As revealed by WestEndTheatre.com on Wednesday, Tim Rice’s new musical From Here to Eternity will end its run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in April 2014.
The show, which opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in October 2013, will have run for over 7 months in the West End.
Aadapted from the novel by James Jones, which became the Oscar-winning movie starring Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, the show is a big-budget, epic musical that tells the tale of illicit love and army life set against the backdrop of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The musical unites the writing talents of Tim Rice (lyrics), Stuart Brayson (music) and Bill Oakes (book), and is directed by Tamara Harvey.
The show stars Robert Lonsdale as Prewitt, Darius Campbell as Warden, Ryan Sampson as Maggio, Siubhan Harrison as Lorene and Rebecca Thornhill as Karen. The cast also includes Keisha Amponsa Banson, Marc Antolin, Julie Armstrong, Warren Sollars and Matthew Wesley.
From Here to Eternity will be followed into the Shaftesbury Theatre by Richard Eyre’s Chichester Festival Theatre production of The Pajama Game in May 2014.
WestEndTheatre Comment
Given that this show is full of great songs, hot men (yes, that is you Robert Lonsdale), sexy women, incredible choreography, some stunning sets and a rollicking good story, we are still confused why From Here to Eternity hasn’t quite captured everyone’s imagination. It can’t be just the curse of the Shaftesbury! It’s easy to blame the marketing people but they seem to have found it a tough one to position (or perhaps, haven’t been allowed to position it how they think it should be!). Sex sells, and the initial campaign looked positively old-fashioned and cheesy. Just because something is set in the 1940’s doesn’t mean that it has to look like that on the poster!
Catch this show whilst you still can.
