Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker are having the ride of their lives in 'Thelma & Louise'

Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker are heading into the desert as Thelma and Louise in Callie Khouri’s stage adaptation of her hit film.

Summary

• Rachel Tucker and Amy Lennox are starring in Thelma & Louise: A New Musical
• The stage show has been adapted from the film by original screenwriter Callie Khouri
• Neko Case provides the music

More than 30 years ago, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon turned the buddy comedy on its head in Thelma & Louise by starring as two renegade friends, who pack their bags for a girls trip that turns into a high-wire, cross-country police chase.

Set across the dusty landscape of the US desert, the film’s female protagonists contend with male violence and police failings, yet the unexpected road trip also proves to be an adrenaline-fuelled awakening from their mundane lives. Now, the film’s original screenwriter Callie Khouri is adapting the cult movie for the stage, with Rachel Tucker playing Louise and Amy Lennox as Thelma.

“It’s a female love story — a platonic love story,” says Lennox on why the film continues to connect with audiences. “It’s what carries you through life: you have your life partner, but you need your friends. Female friendship is magic and powerful when it’s real. It’s these two women against the world.”

With new music and lyrics by Neko Case, and set within the intimate confines of London’s Young Vic, the story is being creatively reimagined for the stage. Lennox and Tucker caught up with London Theatre Magazine about going on the ride of their lives.

When did your journey with Thelma & Louise: A New Musical begin?

Lennox: This was a good three years in the making for me. I love doing workshops. I’ve been very lucky in my career to do loads of them. You get to play more than ever at the beginning of something. We did a two- or three-week workshop of Act One, and then the following year we did Act Two. Last summer, we did a six-week workshop, which culminated in three performances at the Young Vic, which was wild — I’m talking lighting, set, costume. It was a full production. Then we collapsed in a heap. And here we are doing it for real.

Wow, I had no idea you had been attached to the show for so long!

Lennox: And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. The creatives have been on it for 10 years.

Tucker: I came in on the second workshop. It was two weeks in a very cold winter. I was doing Hadestown at the time, and I [initially] said no. Then they came back and they were like, “Okay, what do you need?” The creative team really cushioned me.

Lennox: Also, she’s a freaking machine!

Tucker: I knew the story, but I’d never heard Neko’s music. It’s just so rich and powerful, and so poignant. I can’t believe I nearly said no.

When did you first watch the film?

Lennox: I was six. I always watched older films than my age. I watched it a fair few times — it’s genuinely one of my favourites.

Tucker: I hadn’t watched it until the workshop. I knew about the cliffhanger and the ending, but I hadn’t sat and watched it.

Lennox: It’s also the first experience of Brad Pitt…

What’s it like working with Thelma & Louise’s screenwriter Callie Khouri?

Lennox: The first film she ever wrote — and she won an Oscar.

Tucker: She’s in the room every day. She’s a badass. Someone will ask her, “Are you Thelma or Louise?” and she’ll say, “I’m both”.

Do you identify more with Thelma or Louise?

Tucker: Amy is actually turning into Thelma more and more every day. She is so funny — and makes herself laugh! As Louise, being the older sister in the friendship, I do feel like I can be dizzy and ditzy, but I’m the sensible one.

Lennox: I thoroughly enjoy when Thelma finds her badass [side]. I have a side to myself like that — it’s not hard to find that energy. Even if I’m playing a character that isn’t, I tend to find a way to make her a little bit ballsy.

Tucker: It’s the Celt in you!

Lennox: I always want to find the fire.

How will the musical differ from the film?

Lennox: It’s important to realise that it’s a road movie, and to put that on stage, it cannot be a carbon copy. It had to be looked at from a very different perspective.

Tucker: Any movie that I’ve seen that’s adapted for the stage, if they’ve cut and copied it, I find it extremely boring. It has to evolve and change. Singing through music — that’s our close-up.

What can we expect from the music?

Lennox: Neko’s music is so cinematic. It’s of that era, it’s of that part of America. It has folk, country, Americana. Neko is from that part of the world, so is Callie, they know what they’re writing about.

Tucker: It’s earthy, it’s a bit dirty, and it’s very grounded in itself.

The ending of the film is one of the most iconic in movie history. Can you tell us how it will be performed on stage?

Tucker: It is iconic, and they’ve taken more of a theatrical route. Remember, we are in the Young Vic!

Lennox: I think the way that we’ve gone about it is really intelligent. There’s a danger in putting on a musical of such an iconic film for it to become this commercial entity. People want it to be commercial to a degree, but the art has to be good and the quality needs to be there.

Why do you think now is the right time for the musical?

Tucker: It feels like it’s never been more relevant than now because of what’s been happening with Roe v Wade and Trump. The manosphere now has such a platform that we are still having to push back against it.

How does it feel to star in this show?

Lennox: I’m always on the hunt for the role that has everything. I remember playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret, and thinking I’ll never get another role as good as that. It was the best theatrical part I’ve ever played and I was gutted when I had to say goodbye to it. This is completely different, but it’s a total gift of a part. They really get to go on one hell of a journey.

Have you ever been on a life-changing road trip?

Lennox: I went on an awful one once, in a campervan. We got to the Isle of Wight and everything went wrong. We got stuck in the mud at a garlic farm. We almost missed the ferry home.

Tucker: I’d love to road trip across America. Bucket list.

Lennox: Maybe we’ll do it together!

Book Thelma & Louise: A New Musical tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the September 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Thelma & Louise artwork. (Courtesy of production). Inset: Tucker and Lennox in rehearsals. (Courtesy of production)