Paul McCartney to Serve as Music Director of Show About His Life

Paul McCartney will serve as the music director of a new stage show inspired by his working-class childhood in Liverpool, according to The Sunday Telegraph. McCartney's cousin, Kate Robbins, is working on an adaptation of the former Beatle's Liverpool Oratorio.

Liverpool Oratorio, McCartney's first classical work, was composed in 1991 with film and classical musician Carl Davis. It commemorated the city's 150th anniversary and received its premiere at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, where it featured Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Jerry Hadley, Sally Burgess and Willard White.

The plot of the proposed stage show loosely follows the story of McCartney's own life as it traces that of a character, Shanty, who is born in Liverpool in 1942 and marries his sweetheart, Mary Dee, after the death of his father. After a near-fatal accident, she gives birth to their son. McCartney, who was deeply affected by the death of his mother Mary in October 1956 when he was just 14, married his own sweetheart, Linda, when she was four months pregnant with their first child.

It is thought that the premiere of the stage version may take place in Liverpool during its year as the European Capital of Culture in 2008. The West End has also been mentioned as a possibility.

Robbins, who has a close relationship with McCartney, is a 47-year-old actress best known for her work on the satirical TV program Spitting Image. She won a Best Supporting Actress Award at the Monaco Film Festival this year for her role in the film Fated. McCartney sang his congratulations in a video message: "I watched you grow up since you were a little sproggling. Now, not only are you talented, you have real heart." Robbins is now working on bringing Liverpool Oratorio to the stage with writer Steve Brown. Robbins is quoted as saying, "Paul will approve every note as musical director."