Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a big-budget stage musical adaptation of your drug-fuelled novel.
Scottish author Irvine Welsh has confirmed he’s turning his book Trainspotting into a stage musical, as per The Daily Record. It was famously adapted for the big screen in 1996, becoming one of the biggest films of that decade.
Working alongside songwriting partner Steve McGuinness and producer Phil McIntyre, the West End musical version will feature a wide variety of genres, including techno, urban house, and disco.
Considering how well the Trainspotting film used music – there are unforgettable scenes featuring songs by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, New Order, and Underworld – the stage adaptation should follow suit.
“I don’t want to jinx something that’s in development, but my songwriting partner Steve and I have done 14 brand new songs for a Trainspotting musical,” Welsh said. “We do a kind of techno act together, but we’ve stepped up to write urban house, blues, jazz, disco and rock ‘n’ roll songs and power ballads.
He continued. “We’ve got the songs and we’ve got a script for it. We’re looking at things like casting, choreographers and set designers. We’re looking at doing it about a year from now at the earliest, but I think we’ll probably try to go straight into the West End. That’s the ambition for it.”
Interestingly, it’s not the first time Trainspotting has made it to the theatre. A stage version debuted shortly after the book was first published in 1993, while it was recently made into the immersive experience Trainspotting Live.
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Welsh is going to be very busy over the next couple of years. He’s also working on a TV adaption of another of his novels, The Blade Artist, which will see Robert Carlyle reprise his role as psycho Begbie.
For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.
Check out the iconic opening scene of Trainspotting:
