Photos: THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE: THE MUSICAL Launches at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club

On Monday, The Time Traveller's Wife: The Musical hosted an official launch event at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Performances on the night included cast members David Hunter, Joanna Woodward, Tim Mahendran and Hiba Elchikhe as well as writers of the original music and lyrics Joss Stone and Dave Stewart.

The launch event was introduced by producer Colin Ingram (Ghost the Musical), telling the story of his wife reading Niffenegger's novel and believing it would make a great musical.

Following talks during the Covid lockdown, Ingram brought in playwright Lauren Gunderson to write the book and Bill Buckhurst (Sweeney Todd) to direct, who stated to BroadwayWorld when adapting the novel "One of the great things about musical theatre is the music taps you into the emotion and heart instantly. And that's why I think this is an interesting project because it's all about that. It's a love story."

The launch event previewed seven songs from The Time Traveller's Wife: "Masterpiece," "Wait For Me," "On Time," "A Woman's Intuition," "Rip Me Apart," "I'm In Control" and "Our Only Time Is Now."

When discussing the challenges of writing the songs, Stone stated "When you're writing for a musical, you're writing for a specific scene, for specific characters that have specific personalities and they have to say a specific thing to get them to the next thing, and that makes it slightly more challenging, but not less fun or amazing. It's actually kind of more amazing."

Leading The Times Traveller's Wife are Joanna Woodward (Pretty Woman) as Claire and David Hunter (Waitress) as Henry.

Discussing their takes on the roles, Woodward said "I wanted to create my own version from first the book and then from Lauren Gunderson's script. The book is so thorough and you don't need to do anything else because it's all there. It's so beautifully written and the characters are so complete and full," with Hunter adding "You have to allow you to be a part of it as well. You kind of live with one foot in both those people and find what's true to you."

Also in attendance were Tim Mahendran (& Juliet) and Hiba Elchike (Everybody's Talking About Jamie), who portray Claire's friends Gomez and Charisse. Originating the roles at the 2022 tryout at the Storyhouse in Chester, Elchike said about the experience: "Getting to see the development of it has been really cool. Just being part of the process from that to coming to the West End has been amazing. There have been a lot of firsts, going to the recording studio, recording this [cast recording] that we got to create with these characters. For me, this is so special and amazing."

Mahendran chimed in "I know there's something special in this show. The people across the board in every team, the drive that everyone wants to make this the most perfect show. It's gonna be special."

The Time Traveller's Wife: The Musical begins previews on 7 October 2023 at the Apollo Theatre, with an official opening night on 1 November.

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