Nostalgic Universal plans to lead Dreamboats into limelight.

Catalogue leads the way as record company capitalises on a mixture of old and new acts and repertoire for a busy Q4

Universal's hugely-successful Fifties compilation Dreamboats And Petticoats is being turned into a stage musical.

The vintage hits collection became one of the surprise compilation hits of 2007, last year selling 350,000 units and finishing as the ninth most popular various artists title of the year. Its sales are now around 0.6m.

Such has been its impact that Universal is now finalising a deal with two leading theatre players to stage a musical production, also called Dreamboats And Petticoats. The story has been penned by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who wrote the TV sitcom Birds Of A Feather.

UMTV managing director Brian Berg, who created the compilations brand, says of the musical, "I thought it was a natural extension of what we do. There is a market for musicals if you get it right. Nostalgia is what it is all about."

The show will launch in February as a regional production and will include songs featured in the first compilation as well as its successor Dreamboats And Petticoats 2, which will be released by UMTV on November 3.

The compilation's concept has also been the inspiration for a new song by Jason Donovan, also called Dreamboats And Petticoats, which features on Let It Be Me, a new album by the Australian singer to be released on November 10 via UMTV.