The world premiere of Cat Stevens ‘Moonshadow’ musical will happen in Melbourne, Australia is May.
Yusuf (Cat Stevens) has been working in Melbourne with the cast for the past months and has now spoken about his first musical.
“The musical has been my baby for a while and its about to be born here in Melbourne. I’m really excited. It’s looking fantastic,” he told a media gathering during rehearsals.
Yusuf first indicated the musical was on the way when he performed at except during his Australian tour in 2010.
“The beginning of this goes back, if you know my history, I was born in the West End of London,” he said. “I was one of those who lived there and didn’t have to travel very far to get to Soho or into Piccadilly Circus at the other end of my road. From there I picked up the urge for things musical”.
The story came from questions he asked as a child. “I used to look up at the night sky and one of the big questions that I had was “where does the sky end”. Everything seemed to have an end but where does the sky end. In a way that is the premise for this musical,” he said.
Yusuf has written some new songs for Moonshadow but most are from his catalogue of classics. “The songs, of course, many people know them and if you look at those songs a lot of them deal with the journey. A lot of them have various levels. The story is centred around family essentially and also about someone who has this dream of this other world. He is born into this world of darkness and struggling, very much like the world we are living in today. There are big references to what is going on in the world today”.
Moonshadow will have its world premiere at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne on May 31, 2012. “I think it is going to surprise you when you finally see this thing come together. Enjoy what you are going to see”.
