BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Cilla's life story takes to stage (with her blessing): Musical about the late entertainer to open in Liverpool in the autumn

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A musical about the late Cilla Black, one of Britain’s most beloved entertainers, will open in Liverpool — the city of her birth — in the autumn.

The show, called simply Cilla, The Musical, will explore her early career as a singer; and tell how she became a star thanks to her own sheer will power, and the help of two men who loved her: Bobby Willis, the man she married; and Brian Epstein, the shrewd manager who looked after the Beatles and helped chart her road to success, too.

Her son, Robert Willis, told me the musical was the last project his mother gave her blessing to before she died at her villa in Spain in 2015.

The show, called simply Cilla, The Musical, will explore her early career as a singer

The stage show is based on Jeff Pope’s brilliant, three-part ITV drama Cilla that screened in 2014 and starred Sheridan Smith. Pope has adapted his screenplay for the theatre.

Essentially, it’s the story of a young girl from Liverpool’s ‘Scottie Road’ who aims for the stars and gets there, ‘but finds that it’s not all she thought it was going to be,’ Pope told me.

The show will concentrate more on the music than the TV programme did, Pope added, featuring songs associated with Cilla such as Anyone Who Had A Heart, Alfie, You’re My World, Step Inside Love and Liverpool Lullaby. It will also reflect the early Merseybeat sound with groups like The Big Three, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and some early Beatles numbers.

Her son Robert remarked that the music will have a context, too. ‘We’re not suddenly having Cilla bursting into song over a cup of tea! It’s either singing in a club or a recording studio,’ he told me.

Open auditions will be held in Liverpool (and elsewhere) in the coming months to find an actress to portray the young Cilla.

Bill Kenwright and Bob Thomson will jointly direct, with rehearsals running through August.

The first performance will be at the Liverpool Empire on September 7, where it will run until September 16. ‘It was a theatre my mother loved,’ Willis said. ‘Before she became well known, she would wait by the stage door and ask for autographs.’

The show will then embark on a nine-date tour winding up in Manchester from November 21.

Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield, who was Cilla’s agent, are producing the musical, with Willis as executive producer.

If it proves successful on tour, then they would like to transfer it into the West End.

With the right creative team and cast, I can see a show about Cilla Black becoming an enormous hit. She had a personality that cut across all social barriers.

The show would stop just before husband Bobby helped her become the highest paid TV host in the country, as presenter of Surprise, Surprise and Blind Date.

Willis told me how his mother was personally involved in the project’s development. ‘Once the show had gone out on television, we talked to her about the possibility of doing a stage version.

‘Jeff, who hadn’t written a book for a musical before, and myself went about looking at musicals, and we visited Liverpool and the Cavern. We had a lot of fun; and my mother was excited about it — though the success of the drama surprised her a bit. Initially, she couldn’t understand why anybody would be that interested.’

He added: ‘She knew what she was good at, and definitely had a passion — a real passion — for what she did. She never took success for granted. When there was such a great reaction to Sheridan and the drama — and therefore to her — she was touched. She felt in her heart of hearts that she was a pop singer, and so despite how important TV was to her, she really felt that the drama highlighted her passion for singing.

‘She was really made up, as she would say, that the drama did that; and people were coming up to her saying it was lovely — and I was really grateful that she experienced that before she died.

‘When she died, naturally, all the plans went on hold. Now the dust has started to settle, we had to make a choice: is this something that we let go? Or continue with.

‘We, all of us, felt it would be a sort of living memorial to her. Jeff had already written the script. It was something that would entertain and resonate. So we should go for it,’ Willis said.

He admitted that it was a very emotional moment when the decision was made to continue.

‘It’s the last big connection that I have with her,’ he said. ‘I want to do it for her. It was the last project she wanted to see happen.’

I asked Willis what he was looking for in an actress to play Cilla.

‘The key thing is to capture that energy she had: that joy for performing; that sincerity and vulnerability.’

I hope such an artist can be found.

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