Nichols Inspired by Hoagy for New Musical???

Playwright Peter Nichols is reportedly working on a new musical. Nichols has been enjoying a tremendous resurgence since the Donmar Warehouse revived his 1981 drama Passion Play last year. That went on to have a successful West End run, while the current revival of his first hit, the 1967 comedy A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, is winning plaudits in the West End now. Nichols also has a new play, So Long Life, on tour, and in December his award-winning 1977 musical Privates on Parade will be reclaimed by the Donmar. Nichols' new, as yet untitled, musical is based on the music of Hoagy Carmicheal. The legendary American pianist and jazz composer penned such classics as "Georgia on My Mind", "Heart and Soul", "The Nearness of You" and "Star Dust". A favourite in Hollywood, during the 1940s and 1950s Carmichael often appeared as a cameo musician in films such as To Have or Have Not, The Best Years of Our Lives and Young Man with a Horn. Born in Indiana in 1899, Carmichael died of a heart attack in 1981.

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