Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello team up on new musical
Broadway is the goal for Chuck Lorre-penned work
In an unusual creative collaboration, composer Burt Bacharach and songwriter Elvis Costello are creating a new musical, with a book by TV hitmaker Chuck Lorre.
The musical will be based on Bacharach and Costello's 1998 album Painted from Memory, which features the Grammy-winning song I Still Have That Other Girl and tracks such as God Give Me Strength and This House is Empty Now.
Bacharach compilation
To mark Burt Bacharach’s 85th birthday, a compilation album featuring 40 of his songs will be released later in May. Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Tom Jones and The 5th Dimension are among those featured on the album.
Bacharach’s hits, which stretch back to the early 1960s, include I Say a Little Prayer, Wishin’ and Hopin’, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, What’s New Pussycat? and Walk On By, many written with the late lyricist Hal David.
Lorre, creator of TV sitcom hits Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, contacted Bacharach to ask if he could pen the book to the musical, the composer told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The show "won't be a comedy," but Bacharach did say he hopes it will go to Broadway.
Though he declined to share the storyline, he said that he and Costello have renewed the collaboration they began in 1996, when they teamed up to write the song God Give Me Strength for the movie Grace of My Heart. The pair plan to write new songs for the musical.
Bacharach, who turns 85 on Sunday, released his memoir Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music on Tuesday.