Photography by Emil Cohen

We’re very much looking forward to Ceilidh, the new musical from Tony-winning director Sam Pinkleton. Theatre fans will be familiar with Sam’s work – he’s currently directing West End hit Oh, Mary! and also The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway – with his new production opening this week at London’s Shoreditch Town Hall, ahead of a UK tour. If you’re unsure how to pronounce the musical’s name, the promotional material helpfully includes “kay lee” as a phonetic spelling.

We caught up with Sam last week in London, ahead of the first preview of Ceilidh, as Storm Boelo was raging outside. “I love visiting London usually,” Sam begins, “but it’s quite biblical at the moment. We have our first preview in two hours… I wouldn’t say I’m at my calmest!”

For readers unfamiliar with the concept of a ceilidh, what can they expect from the show? “It feels like a bit of a trap when a Scottish person asks an American to describe a ceilidh!” Sam laughs. “So a ceilidh can be anywhere, and it can be anything, but it is anchored by these amazing dances. The audience are guests at a ceilidh, and within that a story unfolds – our show is a bit more structured than your regular ceilidh.”

“It is a story of many generations of a Scottish family,” Sam continues. “It is beautiful and heartbreaking, it is stupid and irreverent, and – as you would with a ceilidh – the audience is invited to take part in the dances. But there isn’t just one way to experience it: if you want to come to the show because you want to see a musical, you’re going to get to see a musical. If you have no interest in participating at all, terrific, you’re not missing out. I tend to be someone who’s quite allergic to the idea of getting swept into something, I’m like ‘no, I’ll just watch’ – there’s a place for that as well.”

Photography: Luke Dyson

Ahead of the London run, the show has been playing north of the border in Pitlochry, where Alan Cumming is the artistic director of the Festival Theatre. How was that experience? “Pitlochry is like a storybook town, it’s so beautiful,” Sam says. "We developed the show in Glasgow over several years, with a Scottish company, and this cast is mostly Scottish. It’s a deeply Scottish project. So it really meant a lot when Alan Cumming asked us to be a part of his inaugural season.”

“Not only because it’s an amazing theatre, but because the places, the names, all the proper nouns of the show, they’re all just down the road in Pitlochry,” Sam continues. “It was wild and beautiful, I can’t think of a better place to launch it. It’s slightly terrifying to bring this deeply Scottish thing to Scotland, for Scottish audiences, especially for me – I’m the odd American running things!” Sam adds with a grin. “Who am I to do this? But it was very warmly embraced and the Scottish audiences were awesome. The piece is made with such deep affection for this Scottish tradition.”