What Paul McCartney has done for modern music probably couldn’t fit into one news item, but even at his ‘ripe’ age of 77, he shows no signs of stopping. He’s adding one more thing to his portfolio that he has yet to do – writing music for theatre.
Actually, as The Guardian reports, it is a musical, and no less than a stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life.
McCartney will write the music and lyrics for the project that is set to open in late 2020. The playbook and additional lyrics will be written by Lee Hall, author of Billy Elliot, who also wrote the script for the recent Elton John biopic Rocketman. The project initiator and producer is Bill Kenwright.
Explaining how he got involved in the project, McCarney said that, “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.” Talking about It’s A Wonderful Life itself, he sad it is “a universal story we can all relate to.”
Producer Kenwright stated that he has heard some of McCartney’s demo version already and that they “exceeded expectations … The songs take you somewhere you don’t expect to go. They sound simple – but it’s deceptive. That’s Paul’s genius.”
