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Closer To Heaven |
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CLOSER
TO HEAVEN
The new musical by Jonathan Harvey & Pet Shop Boys
Opens 31st May 2001
ARTS THEATRE, Great Newport Street, Leicester Square, London WC2
PRESS RELEASE
As you would expect from Pet Shop Boys and
Jonathan Harvey, this is not your average musical. It is a riotous story of sex,
drugs, clubland and the music industry but at its heart is a love triangle.
The storyline goes :- Straight Dave, a sexy
young barman fresh from Ireland falls for the beautiful, ambitious club
manager's daughter Shell and the young, street-wise drug dealer Mile End Lee.
The iconic Billie Tricks, hostess of London's most successful club night,
oversees the action while the outrageous pop band manager Bob Saunders has his
own plans for Straight Dave. As fame and fortune beckon, Dave has difficult
decisions to make.
'Closer To Heaven' features 15 new songs from Pet
Shop Boys, and electrifying club choreography by Peter Darling ('Billy Elliot'
and the musicals 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Candide').
"We've always liked the theatre and our live
shows have had very strong theatrical elements," says Neil Tennant.
"We've wanted to do a musical for ages because we wanted to see if it was
possible to put contemporary pop music onto the stage."
The songs are vintage Pet Shop Boys though the
writing process was different. "We've had to write songs to progress the
plot so we've written to a brief," Chris Lowe explains. "But
stylistically the music is Pet Shop Boys music. That's the whole point of
it."
The seeds of 'Closer To Heaven' were first planted
eight years ago when the BBC wanted to commission a musical and suggested that
Neil and Chris work with Jonathan Harvey. They saw his play 'Beautiful Thing'
and subsequently approached Jonathan with the idea of collaborating on a
musical.
They decided they would come up with an original
story rather than base their musical on an existing book or film. The three of
then sat down and came up with the basic idea for the 'Closer To Heaven' plot
and the principal characters over a few months. Jonathan began to write the
script while Neil and Chris wrote the music.
Over the last six years the project has reached
fruition. "Sometimes Jonathan has suggested ideas for songs and sometimes
we've suggested scenes and Jonathan has written them," says Neil.
"It's been a lot of fun working with him."
A cast album will be released later this year
produced by Neil, Chris and Stephen Hague and featuring the cast.
'Closer to Heaven' will be directed by Gemma
Bodinetz ('Breath,Boom'-Royal Court Upstairs, 'Luminosity'-now in rehearsal for
RSC) and designed by Es Devlin ('Henry 1V Part One and Two' - RSC,'Betrayal'
-National Theatre). Sound design by Simon Barker, lighting by Mark Henderson and
musical supervision by Chris Nightingale.
'Closer To Heaven' is A Company on Stage Production
- creative & Executive Producer Kevin Wallace - in association with Terry
Brady, MAT Theatrical Entertainment S.A. de C.V. & Stella entertainment.
"We hope that it's going to be very different
from anything anyone's ever seen before on a London stage," says Chris
Lowe.
"We haven't set out to do a big West End
musical," adds Neil Tennant. "It's an attempt to do something new -
contemporary drama with contemporary music."
BOOK NOW
Box Office telephone : + 44 (0) 20 7836 3334
For further information regarding performance times and ticket prices visit :-
