We had thought that when (Sir) Tim Rice had parted ways with his partner the very in-your-face Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber he had retired from making musicals. Somehow we had thought Evita had been his swansong. Now we know we owe him an apology as after he worked with Abba to write Chess in 1984 he’s been the lyricist of another 11 musicals, several of which overshadowed his early work with Lloyd Webber He has worked with composers Alan Menken on The Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, and with Elton John on The Lion King and Aida.
Now he has updated another of his musicals From Here To Eternity based on James Jones novel and also the multi-Academy Award-winning film of the same name. Jones’s manuscript was heavily censored by his publisher to remove profanity and references to gay prostitution; and the unexpurgated version was not published until 2011. This is the version that Rice and Stuart Brayson and Bill Oakes used for their show.
As such it contains references to prostitution and gay sex, as well as the Army’s investigation into them , in fact] the right to create the musical adaptation came with the condition that it had to be based on the original book.
.During its preview period some people walked out of the performance, having been unprepared for the nudity and swearing in the production. Darius Campbell who played First Sergeant Milt Warden, said that the “James Jones novel really portrayed homosexuality and prostitution in the way that it existed in those days and we’ve dived in head first. Maybe some of the nudity, swearing and explicitness has been too much for them, but a younger audience and an audience who have loved the film – and wanted to see more – have been giving us standing ovations and for that we are all grateful.”
It premiered In London’s West End in Sept 2013 and then in the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival in 2016. Now A newly revised productionl opened Charing Cross Theatre on 29 October 2022 and will play to 17 December 2022.[6This production is significantly different from the original West End one, with a completely rewritten book and lots of changes made to the musical numbers since the female ensemble was cut and the cast size reduced
Labels: 2022, From Here To Eternity, London, nusical, Tim Rice
