Gossip

Goold & Nutini team for Nowhere Boy musical?

| London's West End |

10 February 2012

Scottish pop star Paolo Nutini is apparently in negotiations to write the songs for a forthcoming musical adaptation of Sam Taylor-Wood’s John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy.

According to the Daily Mail, Whatsonstage.com Award-winner Rupert Goold (Enron) is on board to direct the production, which could hit the West End as early as next year.

Nowhere Boy, which was released in 2009 starring Aaron Johnson, centres on the teenage years of John Lennon, exploring his relationship with his mother and aunt, his early romances, and his first meeting with Paul McCartney.

Based on an autobiography by Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird, it focuses on the time before the Beatles were formed and went to Hamburg, which was the subject of current West End musical Backbeat (which closes on 18 February).

As a result, the stage show is unlikely to feature any Beatles hits. According to the Mail’s Baz Bamigboye, Goold and producers Sally Greene and Ecosse Films “want to listen to an original score, before they decide how to proceed, in terms of the music”.

Nowhere Boy is just one of a number of films currently being adapted for the stage. Others include Made in Dagenham, Shakespeare in Love and The Bodyguard.