Things learned at the The Harder They Come premiere on Thursday.*
- After a successful run in the U.K., Toronto is the North American premiere of the stage show.Henzell began something of a sequel to the film, No Place Like Home, following the character Ivan, but couldn’t get it financed.
- Perry Henzell, who adapted his original film to the stage, went to McGill University in 1953.
- Henzell later screened it to a sold-out Cumberland Theatre at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006.
- He died two months later, November 30, 2006, in Treasure Beach, Jamaica.
- Speaking of sold out theatres, the debut of Harder They Come in Kingston, Jamaica, was so packed Jimmy Cliff couldn’t get in.
- Elsewhere, though, the film was marketed as a blaxploitation flick, as evidenced by its cover art. It was a critical and commercial dud.
- Midnight screenings eventually brought cult-status to the Harder They Come movie.
- In 1988 Henzell produced a musical based on the life of Marcus Garvey.
- Set changes in the musical, there are none. It’s the same style of Theatre Royal Stratford East, where the U.K. version was staged.
- Ivanhoe Martin, the central character, has been called the Jamaican Dillinger.
- His nickname was Rhynging, which in patios translates to wild, hot, or bad, denoting his short fuse.
- Rhynging was a real-life Jamaican outlaw in the 1940s. He died in a shootout with police at Lime Cay in 1948.
- Rhynging was 24 at the time of his death. Jimmy Cliff, who played that character in the film, was the same age during filming.
- Rhynging was also a folk hero. Cliff equated him to Robin Hood, and said he was “very much on the side of the people.”
- Rhyging is the prototype for rudeboys.
- Carl Bradshaw, who played the role of bad man Jose in the film, was a former Olympic quarter-mile runner for Jamaica.
- Rolan Bell, who plays Ivan in the stage production, also acts in the popular British soap Eastenders.
- Bell knows how to stilt-walk, and counts it as one of his hobbies.
- Bell played the role of Scar in the Lion King at Disney in Paris.
- (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher is prominently featured in the stage production, but not in the original film or soundtrack. It also appears in the 1989 motion picture Ghostbusters II.
- There is one original song in the musical, which was Henzell-approved.
- Another notable soundtrack offering by Jimmy Cliff is I Can See Clearly Now from 1992’s Cool Runnings.
- There is one F-word used in the stage production.
- Jimmy Cliff made a special appearance at the London staging of the musical.
*And elsewhere.
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