FEEL-good musical Salad Days promises to banish the end-of-summer blues when it arrives exclusively at Bath Theatre Royal direct from London.

Julian Slade’s optimistic hit show plays at the Theatre Royal for the first time in 20 years, running from September 12-16.

Featuring a 15-strong cast of talented performers, Salad Days is the perfect antidote for those who aren’t quite ready to embrace autumn yet.

It’s the sunny summer of 1954 and Timothy and Jane, who have just graduated from university, find themselves under pressure from their parents to find a job and a husband respectively.

Timothy’s family send him off to meet a series of influential and increasingly eccentric uncles, while Jane’s mother lines up a string of eligible but dull potential husbands.

When a passing tramp offers to pay the pair to look after his mobile piano in a park for a month, they jump at the chance, but soon discover that when the piano plays it gives everyone within earshot an irresistible and unstoppable urge to dance.

Little are they prepared to deal with the choreographic hilarity, magic and madness that ensues.

Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds' timeless musical sets out to put a smile on your face and a tap in your toes with its energetic and peppy score featuring songs such as We Said We Wouldn't Look Back, We're Looking For A Piano and Look At Me, I'm Dancing.

63 years after its first London production, Salad Days enjoyed a successful run in the capital this summer at the Union Theatre and now visits Bath exclusively, directed by Bryan Hodgson with choreography by Joanne McShane and musical direction by Elliot Styche.

It is produced by Sasha Regan, artistic director of the Union Theatre in Southwark.

The show is co-produced by Ben Dewynter who, together with Sasha Regan, has brought hugely praised all-male productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado to the Theatre Royal Bath in recent years.

Leading the cast of Salad Days as the young graduates Jane and Timothy, are Lowri Hamer and Laurie Denman, who made their own professional debuts in this production in London.

Tom Self plays The Tramp with Tom Norman as PC Boot and Jacob Seickell as Troppo. They are joined by Maeve Byrne as Asphynxia, Marguerite, Assistant and Electrode; Darrie Gardner as Timothy’s Mother and Don; James Gulliford as The Bishop and Nigel; Lewis McBean as Tom Smith and Ambrose; Sophie Millett as Lady Raeburn, Aunt Prue and Don; Karl Moffatt as Timothy’s Father, Don, Uncle Zed, Sir Clamsby Williams and Augustine Williams; Stephen Patrick as The Inspector, Manager and Don; Emma Lloyd as Rowena and Slave Girl; Ashlee Young as Anthea, Manicurist and Slave Girl; and Francesca Pim as Fiona and Helouise.

  •  Salad Days appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday, September 12-16. Tickets from the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at theatreroyal.org.uk