Pet Shop Boys musical set for return to London stage
By Nick Bond
The Pet Shop Boys’ musical, Closer to Heaven, will receive its first London revival next month, some 14 years after its debut.
Penned by Beautiful Thing, Gimme Gimme Gimme and Beautiful People writer Jonathan Harvey, Closer to Heaven sets the music of the Pet Shop Boys to an original story about life in London.
Casting is still to be announced for the production, which tells the story of Dave, an Irishman new to London and determined to make something of himself – but soon sucked into Soho’s pulsing clubland.
Unlike ‘jukebox musicals’ featuring well-known hits by the likes of Carole King, ABBA or Queen, most of the songs in Closer to Heaven were penned by the Pet Shop Boys specifically for the show. However, fans who haven’t seen the show will recognise several songs from the duo’s 1999 album Nightlife.
Having been performed in Australia, the US and in Brighton over the past decade, Closer to Heaven will make its London return at the Union Theatre from April 22.
