AS the man responsible for two of the most controversial and hard-hitting storylines ever seen on a British TV soap, Jonathan Harvey is no stranger to facing a writing challenge.
But for Dusty, the Dusty Springfield Musical which premieres in Salford next week, Jonathan acknowledges that there was an added pressure in writing about such an iconic performer.
“My responsibility was to tell Dusty’s story,” he said. “I had to strike a fine balance between being respectful to her and also being honest. She went to some very dark places in her life and even though that’s only a tiny part of her story, we have to go there.
“But I also wanted to capture the essence of her - her life story is so interesting - but people who knew her also say what a laugh she was.
“I think we’re all things to all people to a degree aren’t we and it’s been a case of getting to know all those different sides to her.”
Dusty Springfield is widely recognised as one of the finest pop singers of all time notching up a string of hits in the Sixties including and then reviving her career in the Eighties working with the Pet Shop Boys before her untimely death in 1999 aged just 59.
“Dusty was such an intriguing, strong character,” said Jonathan, who worked with the Pet Shop Boys on the musical Closer to Heaven.
“She definitely was a woman ahead of her time. She introduced black artists to a UK audience by inviting Motown stars to appear on Ready, Steady Go! and then reinvented herself when she went to America.”
For Dusty, Jonathan was able to work with Vicki Wickham, the star’s close friend and manager and Pat Rhodes her personal assistant, to build up a picture of the enigmatic and complex artist.
In the show Dusty will be played by Katherine Kingsley.
“It took two years to find Kat,” said Jonathan. “We’d auditioned everybody - names and not names - and then she walked in.
“I tend to write funny dialogue but until then no-one had made me laugh but she walked in and really made me laugh and then I discovered she could really sing.
“I have to confess, I had no idea who she was, then I looked at her CV and saw she’d been nominated for three Olivier Awards so I really should have! We are very lucky to have her.”
The show also includes Rufus Hound as Dusty’s manager and Roberta Taylor as her mother and also features many of her iconic songs.
“I drove around in my car a lot listening to as many of her songs as I could.
“I wanted to get a sense of feeling the song and then it became clear which would work in the production but obviously we cannot fit them all in.”
Dusty is a very modern musical where the storyline is all important.
“Obviously the songs are a major part of the show but there are some quite long dramatic scenes in there which don’t have any music in them at all so it is different from your traditional musical,” said Jonathan.
With such a complex life, one challenge to Jonathan was deciding what to keep in and what to leave out.
“I did a huge amount of research and I would continually discover things where I’d think ‘I didn’t know that’ so that was a key element in influencing what I wrote.
“There was the whole question of her sexuality and also her politics. I didn’t know that she was deported from South Africa for refusing to play to a segregated audience. It all helps to build up a picture of this wonderfully complex woman.”
Bringing Dusty to the stage is just the latest achievement in a year to remember for Jonathan.
As a writer for Coronation Street he was responsible for the storylines which covered the male rape of David Platt and the suicide of Aidan Connor, played by Shayne Ward.
“It has been an amazing year,” said Jonathan.
“Usually as a writer on a soap it’s your job to make the implausible plausible but both the rape and the suicide storylines were both very plausible stories from the outset. It was lovely that I had the space to make them breathe and as realistic as possible - it’s rare you get that opportunity.”
Although the storylines provoked some outrage, the overall reaction has been hugely positive.
“It has been amazing,” said Jonathan.
“When the rape happened the calls to the male rape helpline went up by something like 1,700 per cent the week after it was broadcast.
“From that I should have thought that the suicide storyline might have a similar impact - and it did.
“It shows how important soap stories can be when they are doing something that can be so helpful to people.
“Or course, I did write few more episodes after that which were maybe not of that calibre,” he laughed.
Jonathan has spent the last few months working on Dusty with leading director Maria Friedman.
“It’s fantastically funny which is a skill that is very rare but also Jonathan has this big beating heart and compassion that runs all the way through it,” she said.
“It’s about friendship and other things as well as music; it’s about being a woman, being a trailblazer, an individual out of step and out of time with a voracious appetite for life and a real intelligence.”
Dusty, the Dusty Springfield Musical, the Lowry, Salford Quays, Tuesday, July 24 to Saturday, July 28 Details from 0843 208 6005 or www.thelowry.com
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