IMAGINE having Andrew Lloyd Webber ring you up asking you to adapt a classic novel for him when you have absolutely no idea how to write musicals.
But that's all in a day's work for playwright Charlotte Jones, who was born and bred here in Worcester.
After all, it was her play, Humble Boy, which defied the odds to run for eight months in the musical-dominated West End.
Who better then for Lloyd Webber to get to transform Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White into something that lends itself to a musical?
In many ways, The Woman in White is the first detective novel, said Jones.
It is a sprawling Victorian novel which was first serialised in the papers, like the soap operas of the time. It was my job to turn it into something that would run for two hours on the stage.
I didn't know anything about musicals. I've been to see some but I'm not really musical myself and I really had no idea how to write a book for a musical.
But the amazing thing about Andrew is that he is so fabulous to collaborate with. It's been very glamorous for me.
He is a lovely man, He's such a populist and he always wants to write something people are going to enjoy.
The Woman in White is still in progress.
While the glamour of working with Lloyd Webber is one thing, it is Humble Boy that brings the 35-year-old back to her old stomping ground, with a production coming to Malvern Theatres.
Set in a pretty Cotswold garden, it follows ex-bunny girl Flora and her troubled astrophysicist son Felix, who are mourning their bee-keeping husband and father.
Into this scene enters plain-speaking businessman George Pye and his decisive daughter Rosie, and grieving collides with philandering.
The play has echoes of Hamlet, although this was not necessarily what Jones was aiming for.
I was writing a story where the central relationship between a mother and a son who have just lost a husband and father figure, so I just kept coming up against Hamlet, said Jones.
The thing about Shakespeare is that he has already told all the best stories and I think most plays owe something to him if they are aware of it or not.
But staging her play back on home turf holds a special significance for Jones.
I'm Worcester born and bred. My parents live in Bath Road, she said.
I love coming home at Christmas and I've still got friends there.
I went to St Mary's Convent from the age of four to 18 and that was a really happy educational time for me. I went back a couple of years ago to do a speech day there. I can't say I had a rebellious or troubled time.
Moving from Worcester to study at Oxford's Balliol College, Jones went on to become an actress, and it was only later that writing entered the frame.
I was quite frustrated being an actress, which also meant being a part-time waitress, and I wanted to be in control.
After a number of plays, including In Flame, Jones was conquering the West End with Humble Boy, which has already undergone three cast changes and has starred the likes of Felicity Kendal, though this production stars former child star Hayley Mills, famous for Whistle Down the Wind and The Parent Trap.
Brigit Forsyth, who starred in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Playing the Field, plays Mercy, and Jim is played by Brookside star John Burgess.
n Humble Boy runs at Malvern Theatres from Monday to Saturday, November 3 to 8. Tickets cost £14 to £22 from the box office on 01684 892277.
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