The Time Traveller’s Wife musical sets a date for London’s West End | Theatre

A musical primarily based on Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife, with audio and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Joss Stone, will open in London’s West Conclusion this autumn.

The bestselling novel, about an artist whose husband’s genetic dysfunction sends him hopping in between previous and foreseeable future, was tailored as a film in 2009 and became a 2022 Tv set series that was axed right after 1 period. The new phase creation, first done in Chester very last calendar year, is “like nothing you have at any time seen” claimed Stewart, praising its illusions produced by Chris Fisher whose previous demonstrates include things like Harry Potter and the Cursed Youngster.

When he was approached about the undertaking, Stewart explained his initial assumed was: “Wow, time travel – it is sophisticated enough undertaking a musical!” Working with the logistics of the tale was eased by his conference with playwright Lauren Gunderson who wrote the script. “She form of acted all the pieces in entrance of me. Which is what bought me.”

Crafting a musical all through the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic created it a “fractured” practical experience claimed Stone, whose prior collaborations with Stewart include the SuperHeavy album in 2011. “But it worked – it gave us more time to sit with points, mull them in excess of. It was not all speedy and furious.”

The musical was 1st declared in 2021, prompting Niffenegger to tweet: “Should I know about this?” The show’s generation crew “immediately brought her in” and the novelist “really appreciated it” claimed Stewart who doesn’t anticipate any major improvements to the output considering the fact that its run at Storyhouse in Chester. Stewart was current for that premiere but Stone, who gave start in the US shortly immediately after the musical’s run, only recently listened to the full audio. “I’m excited to see it in the flesh,” she explained.

It is Stone’s initially expertise of doing work on a musical. “Originally I considered it would be a different natural environment musically. You envision it to be extremely rigid – ‘This is the way we do it’ – for the reason that of all the other shifting areas. But it wasn’t – it was so significantly enjoyment.” She anticipates performing versions of the music for The Time Traveller’s Wife in her very own solo concert events. “I See Her is a person of my favourites – the approach, the timing, the way it’s sung is extremely different [in the musical]. It’s greater, brighter, louder and clearer because it is a phase general performance.”

Stone quickly tailored to the nonstop process of rewriting songs to suit musicals. Mastering to destroy your darlings is component of it, described Stewart whose first West Conclusion musical was an adaptation of the film Ghost in 2011. Generating a musical is “complicated and in no way ending – even when you’re on phase it carries on currently being altered” he claimed. His initial phase musical was an “extreme, raunchy, S&M version” of the cult sci-fi movie Barbarella, staged in Vienna in 2004.

The musical of The Time Traveller’s Spouse gives larger company to the character of Clare (performed by Joanna Woodward reverse David Hunter) than the movie model did. Gunderson, who is America’s most developed playwright, “is excellent at crafting for women” mentioned Stone. “She put a unique standpoint on it to the movie which was about this male and his time vacation.” Stone enthused about the experience of creating music for Clare who inspired her for the reason that she “has to find her personal independence – that is a very highly effective detail for any one to embrace, guy or woman”. She related, as well, to the story’s exploration of artistry. “If you are an artist, you require to make stuff. I’m not crafting songs all working day due to the fact I can’t do that with the youngsters needing me [she has two young children] but I am baking a whole lot, consistently cooking, simply because I like making points.”

An first cast recording of The Time Traveller’s Wife will be generated later on in the calendar year.