Who do you think of when you hear that there is to be a musical adaptation of a novel by Charles Dickens? Who could bring the grit, range and spirit of Dickens to a modern audience? The National Theatre believes it has the answer.
For her latest project, Polly Jean (PJ) Harvey has written the music for London Tide, an adaptation of Dickens’s final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend. The singer-songwriter, 54, is as surprised as anyone. “I’m not even a fan of musicals, I very rarely go to see one,” she says in her Dorset burr. “I never believe that a character would launch into a song with this silly operatic voice.”
Harvey is that rare thing, a shapeshifter. Since her first
