Gary Barlow & Eliot Kennedy Discuss FINDING NEVERLAND Score

The hotly anticipated new stage adaptation of the recent PETER PAN-centric film FINDING NEVERLAND is currently in previews out of town and the songwriters, Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy, discuss the show as part of a new interview.

Additionally, composer/lyricist Gary Barlow joined with Eliot Kennedy to sing the ingratiating and alluring title song from the new musical in a new clip now available here.

Discussing the fast pace of the songwriting process, Kenndy shares, "By the end of the week I think we were like four songs in... We just got so inspired by it. This is before there was a script or anything. It was simply based on going back and watching the movie, which was Harvey's film."

As for the Disney PETER PAN film, Barlow remembers, "It's probably one of the first films I saw... It's fundamental throughout our lives."

Kennedy concurs, "I think it's in our cultural DNA."

Additionally, Barlow says, "We come from a pop background from making records, and I've been in a band for 23 years... At the same time, Eliot's been a record producer and songwriter - he's written for Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, a whole host of artists - so we come at this having had experience in making songs."

Yet, since the score was composed by the pair with 200 miles in between them, Barlow recalls the collaboration can be summed up as: "Just two guys strumming away in a room."

The official description of FINDING NEVERLAND is as follows: "When a playwright meets a widow and her four boys in Kensington Gardens, he embarks on a friendship that inspires one of the most beloved stories of all time. Based on the Miramax motion picture by David Magee and the play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland follows the relationship between J. M. Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies family that inspired Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Staged by A.R.T. Artistic Director and Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, with music by U.K. pop sensation Gary Barlow (Take That) and choreography by Emmy Award-winner Mia Michaels ("So You Think You Can Dance") this new musical explores the power of imagination to open up new worlds, and the pressures put upon those worlds by the inevitability of growing up. Finding Neverland is presented by the A.R.T. by special arrangement with Harvey Weinstein. The cast will be led by Jeremy Jordan as J.M. Barrie and Laura Michelle Kelly as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies; with Carolee Carmello as Madame du Maurier, Jeanna de Waal as Mary Barrie, Michael McGrath as Charles Frohman/Captain Cook, and the boys Aidan Gemme as Peter, Alex Dreier as Michael, Sawyer Nunes as George, and Hayden Signoretti as Jack. Members of the ensemble are Courtney Balan, Dana Costello, Rory Donovan, Gaelen Gilliland, Thayne Jasperson, Josh Lamon, Melanie Moore, Mary Page Nance, Stuart Neal, Emma Pfaeffle, Jonathan Ritter, Tyley Ross, JC Schuster, Paul Slade Smith, and Ron Todorowski, as well as Dance Captains/Swings Julius Anthony Rubio and Jaime Lynn Verazin (Assistant Choreographer)."

More information on FINDING NEVERLAND is available at the official site here.

Listen to Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy preview the score for FINDING NEVERLAND below.

Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

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