Closer To Heaven is a musical by the Pet Shop Boys working in collaboration with Jonathan Harvey - yes, the guy who wrote Beautiful Thing. It premiered in London in May of 2001 at the Arts Theatre, where it ran until the thirteenth of October. There was a second production in Australia four years later, and although one or two other productions have been rumoured, nothing has been forthcoming. Looks like if you didn't get to see it first time round, you never will.

You can, however, still hear it. The music for Closer To Heaven was mostly original, in that the songs were not merely a rehash of old work, but custom written in collaboration with Harvey for the production. A few tracks appeared early in a studio form on the 1999 album Nightlife, and the b-side to Go West, Shameless, also appears. The actual musical was released on CD in 2001, a studio cast recording, and if you already have that and like it, the extended cast version of My Night is available to listen to on the Pet Shop Boys website.

Storywise, the musical centres around a gay club, featuring various characters (many of them surprisingly stereotypical) who generally interfere with each others lives, fail to connect with each other, take drugs, die, have gay dad/accepting daughter reunions, come out, go back in, burst out again and generally lament how shallow gay culture can be. It's rather entertaining, actually, and Frances Barber as Billie Trix is a bit of a treat. Fans of Frances will undoubtedly wish to track down Run Girl Run, a highly limited edition single made available during later performances.