Willy Russell talks to WOS Manchester
Writer Willy Russell talks about Blood Brothers… The Movie, Liverpool and the capital of culture celebrations, his love of Slava’s Snow Show and his future plans, including his forthcoming date in Manchester.
Willy Russell has been a hairdresser and teacher before going on to pen both the score and lyrics for the much loved musical Blood Brothers. He has also written a novel, The Wrong Boy and many plays including, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Breezeblock Park. Recently he played at the Edinburgh Festival with Tim Firth in a show called The Singing Playwrights. Willy’s current album Hoovering The Moon features Kate Rusby amongst many other special guests.
Russell is about to play Manchester for one night only in his show An Audience With Willy Russell at the Lowry.
Date & place of birth
August 23rd, Whiston, Lancashire.
Lives now in
Liverpool and partly London & Portugal.
Training
At age of 15 trained to be ladies Hairdresser. At 21 trained to be a teacher – currently studying art and drawing and continuing the lifelong study of writing.
What made you want to write?
Finding enormous solace and comfort in the stories I was read and told as a child.
If you hadn’t become a writer, what might you have done professionally?
I find ‘what if’ questions impossible to answer and the nearest I can get to this is that I’d probably have ended up somewhere between being a spectacularly failed, resentful coiffure and a brilliant criminal.
First big break
Getting back into education to do ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels at a time when the concept of a mature student was almost unheard of.
Career highlights to date
Again, difficult for me to answer this because, I just don’t think in this way. I’ve certainly been blessed and lucky to have had many experiences which I still cherish but some of these come just as much from the apparent failures as well as the so-called successes.
Favourite actors
And the reason I always try to avoid this kind of question is that, inevitably, there will be a name I forget to mention but will immediately recall once this thing is printed and I see the glaring omission. And so, I’m going to cop out of this one, thereby sparing myself the anguished guilt at not naming one of those many actors I most admire.
What’s the last thing you saw on stage that had a big impact on you? And the first?
In relatively recent times, I’ve been swept away by Slava’s Snow Show, Complicite’s Mr. Puntilla And His Man Matti – in Lee Hall’s superb version. More recently I saw Kneehigh’s version of Brief Encounter and just loved the quality of this superb company’s work.
The first work to have a real impact on me was McGrath’s Unruly Elements – at the time I was struggling to find out what kind of writer I needed to be and John’s work really helped me to determine how to go forward.
If you could swap places with one person (living or dead) for a day, who would it be?
A woman.
Favourite books
Too many to list but would have to include Moss Hart’s ‘Act One’, Elia Kazan: A Life: both of which I’m re-reading at the moment.
Favourite holiday destinations
Portugal, Yorkshire, Scotland.
Favourite haunts in Liverpool
Too long in the tooth now for true haunts but if I am out in this neck of the woods, I’d probably be headed for The Side Door restaurant in Hope Street – great food and effortlessly true hospitality.
Favourite websites
My all time favourite website just has to be whatsonstage.com. willyrussell.com has more detail about Blood Brothers movie plans.
Why did you want to do your new show, An Audience With Willy Russell?
In terms of The Lowry date, it’s to celebrate twenty five years of North West Playwrights, an organization I’ve long admired and I’m delighted to support. I never plan exactly what I’ll be doing until the actual night itself but it will, hopefully, include some damn fine readings and some splendid questions and conversation from the floor! As it’s getting close to that season again, then I suspect there’ll be at least one nativity play on offer!
Is it true that Blood Brothers could go from stage to screen?
With Alan Parker, I have written the screenplay for Blood Brothers and we’re both really delighted with it. Whether it is ultimately committed to film, though, depends upon factors beyond our control. It’s not a low budget picture by any means and financing a British picture of this scale was never going to be easy.
Are you looking forward to the Capital Of Culture celebrations?
Despite what I consider to be the many mistakes and missed opportunities, along with most people, I sincerely hope that the quality and breadth of the work on show will allow us all to forget the shenanigans and remember instead a year in which a wealth of good work was seen in Liverpool.
You are playing the Lowry. Have you been to the venue before?
Haven’t played the Lowry before but I’m really looking forward to doing so.
Are you still surprised at just how successful Blood Brothers has been?
I don’t know that I’m surprised by Blood Brothers’ ongoing success – I was probably more surprised at its original success. One thing that does continue to surprise me is that there are not more original British musicals which have sought to address the times and conditions in which they were written. A couple of years ago, I saw a work by Joel Horwood called Mikey The Musical which (although to some extent still something of a work in progress), had the thrilling whiff of both musical and social truth.
Would you like to write another musical?
Yes I would love to write another musical. And another album, another play, another novel, another film - hopefully the challenge of choreography will continue to remain beyond me!
What are your plans for the future?
My current plans are to successfully cast and bring to the stage the revival of Stags & Hens which we’re doing at the Royal Court, Liverpool early next year.
An Audience With Willy Russell is at the Lowry (Studio) on Wed 28 November. To book, click here
Willy Russell was talking to Glenn Meads