Bryan Adams confirms Pretty Woman musical heading to London next year

A musical based on the film Pretty Woman will open in London in 2020, Bryan Adams has confirmed.

The singer penned the music and lyrics for the hit adaptation of the 1990 romantic comedy alongside his longtime songwriting partner Jim Vallance.

It is currently playing on Broadway in New York City.

Asked if the show was going to open in the West End, he told the Press Association: “It is. 2020. It’s all set in motion now.

“I know it’s going to Germany this year, it opens in September this year, and then it’s going to London next year. I’m excited about it.”

Describing his process for writing the songs for the show, he said: “I really have got to be honest, I didn’t watch the movie once the whole time that we were working on it.

“I was working out of New York and I would go down to the rehearsal studio every day and sit with the director and ask him what he wanted the songs to do to propel the narrative.

“I didn’t really want to be influenced by the film, I just wanted to be influenced by the story and how the director today was going to reinterpret it for the stage, you have to remember the film is literally mostly close-ups of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts so it’s not really set as a wide angle.

“So how do you transcend those very personal shots into song, that was the challenge.”

It was while he was working on Pretty Woman: The Musical that he started having ideas for his new album Shine A Light.

Adams said: “During the course of writing that I was parking ideas for this and doing a bit of recording and at the end of it I sort of had an album assembled.

“So it was just about really finding the one or two songs that were going to launch it and those sort of came towards the end of the recording and Shine A Light (the single he penned with Ed Sheeran) was one of the last songs written for the record.”

He added: “The chorus in Shine a Light was written last summer when I thought I was going to lose both my parents.

“I lost my father but my mum survived and so the chorus comes as a tribute to them.”

Adams said the song is emotional to perform but added: “That is what is touching about the song and I think it’s a very optimistic and a beautiful way of saying goodbye.”

He is currently on tour in the UK and said he never gets tired of playing his best-known songs such as Summer Of 69, Heaven and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You.

He added: “It’s a good place to come for a singalong and I find it all a bit magical to hear everybody singing, the songs have been around and established for such a long time that people just recognise them and in some instances you only have to play the first chord and they are off.

“It’s great because even if you do forget the lyrics, they will remember them for you.”

The album Shine A Light is out now and Adams is on tour in the UK in March 6.