Industry NewsStage Adaptation of Nowhere Boy, About a Teenage John Lennon, in the WorksThe production will utilize rock hits of the ’50s rather than Beatles tunes.
By
Andrew Gans
April 22, 2019
The 2009 film Nowhere Boy, which chronicled the teenage years of the late John Lennon, will be developed for a stage production.
The stage rights for the film have been acquired by producers Brian and Dayna Lee of AF Creative Media (Angels in America, Moulin Rouge!) and Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler of Aged in Wood (Avenue Q, In the Heights).
The musical play, like the film, will spotlight the creation of Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, as well as the two women who were pivotal in the future Beatle’s teenage life: his mother Julia Lennon, who reconnected with her son shortly before her early death, and his mother's older sister, Mimi Smith. Producers plan to expand upon those two relationships for the stage.
Rather than utilize songs from The Beatles catalog, the stage production (like the movie) will feature rock hits from the late 1950s that inspired Lennon. In addition to Lennon's song “Mother” and “In Spite of All the Danger,” from his time with The Quarrymen, the film boasted a soundtrack that included Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Buddy Holly.
The film, which was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson from a screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh, featured Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lennon, Kristen Scott Thomas as Mimi Smith, and Anne-Marie Duff as Julia.