Robbie Williams reunites with Guy Chambers to write music for adaptation of David Walliams book The Boy in the Dress
Angels, Millennium, Let Me Entertain You: When Guy Chambers teamed up with Robbie Williams after his split from Take That, it would result in some of British pop’s most memorable song’s, and the creation of a pop powerhouse.
After an acrimonious split it seemed the story might be over, but the recognition by each that they had something special has since brought both back together on various projects over the intervening two decades.
The one shared ambition yet to be realised was for them to write a musical together.
Now, they can tick that off the list.
David Walliams’ bestselling book Boy In The Dress about, well, a boy in a dress and the theme of being different has made it to the small screen in the shape of a TV movie and now it has another outing on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
With the story adapted for the stage by Mark Ravenhill, the production directed by the RSC’s Gregory Doran, Guy Chambers agreed to write the songs and asked his some time writing partner Robbie Williams to join him.
They wrote the songs in a matter of weeks, each so attuned to working with the other.
For the writer of the book Boy In The Dress, David Walliams who recently joined the elite set of authors whose books have totalled more than £100 million in sales, getting Chambers and Williams was a dream come true.
What he wanted was songs that were memorable to tell the story he’d originally written and there are some absolute belters in there.
What’s more, this could well be the start of another phase in the songwriting careers of Chambers and Williams. They would love to do some more musicals they told me, it just takes another good story.
The reaction to the show so far from audiences had simply been ecstatic.
For a showman like Robbie Williams, it must surely make another stage outing very tempting.