AUDIO: Tim Rice Revising FROM HERE TO ETERNITY For North American Premiere

As reported by BroadwayWorld, legendary stage and screen lyricist Tim Rice (JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, EVITA, THE LION KING, ALADDIN) is visiting Auburn, New York, this summer for the North American premiere of his musical based on James Joyce's classic novel "From Here to Eternity." It runs June 29th-July 20th at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, as part of Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival's 2016 season.

As reported by the website Syracuse, the musical has been undergoing revisions since its West End production, which opened in October of 2013 and ran for six-and-a-half months. Rice's son, screenwriter and director Donald Rice, has joined the West End team of bookwriter Bill Oakes and composer Stuart Brayson to help restructure the book and sharpen characters. Two new songs have been added and new director Brett Smock is adding interpretive differences.

Joyce's 1951 book is set in Honolulu, 1941, just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, where the restless soldiers of the U.S. Army's G Company are stationed. The plot involves a young private who falls for an escort girl and a sergeant who carries on a dangerous affair with his commander's wife.

The 1953 Academy Award-winning film version is best known for its iconic scene of Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster passionately kissing on the beach as waves crash around them.

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The video is the audio of Tim Rice's recent interview with WZUN-FM, where he chats about the challenge of creating a musical that is both entertaining and true to its "brutal" source. It's followed by a video of scenes from the West End production of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.