Joining Harold Fry on his Extraordinary Journey to the West End in 2026
Mark Addy and Jenna-Russell in Harold Fry. Photo by Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic
After selling out its run at the Chichester Festival Theatre last year, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, a new musical starring Mark Addy and Jenna Russell, is transferring to London’s Haymarket Theatre for a limited eleven-week run, opening in January 2026.
Adapted by Rachel Joyce from her multi-million selling novel with a score by indie musician Passenger, it tells the story of an unlikely hero. Harold Fry is an ordinary man who sets out on an extraordinary journey that takes him across the UK on a pilgrimage of love, redemption and second chances. Back home, his wife Maureen begins her own journey – but will it bring them back together again?
Ahead of its January opening, I went on my own mini pilgrimage to the Barrel Project in Bermondsey to find out a little bit more about this highly anticipated musical transfer.
Host Gaby Roslin welcomed us to this brilliantly quirky venue – wall to wall barrels and metal light fixtures with house beers renamed in honour of this very special show. Gaby started off by talking about her love for Rachel Joyce’s novel, one she has gifted to friends more times than she could remember. And she described the musical adaptation as “the show we all need. We’re all completely aware how bleak and dark the news is at the moment, this is the escapism we need”.
Passenger, responsible for the show’s score, gave a stunning performance of ‘Keep on Walking Mr Fry’.
He then talked about how he came to be involved in the project, saying:
“Writing a musical wasn’t ever something I thought I would do, I live in a very different musical world and always have done. But one of the show’s producers, Nick Sidi, got in touch to see if I might be interested. He was a Passenger fan and saw the correlation between how Rachel writes and how I write songs.
My gut reaction was probably not, because I didn’t think I could, it just felt like an overwhelming thing to try to take on. Then I read the book and was saw it is really special. I saw the way Rachel builds characters throughout the story with little vignettes, characters who come into Harold’s life … and that’s exactly how I write songs. It felt like I needed to be part of it, so I said yes and four years later here we are!”
On the musical adaptation, Rachel said:
“It’s about connecting, its theme is that if you can’t try and understand what you don’t know, then there’s no hope. The musical completely fulfils that. It pushes theatre, pushes music and pushes the storytelling into a completely magical place. I couldn’t be more proud of it”.
She shared a very personal story behind her inspiration for writing Harold Fry:
“A long time ago now, my dad told us he discovered he hadn’t got very long to live and I didn’t know what to do with how I felt. So I did what I do, I went away and wrote. I wrote a story about a man who is in a very broken place and I walked him into a place of new life. Books often start in places that are quite good and then things fall apart, but this starts in a place where everything is quite broken and lost and it’s about how a man rediscovers how much he loves life”.
Talking about his character, Harold Fry, actor Mary Addy said:
“He’s so beautifully written that it’s very easy to put yourself in his shoes as an actor. When we meet him, he’s a very unremarkable man, recently retired andliving in his boring little house with his wife. Their relationship is obviously not perfect and through his journey you find out why and find out what he’s been suppressing from his past. He has to come to terms with certain elements of his life that he hasn’t done up to that point. Through his journey and the characters he meets and speaks to on the way, he learns about himself and there is an element of healing.
It’s about love, it’s about loss but also about second chances, it’s never too late to have a second chance and to improve your life and the lives of people around you”.
We were also introduced to two other characters – “Dog”, a canine puppet friend for Harold, perfectly wrangled by Timo Tatzbur, and in danger of stealing the whole show! Also, casting for the character of The Balladeer was announced, introducing actor Noah Mullins who is making his West End debut in the role, having previously been the OG Orpheus in the Australian production of Hadestown.
In between performing beautiful renditions of the show’s opening and closing songs, Noah explained a little about the role of the Balladeer:
“He’s the narrator of the show, a bit of a spirit who comes in and out of the story. The Ensemble that surrounds this character has a Celtic, magical essence to them and the Balladeer gets them to build the show’s story”.
It feels fitting that Noah is taking on this role, as it was previously played at Chichester by Jack Wolfe, who is now playing Orpheus on Broadway.
It was very clear from listening to everybody involved in the show that it is a very special one. Mark Addy spoke of the feeling of pure love that the audience gave back at the end of performances during its Chichester run. This heartwarming and emotional new musical offers a beautifully crafted story that is bound to resonate with audiences with its messages of hope, love and second chances. Running for just eleven weeks, from 29th January 2026, tickets are available now from www.haroldfrymusical.com/
