The Wicker Man starts workshops tomorrow

Scotland on Sunday says pre-rehearsal workshops for a new musical of the cult film The Wicker Man start tomorrow in London. It seems likely that it will preview in a Scottish theatre early next year, before moving to the West End.

I loved the original film when I saw it on TV a few years ago. It’s great in a weird, eccentric and very British way. I’m intrigued to see how they stage it.

Shot in the west of Scotland in 1971 the film has become a cult favourite. Edward Woodward played a police sergeant who flew to the remote Summer Isle to investigate the disappearance of a local girl.

He finds a strange, pagan community and is shocked by their loose moral and sexual standards. Christopher Lee played the local lord. Britt Ekland was stunning even if, as she recently admitted on TV, the body in the infamous nude dancing scene, Willow’s Song, didn’t actually belong to her.

Andrew Steggall will direct. The burning of the huge wicker man in the film will be hard to recreate on stage but Steggall is keeping quiet about how he’ll do it.

I just hope it’s better than the dreadful Hollywood re-make with Nicholas Cage. I was tempted to make you watch some of the more amusing bits of that till I found this clip of the ending of the original film. It’s genuinely creepy!