Emma’s casting her spell on Nanny
EMMA THOMPSON has revealed that she will direct the new Nanny mcPhee musical.
Thompson has written the show’s book, basing it on the 2005 film which she adapted from Christianna Brand’s Nurse matilda stories ( originally published in the Sixties).
The actress also played the title role of the snaggle-toothed, wart-speckled nursery nurse in possession of powers that rid recalcitrant children (and their parents) of their worst habits.
She told me that the ‘wonderful composer’ Gary Clark is writing the score for the musical, while she is doing the lyrics.
Clark’s a catch. The Scottish songwriter and producer, now back in Dundee after several years residing and working in america, was the frontman for three groups including Danny Wilson: who found fame with mary’s Prayer in the Eighties.
a prolific songwriter, Clark has written and produced for a range of singers, including Natalie Imbruglia and Demi Lovato, and two years ago penned the soundtrack for John Carney’s film Sing Street.
THOMPSON told me she’s ‘ excited and naturally nervous’ about directing a musical. This time, though, she will not reprise her role as the severelooking, black- clad nanny who wields a magic cane that makes all manner of things happen — including allowing her to materialise wherever she wants (‘I did knock!’).
‘We’ve just held a workshop of the first act,’ Thompson told me, ‘and we’ll do the second act in October.’
This page broke news of the show nearly three years ago. and it will be at least a year — maybe longer — before a West End- bound production goes into rehearsal.
Film producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan, who run top British studio Working Title, are producing, as they did with the phenomenal Billy Elliot. That musical worked because it wasn’t a carbon copy of the picture.
Thompson gave no hints about casting, but I wonder if it’s something Imelda Staunton might do — though she did tell me recently she’s taking a break from the stage, after a string of awardwinning shows.
Emma’s output has been equally abundant, and includes a new take on Goneril in a superb BBC2 production of King Lear, and a breathtaking performance as a High Court judge in the film version of Ian mcEwan’s The Children act (both directed by Richard Eyre).
She also plays a British prime minister in the new Johnny English comedy.