Ghost The Musical Cardiff5 Minutes with Bruce Joel Rubin

Ghost the Musical’s Facebook page has spoken with the creator of Ghost, Bruce Joel Rubin ahead of opening night for the UK tour which begins in just over a week in Cardiff.  Followers on the shows Facebook page were asked to submit questions for Bruce and the most popular 5 were chosen. 

 

 

 

Ghost: What made you decide to make Ghost a story about love?

 

Bruce: Making GHOST a story about love was not a conscious decision, it evolved.   I wanted to tell the story of a ghost from the side of the ghost and simply inhabited his world, his sadness, his longings, his confusions, and his growing empowerment.   The love story was a natural outgrowth of having suddenly left someone he loved without ever having told her that he loved her.  There was something mythic about coming back from the other side to tell her that.   It also helped that he had to save her from the clutches of a bad guy.

 

Ghost: Did the song ‘Unchained Melody’ influence your decision for certain parts of Ghost?

 

Bruce: No. We always knew that we wanted a romantic song that could play over the pottery scene and when Sam and Molly were dancing (in the movie).  Lisa Weinstein, one of the film’s producers, brought in UNCHAINED MELODY on a portable tape recorder and played it for Jerry Zucker (the director) and I.   We knew the minute we heard it that it was the right song for the film.   It became so iconic that there was no way not to have it in the musical and it has been woven in the fabric of the score.

 

Ghost: If you were making the film today who would you cast from today’s crop of actors/actresses?

 

Bruce: I would love Ryan Gosling and Jennifer Lawrence to do it. And I would still use Whoopi Goldberg.   

 

Ghost: Why did you decide to turn Ghost into a musical?

 

Bruce: Actually I thought it was a terrible idea and said no many times.   Then one day, when two of the show’s producers were at my house trying to sell me on the idea, it suddenly just hit me, I could see the songs arising out of the material quite naturally, the unspoken moments of the film emerging as melody, as passionate verse.   It was thrilling to realize what it could become.

 

Ghost: With the success of stage to screen musicals such as Les Miserable would you ever consider taking the musical version of Ghost to the silver screen?

 

Bruce: This is something Paramount Pictures would have to decide.   It is an enormous investment to make a film of this kind and in today’s marketplace, it could be considered very risky.  But I would certainly be on board if they wanted to do it and if we could find the right talent to bring it to the screen.