About the Musical

Great Expectations: The Making of a Gentleman is a new musical drama inspired by Dickens’ Great Expectations, closely adapted for the stage. Written, composed, and arranged by Peter Tierney, the adaptation is reimagined through a contemporary, character‑centred musical score.

Synopsis

The story follows Pip, a young orphan raised by his sister and her gentle husband Joe, whose life changes after a chance encounter with an escaped convict on the marshes. Captivated by the distant Estella, Pip begins to imagine a life far beyond his own.

When a mysterious benefactor provides him with the means to leave for London, Pip embraces the promise of becoming a gentleman. The world he enters, however, is not the one he imagined, and the cost of his change in circumstances becomes clear in the relationships and loyalties he neglects.

When the illusion finally breaks, Pip is left to face what he has become and what he has left behind.

Themes

• Ambition & Illusion — After falling for Estella, Pip longs to rise above his humble beginnings. Through a chance encounter with a convict and the support of a mysterious benefactor, he is drawn into a world that promises everything he hopes for — and offers something far more complicated.

• Love & Loyalty — The relationships he undervalues until the illusion breaks, and the people who stand by him when the illusion is gone.

• Class & Shame — From early on, social pressures and internal doubts shape Pip’s choices and deepen his sense of not being “enough.”

• Redemption & Forgiveness — The return to the people and values that outlived the illusion.

Why This Adaptation

I was looking for a story with depth, strong characters and real emotional weight when I found Great Expectations. It connected with me in a way no other story had. Its characters resonated deeply with me — I have met every one of them in real life in one way or another. Dickens created a world of extraordinary dramatic richness, full of contrast, ambition, longing, shame, loyalty and redemption.

For me, Great Expectations is the greatest story ever written. Its extraordinary plot, unforgettable characters and emotional depth convinced me it had the potential to become a remarkable musical, and I wanted to devote myself to discovering what that musical could be.

The scale of the novel was part of the challenge: childhood to adulthood, the marshes to London, and a story that grows increasingly complex as Pip’s world expands. I wanted to create a musical that could match the scale and emotional ambition of the material, giving full expression through music to the characters, conflicts and emotional journeys that make the novel endure.

My adaptation remains faithful to Dickens’ language, characters and central narrative while introducing new dramatic material created specifically for the musical. Every major change had to earn its place. If a scene was compressed, restructured or newly written, it had to serve the emotional journey at the heart of the story.

That is the standard I have tried to bring to the work: to create a musical worthy of the story that inspired it.