Closer to Heaven
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Closer to Heaven is a musical by Jonathan Harvey and Pet Shop Boys. It premiered in May 2001 at the Arts Theatre in London, opening to mixed reviews, and ran until October 13, 2001. A second production of Closer to Heaven premiered in Australia in 2005.
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[edit] Plot
The story is narrated by retired rock icon and actress Billie Trix (Frances Barber), who otherwise has a fairly small part in the story. The opening number, "My Night", is sung by Billie and the rest of the cast, and is used to introduce the characters.
Shell Christian (Stacey Roca), is going to see her estranged father, Vic Christian (David Burt), for the first time in years. Vic, who is gay, left Shell and her mother during her childhood, and now runs a successful gay club in London. Meanwhile, Straight Dave (Paul Keating), who has just arrived from Ireland, is working as a bartender at Vic's club, although his ambition is to be a dancer at the club. After seeing and speaking to her father, Shell meets Dave, and they immediately fall in love.
Record producer Bob Saunders (Paul Broughton) is a friend of Billie Trix and a regular at Vic's club. He sees Dave dancing and decides he wants to sign him for a boy band he is forming. He makes an offer to Dave, who has no interest in signing; however, Saunders continues to pressure Dave into working for him.
Dave meets and falls in love with drug dealer Mile End Lee (Tom Walker), who deals at Vic's club. Shell is devastated when she discovers that Dave is gay, although part of her has suspected it all along. Meanwhile, Vic discovers Lee dealing drugs in his club and confiscates the drugs. Lee is worried he will be killed for losing the drugs.
At this point, everyone gets high on ketamine - Shell is still upset about Dave, Lee is worried about being killed, Dave is frustrated that Lee has withdrawn from him, and Billie, a habitual user, needs no excuse. Unfortunately, Lee has a drug overdose and dies. At Lee's funeral, Dave sings a song, "For All of Us".
A few months later, Dave is apparently back on the road to success and sings "Positive role model" to end the show on a high.
[edit] Music
The following songs were featured (in order):
- "My Night" - Billie Trix & Cast
- "Closer to heaven" - Shell & Vic
- "Something special" - Straight Dave
- "Positive role model" (instrumental)
- "Closer to heaven" - Shell & Dave
- "In denial" - Vic & Shell
- "Call me old fashioned" - Bob Saunders
- "Nine out of ten" - Shell & Straight Dave
- "It's just my little tribute to Caligula, darling!" - Billie Trix (featured in rehearsal scene)
- "Hedonism" (instrumental)
- "Friendly fire" - Billie Trix
- "In denial" - Straight Dave & Shell
- "Something special" (reprise) - Straight Dave
- "Shameless" - Vile Celebrities
- "Vampires" - Vic
- "Closer to heaven" - Straight Dave & Mile End Lee
- "Out of my system" - Shell with Billie Trix, Flynn & Trannies
- "K-Hole" (instrumental - featuring an excerpt of "Run, girl, run!" - Billie Trix)
- "For all of us" - Straight Dave
- "Positive role model" - Straight Dave
- "My night" - The Cast
Most of the songs that appeared in Closer to Heaven were specifically written for the musical because Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe did not want to produce a back catalogue musical in the vein of Mamma Mia! or We Will Rock You. Several of the musical's songs were pre-released on the Pet Shop Boys' 1999 album Nightlife, including "Closer to Heaven", "In Denial", and "Vampires". Nightlife was recorded whilst they were writing Closer to Heaven and originally more of the album's tracks appeared in the musical. The oldest song is "Shameless", which originally appeared as the B-side to "Go West" in 1993.
A limited edition single of "Run girl run" by Billie Trix, a song based on the iconic Phan Thị Kim Phúc photograph from the Vietnam War, was available during later performances. The two track CD featured two versions of the track, of which brief snippets could be heard in "K-Hole". The versions featured were: "Run girl run (Original 1971 single version)" and "Run girl run (1981 post-apocalyptic nightmare mix)".
An album, Closer to Heaven (Original Cast Recording), was released in October 2001 and was produced by Pet Shop Boys and Stephen Hague. The album featured studio recorded version of songs from the musical.
It was planned to release "Positive role model", as sung by Paul Keating, as a single before the album was released. Remixes by Almighty and Fergie were commissioned for use on the single, but plans were scrapped when the London production closed. These remixes remain unreleased, although the Almighty remix was available for a short time from the Pet Shop Boys' website and an edit of Fergie's remix appeared on dance compilation Headliners:03 in 2001.
[edit] London Cast
- Billie Trix - Frances Barber (until September 15); Amanda Harris (September 16 to October 13)
- Straight Dave - Paul Keating
- Shell Christian - Stacey Roca
- Mile End Lee - Tom Walker
- Vic Christian - David Burt
- Bob Saunders - Paul Broughton
- Flynn - David Langham
- Ensemble/Billie's Babes - Jo Cavanagh, Akiya Henry, C. Jay Ranger, Mark John Richardson, Richard Roe, Louie Spence, Mark Stanway, Amanda Valentine, Marcos White
Most understudy positions were filled by the ensemble when required, with the exception of Vic Christian, Saunders and Flynn, who were understudied by Andrew Whelan.
[edit] Future performances
The original run of Closer to Heaven was from May 2001 to September 2001. This was extended to January 2002 because early performances was played to packed audiences. However, over the summer, audiences dwindled. In recent interviews, Neil Tennant has blamed this on poor marketing and bad press reviews. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Arts Theatre were worried about the continual fall of audience numbers across London and wanted a big audience puller, so Closer to Heaven closed on October 13, 2001. It was replaced with The Vagina Monologues.
When Closer to Heaven opened in London, the Pet Shop Boys said that there was interest from production companies all over the world, including New York and Germany.
In 2005, a short series of performances were produced by the Brisbane Powerhouse in Brisbane, Australia. The cast for the Australian production included:
- Billie Trix - Libby Munro
- Straight Dave - Regis Broadway
- Shell Christian - Crystal Taylor
- Vic Christian - Chris Herden
- Bob Saunders - Chris Maver
- Flynn - David Dellit
- Ensemble/Billie's Babes - Olympia Kwitowski, Sarshee Elliot, Brad Kendrick, Remi Broadway, Ellen Casey
In December 2005, Pet Shop Boys announced that this production would be moving to Sydney to coincide with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras; however, the production was cancelled due to time constraints.
On May 8, 2006, Frances Barber joined Pet Shop Boys to perform "Friendly fire" at a concert for BBC Radio 2. This was recorded and later released as the Pet Shop Boys' live album Concrete.
[edit] External links
- Closer to Heaven (Official site for 2001 London production - now redirects to Really Useful Group website)
- Closer to Heaven (Fan site)
- Pet Shop Boys (Official site)
| Pet Shop Boys |
| Neil Tennant | Chris Lowe |
| Discography |
| Albums: Please | Actually | Introspective | Behaviour | Very | Bilingual | Nightlife | Release | Fundamental |
| Soundtracks and scores: Closer to Heaven (Original Cast Recording) | Battleship Potemkin |
| Remix albums: Disco | Disco 2 | Disco 3 |
| Compilations: Discography: The Complete Singles Collection | Alternative | PopArt: The Hits | Back to Mine: Pet Shop Boys |
| Live: Concrete |
| Singles: "West End girls" | "Love comes quickly" | "Opportunities (Let's make lots of money)" | "Suburbia" | "It's a Sin" | "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" | "Rent" | "Always On My Mind" | "Heart" | "Domino dancing" | "Left to my own devices" | "It's alright" | "So Hard" | "Being Boring" | "Where the streets have no name (I can't take my eyes off you)" | "How can you expect to be taken seriously?" | "Jealousy" | "DJ Culture" | "Was it worth it?" | "Can you forgive her?" | "Go West" | "I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing" | "Liberation" | "Yesterday, when I was mad" | "Paninaro '95" | "Before" | "Se a vida é (That’s the way life is)" | "Single-Bilingual" | "Somewhere" | "I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more" | "New York City boy" | "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk" | "Home and dry" | "I get along" | "London" | "Miracles" | "Flamboyant" | "I'm with Stupid" | "Minimal" | "Numb" | "She's Madonna" |
| Related Articles |
| Other projects: It Couldn't Happen Here | Reputation | Results | Spaghetti Records | Closer to Heaven |
