\nBy Richard Fleeshman holds Caissie Levy in his arms in an embrace (above) that cost close to \u00a36\u2009million.<\/p>\n The pair star in Ghost The Musical, which features a score written by pop giants Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. Paul McCartney could have plenty to smile about, too, if the show is a hit. <\/p>\n Ghost The Musical is based on the 1990 Oscar-winning film starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, which explored the notion of love after death. The movie became a huge hit and if the spirits align, the show, directed by Matthew Warchus, could become a smash in its own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n The \u00a36million embrace: Ghost The Musical looks set to become a smash hit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The multi-million pound musical has been thoroughly developed by producer Colin Ingram and his creative team, who have designed special effects that aren\u2019t just smoke and mirrors, but are an integral part of the story.<\/p>\n The production is having a pre-West End run at the Manchester Opera House, where any problems will be exorcised. <\/p>\n Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an Oscar for the original screenplay,\u00a0 has written the book. (Interestingly, the director of the film, Jerry Zucker, was in the audience on Monday when I caught the show.)<\/p>\n Unchained Melody, the classic romantic ballad by Hy Zaret and Alex North, was a memorable part of the movie and is also a feature of the stage production.<\/p>\n Fleeshman\u2019s character Sam Wheat strums his guitar in front of his lover Molly Jensen (Levy), then swivels his hips in the evening\u2019s first interpretation of the song.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a great moment \u2014 one of many involving Fleeshman, Levy (both stars in the making) and the very funny Sharon D. Clarke as the disreputable psychic (the part which won an Academy Award for Whoopi Goldberg). Of course, Unchained Melody has a big credit of its own, and the holders of the song\u2019s rights will receive a percentage of the show\u2019s royalties. <\/p>\n Frank Music Corp, which administers the song\u2019s copyright, is owned by Paul McCartney\u2019s MPL Music Publishing. <\/p>\n The show follows the film\u2019s storyline but, while it\u2019s familiar, it\u2019s also fresh and there\u2019s a more immediate connection to the heartbreak of Molly coping with life after Sam\u2019s murder. <\/p>\n The songs by Stewart and Ballard reinforce the story\u2019s premise: you\u2019ve got to tell people you love them, because it\u2019s too late once they\u2019ve gone. One haunting number, With You, will be released on June 22 to benefit Stand Up To Cancer, a charity Stewart\u2019s involved with.<\/p>\n Producer Ingram told me Warchus and his team, including choreographer Ashley Wallen, are fine-tuning some scenes and will do further work before the show gets to the West End.<\/p>\n \u25a0 Ghost The Musical begins performances at the Piccadilly Theatre on June 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amanda Holden sat and watched the song-and-dance ensemble for the musical Shrek as they rehearsed two of the show\u2019s major numbers.<\/p>\n \u2018Phew! That was impressive,\u2019 she said as she slowly got ready to go through her own routines with fellow leads Nigel Lindsay, Richard Blackwood and Nigel Harman who play, respectively, Shrek, Donkey and Lord Farquaad.<\/p>\n Amanda showed me the special tap shoes she had made in New York. <\/p>\n \u2018Yeah, made in New York, but painted green in Croydon,\u2019 she joked. She just wanted them that colour for rehearsals. She will be wearing much grander, bejewelled footwear for the actual show when it begins previews at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on May 6.<\/p>\n Get ready for the big green ogre: Amy Beadel, Amanda Holden and Emilia Jones in rehearsal for Shrek The Musical<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I watched choreographer Josh Prince and director Rob Ashford take the cast through a number called Story Of My Life, about fairy-tale characters such as Pinocchio and Peter Pan. <\/p>\n Amanda, who will play Princess Fiona, had every reason to be in awe of the production\u2019s top-notch ensemble \u2014 they\u2019re a hot lot.<\/p>\n After the short-lived Broadway run, a few characters were dropped for the subsequent U.S. tour. \u2018But we\u2019ve bought some back,\u2019 said Ashford.<\/p>\n He and his colleagues have learned from what happened with the show in the States.<\/p>\n Taking it seriously: Amanda Holden, with a Princess Fiona toy, gets into the spirit of things for the show<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018There\u2019s now more heart, for a start, and we\u2019ve worked on the characters,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n He explained that in the American shows the various characters weren\u2019t able to emerge through the elaborate costumes. <\/p>\n So during rehearsals in London, the cast has been rehearsing without the fat suits and elaborate outfits. \u2018We wanted them to become the characters first, without the costumes; for them to be Pinocchio or whoever before the long nose went on,\u2019 Ashford told me.<\/p>\n Just watching the likes of Jonathan Stewart, as the wooden boy, and the others in that rehearsal room I got more from their efforts than I did in a $150 seat on Broadway.<\/p>\n Ashford said that through the long process of preparing to bring Shrek to London, the various producers \u2014 Sam Mendes and Caro Newling at Neal Street, and Bill Damaschke from DreamWorks \u2014 gave the creative team space to come up with ways to clarify and simplify the production. <\/p>\n \u2018We were trying to be too clever on Broadway,\u2019 he admitted.<\/p>\n Well, after my visit to rehearsals, I\u2019m starting to have the sense that Shrek may work in London in a big way. The\u00a0 cast is certainly wishing upon a star that it\u2019s a hit at Drury Lane.<\/p>\n In demand: Benedict Cumberbatch is going to be very busy in the next few months<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Benedict Cumberbatch is in early stages of negotiations to join Keira Knightley in the new\u00a0 big-screen version of Anna Karenina.<\/p>\n At the moment there are scheduling problems, because the actor (right) is a busy man. He\u2019s in Danny Boyle\u2019s sold-out production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre till May.<\/p>\n Then he and Martin Freeman will film three Sherlock Holmes films for BBC TV, including The Hound Of The Baskervilles. (Freeman is being allowed special leave of absence from filming The Hobbit in New Zealand.)<\/p>\n Benedict is also in Steven Speiberg\u2019s big screen adaptation of War Horse, and he appears in the new film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman and Colin Firth. He\u2019s also likely to go to Broadway with Thea Sharrock\u2019s National Theatre production of Terence Rattigan\u2019s award-winning After The Dance.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s all about timing, and he\u2019s not the only one juggling schedules. Jude Law has been approached to play Vronsky in Anna Karenina, but as of last night there was no deal and I was told that he is concentrating on starring with Ruth Wilson and Jenny Galloway in Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse in the summer.<\/p>\n Jude has also been involved in protests, led by his friend Tom Stoppard (who wrote the screen adaptation for the Tolstoy classic), demanding human rights in Belarus.<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nBaz Bamigboye<\/a>
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