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[19.6.05] [Andrew Gallix]
SOME BIG GIRL'S BLOUSES ARE BIGGER THAN OTHERS
 Miranda Sawyer in the Observer on Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (Lyric Hammersmith, London, 30 June-23 July), a musical based on The Smiths: ". . . Actually, it's hard to imagine any Smiths tune morphed into a theatre piece. Not because the songs aren't dramatic -- they are -- but because they're so loved, so ingrained in fans' hearts and souls that any other interpretation seems presumptuous, not to say risky. Those Smiths enthusiasts can be a rabid lot. . . . Wale is the director, and Allen the musical director, of Some Girls are Bigger than Others. . . . They're about halfway through rehearsals, and are encouraging the performers -- four women, two men -- to let go. . . . The singer/actors are playing members of an extended family. The story isn't linear, but explores the characters' relationships as they react to each other. At certain points, film will be used; at others, a young boy makes an appearance. The string quartet -- good-looking men in their early twenties -- will be onstage too. In the programme the setting is given as the Eighties, though it seemed less specific in rehearsal. Wale, who is 40, came across the Smiths when he was about 19 (ie 1984); but he doesn't think that the era is important. Instead, both he and Allen feel that it's the listener's age that matters: the band mean most to anyone of what Allen calls 'college age: between 17 and 23'. That time when you're finding yourself, looking to the future but still bound by your past. 'And the Smiths' lyrics were always like that,' points out Wale. 'Referencing the past, but full of yearning and expectations.' Amazingly, it wasn't hard for them to get permission from Morrissey and Johnny Marr to use the Smiths' songs, though they did have trouble tracking Morrissey down (it was during his manager-less years in LA). Once they'd explained what they wanted to do, both songwriters agreed, as long as Anonymous didn't use any Smiths-type iconography. Johnny Marr has said he'll come to the opening night; they don't expect Morrissey to turn up. They confess that they wouldn't quite know what to do if he did. Wale met him once, in the Eighties. A member of the Blitz/Leigh Bowery London club scene, Wale was selling his own jewellery at Camden market; Morrissey browsed his stall. 'But me and my co-designer were such huge fans that we just stood stock-still and never said a word to him!' . . ."
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