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The Finding Neverland movie has inspired a musical adaptation. The story follows famed playwright J.M. Barrie and his friendship with a family that lead him to write the Peter Pan stories. TheaterMania reports that Jeremy Jordan will take on the lead role of Barrie. Diane Paulus served as the director. Gary Barlow and Elliot Kennedy worked together to compose the score. The American Repertory Theater, based in Massachusetts, will showcase this production from July 23rd to September 28th. What do you think?

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Some people make me sick. Is it not enough to be good at one thing without insisting on being good at lots of other things at the same time? While I can think of no particular talents I possess - other than being semi-good at some things - there are some people who have too many and should share them around. VV Brown is one of those people. Team marketing went on a trip to see her on Wednesday night. (I wonder if anyone else would be sad enough to refer to going to a gig as ‘going on a trip’, as if we took a packed lunch with us and went on a minibus. That pretty much epitomises how we felt, though, as the music scene is possibly a little out of our comfort zone – or what we really mean is that people who work in the music industry wear better clothes than we do). The reason we ended up on our rather-more-exciting-than-a-school-outing gig on Wednesday is because VV has recorded a single that was released at the same time as Marian Keyes’ This Charming Man.

It’s funny how some things come full circle. When Marian finished her masterpiece, This Charming Man, she asked Morrissey if she could use the title. When VV Brown and Marian met through the charity Women’s Aid, VV read the book and was inspired to do a cover of the original Smith’s song. Well this all worked out rather marvellously for us, because after getting together with Island Records, we managed to pull off a single to tie in to the release of the book. Which implies that our (Penguin marketing’s) musical talents went into mixing the track. They did not. This is because we are A) talentless in that area and B) (this comes back to my earlier point) VV is very talented in this area. As a writer for bands such as Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, and the artist on everyone’s lips this year in her own right, and someone who has an amazing voice and plays lots of instruments and is really stylish and is stunning and is really nice, she turned the track into something fresh and contemporary. Being a bit of a Smiths fan myself, I could have been disappointed. But I can honestly say I thought it was brilliant. Even Island Records referred to it as ‘the bomb’. (I since challenged my marketing director to use that phrase in a publishing meeting. ‘Oh yes, that new Anita Brookner is the bomb, isn’t it?’)

We first heard the song live when Marian and VV did a bookshop event together at Borders. Marian read from the book and entertained the crowd in the way that only Marian can and VV then sang. I decided that if you sounded good in a bookshop you were probably likely to sound good at a proper gig, so was looking forward to seeing VV in her more usual surroundings on Wednesday night (Shepherds Bush Hall). We were not disappointed. You could have seen for yourself here if I wasn’t such an appalling photographer. This was due to being distracted by the fact that at one point Gary Barlow was standing in front of me. I think I may have bored holes into the back of his head from staring.

The collaboration has been a brilliant experience, and one that is making us look at what we can learn from the music industry and how it has adapted to a changing market. Bringing music and books together is not a new idea, but for me it was rewarding to see two women, seemingly very different, come together over a shared sentiment and a love of each other’s work. And one awfully charming man.

If you have itunes can download the track here – 10p of each download goes to Women’s Aid.

Jennifer Doyle
Marketing Executive