All About Eve

Behind the Scenes – PJ Harvey – BBC Sounds

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

Following PJ Harvey as she creates the score for a new production of All About Eve.

John Wilson follows PJ Harvey as she creates the score for a new West End theatre production of All About Eve. Singer songwriter Polly Jean Harvey is the only artist to have twice won the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year – for Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea in 2001 and Let England Shake a decade later. After 12 critically acclaimed albums and more than 25 years as an international touring artist, she is now focussing on her work as a soundtrack composer, having written scores for theatre and television for more than a decade. Starring Gillian Anderson (making her first return to the stage since her acclaimed 2014 performance in A Streetcar Named Desire) and Lily James (star of Downton Abbey and Mama Mia), All About Eve is one of the most anticipated theatrical events of 2019. Adapted from the 1950 film, which was nominated for 14 Oscars and won six including Best Actress for Bette Davis, it’s a story of an ageing Broadway star and a young fan who usurps her place in the spotlight. Over several weeks in the run up to opening night, Polly shows John how she works at home, writing and recording demos for the soundtrack to the play, and how one musical element of the original film – Liebestraume by Franz Liszt – has become the creative touchstone for her own compositions.

Presented and Produced by John Wilson. A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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PJ Harvey Will Score Ivo Van Hove’s Stage Adaptation of All About Eve

~ Michael Stevenson ~ Leave a comment

“50 Ft. Queenie” should fit right in.

All About Eve will be adapted for the stage next year—and who better to score this tale of jealous rage and desperation than the musician Rolling Stone held responsible for “digging out her most twisted nightmares and setting them on fire”? (This review came in tribute to PJ Harvey’s 1993 album Rid of Me, a goth-punk album praised by Kurt Cobain and Elvis Costello.) More recently, Harvey scored two documentaries, Ukrajina and Towards Mathilde, and one play, The Nest, which premiered in 2016. An announcement released Monday morning on Harvey’s website confirmed that she will be scoring the stage rendition of the acclaimed film.

A 1950s classic and Best Picture Oscar–winner, All About Eve follows Bette Davis in the role of a fading Broadway star and Anne Baxter as the starry-eyed young fan threatening to replace her. The film is also famous for featuring the glowing charisma of Marilyn Monroe in a smaller part that manages to steal the spotlight.

The play will be directed by acclaimed Belgian theater director Ivo Van Hove and will run from February through May of 2019 at London’s Noël Coward Theatre. Gillian Anderson will take on Davis’ part and Lily James (from Baby Driver) will play Anne Baxter’s Eve.

Source: PJ Harvey Will Score Ivo Van Hove’s Stage Adaptation of All About Eve