Adrian Mole musical opens in tribute to Sue Townsend

The role of Adrian is being shared by four actors

A musical version of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ has opened as a tribute to the book's author Sue Townsend.

It is being performed at Curve theatre in Leicester, the city where Townsend lived and where the book is set.

The writer worked on the musical before her death last April and her family have given their blessing to the production going ahead.

There will be more than 30 performances over the next four weeks.

Curve theatre described Sue Townsend as the "lead creative" on the musical project

The author's family were at Curve for the opening night.

Her husband, Colin Broadway, said his wife had been "thrilled" to be working on the musical during 2012-14.

The role of Adrian is being shared by Lewis Andrews, Sebastian Croft, Joel Fossard-Jones and Toby Murray.

The roles of Pandora, Nigel and Barry are each being shared by three actors.

This has meant everything has needed rehearsing four times.

Executive producer Chris Stafford said: "For us this is something that is the culmination of three and a half years' worth of work, but also we really hope it to be a fitting tribute to Sue, that will really introduce Adrian Mole hopefully to a new generation of audiences."