‘Trainspotting’ Author Says Stage Musical Will Be Even Darker Than Hit 1996 Film

Caroline Frost
·2 min read
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Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, who says still enjoys spikes in sales of his 1993 novel whenever the film 1996 film adaption is aired on TV in the UK, has shared details of the musical he is bringing to stage – a show he says will be even darker than the novel or film.

Welsh told the UK’s Observer newspaper:

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“I wanted this to be something very different from either the film or the two versions of the stage play.

“So there are some new characters in there, and to be honest it’s quite a lot darker than the book or the film. It’s going to be quite full-on, but hopefully a great experience.

“Phil McIntyre [promoter and producer] had been asking me for years to do it, and I always said, nah, I’m not doing that.

“Then I thought, if I don’t do it, someone like Andrew Lloyd Webber will do it when I’m in an urn above the fireplace, so I might as well.”

The film, which made stars of actors including Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and Johnny Lee Miller, was a box office smash on its release, earning $72million, from a production budget of just £1.5m ($1.9m).

Welsh also revealed that the new show, currently in rehearsal for a planned debut in February 2024 in London’s West, will contain brand new songs, to replace the film’s soundtrack that became a massive seller on its release (including Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life and Underworld’s rave anthem Born Slippy).

Welsh also shared his surprise that the book, written when he was 28, remains as relevant today as he approaches 65.

He told The Observer, “I was writing about things that we didn’t have labels for back then, like toxic masculinity.

“The characters were having mental health and existential crises and really, what’s different today?

“Is it any wonder people don’t really know what their place is in the world? Capitalism is on the way out but we’re not mature enough for socialism, and instead we’re sleepwalking towards some kind of fascistic model and pretty much everything is toxic.”

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