Kenny Wax’s new play opens at Ally Pally

You thought Ally Pally was a quiet, unassuming, leafy part of London – but this summer it’s the setting for a great escape. Tom, Dick & Harry is a new play about the greatest escape in WWII history, written using top secret information from the war archives, which were under strict lock and key until 1972

Producer Kenny Wax, who you’ll know from his productions The Play that Goes Wrong and the musical Six, is opening his new show at the Alexandra Palace Theatre on 26 July. Tom, Dick & Harry is filled with dynamic drama, humour and theatricality, telling an extraordinary true story of the escape from a prisoner of war camp, of solidarity across nations, and of an unbreakable spirit to achieve the impossible.

Andrew Pollard and David FairsThe story takes place in 1943 in Stalag Kuft III, a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi occupied Europe. The prisoners spy an opportunity, for these are not ordinary prisoners. Serial escapees, they begin an exhilarating game of cat and mouse with their captors. Hiding their covert activity in plain sight with gymnastic exercise, choir practice and cabbage growing (yes really!), the men tunnel deep into the ground beneath the camp’s huts, and soon the most intricate, most audacious, greatest escape of them all is underway.

Kenny Wax grew up in Manchester and went to Carmel College for sixth form. He was into sport and theatre and while studying business at Central London Polytechnic he worked for Dixons. He knew his father was really hoping he’d join the family taxi finance business. But he persuaded him to let him try and make it in theatre for a year. He got a job as an usher for the West End production of Miss Saigon and lots of other junior jobs followed. Then came his first role as a producer in a little theatre in Islington. Wax has now been running a successful production company for 25 years and in 2021, he finished a three-and-a-half-year term as President of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT).

Tickets for Tom, Dick & Harry are priced from £15 and can be booked at tomdickandharryonstage.com