Robert Burns - Blackheath Arts

ROBERT BURNS BACKGROUND

Born in London, Robert Burns wrote his first musical. "SWINGING CITY" - a tale of high flying financial corruption - in collaboration with composer Frank Marshall in 1990. In 1992 Robert teamed up with Swedish composer Bo Wastesson to write and record a two hours and thirty minutes sung-through musical adaptation of Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf novel "THE STORY OF GÖSTA BERLING"

One of the songs from the musical, called "MY LOVE", was subsequently recorded on the Sony label by the Norwegian Singer OYSTEIN WILK in an album of songs from top musicals. In 1995 Robert wrote the lyrics and libretto for a musical called "JOURNEY TO A DIFFERENT WORLD" and in 1996 wrote the book and lyrics for a third musical in partnership with Bo Wastesson, called "BLOOD AND FIRE".

All of the above musicals were fully recorded, while the leading roles on all of the Swedish recordings were sung by Peter Jöback, who later starred in the Benny Andersson/Bjorn Ulvaeus musical "KRISTINA FROM DUVEMALA" and subsequently for Cameron Mackintosh in "MISS SAIGON" at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Extracts from the above musicals have been performed by various artists in Sweden, while extracts from the musical "SWINGING CITY" have been performed by composer Frank Marshall at venues in the United Kingdom and Norway. Since 1997 Robert Burns has been engaged in writing plays and television scripts, and since that date has completed the following:

"THE REDUNDANTS" - a drama set in a government retraining centre.
"TRAPPED" - a play based on the final days of 'The Mad Axeman', Frank Mitchell, who escaped from Dartmoor in December 1966 and was subsequently murdered.
"NIGHT TRAIN TO ROME" - a radio play loosely based on the predicament faced by the banker Roberto Calvi prior to the revelation of the scandal of Banco Ambrosiano.
"BEHIND THE MASK" - a mystery thriller about a world famous actor.
"SPIN OFF" - a political intrigue set in London in the 1990s.
"ON THE VERGE" - A young man's anguish in October 1962 as both his own world and that of the world around him threatens to fall apart.
"IN SEARCH OF FREEDOM" - A brash young man's trek through the flesh pots of London before meeting his nemesis in the form of a beautiful coloured prostitute.
"THE SHADES OF EARL'S COURT" - The fleeting recollections of a lost underworld figure, set against a background of twelve hours in the life of Earls's Court in the early sixties.
"IMAGES OF LOVE AND WAR" - A selection of poems depicting passions aroused by Love, Conflict and War.
"THE ENDS OF EVIL" - A Nightmare journey through the first half of the Twentieth Century.

ROBERT BURNS BACKGROUND

Music

Drama

Verse