3 days ago
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The Observer just published an interview with David Simon, the creator of The Wire and other HBO series including Treme, The Deuce, Show Me a Hero, We Own This City, and more. The main focus is on how Simon says that nextworks don’t want to make his kind of shows anymore, implying that includes HBO. “I was having lunch with the boss there,” Simon says, “and I said: ‘You know, I’m not sure you guys are the home for what I do any more. You’re not going to take the David Simon Harry Potter miniseries about a bureaucratic Hogwarts that can’t function.’”
At the end of the feature, Simon lists off the shows he has in development that he hopes to get to make, including “a punk musical using the music of The Pogues.”
That’s all the information we get in this interview about this long-gestating punk rock stage musical, but anyone who’s watched The Wire knows that Simon is a huge fan of the band. The Wire used 1986’s “The Body of An American” to soundtrack sing-a-longs at police officer wakes in three episodes, and featured their songs three other times, plus other related songs by frontman Shane MacGowan and a cover of “Dirty Old Town” by fellow Irish musician Pierce Turner. Simon also cast the band’s Spider Stacy in a recurring role on Treme.
Simon has been working on this musical for a long time, and he wrote about it on his blog back in 2013, saying it is not about The Pogues “but a tale written to utilize their musical canon”:
I’ve been a fan of The Pogues and their music since the late 1980s. After we had used some of their songs in The Wire, I had a chance to meet the bandmembers through George Pelecanos, who had been invited to one of their concerts in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter, during some time in London, I was approached by Phil Chevron about the possibility of writing a musical that would utilize the band’s discography. Interested, I was then introduced to the estimable director Garry Hynes of Ireland’s Druid Theater, who had also been engaged by Mr. Chevron.
In turn, I approached Mr. Pelecanos and my wife, novelist Laura Lippman, to help create a storyline for such a musical. George, my colleague on The Wire and Treme, is also a longstanding Pogues admirer and Laura, who has the lyrics of every Sondheim show memorized, has forgotten more about American musicals than I have so far learned. We sat, worked the problem, ran it by both Ms. Hynes and Mr. Chevron, who offered notes, suggestion, encouragement and help overall.
Simon notes in a comment on this blog post dated from 2019 that he had been workshopping it with NYC’s Public Theatre but was two busy with other shows in production to give their notes his full attention. Whether stage or screen, let’s hope this one gets produced.
Meanwhile, The Pogues will be touring North America soon, with original members Jem Finer, Spider Stacy, and James Fearnley, plus Lankum‘s Darragh Lynch (guitar), Iona Zajac (vocals/harp), singers Lisa O’Neill and Nadine Shah, The Pretenders‘ James Walbourne (guitar), John Francis Flynn (vocals / multiple instruments), Jordan O’Leary (banjo), Alfi’s Fiachra Meek (pipes/whistles), The Bad Seeds‘ Jim Sclavunos (drums), and Holly Mullineaux (bass), as well as a brass section featuring Pete Fraser, Daniel Hayes, and Ian Williamson. They play NYC’s Terminal 5 on September 16 & 17.
English (US) · 