Shirley Valentine Kershaw directed by Glen Walford. Two years later it opened in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre, with Pauline Collins directed by Simon Callow. After eight previews, the Broadway production, with Collins again directed by Callow, opened on 16 February 1989 at the Booth Theatre, where it ran for 324 performances. Ellen Burstyn replaced Collins later in the run, and Loretta Swit starred in a US national tour in 1995. From 26 March - 8 May 2010, as part of the Willy Russell season at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Meera Syal played Shirley in the production's first London West
George Valentine (poet) George Valentine (poet) George Donald Valentine (1877-1946) was a Scottish sheriff, and writer of romantic-style short stories, plays and verse. He graduated from the University of Glasgow and was considered for Examinerships in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at both Glasgow and St Andrews Universities. G. D. Valentine wrote both under his own name and the pseudonym, George Henderland. Valentine's first published work was "The Heart of Bruce", a long poem, taken up by Alexander Gardner of Paisley in 1912. In the 1920s, two further original works, "Reasons of State" and "Saul: A Dramatic Poem" appearsed under the same imprint. It