Sheridan Smith is to star in a musical by Rufus Wainwright based on John Cassavetes’ 1977 film Opening Night, about an actor struggling with her new stage role. Directed by Ivo van Hove, whose book accompanies Wainwright’s music and lyrics, the show will open at the Gielgud theatre in London in March.
Widely regarded as one of the best films about theatrical life, Opening Night starred Gena Rowlands as Myrtle, who is haunted by the death of a teenage fan and bullied by her director during the out-of-town tryouts for a play heading to Broadway. Cassavetes, Rowlands’s husband, played Myrtle’s co-star and former lover. Wainwright said the film “has long been a shining beacon representing both excellence in cinema and the might of live theatre. An intense marriage of film and stage, it is about a very personal mental and creative survival that I think we can all relate to on a very deep human level.” He added: “I’ve been waiting for ages to write my first musical … I don’t think I could have aimed any higher.”
Smith, who had a West End hit with Shirley Valentine earlier this year, said that Myrtle was a “complex and challenging character” and that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Wainwright and Van Hove: “Quite frankly, if they’d asked me to read out the back of a cereal packet, I’d have been there.” Van Hove said that Opening Night “not only gives us an insight into the trials and tribulations behind the scenes of the theatre, but is also the heartbreaking story of a woman fighting for hope and self-determination in a world that doesn’t want to listen”.
The show will be presented by Wessex Grove, Gavin Kalin Productions and Playful Productions, who previously collaborated on Van Hove’s West End version of A Little Life starring James Norton.
Van Hove staged a play based on Opening Night in 2006 with the company Toneelgroep Amsterdam (now Internationaal Theater Amsterdam), which he led as artistic director. A scene from Opening Night inspired the 24-hour show The Second Woman, staged in London this year with Ruth Wilson.