![]() ![]() He also co-wrote "The Show", the theme song to the 1985 ITV drama series Connie, which became a top 30 hit for vocalist Rebecca Storm. Russell has written songs since the early 1960s, and has written the music to most of his plays and musicals. In epistolary form, main character Raymond Marks, a 19-year old from Manchester, tells the story of his life in letters to his hero Morrissey. In 2000, Russell published his first novel, The Wrong Boy. He penned another television drama, One Summer, which aired as a five-part series on Channel 4 in 1983, starring a young David Morrissey. Russell has also written television projects, including the one-off drama, Our Day Out, which aired in 1977. Russell received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for both Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. It was also made into a successful film, in 1989, again with Collins in the title role. Shirley Valentine, which first opened in Liverpool in 1986 before a new production opened in London in 1988 starring Pauline Collins. Bill Kenwright produced a revival in 1988 which has run for more than twenty years the show was produced on Broadway in 1993. It won the best actress award at the Lawrence Olivier awards. The musical Blood Brothers (1983), for which Russell also composed the music, first opened in Liverpool and transferred to London's Phoenix Theatre. The semi-autobiographical Educating Rita was turned into a 1983 film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. Educating Rita (1980) concerned a female hairdresser and her Open University teacher. Originally commissioned for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool was transferring to the West End in 1974. His first success was a play about The Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also the first play he wrote was Keep Your Eyes Down Low (1975). After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. Willy Russell was born in Whiston, on the outskirts of Liverpool, where he grew up. His best-known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, and Blood Brothers. This witty and moving two-hander, made into a successful film with Julie Walters and Michael Caine in 1983, offers an analysis of formal education, and optimistically shows a woman succeeding in surmounting her deprived background to be able to make choices – an encouraging message that has successfully transferred to many cultures in the so-called Third World where women are demanding equal access to education.William Russell is a British dramatist, lyricist, and composer. in 2 acts S: Tutor's room in northern English university (Liverpool), 1970s C: 1m, 1f Rita comes to say goodbye she now knows that education is not everything, but at least she now has a choice.Ī: Willy Russell Pf: 1980, London Pb: 1981 G: Com. Finally, the university authorities send him off to Australia. Frank is alarmed to see her slipping from his influence and begins to drink more heavily. She has moved into a flat with a stylish new friend, works in a bistro, and plans a holiday with fellow students at Christmas. That autumn Rita has been to summer school, where she excelled. Rita becomes even more committed to her course. Rita's husband becomes unhappy with her new enthusiasm, and when he discovers that she is on the pill, burns her books and eventually forces her to choose between her degree and her marriage. Slowly he teaches her formal education in which judgements have to be ‘purely objective’. His first OU pupil is Rita White, a 26-year-old alert and voluble hairdresser, who has determined to improve her life by taking a degree. His wife has left him, he is now living with a younger woman, and he cheers his desolate existence with copious amounts of alcohol. in 2 acts S: Tutor's room in northern English university (Liverpool), 1970s C: 1m, 1fFrank, failed poet and unenthusiastic university lecturer in English, is earning some extra income by tutoring on an Open University (OU) course. ![]() A: Willy Russell Pf: 1980, London Pb: 1981 G: Com.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |