<copy><![CDATA[When, back in the 1960s, the Oscar-winning film composer John Barry had the idea of doing a stage musical of Brighton Rock, Graham GreeneΓÇÖs bleak novel of small-time seafront gangsterism, he didnΓÇÖt bargain for the great novelistΓÇÖs enthusiasm. ΓÇ£He wanted to write the lyrics,ΓÇ¥ says Barry, a Yorkshireman who, at 70, is a veteran of well over 100 film scores, numerous songs and who, most famously, provided the musical background to much of the James Bond series. ΓÇ£I said: ΓÇÿYou know, Graham, itΓÇÖs up to you, but writing lyrics is a very, very different craft to literature. But take your shot.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ A week later, Barry visited the author at his flat in LondonΓÇÖs Piccadilly. Greene produced his effort, a foolscap sheet covered with dense, small type. ΓÇ£I said, ΓÇÿYouΓÇÖve written literature. This is not a lyric.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ Barry then sang Greene an Irving Berlin composition, WhatΓÇÖll I Do, to illustrate his point that brevity is everything in song writing. ΓÇ£I said: ΓÇÿThatΓÇÖs what great lyric writing is about. ItΓÇÖs not about explaining every detail, itΓÇÖs about inference.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ Greene was gracious about it. ΓÇ£He was very polite,ΓÇ¥ Barry says. ΓÇ£He said: ΓÇÿYes, youΓÇÖre quite right, I donΓÇÖt have any talent for this.ΓÇÖΓÇ¥ That was the end of GreeneΓÇÖs theatrical involvement (but not adaptations of his works: click on Greene on stage and screen in the left-hand panel for more). Barry, however, still has the songs at his home in Oyster Bay, New York, along with the old script. The project has been a labour of love for decades, and now, after a couple of aborted attempts, it has finally come to fruition. In partnership with the lyricist Don Black, with whom he first worked on the 1966 film Born Free (for which they both won Academy Awards), Barry has written 19 songs for Giles HavergalΓÇÖs dramatisation of Brighton Rock. It opens at the Almeida in London this month and, in a nice piece of showbiz symmetry, it is being directed by Michael Attenborough. His father, Richard, memorably played the central character of Pinkie Brown, the psychotic teenage hoodlum, in John BoultingΓÇÖs celebrated 1947 film version of<br>the novel. With its seedy prewar setting, and physical and emotional sadism, Brighton Rock may seem an odd choice for the musical theatre treatment. Pinkie (played by Michael Jibson) marries Rose (Sophia Ragavelas), a naive young waitress hopelessly in love with him, simply to keep her quiet about a murder. But he hasnΓÇÖt reckoned on Ida (Harriet Thorpe), the townΓÇÖs goodtime girl and gossip, who is determined to get to see justice done. As a story, it is hardly joyfully escapist, but Barry became convinced of its potential years ago. ΓÇ£I read the book as a piece of literature without any thoughts of the project in mind. Having read it, I thought, my God, what a great English story, with wonderful characters: Pinkie, this wonderful villain; Rose, the innocent; Ida, this blowsy kind of knockabout character.Then there are all the members of the gang. I just thought thereΓÇÖs a great cast here.ΓÇ¥ Even so, some sceptics saw the story as unappealingly gloomy. ΓÇ£Right from the beginning there have been people whoΓÇÖve said itΓÇÖs too dark," Barry says. ΓÇ£We havenΓÇÖt compromised: when itΓÇÖs dark, its dark. ItΓÇÖs not as if we have said: ΓÇÿOh, weΓÇÖve got to lighten this whole thing up.ΓÇÖ We have stayed very true to the book.ΓÇ¥ But, he says, thereΓÇÖs also plenty of fun in the novel. ΓÇ£ThereΓÇÖs a lot of joy with the gang, and Ida; thereΓÇÖs a lot of colour.ΓÇ¥ <br> <br> Nevertheless, when your leading protagonist is such a vile character, it must be hard when writing songs for him to strike the right note. ΓÇ£A lot of them are songs of deceit,ΓÇ¥ Barry explains, using as an example the point where Pinkie courts Rose with a number entitled You and I Have Things in Common. ΓÇ£The whole song is a lie. ItΓÇÖs him trying to be nice to her, to get her, because sheΓÇÖs witnessed certain things, so itΓÇÖs a phoney thing heΓÇÖs doing. But you can write it as if itΓÇÖs straight, and his performance makes it phoney. If it was a different situation, he could sing that in a sincere way to a character, and it would work as a straight song. So itΓÇÖs the way the songΓÇÖs set up.ΓÇ¥ The music will, he says, be ΓÇ£very 1930sΓÇ¥, with most of the song titles being direct quotes from the book. But the stage adaptation will diverge from the novel at the end, using the same, devastating device as the movie, with Rose hearing only part of PinkieΓÇÖs recorded message from beyond the grave. ΓÇ£The end of the film is terrific, with the record sticking at ΓÇÿI love you, I love you, I love youΓÇÖ,ΓÇ¥ Barry says. ΓÇ£I think itΓÇÖs a hell of an idea, because itΓÇÖs so theatrical. It works. ItΓÇÖs rare that devices work ΓÇô they donΓÇÖt usually ring true ΓÇô but this is one that needs no apology. ItΓÇÖs a killer ending.ΓÇ¥ Brighton Rock is BarryΓÇÖs fifth stage musical. His list of film credits ΓÇô ranging from Dr No (1962) and The Ipcress File (1965) to Midnight Cowboy (1969), Dances with Wolves (1990) and Indecent Proposal (1993; click on A life in music in the left-hand panel for a fuller biography) ΓÇô reads like a history of popular cinema, but his theatre work has been relatively sparse. After a modest success with something called Passion Flower Hotel in 1965, he had a genuine West End hit with Billy (based on Billy Liar) in 1974, which he also co-wrote with Don Black and which starred a young, pre-Phantom Michael Crawford and an unknown Elaine Paige. An earlier venture, the 1971 musical version of Lolita, this time with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, did not enjoy similar success: it was, he says, ΓÇ£an<br>absolute disasterΓÇ¥. Barry writes quickly, something he puts down to his years of movie training. ΓÇ£If IΓÇÖm not writing quickly, I usually take that as a sign that this is a bad idea, and IΓÇÖll throw it out: I shouldnΓÇÖt be having this problem ΓÇô a bell goes off.ΓÇ¥ When he is writing a film score, he works in what he calls solitary confinement, for anything from three to eight weeks, depending on the amount of composition. ΓÇ£Out of Africa had only 35 minutes of music, but it sounds like a big score because it was very well chosen, and when the music went, it was very ΓÇÿout thereΓÇÖ. Dances with Wolves had an hour and a half; the Bond movies have always been about an hourΓÇÖs<br>music.ΓÇ¥ Barry describes his work for the most successful movie franchise in history affectionately as ΓÇ£million-dollar Mickey Mouse musicΓÇ¥. ΓÇ£ItΓÇÖs glorified animated music, and I enjoyed doing that. It was an incredible release, to have a property that gave itself to doing all that kind of nonsense. It was all in a sense of fun, so it all worked.ΓÇ¥ Brighton Rock promises to be a far cry from the epic brassiness of Goldfinger or the majestic sweep of You Only Live Twice. But Barry is very satisfied with the way it is sounding. ΓÇ£We sang through the whole score yesterday. I was delighted, because sometimes you think, ΓÇÿOh God, why did I write thatΓÇÖ, and I was absolutely thrilled with it. The cast ΓÇô you can tell ΓÇô are so lit up and onboard.ΓÇ¥ Brighton Rock, Almeida Theatre, Islington,<br>London; until Nov 13. Click <a href="asfunction:Tardis.webPageOpen,http://www.almeida.co.uk/index.cfm?id=brighton"><b>here</b></a> for more details and to book tickets. Click on A life in music in the left-hand panel for more on BarryΓÇÖs career, and on Greene on stage and screen for the rich history of adaptations of the author.The clips are from Barry: The Collection, released by Silva Screen.]]></copy>
