Entertainment legend Cilla ‘would have loved new musical about her’
THE son of Cilla Black has said the late star would be thrilled with her life story being turned into a musical and that he is working on the show partly for “selfish” reasons as he misses her.
Black died of a stroke in August 2015 after falling and hitting her head at her Spanish villa at the age of 72.
In 2014 the former Blind Date host’s early days in the pop industry hit the small screen in ITV miniseries Cilla, with Sheridan Smith in the leading role.
The programme’s popularity set the wheels in motion for a musical.
Robert Willis, the eldest of Black’s three sons, appeared on ITV’s This Morning to announce a casting call for the musical production.
He said his mother would have liked the production and the recently erected statue in her honour in her home city of Liverpool.
He said: “She would have loved it and it would have meantalottoher.
“She loved the drama (programme). She would have people coming up to her saying: ‘I love your drama’ and she’d say: ‘Well it’s not my drama, it’s Sheridan’s’.
“But she was thrilled that people appreciated her as a pop singer and what that drama did is that it repositioned her as a pop singer – what she always wanted.
“She was very committed to TV and that was a huge part of her career but in her heart of hearts she was very youthful and in her mind she was always a pop singer. It was wonderful that drama helped to do that for her.”
Willis told the ITV audience that while his mother was initially “reticent” over the TV drama, she fell in love with it when she read the script, and that it was her approval of the programme that prompted him to work on the musical.
Cilla – The Musical will tour the UK starting in Liverpool on September 7. The lead role has yet to be cast.