Pixie Lott will hope to avoid a case of the mean reds as she takes on the iconic role of Holly Golightly, in a new theatrical production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Based on the Truman Capote novella whose film version made a global star of Audrey Hepburn, the new adaptation is by Richard Greenberg, the Tony-winning writer of baseball drama Take Me Out – his version first opened in New York in 2013, starring Emilia Clarke. Grant Odling, who wrote songs for One Man, Two Guvnors, has written new musical numbers that will sit alongside other songs from the play’s 1943 setting.
Discounting a childhood appearance in a Palladium production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it marks Lott’s debut in the West End, following a pop career that scored her three number one singles and countless magazine column inches. She called the role “a dream come true”, adding: “I absolutely love Holly’s style, and free spirit; she has always been an icon to me and I can’t wait to bring my own personality to the role.”
Breakfast at Tiffany’s focuses on Golightly, a country girl turned “American geisha” to use Capote’s phrase, who is courted by a series of wealthy New York suitors. Greenberg said of his adaptation: “The goal of this version is to return to the original setting of the novella, which is the New York of the Second World War, as well as to resume its tone – still stylish and romantic, yes, but rougher-edged and more candid than people generally remember. Capote was a great writer and a natural maker of plots and Breakfast at Tiffany’s has a drive that makes it very alluring to dramatise.”
The production is from Leicester’s Curve theatre, where it will open in March 2016 before heading to seven cities across the UK, and ending up at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a 12 week run. It is the first season from the Curve’s new artistic director Nikolai Foster, who is also helming productions of Roald Dahl’s The Witches and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.
Another notable recent appearance of Golightly on stage was in 2009, with an adaptation from Samuel Adamson who, like Greenberg, returned to Capote’s novella for inspiration. Its star Anna Friel received praise for her performance as Golightly, though the production was generally poorly received.
