London Calling With Champagne Charlie: BEEN SO LONG

It started life as a straight play at the Royal Court wowing the critics. Now BEEN SO LONG is a classic soul musical, featuring former chart star Omar as the lead.

This summer it premieres across the conventional theatre circuit and at one of the UK's largest rock festivals. Rachel Tackley is its producer, and the lynchpin holding the vision together.

How did you start and what's your current role in all this?

Well, I produced numerous shows in the UK, USA and all over the world like Entertaining Mr Sloane with Imelda Staunton and Mathew Horne (West End co-production with MJE). Now I'm co-producing with the Young Vic (Been So Long by Che Walker and Arthur Darvill) and Chichester Festival Theatre (The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, adapted by Frank Galati). I have to create all the opportunities and make them happen. The team here are fantastic though, we work extremely well together and they make it all possible -the only limitations are my imagination and budgets!

You work in partnership with others. Is it by necessity or choice?

It's a necessity. I don't have the money to do everything on my own. But I am different in that I'm subsidised but don't direct so I have something to prove - that is, that it's worth applying public money to a work and that will be valuable.

What's the difference between the UK versus the US?

We have the Arts Council; they in the US don't. The job isn't any different once you have the money. I don't have investors. You have some very big commercial producers doing good work like Sonia Friedman (Boeing Boeing) and some who don't. It's about the ambition. The 39 Steps is a good example. It's an ambition idea, like Brief Encounter too - a play that combined live actors with the original film. It's a good idea to start with and having the ambition for the project makes it successful.

What are your fondest memories of producing work?

I once did a show that was touring internationally. We went to India and Sri Lanka on a massive international tour. At the end of each show one of the actresses had to pull a piece of paper out of her pocket and set fire to it and drop it into a bucket of water. One night she put her hand in her pocket and there was no letter in it. She ran off stage, grabbed the last sheet of paper from the company manager and set fire to it knowing full well that she would have to endure the staging of an incredibly complex storm sequence after tearing up and setting fire to all the cues and staging instructions for the crew. They had to just make up where they would start the ‘storm' complete with lights, water and smoke!

What are you working on now?

We have two shows in pre-production. One is the play Che Walker wrote called Been So Long at the Royal Court. It's now been turned into a musical. It's very soul and funk. And it's being staged and co-produced at the Young Vic as well as the rock music festival circuit. Plus an adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath by Frank Galati, which is a multiple award-winning US production, complete with a real car! It's massive - a cast of 21 cast on stage and the car. It's going to move around on stage for real too plus, of course, all the on-stage fires, storms and rain all on stage you get in the book.

At that point Che Walker walled in, fresh from a reading in the rehearsal rooms downstairs. Pulling up a chair he told us more about Been So Long.

How did the start of this musical come about?

It was a straight play at the Royal Court. But I was very lucky - I was teaching Arthur Darvill at RADA at the time too. We immediately clicked when as a student I heard him playing some piano and started working with him here. We then did three public workshops of the show and a very successful workshop at the Young Vic. Rachael saw us through that all.

How did hit soul star Omar get to be in your show?

Well, that was the incredibly lucky thing for me because I was teaching at a weekend drama project and he just walked in. I thought he was looking for a recording studio and he said no - he was learning to act. He is going to surprise a lot of people watching him act.

What is the theme of the show?

Well, it's about a couple putting a lot of armour up and you have to put it down if you want to fall in love.

What about the musical style?

A lot of Stax, Donnie Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. Those people were our core influences. And they have managed to get us on at Latitude - a rock festival. It's a brilliantly left field idea. I had never thought of doing it at a huge rock festival, but it's what I am for all about. My target audience for anything I like is everyone who hates theatre and my job is to get them back in.

 

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