How Could I Forget? announces Leeds date as part of Yorkshire tour.
Milburn's Joe Carnall Jnr brings his debut musical to five venues across the North following its sold-out 2025 premiere.
How Could I Forget?, the debut musical from Sheffield musician Joe Carnall Jnr (Milburn, Ex Reverend & The Makers), has announced a Yorkshire tour for Autumn 2026, following sold-out debut performances in 2025. Blending heartfelt storytelling, sharp Northern humour and original songs, this intimate actor-musician show explores memory, family and connection through live music.
Set in the North, the story centres on Billy, a young man navigating life as his grandfather Jack faces dementia. As Jack's memories begin to fade, the narrative jumps between past and present, with different decades colliding around the family living room piano. This time-shifting structure creates space for a rich musical journey, from folk and indie to soaring ballads, reflecting a lifetime of memories, relationships and songs.
Told with warmth and honesty, How Could I Forget? explores living with dementia without ever losing its sense of joy and lightness. Both moving and uplifting, the show is a love letter to grandparents, showing how songs can unlock memories, bridge generations and keep alive the people who shape us, even as time slips away.
Inspired by Carnall's own family experiences, the musical grew from witnessing his grandfather's journey with Alzheimer's disease. “My Glaswegian-born grandad passed away with Alzheimer’s disease over 10 years ago” explains the writer. “It was witnessing its impact not only on grandad but on the rest of the family that stuck with me.”
Asked about the writing process, Carnall explains that it was watching a documentary on the late country star Glen Campbell that inspired him to finally put pen to paper: “I was amazed by Campbell’s ability to carry on performing in spite of his own dementia diagnosis and blown away by the power of music as memory. It gets to places where other things can’t. It’s like magic, really.”
How Could I Forget? is an honest, funny and deeply human story about the moments that shape us and the songs that stay with us. Intimate yet universal, it celebrates family, memory and the enduring power of music to bring people together.
- “Absolutely incredible. I want the soundtrack and I want to watch it again and again” - Audience member
- “If anyone ever gets a chance to see this phenomenal musical - do it! Truthful, heartfelt, moving, funny. An excellent piece” - Audience member
- “Written straight from the heart.”- BEAM, 2025
- “A triumph”- AGE UK, Sheffield
TOURING DATES 2026
- 9 & 10 October: Sheffield Theatres, The Playhouse (SOLD OUT) 10 October Dementia Friendly matinee: Sheffield Theatres, The Playhouse (SOLD OUT)
- 13 October: Hull Truck
- 16 October: Leeds Carriageworks Theatre
- 21 October: Barnsley Civic
- 8 November: Festival of the Mind, Sheffield: a special singing performance and workshop in partnership with the University of Sheffield
How Could I Forget? Is supported by Sheffield Theatres, Age UK Sheffield, Back to Ours and University of Sheffield. How Could I Forget? It is also supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
