The 2008 summons came too late for Willy Russell. “By the time somebody did ask me to become significantly involved – the week before Christmas – it was too late. I can’t write a play to go on this year. Not now. “But when there was time for me to do it, I was perfectly open to ideas . . . “Besides, I have treated Liverpool as Capital of Culture for 30 years, and nothing’s changed there.” Hearing that variable message from Liverpool’s most feted writer is key to lots of people being mystified why the city’s two main producing theatres, the Everyman and Playhouse – as well as the Capital of Culture tsars – have missed the boat in nabbing his services. But all is far from lost. The independently-run Royal Court, with its plans of establishing a permanent company akin to the old days of repertory, has succeeded in landing the big catch – without a penny of support from town hall, Arts Council or Culture Company coffers. Willy Russell, to use his own term, is “remixing” Stags and Hens, one of his classic comedies of yesteryear, about the resulting chaos when bride and groom hold their prenuptial parties at the same venue. “I had already done a major overhaul before it got into rehearsal,” says Willy. “Revisiting a play is not nearly as difficult as starting from scratch. All the important creative work was done for the original. “I had also re-engaged along the way, when it became the movie Dancin’ Thru The Dark.” For the new stage production, Willy has been directly involved in casting and rehearsals, literally re-writing material on the hoof. “Now it’s much tighter. Partly because we live in the film world, and we don’t watch things in the same way as we did in 1978. “Stuff that played perfectly fine then, now seems so drawn out. People have a lower boredom threshold. Increasingly, we are into the age of the 90-minute stage play. “Also, a play set in the ladies and gents of a ballroom once seemed so daring. It was a look into a world people didn’t see in the theatre. “So it motors along far faster. The language is also far more of today – the colloquial phrases and the use of so-called obscenities. “But it’s still the same play.” | 
