what to expect from her one-woman show

Topless: The Musical tells the story of Sandie, a table dancer from London who jacks it all in to become an open-top tour bus guide. The show comes to Liverpool for one night only on July 31.

Holly Lovelady, who plays Sandie in the play, said:

“I thought I’d love to do a one-woman show, but make it a musical with my songs. I didn’t have a clue what to do, then I remembered I’d done an exam, and I’d done a piece from a play called Topless. I wondered if I could find the writer and ask him, ” Can I put my songs in it?

Holly got permission from Topless writer Miles Tredinnick, called in each and every last favour, got hold of a bus, hired a driver, and took it to the Edinburgh Fringe last summer, where the musical received overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Born in Liverpool, Holly said:

“I thought, God, I wanna take it home. This show is a Scouse show. It’s got Scouse spirit; everything about it is Liverpool. I really wanted to bring something back home that Scousers could get behind. We’ve got Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers, and I thought Topless would fit in.”

Holly’s career in Drama has come about through hard work and picking the right path at the right time. Holly emotionally told the Guide, “I got into an incredible Drama school in London, but at the same time, my nan had dementia, and my grandad had Parkinson’s, so we thought I’m not going away. I don’t want to go away for three years and come back, and they don’t know me, or they might not be (here), you know. I want to be with my mum and look after them. So I lived with my mum and nan, and grandad, and we looked after them until they passed away.”

Holly later trained with dramatist and screenwriter Jim Cartwright in Manchester, whilst writing her own music and uploading it to YouTube.

“After my nan and grandad passed away, I sat at the end of my mum’s bed and said, ‘Mum, let’s do something now, let’s really do something and go the full hog and let’s see how far we can take this.

“I’m a massive believer in things happening for a reason. I always wanted the Epstein because a relative of mine was managed by Brian Epstein himself. The Epstein were lovely and said bring it, it’s right up our street.”

Holly, also known for films such as The Freaks of Fancy, Horrors of the Flesh and The Secret Folk Dancer, told us what to expect on July 31.

“Basically, they’ve built the top deck of a bus; the show is always centred on being on the bus. We step off the bus into Sandie’s inner thoughts, and the show breaks the fourth wall. The audience is part of absolutely everything.

“We’ve got a lot of sound effects, a lot of things we do with the sound to make you feel atmospheric that you are on the bus. We do a lot with audio, but imagine if we could’ve put a bus in the theatre.”

You can book your tickets for Topless: The Musical here.

Find more theatre shows across Liverpool on our calendar.

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