Songwriter working on ‘Pretty Woman’ musical with Bryan Adams honours Garry Marshall

LONDON – The Canadian songwriter teaming with Bryan Adams on the score for a “Pretty Woman” theatrical production is remembering the late Garry Marshall as “the sweetest man you can imagine.”

The screen legend directed the 1990 smash film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, which he wanted to adapt into a Broadway musical for next year.

In an emailed statement to The Canadian Press, Jim Vallance — a longtime collaborator with Adams — says he’s currently in London writing songs for the show.

He says the Canadian songwriting duo saw Marshall just a few weeks ago in New York.

Vallance says Marshall was “in fine form, contributing ideas and making us all laugh.”

Marshall died Tuesday at a hospital in Burbank, Calif., of complications from pneumonia after having a stroke. He was 81.

“We woke up this morning to the sad news that he’d had passed away. It’s devastating,” says Vallance.

“It was such an honour to have known and worked with him. He was the sweetest man you can imagine, just a lovely guy, still putting in a full day at the age of 81. I’m really going to miss him.”

Vallance co-wrote some of Adams’s greatest hits including “Cuts Like a Knife,” “Heaven” and “Summer of ’69.” He also contributed to the writing of the benefit song “Tears Are Not Enough,” and co-wrote the Glass Tiger hits “Someday” and “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone).”