It is a little known fact that Casablanca, considered one of the greatest films of all time, was based on an unproduced stage play written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. It was called "Everybody Comes to Rick's", and they sold it to Warner Brothers when they could not find anyone to produce it on stage. Turning the classic film back to the stage the second time after its release (the first being in 1991, when the original play was finally produced), a musical adaptation feels completely and utterly logical. A relatively small-scale story to begin with, it can be confined to a handful of sets, with Rick's Cafe as the centrepiece. The arrival of an old lover into the midst of World War II espionage provides inner conflict that any songwriter would love to sink their teeth into. Beside, it's a story that features intrigue, wit, and more than a dash of decidedly non-cliche melodrama - put all that to a smooth nightclub soundtrack and you have an instant gem. Show-Stopping Number: "As Time Goes By" - what did you expect?
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
