Skylight’s Musical ‘From Here to Eternity’

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From Here to Eternity: The Musical banner

The 1953 movie From Here to Eternity is beloved by classic film buffs. Even if you’ve never watched the whole picture, chances are you’ve seen the moments when Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make love on a secluded beach near Honolulu as the ocean crashes around them. It’s one of golden age Hollywood’s most familiar romantic scenes.

“I don’t think you’ll see two people rolling around in the waves,” says Artist Director Michael Unger when asked to compare Skylight Music Theatre’s From Here to Eternity with the movie. “It’s not based on the movie. It’s based on the book,” he adds. 

The book was an 800-page bestseller by novelist James Jones, based on his experience as a soldier stationed in Hawaii on the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into World War II. Many of Jones’ more explicit depictions of Oahu’s flourishing sex trade, homosexuality among the GIs and racism against the local population were expunged from the book and reduced to the hint of a suggestion by the movie’s screenwriters, working under the stricter censorship of the Hollywood Production Code governing what could be said and shown on screen. An uncensored version of the novel finally appeared in 2011.

The musical From Here to Eternity was written by composer Stuart Brayson (The Ed Wood musical Pink Angora Sweater) and Sir Tim Rice (of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita fame) with a book by Donald Rice and Bill Oakes. Their mission was to be faithful to Jones’ depiction of garrison life in what was then an American colonial outpost. The musical premiered on London’s West End in 2013. Unger explained that a succeeding version at London’s Charing Cross Theatre was “paired down to reduce the cast for expenses and for story focus.” That version traveled to America for a pair of East Coast performances under director-choreographer Brett Smock. Smock is helming Skylight’s revamped again version. 

“There is a framing device that has never been seen before—an outside officer interrogating the officers about unsavory activities on the base,” Unger says. “That framing device helps us tell the story non-linearly and really helps to anchor the piece.”

While most audience members will be aware that Pearl Harbor is about to be bombed, the air raid occupies a small part of the musical (as was the case in the movie and the book); the characters go about their lives oblivious to geopolitics until bombs begin to fall. “The beauty of the musical is in the lives of so many people who were affected by the attack,” Unger says. “The central conflicts of the musical aren’t the war but the relationships between the characters—and the hierarchy, racism and homophobia. You care about the people in the musical.”

Unger describes From Here to Eternity as “a pop musical with a great score and phenomenal songs in a wide range of styles that feel authentic to the period. Some of the melodies are so hooky. And you don’t often have that many men’s voices in harmony.” From Here to Eternity has been a work in progress since the novelist’s daughter, Kaylie Jones, gave the project her approval. At Skylight, Unger’s son has been “hard at work as the script supervisor, moving songs and scenes around. There’s nothing more exciting than staging a new musical.” Has From Here to Eternity finally jelled. “I think so,” Unger says. “I feel they’ve arrived at a very good place—maybe the last big changes for the show.”

Skylight Music Theatre presents From Here to Eternity, April 12-May 5 at Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, visit skylightmusictheatre.org for tickets and more information.