Wild Rose: Glasgow country music film blooms as a musical

Long before Taylor Swift made country music cool, a character called Rose-Lynn Harlan took root in writer Nicole Taylor's head.

"I was just obsessed with this girl who was just chatting away in my mind," she recalls.

"I wanted to bring her to life but back in 2009, country music was the love which daren't speak its name. It was really cringey."

Sixteen years later, Nicole has not only brought Rose-Lynn to the big screen in the Bafta-nominated film Wild Rose, but a stage version is about to have its world premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

The story is the same: Rose-Lynn is a former prisoner and single mum in Glasgow working as a cleaner by day and fronting a country band by night, with dreams of fame tempered by the reality of caring for her two young children.

It's rooted in Glasgow's real-life country music scene, as home to the UK's biggest country club the Grand Ole Opry and Celtic Connections' Transatlantic Sessions.

The film version starred Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn, with Julie Walters playing her long suffering mother Marion.

It had its Scottish premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in 2019.

Nicole, whose screen credits include Three Girls, The Nest and the recent Netflix hit One Day was delighted when the film won audiences and awards, including Best Actress and Best Feature Film at the Scottish BAFTAS.

But she was already thinking where Rose-Lynn could go next and despite never having written for the stage, she reserved the rights for the show.

"I just knew it was naturally theatrical," she says.

"The way she expresses herself through country music. What is that, if not a musical?"

During the pandemic, she wrote to director John Tiffany who had directed Black Watch for the National Theatre of Scotland.

"I loved how audacious it was, how Scottish it was and I wanted it to have that amazing Scottishness and energy."

John Tiffany had moved to London, where he'd directed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Once, a musical adaptation of the Oscar winning film which went on to win eight Tony awards.

And he already knew Rose-Lynn.

"I had seen the film in London when it first came out and absolutely adored it," he says.

"That last scene with Jessie singing the song Glasgow in the Fruitmarket where Black Watch had been first staged, had me and my partner in tears.

"I was so homesick for Scotland, having left five years earlier and I said to my partner as we left the cinema, if I had still been working in Scottish theatre, I'd be all over that like a rash."

The musical is now in the final stages of rehearsal, ahead of its world premiere in March.

It features songs by Wyonna Judd, The Chicks, Patti Griffin and Dolly Parton - as well as that original song Glasgow (No Place Like Home) which reduced John Tiffany to tears.

Olivier nominated actress and singer Dawn Sievewright, whose credits include Legally Blonde in London's West End and Twelfth Night at the Lyceum will play Rose-Lynn.

She too recalls being "blown away" by "this film about a wild Glaswegian lassie".

"I love slipping into her skin," she says.

"I think she's the most exciting, unpredictable emotional character I have ever played.

"It's testing me to every end. The singing, the dancing, the way the set moves, the way the people move.

"It's a swirl of a world which is amazing to be part of."

Blythe Duff takes on the role of her mother.

Best known for her long running role in TV's Taggart, she has been in a number of theatre productions in recent years, including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

She says the role has brought her full circle, having started her career in Edinburgh with the musical infused Wildcat Theatre company.

The company was co-founded by Dave Anderson, whose son Davey Anderson has worked with Sarah Travis on the orchestration and arrangements for Wild Rose.

The music is performed onstage by a band of eight musicians playing 14 different instruments, and of course there's line dancing.

Blythe also believes that the show brings country music full circle.

"I think we've always had a strong connection," she says.

"Partly because of the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow but also because of Celtic Connections and in particular, the Transatlantic Sessions.

"Those moments have brought incredible country singers to Scotland so we've been really lucky and well served and that audience has been there for years and I think this will just tap into that."

Dawn agrees: "We love anything that's about big emotion.

"We love to laugh hard, cry hard, shout hard. Country music encapsulates that in a way that there's no shame.

"I got dumped, I'm bankrupt, and I've got nowhere to live. There'll be a song about that."

Wild Rose opens at The Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh on March 14th, with previews from 6 March.