Cast announcement as Glasgow film Wild Rose about country singer to be turned into stage musical

Wild Rose, the BAFTA award winning film starring Jessie Buckley, set in Glasgow, will be turned into a musical production for theatre. Glaswegian Nicole Taylor will adapt her screenplay for the stage with John Tiffany, the director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Olivier nominee Dawn Sievewright has been announced to play the lead role of Rose-Lynn Harlan. She said “It’s hard to put into words how I feel about this story, how I feel about Rose-Lynn Harlan. I don’t think there’s ever been a character to come my way that has so perfectly spoken to the world I grew up in. She defies her surroundings and speaks to the wee muddled up lassie in me.

“To the ‘too aggressive’, to the ‘calm doon!’ and to the massive beating heart of Scotland that sometimes…can only be expressed through music. She scares me – in the best possible way.

“Nicole Taylor has written the guts of Glasgow and woven it so expertly with a soundtrack of such gallus music that the Lyceum audiences are going to be leaping from their seats. I am beyond buzzing to get back into a rehearsal room with the legend that is John Tiffany and his incredible creative team.”

Dawn, who was brought up in Bishopbriggs, said: “"I saw Wild Rose at the cinema when it came out and absolutely loved it. I was beyond excited as soon as I heard about it. It was incredibly funny, the music was beautiful and the performances were fantastic.

“But it really got that sense of Glasgow, where you are laughing one minute and thinking you're going to burst out greeting the next minute. I think outsiders sometimes see Glasgow as a place of doom and gloom, but it also has such heart and a real sense of community.

"People I know came out of the cinema feeling really elated and proud that Wild Rose had come out of Glasgow. I felt like I really knew Rose-Lynn."

The show will receive its debut at the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh in March 2025. The writer said she always believed in the dramatic potential of Wild Rose: “I held on to the rights, even though as a first-time writer I had no negotiating position and I’d never written a word for theatre. I knew it would take theatrical form at some point.

“The dramatic question feels as enduring as ever. That is: once you are a mum, what are you allowed to want? And if you’ve got talent, is that a trump card?”

John Tiffany, said the Glasgow story would easily translate to the stage: “It’s a gorgeous mixture of a truthful, engaging story and the beautiful genre of country music. Rose-Lynn is such a fantastic Glasgow character, the contradiction within her; she frustrates you and makes you fall in love with her in equal measure. I could see it on stage immediately.”

Wild Rose, which will premiere at the theatre from March 6 to April 5 2025, follows the events which unfold when mother-of-two Rose-Lyn Harlan is released from a jail sentence and attempts to revive her dreams of becoming a country singer in Nashville.

Director John said: “It feels absolutely right for Wild Rose’s journey to start in Scotland - and that it’s on the Lyceum stage that the brilliant, hilarious, complex character that is Rose-Lynn Harlan is brought to life.

“I’m incredibly fortunate to be partnering with Nicole Taylor in adapting her film. She is an extraordinary writer and her innate love and knowledge of Country Music infects us all in the best way.

“It’s also a homecoming for me, having studied in Scotland, trained at the Traverse and later been part of creating the National Theatre of Scotland. It’s a welcome return, with an incredible team.”

The original film, which also starred Julie Walters as Rose-Lyn's mother, was filmed on location around Glasgow, including scenes shot at the Grand Ole Opry and Old Fruitmarket. The theatre production will feature songs by Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Wynonna Judd, Chris Stapleton, Caitlyn Smith, the Chicks, and Patty Griffin, as well as the film’s original song, Glasgow (No Place Like Home).

Royal Lyceum artistic director David Greig described Wild Rose as “an uplifting and heart-warming theatre event about motherhood and dreams”.