Varjak Paw – The Musical!

Earlier this year, I had the enormous pleasure of visiting Mercenfeld Primary.  The brilliant teacher who invited me, Amber Rao, told me they were planning to stage a musical version of Varjak Paw.  And they did: it was staged at the end of last term!

I heard all about it on Twitter, where people were saying it was the best show they'd ever seen.  I was absolutely knocked out when I saw the pictures: it looks seriously brilliant.  So here are some of them, with huge thanks to Amber and everyone at Mercenfeld for making such a fantastic show from my book – I am so honoured!!!

PS! Mercenfeld have now posted a video of the Varjak Paw musical!

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat!

Last night, I had the absolute honour of attending Varjak Paw: The Musical, staged by the amazing Year 6 at New North Academy, and directed by the brilliant Fiona Gunn-Stokes!

I visited New North Academy earlier this year; here's the blog I wrote about it at the time.  You can see from all the comments just what a fantastic group of readers and writers they are.  So when they told me they were going to do a musical production of Varjak Paw as their end of year show, I couldn't wait!

It was absolutely brilliant.  They did both Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw in one great big epic story; and they did musical numbers including Everybody Wants To Be A Cat, Love Cats, and Stray Cat Strut!

There were fantastic costumes, make-up and sets; brilliant acting, singing and dancing; terrific use of video for the dream sequences...  it had everything you would want from a stage show!  But for an author to see his characters brought to life like that – it was an incredible experience.  I have to admit, I got quite emotional watching it... though I was definitely not the only one!

So I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone involved – and good luck with everything you go on to do in your lives.  I think you are absolute superstars.  Keep the Way alive!

Interesting question about Varjak Paw film!

Dear SF Said,
We're huge fans of Varjak Paw! (Books 1+2) And can't wait to read your new book. But please could you tell me if there is an animation film of Varjak Paw. My daughter and her friends are nagging me stupid about it! They say they've found a trailer on Utube - but can't locate the actual movie. Please help!
Thanks so much and really well done for writing two of the best kids books ever! Like the Godfather parts 1+2!
SH

First of all, thanks so much to you and your daughter, SH!  That really means a lot.  The answer is that there is no official Varjak Paw film...  yet.  All the animations, trailers and so on that you see on youtube are unofficial fan works.  Personally, I'm glad they exist - but neither Dave McKean nor I were involved in making them.

Having said that, we have had quite a few adventures in Hollywood, trying to make a Varjak Paw film.  As well as being a genius artist, Dave is a brilliant film director.  So we wrote a script together, and Dave did lots of fantastic designs - here's a poster:

The problem is, it's much harder to get a film made than it is to get a book published, and though we got very close a couple of years ago, it's never quite come together.  So at present, there is no official Varjak Paw animation... but I hope that one day there will be!