Succeeding Burn The Floor at The Shaftesbury Theatre comes a beautifully adapted version of James Jones’ 1951 début novel. Based loosely on his own war experiences, From Here to Eternity is widely considered as one of the great novels of the twentieth century.
Pearl Harbour, 1941, the war that has so far evaded the United States will soon be upon them and in the midst of the palm trees and hula girls, the soldiers of G Company wait with bated breath. Even in the grip of the turmoil that approaches, forbidden desires are never far away. When the dedicated Private Prewitt falls for the beautiful and kind Lorene, and when his platoon sergeant embarks on a dangerous affair with his commanding officer’s wife, the lives of both men are set on a course beyond their control.
The book, originally published in 1951, won the National Book Award for fiction in 1952. In 1953 the novel spawned the big screen Hollywood production and under the direction of Fred Zinnerman, starring Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra, won 8 Academy Awards out of 13 nominations.
With casting yet to be confirmed, Tim Rice has said that his dream cast would include Johnny Depp in the conflicted role of Private Pewitt and that he envisaged Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kevin Spacey to play officer's wife Karen Holmes and her enlisted lover Sgt Milton, characters immortalised by Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster with the film's crashing-waves-on-beach love scene.