New Trainspotting Musical To Open In London’s West End In July

A new musical based on the film Trainspotting is to premiere on London’s West End in the summer.

This new take on the movie, itself based on Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel of the same name, will open at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Wednesday 15 July.

In addition to new songs penned by Irvine Welsh and techno musician Stephen McGuinness, the theatre show will also incorporate iconic tracks from the original film.

While the original novel and movie centre around a group of drug-addicted young people, Welsh told The Telegraph that the musical “broadens out” themes of addiction to touch on issues relating to the modern world, including social media and the threat of artificial intelligence.

“The problems of addiction are now pharmaceutical drugs or food, the air we breathe, [and] above all, the internet and mobile phones – these things we’re stuck to all the time, where we go through our dopamine hits,” he said.

“So we’re moving into alluding to all that kind of stuff as well, so it’s become a much bigger piece in a lot of ways.”

He added: “The message broadens out to the bigger aspects of the world that we have, we’re just basically set up for addiction and distraction.”

Scottish actor Robbie Scott will make his West End debut in Trainspotting as Renton, the character made famous by Ewan McGregor in the film and its 2017 sequel T2 Trainspotting.

Tickets for Trainspotting The Musical are on sale now from the production’s official website.

In an official press release, Irvine Welsh said: “This musical has a bigger, loudly beating human heart than either the book or the film.

“The various stage adaptations of Trainspotting have become acclaimed and moving theatrical experiences and the soundtrack to the movie is obviously iconic. So it made sense to put the music and words together to create an explosive, provocative and entertaining show.

“People need to think about the world we’re living in, and we offer that inspection, but they also really need to sing their hearts out and laugh their heads off – it’s what being human is all about – and they’ll be well served with this too.”