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E.M. Forster’s ‘A Room with a View’ to become a stage musical

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The romantic travails of Lucy Honeychurch are coming to the stage in the form of a new musical. ‘A Room with a View,’ adapted from the popular E.M. Forster novel, is set to debut at the Old Globe in San Diego in 2012.

The Old Globe said that ‘A Room with a View’ will have its official opening on Mar. 10 and run through Apr. 8, 2012. The musical features songs by Jeffrey Stock and Marc Acito, and will be directed by Scott Schwartz, who is the son of composer Stephen Schwartz.

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Stock previously worked on the musical ‘The Triumph of Love,’ adapted from the Marivaux play, which opened on Broadway in 1997.

This isn’t the first time that ‘A Room with a View’ has been adapted for the stage. Various play versions of the novel have been produced in London in the past few decades. Forster’s novel, published in 1908, follows the romantic entanglements of Lucy Honeychuch, a young and uncertain English woman from a respectable household who falls for the free-thinking George Emerson while on vacation in Florence, Italy. Back home, she becomes engaged to the uptight Cecil Vyse and must reconcile her conflicting desires and own up to the lies she’s told.

The Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of the book was a critical and financial success when it opened in 1986, winning three Oscars. The movie starred Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy, Julian Sands as George and Daniel Day-Lewis as Cecil. The film made memorable use of the aria ‘O mio babbino caro’ from the Puccini opera ‘Gianni Schicchi.’

‘A Room with a View’ will join the Old Globe’s 2011-12 season that was announced in March.

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-- David Ng

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