08-06-2004, 04:01 AM
Entrepreneurs lay Broadway foundations for Pink Floyd's Wall
David Teather in New York
Friday August 6, 2004
The Guardian
The Wall, Pink Floyd's dark rock opera, looks likely to brave the glittering lights of Broadway. There are plans for a stage version of the album, 25 years after it was released.
Roger Waters, the main creative force behind the 1970s band, has teamed up with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax films and the music mogul Tommy Mottola.
Waters will write the play and arrange and orchestrate the music for the show, with the aim of raising the curtain in a year to 18 months. It is expected to also include some new music, and other Pink Floyd tracks not on The Wall.
The show fulfils Waters' original concept for The Wall, as an album, film and stage musical. The film version of the semi-autobiographical album was released in 1982, featuring Bob Geldof in the role of Pink, a burned out rock star who sinks into depression and reflects on his life.
Pink ponders the death of his father in the second world war, the smothering behaviour of his mother and his maltreatment by teachers at school. Some of the more violent images in the film included children being fed into a meat grinder, man-eating flowers having sex, and the lead character reinventing himself as a Hitler-figure.
The 1979 double album sold more than 23m copies, making it the third best-selling ever, and it spent two years in the charts.
The film, released in 1982 was less commercially successful, grossing $22m in North America. Still, the collaboration with the animator Gerald Scarfe and the director Alan Parker became a cult favourite, and was praised for its groundbreaking use of music and striking images, years ahead of MTV.
In 1990, Waters staged a £4m concert of the album at the foot of the Berlin wall, that was also recorded and filmed.
The hit single from the album, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), became a totem for adolescent angst - partic ularly with the line "We don't need no education".
Waters, though, appears to have mellowed. He said of the planned stage show: "Now I can write in some laughs, notable by their absence in the movie."
Waters split with the band in the 1980s and went on to produce a number of solo albums.
Mr Mottola, the former head of Sony Music in North America and now in charge of Universal Music's Casablanca Records, said: "There are few projects as timeless as The Wall. Even after two decades since its first release, The Wall continues to break through every generational, socio-economic and political boundary."
Harvey Weinstein said he was "thrilled" to "give new generations the opportunity to see this legendary show."
The Weinstein brothers have scored successes with other Broadway musicals including The Producers and the revival of Gypsy.
David Teather in New York
Friday August 6, 2004
The Guardian
The Wall, Pink Floyd's dark rock opera, looks likely to brave the glittering lights of Broadway. There are plans for a stage version of the album, 25 years after it was released.
Roger Waters, the main creative force behind the 1970s band, has teamed up with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax films and the music mogul Tommy Mottola.
Waters will write the play and arrange and orchestrate the music for the show, with the aim of raising the curtain in a year to 18 months. It is expected to also include some new music, and other Pink Floyd tracks not on The Wall.
The show fulfils Waters' original concept for The Wall, as an album, film and stage musical. The film version of the semi-autobiographical album was released in 1982, featuring Bob Geldof in the role of Pink, a burned out rock star who sinks into depression and reflects on his life.
Pink ponders the death of his father in the second world war, the smothering behaviour of his mother and his maltreatment by teachers at school. Some of the more violent images in the film included children being fed into a meat grinder, man-eating flowers having sex, and the lead character reinventing himself as a Hitler-figure.
The 1979 double album sold more than 23m copies, making it the third best-selling ever, and it spent two years in the charts.
The film, released in 1982 was less commercially successful, grossing $22m in North America. Still, the collaboration with the animator Gerald Scarfe and the director Alan Parker became a cult favourite, and was praised for its groundbreaking use of music and striking images, years ahead of MTV.
In 1990, Waters staged a £4m concert of the album at the foot of the Berlin wall, that was also recorded and filmed.
The hit single from the album, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), became a totem for adolescent angst - partic ularly with the line "We don't need no education".
Waters, though, appears to have mellowed. He said of the planned stage show: "Now I can write in some laughs, notable by their absence in the movie."
Waters split with the band in the 1980s and went on to produce a number of solo albums.
Mr Mottola, the former head of Sony Music in North America and now in charge of Universal Music's Casablanca Records, said: "There are few projects as timeless as The Wall. Even after two decades since its first release, The Wall continues to break through every generational, socio-economic and political boundary."
Harvey Weinstein said he was "thrilled" to "give new generations the opportunity to see this legendary show."
The Weinstein brothers have scored successes with other Broadway musicals including The Producers and the revival of Gypsy.
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