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Michael Bogdanov to direct musical version of The Thorn Birds.... |
That much-loved popular literary saga of forbidden passion and Catholic guilt set in the wild open spaces of the Outback, The Thorn Birds, is to be staged as a musical, 30 years after it caused a publishing sensation.Bogdanov, who has directed opera and musicals and who set up the acclaimed English Shakespeare Company after a period in the 1980s working at the National Theatre as Sir Peter Hall's associate director, travelled to McCullough's home on the remote Norfolk Island, a former penal colony 1,000 miles off the Brisbane coast, to work on the dialogue. He and Bruni also worked with McCullough on the script in Wales, where Bodganov now runs the Wales Theatre Company, the company behind the new musical. The role of Meggie Cleary has gone to West End musical talent Helen Anker and the role of dashing priest Ralph de Bricassart has yet to be cast. "It is going to be a challenge to suggest that sense of loneliness on the stage," said Bogdanov, "but I can see how we can do it. Expectations are going to be very high, but I have been determined to get the right narrative structure." Full story on The Observer web site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jan/04/musicals-thorn-birds-uk-tour |
| The Observer web site: www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jan/04/musicals-thorn-birds-uk-tour |
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Sunday, January 4, 2009 |
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