Brighton Rock

All too often, musicals are like restaurants - they open with an all-star bang, then trickle to an end a few months later, taking their investors' life savings as they go. Recently, though, film tie-ins have provided the West End with nest-eggs such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Saturday Night Fever and The Lion King. And, from now until Christmas, three new movie musicals are opening.

Mel Brooks's The Producers opens in November and Mary Poppins in December. But before either of these blockbusters there is a seemingly far less family-friendly proposition: Brighton Rock. 'Musicals seem easy but they're very complex,' admits composer John Barry, the soundtrack supremo best known for his work on the James Bond films. 'Very few of them come through.'

The Yorkshireman has wanted to turn Graham Greene's gnarly 1938 novel into the first nightmare musical for 40 years. And, back in the 1960s, Greene himself wanted to write the lyrics.

'I told him: "This is the exact opposite of what you do - it's very sparse",' Barry says. 'But he had a shot at it. He handed me a sheet of foolscap paper that looked like a reading from the Bible.

He said: "I guess it's not my forte." I said: "No, it's not."'

Barry shelved the idea. Then three years ago producer Bill Kenwright called, wanting to know if he was still keen. Barry said he was. Kenwright rang back to say he had the rights. Then he brought in adapter Giles Havergal and director Michael Attenborough, whose father, Richard, starred as Pinkie in the 1947 film. For the lyrics, Barry suggested his long-time song-writing partner, Don Black.

'It doesn't scream musical,' admits Black, 'but there's no formula to what a musical can be. It's wonderful to write something that's odd. So writing songs for a psychopath who refuses salvation was irresistible.'

For Barry, the appeal was the story's range of tones. 'The original has a lot of colour,' he says. 'You've got Pinkie, who is evil; Ida, who's this meddling old bitch; the gang that is humorous; Rose, who is innocent. It's all in there, you don't have to manufacture things to write about.'

Pinkie is Michael Jibson, 23, who fronted Madness musical Our House. 'It's closer to the novel than the film was,' he says. 'Some songs let you see what's going on in people's heads but it's not sentimental. It's about a very disturbed young lad - it could happen today.'

Barry says they already have several offers for a West End transfer. But can such a dark tale take on its candyfloss competitors and win? 'There are so many bums-on-seats shows out there making millions,' says Jibson. 'I think it will be nice to see a piece of - dare I say it? - legit theatre that happens to be a musical.'

'You can't worry about making it commercial,' agrees Black. 'Alan Jay Lerner, who co-wrote My Fair Lady, once said the worst thing you can have for a musical is a good idea. It's like if someone said: Oh, Harry Potter The Musical - that'd make a fortune. But just chasing whatever's current won't do. The main thing is to get the story right and throw in a few good tunes here and there.' Dominic Maxwell