BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Barlow's ode to the Eighties  

By Baz Bamigboye for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:48 EST, 1 October 2015 | Updated: 19:08 EST, 1 October 2015

Take That star Gary Barlow has assembled a line-up of Eighties pop stars to write and perform songs for the forthcoming film about Winter Olympics hero Eddie The Eagle.

The movie stars Taron Egerton as British ski jumper Eddie Edwards — who, despite his ineptitude, charmed millions with his pluck and courage at the 1988 Calgary Games — and Hugh Jackman as his ski mentor.

It has been scoring high marks at recent test screenings, and will be released here in the spring.

Take That star Gary Barlow has assembled a line-up of Eighties pop stars to write and perform songs for the forthcoming film about Winter Olympics hero Eddie The Eagle, writes BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Take That star Gary Barlow has assembled a line-up of Eighties pop stars to write and perform songs for the forthcoming film about Winter Olympics hero Eddie The Eagle, writes BAZ BAMIGBOYE

Director Dexter Fletcher and producer Matthew Vaughn met with Barlow during pre-production and said they wanted the film’s score and soundtrack to reflect the era it’s set in.

‘Gary has become like the George Martin of this album,’ joked Vaughn, referring to the legendary Beatles producer.

Alison Moyet, OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark), Ultravox, ABC, Howard Jones and Spandau Ballet are all in discussions about contributing songs to the soundtrack album. 

Some will sing their own numbers, while others will have theirs performed by different artists.

‘Gary has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He knows a lot of the participants and has a great knowledge of the music of the Eighties,’ Vaughn added.

Barlow has been working on Eddie The Eagle in between helping to put together The Girls musical with Tim Firth, which will begin its tour at the Grand Theatre, Leeds from November 14.

Over in New York, Broadway musical Finding Neverland, for which he and Eliot Kennedy wrote the score, has become a big hit.

When I visited the Eddie The Eagle set, I was knocked out by how Egerton was able to transform his facial features to resemble Eddie’s, with minimal help from make-up.

I was also struck by how heartwarming and poignant the footage I saw was.

The 30th anniversary of Les Miserables next week will hold special memories for Herbert Kretzmer, the award-winning songwriter who adapted and wrote the lyrics for the show that’s been a global success. 

For starters, Herbie turns 90 on Monday, and Les Miz changed his life. 

He once worked at this very newspaper before Cameron Mackintosh teamed him up with Les Miz creators Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. 

Herbie’s Les Miz family will cheer him at a special 30th celebration at Queen’s Theatre in London on Thursday. 

 

THE ELF 'N' SAFETY RULES KEEPING DEATH ROW SAFE! 

It’s safety first when Hangmen, the hottest new play in London, transfers from the Royal Court Theatre into the West End.

The show, starring David Morrissey, is a blisteringly funny black comedy by Martin McDonagh about what happens to the second-best hangman in the country after capital punishment is abolished.

But the mechanics of nooses and trap doors have to be carefully monitored on stage.

The show, starring David Morrissey, is a blisteringly funny black comedy by Martin McDonagh about what happens to the second-best hangman in the country after capital punishment is abolished

The show, starring David Morrissey, is a blisteringly funny black comedy by Martin McDonagh about what happens to the second-best hangman in the country after capital punishment is abolished

‘It’s a big set, with tricks and surprises, and safety is the key,’ noted Matthew Byam Shaw, who will be producing the play with Robert Fox when it opens at Wyndham’s Theatre on December 1.

Morrissey, who plays Harry Wade — a fictional executioner loosely based on Harry Allen, one of Britain’s last hangmen — told me that stage crew and members of the cast ‘have specific jobs’ to ensure any death row characters are kept safe.

The run at the Royal Court, which ends on October 10, has had people queuing for returns and marks a triumphant return to form for McDonagh, who wrote The Beauty Queen Of Leenane for the stage and the comic movie masterpiece In Bruges.

Hangmen deals with weighty issues, all seen through McDonagh’s deliciously wicked eye. ‘We start with a state murder — they execute a man and there’s evidence that he might be innocent,’ Morrissey observed.

It ends with an act of chilling mob violence. ‘So it’s about the need for people to have revenge, and carry out a form of justice.’

Although set in the early Sixties, Hangmen nonetheless paints a vision of England that sadly echoes the way casual sexism and racism is prevalent today. Morrissey worried aloud about the fact that quite a lot of people ‘are up for the idea’ of bringing back hanging.

But McDonagh believes in delivering an equal opportunity kicking. ‘No one is left out,’ said Morrissey, who gives the performance of his career as a bully of a man who represents a world gone by.

Hangmen deals with weighty issues, all seen through McDonagh’s deliciously wicked eye. ‘We start with a state murder — they execute a man and there’s evidence that he might be innocent,’ Morrissey observed

Hangmen deals with weighty issues, all seen through McDonagh’s deliciously wicked eye. ‘We start with a state murder — they execute a man and there’s evidence that he might be innocent,’ Morrissey observed

His co-star, Johnny Flynn, plays a mysterious, menacing character who shows up in the pub. He represents the new world, which wants to sweep away the Harry Wades.

Morrissey, who starred in TV drama Extant and the hit U.S. series The Walking Dead, jumped at the opportunity to return to the stage the minute his agent uttered the words ‘Martin McDonagh’ and ‘Royal Court’.

‘McDonagh writes in such a beautiful rhythm that you turn off all your phones and lock the door to your office to read it,’ he said.

The play has had mostly five-star notices, with one or two dissenting voices, so I asked Morrissey if he’d had any doubts about playing a man with such a dark soul.

He told me that McDonagh asks his audience to look at men like Wade with a ‘funny, critical eye’.

‘I don’t think you always have to like your characters. But you do have to empathise with them,’ he said.

Most of the ensemble will move to Wyndham’s, but Reece Shearsmith — who has several moments of the best physical comedy I’ve seen on stage this year, playing Harry’s assistant — is not able to transfer because he’s off to work on TV show Inside Number 9.

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