Full Monty heads for Sheffield theatre

A new stage version of the hit film The Full Monty is to receive its premiere in Sheffield, where the story is set.

The script has been written by Simon Beaufoy, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film about unemployed friends who turn to stripping.

The play will open at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre next February.

The comedy has previously been adapted for Broadway and the West End, but that production transported the action from Sheffield to Buffalo, New York.

Beaufoy said: "Without Sheffield, there would be no Full Monty. It's been a long road - via Hollywood - but finally the characters are coming back home to the place it all started.

"Or to put it another way, we are all genuinely chuffed to bits."

It is the first theatre script for the writer, who was an Oscar nominee for The Full Monty and later a winner with Slumdog Millionaire.

The Full Monty was one of the biggest British cinema hits of the 1990s and starred Robert Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson and Hugo Speer.

The stage adaptation will use songs from the film's soundtrack, which memorably included You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate and Tom Jones' You Can Leave Your Hat On.

The US version opened on Broadway in 2000, earning 10 Tony Award nominations, before transferring to the West End two years later.