A stage musical version of the hit Tom Hanks movie Big, bound for the West End, will premiere in Dublin at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in December. The cast is led by Jay McGuinness, a Strictly Come Dancing champion and singer with boy band The Wanted.

The European premiere of the Broadway musical, based on the 1988 well-loved movie starring Tom Hanks, plays in Ireland from December 7th 2016 until January 7th, ahead of opening in the West End next year. Before Dublin it has a week's preview at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth in the UK. Producer Michael Rose, who previously brought White Christmas, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Elf, The Musical to the Daniel Liebeskind-designed theatre at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, promised further cast announcements and said at the launch that by opening it in another capital city the production has better facilities and stage than in most West End theatres.

Billed as “for the Big kid in all of us”, the gentle, charming comedy features a 12-year-old boy who hates being little, and is granted his wish to be big; in the 1988 film Hanks played the boy trapped in an adult’s body, alone in New York, trying to find his way around a grown-up world of all work and no play.

The musical was first staged in 1996, with music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr, and book by John Wiedman. It was nominated for five Tonys, and althought the original Broadway production lost money, a substantially revised version had a successful and well reviewed US national tour.

Tickets from €15-65, on sale from the end of April. bordgaisenergytheatre.ie