Podcasts

WOS Radio: Edward Seckerson Talks to Richard Taylor

Editorial Staff

Richard Taylor and David Wood‘s musical adaptation of LP Hartley’s The Go-Between for the West Yorkshire Playhouse marks a further departure in the development of that many-faceted genre we call musical theatre. When and why people sing when they can speak or speak when they could sing has long exerted a fascination for those who love the age-old co-existence that music has enjoyed with theatre.

In this exclusive audio podcast Taylor talks to Edward Seckerson about the journey that he and Wood have taken to bring The Go-Between to the stage, how story-telling has dictated the part that music and “singing” plays in it, and how breaking some of the “rules” that can and do inhibit the musical have liberated Taylor as a composer.

In 1992 his musical version of Whistle Down the Wind for the National Music Youth Theatre (pace Andrew Lloyd Webber) firmly established him as a dynamic new force in musical theatre. Since then his varied work in theatre has marked him apart as a top-flight musician far less interested in being prolific than being truthful and innovative.

The Go-Between may well prove important in further redefining perceptions of what musical theatre can achieve.