Thom Yorke Composes Original Score for Broadway Revival 'Old Times'

With eight Radiohead albums, two solo albums and an 18-day, ambient art exhibit soundtrack under his belt, Thom Yorke decided to change direction to make his Broadway debut. The Radiohead front man penned an original score for a revival of Harold Pinter's 1971 musical, Old Times, via Roundabout Theater Company, set to open at New York's American Airlines Theater in October.

In the midst of a six-month e-mail correspondence with director Douglas Hodge, the duo zeroed in on sonic fundamentals as Yorke wrote the score—complete with intro music, exit music and transitions. Yorke spent a considerable amount of time working with '70s synthesizers to accurately fit the play's timestamp, The New York Times reports. Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly will co-star in the Broadway revival endeavour.

"It's been a pleasure working with Doug on my first stage production," Yorke said in a statement. "I've enjoyed exploring through music the script's themes of love and memory as well as Pinter's rhythms, twists and turns."

"I'd say something like, 'It describes a ribbon of light on the horizon. Can you do that?' He'd say, 'Got it,'" Hodge explained to The New York Times. "He'd send me an e-mail of some music he'd written, and it would be some primeval, unusual thing. The sort of neurosis within his music certainly has elucidated elements of the compulsive repetition of the play."

Although Hodge will make his directorial entrance with Old Times, he's a seasoned stage actor who won a 2010 Tony for his enactment in La Cage aux Folles. According to Hodge's conversations with the Times, Yorke refuses to perform live renditions of the composition because "the last thing he'd want is that it becomes a Thom Yorke show."

"The music Thom has written for Old Times gives an immediacy and a 'now-ness' to the show," Hodge said in a statement. "The play itself is about memory and love—Thom's music works backwards and forwards and plays with time and repetition in the same way Pinter does. In true Thom Yorke style, the music is epic, heartbreaking, irresistible and complex. I'm hopeful this collaboration will result in a new kind of theatergoer coming to our show."

Old Times previews will kick off on September 17, premiere on October 6 and run until November 29.

Tags

Thom Yorke, Radiohead