Sadler’s Wells theatre in London have confirmed that a ballet production with music by Pet Shop Boys is planned for production in 2011. The choreographer is Javier de Frutos and writer/director Matthew Dunster is working on the scenario. Ivan Putrov, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, will dance a lead role in it. The ballet is based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen (suggested by Pet Shop Boys), and Neil and Chris have so far written about one-third of the score. A workshop of two scenes was sponsored by Sadler’s Wells last December (see photograph).
The first preview of the Jonathan Harvey/Pet Shop Boys musical, “Closer to Heaven” was performed on this day in 2001 at the Arts Theatre in London, with the official press night following on May 31st. The original cast album was released several months later and is still available on streaming services.
Neil and Chris had originally started writing the musical together with Jonathan Harvey in 1996. “We wanted to write something that wasn’t Les Mis or Rent,” says Chris. “A play about contemporary life with contemporary music that was not long and boring.”
Since its first run of shows in 2001, “Closer to Heaven” has returned to London theatre stages several times, most recently at the Turbine Theatre in 2024. It also premiered in Brisbane, Australia in 2005, in Brighton, UK in 2009 and in Dallas, USA in 2010. And one of its main characters, Billie Trix, returned in 2019 with her own one-woman show, “Musik”, also written by Jonathan Harvey with some new Tennant/Lowe songs.
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