EXCLUSIVE: Rock icon Bob Geldof is collaborating on a stage musical about the global phenomenon that was Live Aid. The show, called Just For One Day, devised and directed by Luke Sheppard (& Juliet), will have its world premiere at the Old Vic Theatre in London early next year.
Live Aid was a concert like no other, organized by Geldof and fellow rock ‘n’ roller Midge Ure in July 1985 to raise funds and awareness for the famine crisis then taking place in Ethiopia.
Just For One Day will run at the Old Vic from January 26-March 30.
The UK leg of Live Aid kicked off at Wembley Stadium where the likes of Queen with frontman Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Elton John, George Michael, Sting, Sade, The Who, Paul McCartney, U2, Geldof’s the Boomtown Rats, Ure, Paul Weller and tons of others rocked and raved in the presence of thousands of spectators — including Charles and Diana, then known as the Prince and Princess of Wales.
I was there too. It’s the biggest gig I’ve ever covered.
Across the pond at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Mick Jagger sang with Tina Turner; Madonna, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Hall & Oates and others also performed.
Led Zeppelin re-formed for the occasion; Phil Collins played at Wembley then boarded the Concorde so he could play drums with Zeppelin, replacing the group’s late drummer John Bonham.
Many of the songs performed that day will be included in Just For One Day.
I asked Sheppard whether actors will portray the rock stars who played Live Aid.
Shaking his head, he explained that Just For One Day would not be a Stars in Their Eyes affair.
Geldof will be a character in the show “but it’s not done in a kind of Stars in Their Eyes way. It’s not people dressing up as the artists and doing it as a tribute — we’ve moved very far away from that,: he said. “It’s all the extraordinary music from that day, but it’s sung by this fierce generation of musical theater artists, who just blow the roof off.”
Sheppard and book writer John O’Farrell (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget) are placing Live Aid “in the hands of the people who made it, who were there, who experienced it, even the fact that my mum was there and she’s told me a lot about it. That’s really influenced one of the characters in there as well. So, it’s Live Aid for the people essentially, as opposed to a kind of tribute act version of the show,” Sheppard stressed.
The show, Sheppard said, looks at Live Aid “from all angles, including from the technicians who are trying to pull off this satellite broadcast to the first-aid worker who was running the first-aid tent.”
When I mentioned that I was at Wembley on the day, Sheppard’s eyes lit up and he said, “so maybe we should talk about whether there’s a journalist character that I’m missing. I should get your info on that.”
Yeah, well, I don’t think the world needs a rock ‘n’ roll Baz Bamigboye singing on stage. I mean, the creatives want people to stay in their seats, not leave. Right?
Sheppard said that “we also look at it through the eyes of a guy called Bob who happened to be at the center of it all.”
“Look, Bob Geldof is a very particular person. And so the character who embodies Bob on stage has found within him, I think, a similar kind of fiery spirit and a similar kind of attitude on that stage. So when you watch the show, Bob, he’s instantly recognizable,” Sheppard said.
Actor Craige Els (Doctor Who, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned, National Theatre Live: Antigone) takes on the Bob Geldof character.
Another key role will be performed by Naomi Katiyo, who has appeared in UK productions of musicals Treason, Ain’t Too Proud and What’s New Pussycat.
Sheppard said Katiyo came into an early workshop and “she’s just created this kind of part alongside us that is a really integral part in the show. And I think she’s a really exciting young talent to watch. And I’m really excited for this to be her kind of leading role debut.”
Sheppard came up with the idea for the show after meeting with West End producer Jamie Wilson during the pandemic. When the Live Aid concert came up during their conversion, Sheppard recalled his mother telling him about the event she had attended.
“She always talks about it as this moment in her life where it’s like the world stopped still. And ever since I was a kid, she’s always tried to explain to me what it was like to be there, and the power of the music and the power of humanity coming together for one cause. And so I suddenly saw this show in my head that could speak to my mother and celebrate what that moment was, but also help a new generation understand the context of what that event was and what it meant to have all of that music in one place,” Sheppard told me.
After five workshops, Sheppard sent a video to Old Vic artistic director Matthew Warchus.
Sheppard worked as Warchus’ associate director on Matilda the Musical, which Warchus directed in the West End and on Broadway.
Initially, Warchus told Sheppard he didn’t have an available slot for Just One Day.
But 24 hours later, he called Sheppard and told him he’d cleared space for it.
Sheppard said working with Geldof “has been extraordinary. We don’t always have the same opinions, and that’s really exciting and we’re not afraid to argue that out and to not shy away from disagreeing about things in the show. At every detail, we’re interrogating and we’re looking at it from all different angles.”
The director observed that some of those angles would include criticisms that were made about Live Aid and how the millions of dollars that were raised were distributed. “We’re into all of that,” Sheppard said.
He added that Geldof has been open and respectful “about letting us do what we want to do. He’ll tell us if he doesn’t like it, and he’ll tell us if we think we’ve got something wrong, but he wants this to be what we imagine it to be,” he said. “So we came to him with an idea. I came to him with a vision for it and he said, ‘Right, go and make your version. I’m going to tell you what I think along the way.’ And he does. He does. But he expects me to come back and say, ‘Okay, well this is why I think this bit’s important or this is why I want to look at it that way.’ ”
Sheppard continued: “What I really admire about him is he’s so brave, fearless and unapologetic as well. I think that’s what I want the show to be. I want it to be brave. I want it to be fearless.”
Geldof has also aided the production concerning music rights to some of the hits performed at Live Aid.
“Well, he’s a very persuasive man,” Sheppard said, smiling, ”in the same way that Live Aid happened in the first place, it often feels while making this musical, that we’re back there in that moment. It’s Bob and I putting on a show and it’s like going back in time in a way.”
Sheppard wouldn’t confirm which actual songs would be performed.
However, when I began humming Queen’s “We Are The Champions” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he nodded his head.
The Band Aid Trust will be the production’s main beneficiary.
“They are the biggest beneficiaries of the project and everyone of the creative team that have come on board knowing that that is at the heart and the center of it,” Sheppard said. “And that’s also a huge part of what’s drawn me to it as well. How rare do you get to do your job, but also make something that hopefully will really make a big difference in the world?
“And every time somebody buys a ticket, every time somebody buys a program, there is a direct contribution” to the trust, he said.
Warchus from the Old Vic told me he’s “excited” to have Just One Day at his celebrated theater.
“The music is going to blow the roof off this place every night,” he said.
Other casting includes Julie Atherton, Ashley Campbell, Jackie Clune, James Hameed, Hope Kenna, Freddie Love, Emily Ooi and Rhys Wilkinson. Further casting will be revealed later in the year.
The show’s creative team includes: musical supervision, arrangements and orchestration, Matthew Brind; choreography, Ebony Molina; set design, Soutra Gilmour; costumes, Fay Fullerton; lighting design, Howard Hudson; sound created by Gareth Owen; with video and animation by Andrzej Goulding. Casting is by Stuart Burt.
In between bringing Just For One Day to the Old Vic, Sheppard has directed the blockbuster tear-jerking new musical The Little Big Things @SohoPlace in London. Producers Michael Harrison and Nica Burns, who founded @SohoPlace, took a leap of faith in a new work by Nick Butcher, Tom Ling and Joe White.
The show’s based on a memoir by Henry Fraser, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a swimming accident.
It’s one of the few shows I’ve seen in recent months that I’m desperate to see again.