Roger Waters hasn’t adapted The Wall to musical theatre because he ‘doesn’t know how to end it’

A Broadway adaptation of The Wall has been years in the making, but has not released because Roger Waters “doesn’t know how to end it.”

Though Waters had initially set his sights on an adaptation of the Pink Floyd album, it has never made it to Broadway. Several problems were cited by Waters in various interviews, but the lead issue seems to be a lack of understanding of what the ending could signify for a musical theatre audience. While the album would be adapted to the big screen, further adaptations are not on the cards.  An adaptation had been in the works in the early 2000s and was set to be produced by Miramax, though the project appears to have fallen through. A Broadway adaptation never came to be, and, as such, Waters need not worry about figuring out a suitable ending to The Wall any longer.

But it was a problem for Waters during the adaptation process, with the bassist trying to find a new route through the album. Waters said: “This is why I haven’t done the piece for musical theatre yet. It’s because up until now, I haven’t known how it ended. I certainly didn’t know 20 years ago, which is why the ending is so enigmatic. ‘Tear down the wall,’ then what?”

Another problem Waters had with The Wall adaptation was adding more humour to the show, which is something he had wanted to do since the album had released. An adaptation of The Wall to Broadway was announced in August 2004, with Thomas D. Mottola involved in the production.

He called The Wall a “timeless” project which he had hoped to bring to Broadway with Waters and Miramax head, Harvey Weinsten. The project never came to be, though Waters had been keen to make rewrites to Pink Floyd’s 1979 album.

He said: “My motivation is primarily that both the record and film, proud of them as I am, well, they have depth. They endure. There are no laughs anywhere. There are not many jokes. Humour is very important part of my life. I think it’s a part of the life of the central character in the film, Pink. There will be a lot more humour in the Broadway version.”

Though it never came to be, Waters had spoken highly of the Broadway adaptation and sounded like he was fully invested in the ambitious project. Elsewhere in the interview, he would say part of why he wanted to adapt it to the stage is being convinced by the musical background of his partners.

He said: “Well, I was approached by Harvey Weinstein and Tommy Mottola last summer. So I went and had a meeting with them in New York. I had been toying with the idea for a number of years.

“I think Harvey had been wanting to get into Broadway production for some time. I think they’d been investing in Broadway shows for some time. Harvey is a music guy. I believe his original background is in radio in Albany. He comes from a rock ‘n’ roll background.”

Waters would go on to suggest the play would be different to the film adaptation, with Waters confimring he had been “writing episodically” before the project was cancelled for unknown reasons.