Rehearsals under way for premiere of new comedy-drama Taking a Chance on Love at Scarborough's Shakespeare Gallery

Written by the Scarborough News entertainments writer Sue Wilkinson,Taking a Chance on Love is a two-hander featuring musical theatre actress Jeannette DuPont and Pickering Musical Society’s John Brooks and is helmed and produced by performer and director Tim Tubbs.

Edie Smith, played by Jeannette, never made the big time.

A lonely retirement looms for the singer as she prepares to give her farewell performance, headlining Scarborough’s annual Seaside Sparkle at a venue they are about to demolish.

Grieving widower Les Manning, played by John, attends the show and braces himself to charm the woman he’s admired for so long.

The show features songs made famous by Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Fred Astaire and Julie London, including Star!, Fever, Top Hat, That’s Life, Cry Me a River, You Make Me Feel So Young and the title song.

"This is my second play to be produced at the Shakespeare. Last year, I wrote Hurly Burly, a commemorative piece for the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe.

“It was, like Taking a Chance on Love, written specifically for the space, a former pub, and was full of songs, that time from the World War Two-era,” said Sue.

“Scarborough-based director and playwright Richard Milburn acted as dramaturg on Hurly Burly and his advice was invaluable,” she said.

“We met while doing writing courses in Scarborough together.

“He described my plays as ‘love letters to the past’. I agree that they are and take the comment as a compliment.

“Taking a Chance celebrates unique seaside entertainment, the kind of variety show my parents took me to every year as part of our holidays in Scarborough.

“It is also a love story. The songs in it are there because I love them and, moreover, they reflect the characters’ feelings and moods,” said Sue.

Director Tim Tubbs said: “I’m loving directing and producing Taking a Chance on Love.

“I share Sue’s love of Scarborough, the seaside and Frank Sinatra … and here’s my first chance to direct a play of hers about just that.

"Rehearsals are underway and going well, with two actors who know what they’re doing, are perfect in the roles, full of energy and enthusiasm for it.

“For Edie, the nightclub singer facing reluctant retirement, I’m working with Jeannette DuPont again. I’s been too long since I directed her in musicals: Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music and Hairspray.

“I’ve enjoyed doing shows at Pickering with John Brooks, who plays retired bank manager Les, but this is his first venture out of pantomimes and musicals and into Scarborough, so that’s a pleasure, too.

“Finally, this show’s about survival and last chances.

Les is recently widowed and lonely. He comes to a Scarborough theatre on the point of demolition, to find the headline singer he’s admired for years facing a lonely old age. And we have those great Sinatra songs. What’s not to like?”

Taking a Chance on Love is on at Shakespeare Gallery, St Helen's Square, Scarborough, on Friday April 10 at 7pm; Saturday April 11 at 3pm and 7pm and Sunday April 12 at 3pm.

Tickets £10 in advance from Scarborough Community Box Office www.scbo.co.uk or on the door.

There will be a bar available before and after each show.