Based on the seminal 1970s film that launched Jimmy Cliff and Jamaican music on a wider scale, this tale of an aspiring young musician features all the film’s hit songs performed live on stage by a large cast and full band.

A co-production with UK Arts International, it opens at the Playhouse on May 14 and runs until May 22 prior to a major UK tour.

Director Kerry Michael returns for a new mounting of the Theatre Royal Stratford East and UK Arts production, following the original show’s success in the West End and in America.

Local performers will have their moment in the spotlight, with the winners of the Jimmy Cliff Factor talent contest performing a short set of songs inspired by the musician at the Playhouse prior to a performance of the show itself.

As fresh and topical as ever, The Harder They Come began as a groundbreaking film starring Jimmy Cliff and has now become an equally powerful and life-affirming stage drama of broken dreams, wasted youth and redemption — the story of a Jamaican rebel with a cause.

Ivanhoe Martin (Matthew Henry) is a country boy with his heart set on stardom as a singer among the bright lights of Kingston.

Soon, though, the realities of the music industry turn the ambitious youngster into an outlaw, his climb to the top of the charts matched by his rise in the most wanted list.

The songs include You Can Get It If You Really Want It, Rivers Of Babylon and The Harder They Come.