New Tim Rice musical From Here To Eternity

The James Jones tome From Here to Eternity is a 900 page novel so it will take some adapting to cut it down to a manageable size for a stage musical.  But Tim Rice and his collaborators are trying to do just that … after all Les Miserables was eventually cut down to size.

The 1953 film version was about life in a US military fort on the Hawaiian island of Oahu before Pearl Harbour and deals with the troubles of the soldiers played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine with Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed playing  the women in their lives. It featured that wonderful Lancaster/Kerr beach scene which was considered very risqué in those days.

Rice explained that the stage show is based on the book and not Daniel Taradash’s movie screenplay. He said: “It’s taken several years to secure full stage rights. It’s only really now that we are all gung-ho”. 

Rice is the co-producer with a score by  young British composer Stuart Brayson.  Bill Oakes has written the book and Tamara Harvey (Tell Me On A Sunday) will direct.