Tony Award Winner Warchus Talks 'GHOST' And 'MATILDA' Musicals To NY Times

Matthew Warchus, the 2009 Tony Award winner for Best Direction of a Play for his work guiding Best Play honoree GOD OF CARNAGE, talks to The New York Times about two of his upcoming projects, the musical adaptations of the film GHOST and Roald Dahl's book "Matilda."

This season, Matthew Warchus directed the Tony Award-winning Best Play, GOD OF CARNAGE, and the Tony Award-winning Best Revival of a Play, The Norman Conquests. Warchus was Tony-nominated for both productions, winning the award for his direction of 'CARNAGE'.

Warchus discusses these projects as well as his past successes in The Times profile which you can read by clicking here.

Matthew Warchus is to direct a musical version of the Academy Award winning film GHOST, scheduled to open in 2010. Music and lyrics are by Grammy® award winning Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, and Oscar® winning Bruce Joel Rubin will adapt his original screenplay for the stage and write lyrics. Set and costumes designs are by Rob Howell and the musical supervisors will be Christopher Nightingale and Tesse Gohl. GHOST is produced by David Garfinkle of New York's HELLO Entertainment and London producer Colin Ingram in association with Paramount Pictures.  

GHOST is a timeless fantasy about the power of love. Walking back to their apartment one night, Sam and Molly are mugged, leaving Sam murdered on a dark street. Sam is trapped as a ghost between this world and the next and unable to leave Molly who he learns is in grave danger. With the help of a phony storefront psychic, Oda Mae Brown, Sam tries to communicate with Molly in the hope of saving and protecting her.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film of 1990, GHOST won numerous awards worldwide and is one of the biggest grossing films in the UK. It starred Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg and was directed by Jerry Zucker. Bruce Joel Rubin's script won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Whoopi Goldberg won the Oscar® for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The film's iconic love scene at a potter's wheel was famously performed to The Righteous Brother's Unchained Melody.

In addition to 'CARNAGE' and 'NORMAN', Matthew Warchus was also recently represented on Broadway by Boeing, Boeing. His other Broadway credits are Yasmina Reza's Art and Life (x) 3; Follies, and True West. He has received three Tony Award and two Drama Desk Award nominations. Off-Broadway, he directed Ms. Reza's The Unexpected Man. His numerous West End credits include The Norman Conquests; Speed-the-Plow; God of Carnage; The Lord of the Rings; The Life of Stuff; Art; True West; The Unexpected Man; Our House; Tell Me on a Sunday, and Endgame. At the National Theatre he has directed Volpone, Life (x) 3, and Buried Child. At the RSC he has directed Henry V, The Devil is an Ass, Hamlet and The Winter's Tale. His operas, for Opera North, The Royal Opera and English National Opera, include Troilus and Cressida, The Rake's Progress, Falstaff and Cosi Fan Tutte.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.