Atlantic RecordsPretty Woman is about a hooker who dreams of a better life who falls in love with a billionaire, right? So imagine how Bryan Adams felt when he was hired to write songs for the Broadway musical based on the film — and was told he couldn’t use the words “love,” “hooker” or “dreams.”
“So how do you say, ‘I wanna chase my dream,’ without actually saying it?” Adams recalls. He and his longtime collaborator Jim Vallance did it with a song called “Anywhere But Here,” and you can hear it now on the original cast recording, which was released this past Friday.
That was just one of the challenges the duo faced while composing for Pretty Woman: The Musical during its years-long development process. It was co-written by Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall, and Bryan got to work closely with him before Marshall died in 2016.
“It was his dream to make this into a Broadway musical, and I was really excited to be part of his dream,” Adams tells ABC Radio. “And he’d sorta sketched out in his mind where he thought a song could go, so we sat down and in two weeks…we mapped out what was pretty much the roadmap for this musical.”
The Canadian musician says he loves hearing the Pretty Woman cast sing his music, especially Samantha Barks, in the lead role of Vivian.
“I love the characters and…what they’re bringing to this,” says Adams. “In fact, so many times the singers and actors…have brought something much more interesting [to it] than what I would’ve. I mean, [when] Sam sings ‘This Is My Life‘ — the first time I heard it, I completely forgot that I had written it!”
Adams will release a new album where he does the singing early in 2019.
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