Making Tracks: Facts

Key facts relating to Alan Ayckbourn's Making Tracks.
  • Making Tracks is Alan Ayckbourn's 28th play.
  • The world premiere was held at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, on 16 December 1981.
  • The London premiere was held at the Greenwich Theatre, London, on 14 March 1983.
  • It was written with the composer Paul Todd, who was the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round's Musical Director and who Alan Ayckbourn also worked with on the musical Suburban Strains as well as a number of revues.
  • The musical was directly inspired by Alan Ayckbourn's experiences working as a radio drama producer for the BBC from 1965 - 1970.
  • It is Alan Ayckbourn's third full length musical.
  • Making Tracks is a rare example of an Ayckbourn play - excepting his very early work - which has not been published; although it has not been withdrawn and it is available for production.
  • Although Making Tracks received some extremely bad reviews during its London transfer to the Greenwich Theatre, it was actually a phenomenal popular success selling approximately 97% of all its tickets during its run
  • Whether because of the reviews or for other reasons, it would be 11 years before Alan Ayckbourn wrote another musical with Dreams From A Summer House alongside the composer John Pattison. This is the longest period between musicals during Alan's career since he penned his first, Jeeves, in 1975.
  • Making Tracks is the first time - and one of the few times - Alan Ayckbourn believed he successfully solved the problem of where to put a band in the round for a musical; in this case he just incorporated the band into the company and the action!
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