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The Smiths Provide Soundtrack for Some Lyric GirlsDate: 15 March 2005
The songs of 1980s band The Smiths will form the basis for a new show that receives its world premiere in July. Not to be confused with the similarly titled new Neil LaBute play Some Girls, which will be running in the West End this summer starring Friends’ David Schwimmer (See News, 24 Feb 2005), Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others will have a limited season from 5 to 23 July 2005 (previews from 1 July) at west London’s Lyric Hammersmith.
Rather than a straightforward commercial compilation of one band’s back catalogue, à la We Will Rock You (Queen), Our House (Madness) and Mamma Mia! (Abba), according to promotional materials, the new show is “not a musical…not a play” but rather an expressionist piece of “pure, unadulterated theatre”.
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others is conceived by Andrew Wale and Perrin Manzer Allen, aka Anonymous Society, who previously had an award-winning hit at the Edinburgh Festival and Lyric Hammersmith with a show based on the music of Jacques Brel.
The new piece is performed by four female singers and two male actors, accompanied by a string quartet and additional synthesised music loops. It aims to give an insight into the lives and relationships of six performers through the use of The Smiths’ music, creating a “microcosm of society” and “evolving a sense of place, character and emotion from the words of the songs”.
Formed by songwriter Johnny Marr and lead singer Morrissey (pictured) in Manchester in 1982, The Smiths released seven albums and nearly 20 singles during an intense five-year period before disbanding in 1987. Amongst their songs which will be incorporated into the new Anonymous Society show will be: “Barbarism Begins at Home”, “Back to the Old House”, “Hand That Rocks the Cradle”, “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish”, “Last Night I Dreamed Somebody Loved Me”, “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”, “Well I Wonder” and the title song.
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others is produced by Glynis Henderson Productions, with the Lyric Hammersmith and Dublin Theatre Festival.
- by Caroline Ansdell & Terri Paddock
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