Popular UK actor James Gaddas, best known as Governor Grayling in Bad Girls and Vinny in Coronation Street in the UK, as well as starring roles in the musicals Billy Elliot and Mamma Mia in London’s West End, is returning to Dubai Community Theatre & Arts Centre (Ductac) next week with the award winning Canadian musical, 'Billy Bishop Goes To War' after a well received run earlier in the year.

RAW Theatre Company, a professional theatre production company managed by Gaddas and his brother Chris, will again be producing the show following their hugely successful version of 'Cyrano De Bergerac' at Ductac recently.

The show features Gaddas playing 18 characters in a rousing, uplifting, and poignant depiction of World War One flying ace Billy Bishop's life story. Accompanied by Bradley Minchin at the piano, this is a fast paced, and highly entertaining theatre piece, which will appeal to all, said a statement from Ductac.

Written by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with the actor Eric Peterson,  'Billy Bishop Goes To War, is one of the most famous and widely-produced plays in Canadian theatre. It dramatises the life of Canadian World War I fighter pilot Billy Bishop.

By his own admission, William Avery Bishop was the Royal Military College's ‘worst student ever’. But before he can be expelled, he enlists for service in the First World War. By the time Billy Bishop's wartime days are over, this charismatic and pugnacious fighter pilot from Ontario will become a hero and a lightning rod of new confidence for a young Canada.

Since its first staging in 1978, ‘Billy Bishop Goes to War’ has become one of the most popular and oft-produced theatrical works in Canada, and across the world.

Anchored by its haunted hero and his clear-eyed memories of war's tragedies and black comedies, this award-winning musical epic is given extra resonance by songs that are sometimes raucous, sometimes mournful, but always steeped in the realities of wartime.

Billy Bishop Goes to War will open as a red carpet invite only event on November 26. The public shows will run at The Kilachand Studio, Ductac from November 27 to 29 at 8pm, with an additional matinee show on November 29 at 3pm.

Tickets are available at Dh150 ($41) for evenings, and Dh120 ($33) on the matinee.-TradeArabia News Service