Paul McCartney had done everything except for…Broadway! So as Carole King’s show and others leave the Great White Way, Paul, at 77, is taking a stab.
He’s apparently written the basic songs for a musical adaptation of the Jimmy Stewart-Donna Reed classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Lee Hall, who wrote “Rocketman” for Elton John, and the hit musical “Billy Elliot,” has written or is writing the script. Bill Kenwright is producing.
So now we’re going to have the famous dance hall scene– in which a dance floor opens on a swimming pool and everyone jumps in — on Broadway. They’ll need a big stage and a lot of water!
“Like many of these things, this all started with an email,” McCartney said in a statement. “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.”
They’re looking to open in London at the end of 2020, and probably the US in 2021. That’s fast, which means a lot of working has already been done.
McCartney is the king of melodies and hooks, so you can expect to leave the theater humming. Casting is next, but the movie is so well known, and McCartney is a five star name, my guess is we’ll see some great theater stars rather than movie stars.
If Sir Paul wins the Tony Award in 2022, he will be a “GOT”– Grammy, Oscar,Tony. He has no Emmy Award. Yet. (By the way, someone should fix his IMDB entry for “Live and Let Die.” He did NOT share it with the other Beatles. It was four years after they broke up.)
