TV doyenne Barbara Windsor and current fictional landlady of the Queen Vic in 'London' soap opera Eastenders is apparently calling on the programme's bosses to create a West End EastEnders musical based on the long-running drama.
Considering the last known attempt at making music around EastEnders was Anita Dobson's heinous ballad, the only way is up should an attempt be forthcoming. And with the operatic scale of deception, betrayal, murder, revenge etc etc in the Christmas specials (and indeed, on any night EastEnders runs), there's plenty of scope for a stage show extravaganza.
It could be actually quite exciting if it was to be done as an installation type 'experience', with audiences being led around specially built sets so that everyone is actually sitting at tables in the caff or eating peanuts at the bar in the Queen Vic or flicking through Walford's finest polyester fashions in the market as the musical ebbs and flows around them. Imagine being right there, in the midst of the showstopper ensemble song Leave it, it ain't worth it and emotional solo highpoint Gerrout of my house, you lying rat.
If it does come to be, and with Barbara Windsor at the helm, it'll be a not unpleasant sounding My Fair Lady, Oliver!, Mary Poppins and Les Miserables mash-up, with a high chance of someone's bra pinging hilariously into the stalls. We'd go to that.
Image courtesy of Fin Fahey from the Londonist Flickr pool.
