musical

Local Hero, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh – captivating musical with a harder edge

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New staging brings the iconic 1983 movie’s themes and characters into sharper focus.

Review by David Kettle

“Cult” is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. But there’s undoubtedly something truly special about Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film – about a Texan oil executive on a mission to buy up a section of the Scottish coast for a vast new refinery, only to end up falling in love with the place – that makes it so warmly cherished by certain viewers.

Maybe it’s Local Hero’s disarming mix of laid-back whimsy and harder drama, its unapologetic sentimentality, its surreal eccentricity, its gentle humour. Or maybe it’s the movie’s ironic role-reversal, as villagers grow impatient to plunder their new-found wealth while the swaggering incomer grows ever more enraptured with the place. It’s a mix that’s undoubtedly helped by Mark Knopfler’s evocative original score, whose guitar theme “Going Home” alone can transport you straight back to the ramshackle charm of Ferness and its iconic phone box.

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Bill Forsyth cut out of Local Hero musical 

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It is one of the most eagerly awaited theatre productions of recent years but there will be one notable absentee at its world premiere.

Bill Forsyth, the writer and director of the film Local Hero, has said that he has been frozen out of a musical based on the film and will boycott the opening in Edinburgh this month.

Forsyth, who has spent the past three years collaborating on the show with the playwright David Greig, has been told that he should “cease to be actively involved” in the project.

A statement from the theatre said: “As Mark Knopfler developed a new score of 19 new songs, Bill Forsyth and David Greig worked closely together on several drafts of the script to ensure this transformation to the theatre retained the magic and essence of Bill’s film. “As such, we’re sad and surprised if he has felt in any way excluded from the creative process. “A world class creative team, director, designers and musicians have been assembled to create the show, all with Bill and Mark’s approval. “When a new stage show begins rehearsals, it is this team which forms and shapes it for the theatre. John Crowley, the director, and the whole team have always considered Bill’s voice to be central and integral. Without it, any telling of Local Hero would simply not be possible.”

Set designer Scott Pask on the Lyceum’s Local Hero musical: “don’t even bank on a phone box” 

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The cast of Local Hero, from left to right: Suzie McAdam, Scott Ainslie, Caroline Deyga, Damian Humbley, Julian Forsyth, Emmanuel Kojo, Simon Rouse, Matthew Malthouse, Katrina Bryan, Matthew Pidgeon, Adam Pearce, Joanne McGuinness, Wendy Somerville, Helen Logan, and John McLarnon. But will the phone box make the final cut? PIC: Stephen Cummiskey

Award-winning et designer Scott Pask explains why he is leaving so much to the audience’s imagination for the Lyceum’s musical adaptation of Local Hero. Interview by Alistair HarknessOne of the most enduring aspects of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero is the way it captures not just the Scottish landscape, but the transformative effect it has on its protagonist. In this wistful comedy about a materialistic Texan oil executive called Mac who arrives in Scotland to plunder a stretch of coastline, only to fall for its ineffable charms, the landscape becomes a character in its own right. But it’s a character Forsyth all but dares us to take for granted, undercutting its swooning romanticism with droll humour, ensuring that by the time Mac realises he’s fallen for it, it’s worked its magic on us too.

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Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero film adapted for stage musical

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Bill Forsyth, right, on the set of Local Hero in 1983 with Denis Lawson and Peter Riegert

The screenwriter Bill Forsyth is turning his film Local Hero into a musical, 35 years after its release.

The movie about an American oil tycoon’s attempt to buy a remote Scottish village starred Jenny Seagrove and Peter Capaldi. It is being adapted for the stage by Forsyth and David Greig, artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. Marc Knopfler, founder of the band Dire Straits, will produce the music [ . . . ]
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