More than 20 years after noted show-tune geniuses Bono and The Edge botched their own adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, a new musical based on Anthony Burgess’s dystopian masterwork is headed to the stage in the UK. Which would be awesome-enough news without the added bonus that it apparently draws from… West Side Story?
According to Dr. Andrew Biswell, the head of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, the new musical is a “revisioning” of the story that the novelist and composer felt somewhat disenfranchised from in the years after Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1971 screen adaptation. The songs are supposed to be unveiled next year in commemoration of the original novel’s 50th anniversary, but Biswell offered this hint to the BBC:
“The music is really important because it establishes a tone and a mood,” Dr. Biswell said. “It’s pretty close to West Side Story — that’s one of the obvious influences on it. There’s this scene in prison, where one of the prisoners is kicked to death, which is very throwaway and jolly. That’s completely different from the corresponding episode in the film, which is very gloomy and depressing.”
Yowza! Honestly, it makes perfect sense: You’d kind of have to be Stephen Sondheim to come up with a functioning rhyme for “Droog.”
· Debut for A Clockwork Orange music [BBC via The Guardian]
Anna Paquin AnnaLynne McCord Anne Marie Kortright April Scott Arielle Kebbel Ashanti Ashlee Simpson
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