The European premiere of the new musical Private Jones will run at Southwark Playhouse Elephant from 14 December 2026 to 30 January 2027.
Produced by Hugo Six in association with Thomas Hopkins Productions, the show will have a national press night on 17 December, with casting to be announced.
Set during the First World War, Private Jones follows Gomer Jones, a young man struggling to find his place after losing his hearing.
Surrounded by a company of misfit soldiers, he becomes an unlikely hero while discovering that what he truly values may not be what he originally sought.
The coming-of-age story combines live performance with sign language, live captioning and an original score, featuring a cast of hearing, hard-of-hearing and deaf performers.
The musical is written and directed by Marshall Pailet, with choreography by Misha Shields and artistic sign language direction by Alexandria Wailes.
Design and creative team members include music director Máth Roberts, set designer Anna Kelsey, lighting designer Tim Deiling and sound designer Yvonne Gilbert.
Marshall Pailet said: “Private Jones is a full-hearted, heart-pounding, and hopefully pretty funny story about valuing life inside a world where lives are stripped for value. It has been the joy of my life to collaborate with so many talented and passionate artists in its creation, especially Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Welsh-speaking artists, in the attempt to create a storytelling that feels authentic in its use of language and representation of culture, and one that is fully accessible to all audiences. Every time I spend time with it, it fills my heart, breaks it a little bit, then puts it back together stronger. I hope you love it as much as I do. And if you don’t, please tell my bubby you loved it, I’m still trying to convince her I can do this for a living.”
Private Jones has been in development since 2021 and first appeared at Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut in 2023.
Its world premiere at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia in February 2024 won four Helen Hayes Awards including Outstanding New Musical.
The production has since been further developed with input from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
