Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg have revealed they are working on a revised production of their musical Martin Guerre with a possible London run at a major West End theatre in 2024.
In an interview with Australian newspaper The Age, the Les Misérables and Miss Saigon writers revealed the pair had revisited their least successful work during lockdown.
Schönberg told the newspaper: “Maybe because of this period, when you have to do something and can do nothing else, we started having new ideas, or maybe because we got older, I don’t know. Anyway, we have been rewriting very extensively.”
Boublil also revealed the new version is going ahead without the involvement of the musical’s original producer, Cameron Mackintosh, telling the newspaper: “I must add he (Mackintosh) very graciously gave us back the rights. Maybe by giving us that new freedom, we also felt able to look into ourselves and find new possibilities. Claude-Michel has come up with some unexpected music that would not have been in Martin Guerre 15 years ago and I have come up with, I hope, some new psychology and new ideas.”
The pair also told the newspaper they were working on the musical with Australian librettist Paul Hodge, the writer of Clinton: The Musical who had initially contacted Boublil with a request that he mentor him.
Inspired by the true story of 16th century peasant Martin Guerre and the 1982 film The Return of Martin Guerre, the two-act largely sung-through musical debuted in the West End in 1996. Although the reception to the show was mixed the musical did win the 1997 Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The musical has previously been re-written a number of times, with a revised production playing at Newbury’s Watermill Theatre in 2007.
Angela Thomas
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