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Artist News
Paul McCartney working on ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ musical
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 18 July 2019
Paul McCartney has confirmed he is working on his first stage musical, an adaptation of the classic film ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’. Macca is partnering with British theatre producer Bill Kenwright on the project, while writer Lee Hall is also involved on the lyrical and story-book side.
Says McCartney: “Like many of these things this all started with an email. Bill had asked if it was something I might be up for. Writing a musical is not something that had ever really appealed to me, but Bill and I met up with Lee Hall and had a chat and I found myself thinking this could be interesting and fun”.
Kenwright adds: “Working with Paul on ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a dream realised. To be honest, I was hooked on first hearing him say ‘one/two/three/four’ on the demo of the opening number! But since then it’s been an extraordinary journey – on every song I experience Paul’s unique gift of melody and composition. It’s musical theatre – but it’s always McCartney”.
As for the Frank Capra-directed movie they have chosen to musicalise, McCartney says: “‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a universal story we can all relate to”. Meanwhile Kenwright adds: “Paul, Lee, and I use the word ‘cherish’ when we refer to our source material and that’s what we intend to do: cherish Frank Capra’s creation”.
Work is still ongoing on the new musical, with plans to premiere it on stage in late 2020.
