Screeched In

On this day a year ago was the final performance of Crazy For You in London. I packed up and headed straight to Cheshire to see in 2024 with family and start to plan for a year of Come From Away - a tour I had high hopes for. It has not disappointed! A truly wonderful show with great new friends made, some fabulous touring locations and feeling like I can step away from this tour with a great sense of achievement, and look back on 2024 as a Very Good Year. And I end this year as I started it: back in Cheshire with the family!

The final month of this year has definitely been up there. The run of Salford started with the ‘surprise’ arrival of around 20 of the original ‘Come From Aways’ - people whose stories were written into the musical. They came full of stories and anecdotes, and it was great to chat to as many of them as possible, from mayor Claude, reporter Janice, New Yorker Bob and mayor Derm. Special mention go out to Nick & Diane, who stuck around with us for a few days and even watched from backstage for one performance! The CFAs also ‘initiated’ the entire company as honorary Newfoundlanders in an elaborate ceremony that may look familiar to those who have seen the show, with the downing of Screech rum and other local ‘delicacies’, learning some phrases and, of course, kissing a large sloppy fish on the lips. We musicians even took our instruments along and played some folk tunes, so it was a great atmosphere with dancing and singing! It was such an uplifting start to our time at the Lowry, which has carried on with great audiences, with lots of friends in watching most nights.

Once again I have been lucky to be so close to my parents in Cheshire, staying with them much of the time and even enjoying a few days off for both Christmas and New Year. Between shows has been a great chance to explore the relatively new world food court Kargo, and gym & spa at the Virgin Active, both just across from the theatre. A few of us have had a fun extra-curricular project, rehearsing some songs for a masterclass at Edge Hill University, my old stomping ground. I took a quartet of singers from the cast to perform a range of material, before the students were given an opportunity to have their own material worked on. Oli from the cast even sang a song I wrote a few years ago - 1st West Timperley Scouts - which went down so well that he sang it again at the show’s Christmas Party Band Night later that week!

2025 really does start with a bang, with the tour going out in style in Salford over the next few days. Then everything gets trucked across Europe to Trieste! I fly out to Venice to enjoy a night there before we open, then with the tour done I have made exciting plans to return to London exclusively by train, travelling across Northern Italy, through the Alps and finally via Paris. I’ll have much more on that of course next month, and then I’ll finally be back in London for the foreseeable future! In the meantime, all that’s left to say is… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Salford Sit-Down

And just like that, the tour of Come From Away has one final UK venue left! The show opens tomorrow at the Lowry in Salford, where it plays until January 5th, 2025.

November was our last month of ‘weekly touring’, where 8 performances were crammed into a busy Tuesday-Saturday schedule, taking us to Wolverhampton, Canterbury, Chichester & Milton Keynes. Extra performances were added to keep up with demand, and we were sold out at most performances! Chichester Festival Theatre included the added complication of not being a traditional ‘proscenium arch’ theatre, meaning the set and show had to be adapted slightly to work on its stage. It was fun to play the show on 3 sides, and of course the audiences were as generous as they always are.

Salford affords me the opportunity to see family and old friends, as I was brought up a few miles south of the theatre. And I can of course be at the family home for Christmas and New Year! Then we look forward to 2025… the tour of Come From Away isn’t quite done: we’re popping over to Italy for a few days following the Salford Sit-Down, so if you happen to be passing through Trieste in January, pop in and see us! Tickets are on sale here.

One Final Holiday

Nottingham, Wimbledon & Norwich were the venues visited during October, before our fifth and final week’s holiday from the tour. The holidays have been perfectly peppered throughout the year, and this one, timing well with Halloween and a Holiday in Germany, made it the perfect opportunity to visit my sister in Nuremberg, where she herself is performing in a show. A fascinating city, for its Franconian legacies, a unique Red Beer, Bavarian architecture and the huge impact National Socialism and World War 2 had on the area.

Wimbledon was a great opportunity to invite fellow London friends to come and see the show, as well as agents, producers, etc. so unsurprisingly the entire week sold out! Norwich was equally wonderful - I have a handful of friends who live there now, and, coupled with the excellent cafes and restaurant, meant we were well fed & watered as we caught up. It was also the perfect time of year to visit the coast just past the Norfolk Broads to watch all the grey seals come ashore.

And so we move into the final leg of the tour! We hit a handful of week-long venues this November, before turning attention to a longer run in Salford for Christmas. More on that next time!

The Scottish Leg

It’s another Big Tick for the producers of Come From Away, as all our Scottish venues were grouped together into one fabulous month rather than being spread out across the year, minimising travel time and costs. Aberdeen, Edinburgh & Glasgow were our stops, and audience numbers were big at every performance - almost 3,000 watching per night at the Edinburgh’s Playhouse! All three cities are treasure troves of cafes, restaurants, pubs and architecture, with the natural beauty of Scotland awaiting us on our days off. I walked around Braemar (above), played golf in Aberdeen, dipped my toes into Loch Lomond (that was enough) and stayed at the most gorgeous spa hotel in the central Highlands.

Since we were all grouped together in the far north of the UK, one company member decided it was the perfect opportunity for us to play our own version of The Traitors. It’s always a risky move: will personal feelings get in the way of tactics? I absolutely loved playing (I was a Faithful), but unfortunately we weren’t able to get a fellow Faithful to win, with the prize pot split amongst various Traitors. Everyone mucked in, though, with deceitfulness aplenty and a fitting finale involving full lighting and sound effects! It all becomes part of tour camaraderie.

We’re sad to say goodbye to Scotland, having sampled some of the greatest whiskies (and, of course, haggis), but we’re back into Merrie England with a stop at Robin Hood’s Nottingham, then it’s the show’s return to London with a few days at Wimbledon, then Norwich get to host us for a fortnight. Onwards!

5,000 and counting

Come From Away enjoyed two fortnightly sit-downs during August, in the beautiful cities and theatres of Newcastle’s Theatre Royal and Bristol’s Hippodrome. Even the distraction of the last few days of the Olympics couldn’t detract from the mathematical inevitability of reaching performance number 5,000. Each month, as well as updating this website (which in itself I have been doing every single month for at least 17 years) I have updated the document above, counting only full paid commercial productions where I am physically involved in the performance to a paying audience (so not show watches or dress rehearsals, and fringe/amateur theatre isn’t counted). It’s a milestone I had hoped to reach, which thanks to a relatively quiet 2014 and of course the pandemic shutdowns of 2020 & 2021 happened to time close to my 20th anniversary of working in professional theatre.

I do wonder if “here’s to the next 5,000” is realistic - a comment that was left a couple of times when I posted the above image to social media. I find myself enjoying the down time around shows more now that I’m in my 40s, rather than working as much as humanly possible as I used to. And if (it’s a big if) my career trajectory in this industry pushes me more towards Musical Supervision in the next few years, under my current rules the performance count will stall, as technically I won’t be “physically involved in [each] performance”. Still, at least my next (new) show will have the ‘honour’ of being my 40th one!

Back at Come From Away, it was wonderful to revisit those two great bastions of touring, Newcastle & Bristol. The latter was made extra special as three of us decided (as a treat) to pay more for a rather lovely flat just behind the Hippodrome. A quality way of living on tour can make all the difference, if you can afford it, and I do hope that a move to every company member being put up on a tour is getting closer.

Audiences at both venues were brilliant. Marketing had done a good job bringing in punters, and it was clear word-of-mouth was making a difference to numbers in the second week. The first and last performances in both cities were barnstormers, and it really boosted (already high) morale amongst the company. In extra-curricular news, we as a company enjoyed a bowling night out in Newcastle, and a “Band-a-oke” (think karaoke with live band) in Bristol, giving both musicians and singers on the tour a chance to let hair down and perform something different. It’s not always my bag to get on keys and improv along to some well-known song, but I found my calling on the accordion and Ali Barnes managed to capture the moment I finally relaxed and played along to some 4 Non Blondes.

September is the month for Scotland. After a few days off, we take a deep breath and head far north to begin 7 weeks on the road starting in Aberdeen. I love driving in Scotland, so will be taking the car up. We then head to Edinburgh & Glasgow for a week in each place, so looking forward to taking in some local music, food and that famous scotch whisky!

The Summit

I must admit, as someone who loves watching sport, this busy summer has proved rather distracting at times…! It has certainly made the daytimes before shows that more interesting, either enjoying the action from the sofa on a rainy day or heading out and about with radio commentary in my ears. Right now I am enjoying a long weekend away from the show largely to make the most of a super Parisian Olympic Games.

The Come From Away tour moves along at a nice pace. The show squeezed itself into Ipswich and Sheffield (to paraphrase the touring technical teams, “the largest ‘small set’ I have worked with”) but with lovely welcomes in both cities. The latter afforded the opportunity to get out into the Peak District - we picked the sunniest day we could, which ended up being my birthday (!) to reach the summit of Mam Tor.

Birthday Boy at the summit of Mam Tor

After a well-earned week-off for all (mine largely spent catching up with friends in London, and seeing the excellent Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder in the West End) the show set up shop in Llandudno’s Venue Cymru for a few days. This was a rare occurrence: touring to a seaside venue in actual summer! I’m used to productions scheduling the likes of Blackpool, Brighton & Bournemouth in November or February. And the weather played ball - strong July sunshine but with a cooling sea breeze. I took the chance to scramble up Great Orme with a couple of people before heading back to Llandudno’s promenade for a well-earned ice cream.

Not Birthday Boy Any More at the summit of Great Orme, Llandudno, Conwy

I think Llandudno will go down as a highlight of this tour for this company. It was a pleasure to be in such a beautiful part of Wales at the perfect time of year. Adding to that, the show continues to be superbly received by audiences. Next up we have two-week sit-downs in the splendid cities of Newcastle & Bristol. Before that I’m going to get back to Olympic viewing to see how many more medals we can win!

One more thing: having made it to 20 years in showbusiness last month, another milestone follows quickly on those heels. As of yesterday, by my count I am on 4,998 total professional performances across those 20+ years, so here’s to reaching my 5,000th next week in Newcastle!

Two Types of Guinness

Tours appear to be grouping Dublin & Belfast together more often these days. It makes sense as it involves fewer ferry crossings for the lorries, and fewer air miles collected by the company.

It was the first time I had done such a double-header, and thus the first time I had tried Guinness in both cities. The immediate verdict? Dublin Guinness is creamier, Belfast is chocolatier. They are both however utterly delicious.

It was great to be back in Dublin. I was last here only two years ago opening Girl From The North Country at The Olympia. This time, at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, we welcomed Irish audiences back to The Rock. The reception at the end of each performance was incredibly warm - it even sounded like the loudest cheers went up for the traditional Irish instruments that we use in the show! Our whistles player for Ireland was Matt Bashford, who played Come From Away during its original Dublin & West End runs. He certainly earned his place amongst our ranks with expert top tips on fabulous local bars & things to do, as well as being an incredible musician. One of my favourite evenings was visiting a small pub north of the Liffey to hear a spectacular trad session with a sumptuous pint of The Black Stuff.

Onto Belfast (via a beautiful 2-hour train ride) to a venue we definitely could have packed out over a fortnight, let alone a week, the gorgeous Grand Opera House. Before we opened, some of us took the opportunity to travel up the Antrim Coast to Giants Causeway. I have visited before, but the combination of taking colleagues to see it for the first time with their own eyes, plus it being a well-organised trip by a local travel company that included stop at various other places, made it one of the best days out I have ever had on tour. I still can’t believe I get to call this my job.

On then to Ipswich! There is great excitement that a show like Come From Away is visiting this quiet corner of the UK, so we’re looking forward to a warm welcome. Then it’s Sheffield later in the month, followed by the seaside beauty spot of Llandudno. On we fly!

Pride of Bonobos

There’s a nice work/life balance to this particular tour on the whole. Performances always begin on a Tuesday in a new venue to allow everyone to have a proper day (or two) off, as well as travel to the next city. We have five ‘holiday weeks’ peppered through this year’s schedule as well, with the second of those falling in May. I took the opportunity to visit my sister, brother-in-law & niece to see their home in France for the first time. They have been doing it up for the past few years and is in the middle of nowhere in the centre of the country - so peaceful! A perfect retreat from it all. I even had my own little caravan on-site to call my own while they continue to decorate rooms in the main building.

We finished our run in Leeds in early May, enjoying everything that city has to offer (craft beer, mainly, it would seem) and have just completed performances at Birmingham’s Hippodrome - always a great venue to visit: a huge stage, great facilities and brilliant audiences. I took the opportunity to sit in with the follow spots during one of my show watches - a fascinating insight into how intensive it is on such a fast-paced show as Come From Away!

Our visit to Birmingham timed perfectly with its annual Pride celebrations, so much so I went one further than last time (when I just watched the parade) and bought tickets to the whole event. It was a brilliant festival atmosphere across the whole weekend: the bars flung open their doors and the Smithfield Live site was a great addition with its stages, outlets and funfair. It would be a shame if they build flats on that ground (which is what the council really want to do, apparently) as this central space would really be best converted into a fully fledged live site for all sorts of events.

L-R Rosie (Bonnie), Lloyd (Zookeeper), Martin (Company Manager), Amanda (Beulah), Michael (Head of Lighting), and Me!

We also had the added bonus of being visited by a local zookeeper, who then invited us a few days later to meet the bonobos at Twycross Zoo (he has looked after them for the past few years, and if you don’t know the story of Come From Away features Unga, a bonobo that was grounded at Gander). Keeper Lloyd was so welcoming and informative, and even took us to meet the gorillas and orangutans! I love how this tour keeps throwing up all these different adventures. Also, look out for some filming we did involving a Birmingham pub, a certain Newfoundland cod and a bottle of bad Jamaican rum…!

We have been looking forward to June since the tour started. We move to Hull next, and then we are taking the show back to Dublin, where it first played nearly 10 years ago. We are in the much bigger Bord Gais Energy Theatre, where we can squeeze almost 2,000 bawdy Dubliners in for a rollocking night’s entertainment! If that wasn’t enough, Belfast are getting their first look at the show later in the month, where the show has had such a good advance sale that extra performances have been added. This is going to be a lot of fun!

Touring Life

It has certainly felt like being back in the grind of Touring Life.

Come From Away is very much settled into its tour, and April saw a handful of weekly venues, where the show arrives at the theatre on a Monday before performing Tuesday-Saturday. Cardiff, Plymouth, Southampton & Oxford all received the show, and we’re now underway in Leeds for a fortnight’s run at the Grand Theatre.

The best way to enjoy touring is a) ensure you have good digs, and b) work out what each city excels at and do as the locals do. The maritime nature of the first three meant enjoying the water’s edge (especially as record high tide hit the ancient harbour of The Barbican in Plymouth), the best fresh seafood and even the chance to stay on a houseboat in Southampton! I hadn’t been to Oxford in almost 20 years, but it was lovely to rediscover its history, fabulous cafes and complete aversion to allowing any vehicular traffic uninhibited travel through its streets.

I have also enjoyed getting further out of each city, or discovering more nightlife, as the schedule of the show affords me some days and evenings away. I have the advantage of touring in a car, and choosing the odd ‘scenic route’ has meant seeing more of the less-accessible corners of the UK.

At the show proper, the Superhero Standbys continue their rehearsals. They have FOUR separate characters to fully learn, and get to do a full technical run (with rehearsal band) for each track. This week in Leeds they ran their third tracks pretty much note-perfect, and can move on to that final role this month. Put simply the tour would not run without their hard work. The company get a week’s holiday this month - I’m off to France to visit my sister - before a run in Birmingham in late May. Still so much to look forward to!

The Start of a Moment

It’s Easter Sunday, and it’s the end of our first holiday week, a well-earned rest after rehearsing & opening the Come From Away tour in Leicester, before a two-week run in Liverpool.

Our next leg of the tour is six weeks long, taking in the cities of Cardiff, Plymouth, Southampton, Oxford, and a fortnight in Leeds, and these few days will allow us to hit the ground running at the Wales Millennium Centre.

The tour had a wonderful press night, with writers Irene Sankoff & David Hein in attendance at Leicester Curve. Footage of our band playout from the night, plus press photos and other marketing, has meant my accordion playing has been seen (and heard) much farther and wider than I expected! Thankfully I can just about get around the melodies from the show, whilst politely declining any invitations to bring the accordion to folk gigs.

The Come From Away band (aka The Legion) L-R Derrick Taylor (bass), Phillipe Barnes (whistles), Jack Pennifold (mandolin), Ruth Elder (Fiddle), Andrew Corcoran (accordion), Rory Clarke (drums), Yue Miyagi (guitar) & Beth Higham-Edwards (bodhrán).

The band I get to play with are truly wonderful. We have such a great time each night, and the show’s dedicated band playout has the audiences dancing in the aisles - so much fun! We’re guaranteed a whale of a time this year. A particular shout out to Phil Cornwell, the Associate MD, who maintains the standard for me whenever I pop out to watch, and to Mike Steel, a friend and former colleague, who also steps in to play the show on occasion and absolutely smashes it.

The Come From Away cast (photo credit: Craig Sugden)

The cast are equally a dream. Cast to perfection, not only do they sound beautiful and tell the story wonderfully, they are all well-prepared for the rigours of touring that await them. They’re as empathetic as they are talented, and make me look forward to coming to work every day. An extra-special shout-out to the incredible troupe of standbys who are ready to (or have already) step(ped) in to cover any of the twelves roles.

Finally recognition to Kirsty Malpass, our Associate Director who continues to step above and beyond her duties, and to Sophie Macfadyen (Deputy Stage Manager) & Harry Regan (Sound No 1) who perform some of the toughest roles when running the show whilst also being blooming lovely to work with.

So after a week away from the tour catching up with London friends, a fair amount of life admin and chilling with the folks in Cheshire for Easter, I am very much looking forward to our next leg of this fabulous show. If you haven’t already, I really hope you come and see us in action at some point!

Welcome to the Rock

Come From Away finally returns to the UK! Judging by the audiences in Leicester for the previews, this is very welcome news.

This has been the most lovely rehearsal process. The show is a hugely intense piece to learn across many departments, whether you’re a musician, performer, sound operator or deputy stage manager. You need to know your stuff, otherwise the show is left very exposed. Fortunately, we have some of the best people in the world working on this tour.

We rehearsed the show fully chronologically, which sounds obvious but actually this is the only time I have done this on a show. Usually you would tackle the trickiest bits first to get a head-start, but the trickiest element of Come From Away is maintaining its flow, and staying chronological helps with that. We completed that process in two weeks, and then it was about running and cleaning, as well as band calls.

This past week has been tech week and previews. I have never known a more stress-free tech. Yes, we all needed to be on our full A-game, but a mixture of a cast who had been drilled to place each chair in the correct position, lighting & stage management teams from the Gods and a sound department you could only dream of ensured us of the smoothest of technical rehearsals.

And now we’re underway with previews, with full standing ovations at every performance. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be involved with this show, playing with the most amazing musicians & cast, supported by a top technical team and basically getting to do what I love for 100 minutes every night. Please do come and visit us on our tour - you’re really going to want to see this show!

Leicester is such a vibrant city. Curve have been the most welcoming hosts, and we have discovered some fantastic cafes and restaurants during our stay here. And the locals are so bloomin’ friendly! I very much look forward to coming back one day.

Our tour continues on to Liverpool this month, which means I can see a little more of my parents (perfect timing for Mother’s Day!), and looking forward to friends in the North West coming to visit us at the Empire!

CFY 🛫 CFA

I have finally touched down in Leicester to start rehearsals for CFA (Come From Away), a tour which runs from March until January next year. Our first ‘official’ day of rehearsal is tomorrow, with the traditional Meet & Greet giving way to working on the show ‘from the top’, but in reality we have actually already spent a few days in our rehearsal studio at Curve Theatre. Pre-rehearsals have included a movement session, dialect coaching, music learning (yep, the entire score taught) and table read-throughs, plus much chat about the show’s context. Not wanting to give away too much yet, but yeah you’ll want to come and see this lot in action!

January was a good chance to rest after a fabulous end to the run of CFY (Crazy For You). With all that packed away, I had the chance to chill out at my parents in the New Year before seeing my sister (and her own show) in Hamburg, and the much-anticipated trip to Prague & Rome with my parents to celebrate their 70th birthdays. This was truly a trip to remember, with stunning architecture and history around every corner, a lovely vibe (although quite different in each city!) and wonderful cuisines to try. The five-course Czech tasting menu in Prague was a particular highlight! I won’t bore you with holiday snaps here, but I’ve popped some of them up on Instagram & Facebook.

So February is devoted (as ever) to full-time rehearsals for this next show. We have two weeks in the rehearsal room before we add the full band in the third week, then we tech and open ready for our first preview on 1st March. There’s a great deal to squeeze into those few weeks, but rehearsing in Leicester - and subsequently being put up nearby - is creating a proper boot camp feel that certainly helps to focus on the matter in hand. I’ll report back on that experience fully in next month’s update!

Who Could Ask For Anything More?

Yesterday, New Year’s Eve 2023, saw the final performance of Crazy For You after 218 performances. I had the pleasure of conducting 117 of those shows and we were sent off beaming with incredible audiences in our final days. This company (pictured above, including cast and crew) were a shining example of the calibre expected in London’s West End at the moment, and I can’t wait to work with them again on future endeavours. A special mention to my fellow musicians in the orchestra, with whom it was almost illegally too much fun to work with. A massive thank you to Alan Williams & Andy Barnwell for getting me on board with this production in the first place!

I have enjoyed being back in London with a show, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Yes, it gets busy with tourists and festive drinkers, but the West End is decorated beautifully and there’s always a great buzz each evening. I also managed to complete my walk of London around the 150 mile Loop, ending rather unflatteringly at Purfleet’s train station on the northern banks of the Thames estuary. Walking in December proved tricky at times, with mud seeping through my boots and under my toenails at times, but so happy to have completed it.

The beauty of finishing a contract on the 31st of December is the clean break it gives you going into the New Year. Following the final performance, I packed my things and headed straight back to my parents in Cheshire, where I spent Christmas Day, to carry on the festivities into 2024. Attention very much turns to my next show, Come From Away, and the change to being back on the road. Time to get some digs booked! Before that, I have much of January off. While I’ll do some prep for the show (including more time with Erica, the accordion), this is also a chance to chill out in Cheshire, visit my sister in Hamburg, catch some other shows in London and, later in the month, take my parents on the 70th birthday treat to Prague & Rome. This certainly feels like well-earned R&R!

Happy New Year!

Advent-urous

Every day it feels like I’ve given myself something to do, whether it is one of 8 performances of Crazy For You that week, another walk along the London Loop, some washing & tidying in the flat, learning more accordion or other elements of my next show Come From Away, exercise, shopping, cooking, or even - god forbid - some actual social interaction for once! Thankfully it isn’t too overwhelming, and it’s nice to plan out each day accordingly.

As I write this, the cast of Crazy For You are tapping away on the Royal Albert Hall thrust stage at the Royal Variety Performance, which will be shown later in December on TV. It’s going to be a fabulous performance and such a lovely way to honour this great run and company. We only have a month left of the show at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, ending rather aptly on New Year’s Eve to really draw a line under 2023.

I will try to finish the London Loop before the end of the run, although no promises! I only have five stages left, so it’s doable, but I have January as a backup before I head off on tour. I only like going out if it’s not going to rain or be too windy, and obviously depends on work commitments etc. We have a few nights of social fun ahead at Crazy For You, including a bowling night, dinner and a live music Hootenanny, which all should be great fun in the lead-up to Christmas! And then the day proper, where I get to head back to my parents in Cheshire (having missed it last year as I was away in Tokyo) for a proper family catch-up and some great food.

Meeting Erica

My walk of outer London continues, and I have now ticked off Uxbridge to Barnet through the course of October, which has brought me to the closest point of the walk to where I currently live. It’s rather nice not to have to spend 1-2 hours getting to the start of each walk via public transport for the time being, although always lovely to explore these far reaches of London! I especially enjoyed the view from Weald Wood across Harrow and the rest of west London, watching the planes landing at Heathrow.

There was a lovely reunion centred around Jenny Cooke, who turned 70 this year, of people from MT4Uth. This was a youth theatre company based in Belfast that I worked with for some years either side of 2010. A fair number of the alumni have gone on to do very successful things, so it was great to toast them all with a Sunday lunch and have a good old catch up with fellow creatives.

Talking of 70, my parents made another pilgrimage to London to see me conduct Crazy For You. It’s the first time I had seen my mum since she herself had turned 70, and with my dad hitting this milestone himself in a few weeks, we also used the time to plan a holiday that my sister and I are treating them to. Even better, I’ll be able to join them on the trip as we’re all going the week after my show finishes!

I only really have a week in hand to enjoy this trip with them, as I am then straight into rehearsals for Come From Away, my next major project as Musical Director. The show is on tour throughout next year and, following a meeting with Alan Berry (Musical Supervisor) this week, I am now in possession of Erica, the name given to the accordion that the MD also plays in the show! Consisting of diatonically laid out buttons (no piano-like keys), the hard work begins to start learning how to play her.

We are ramping up rehearsals somewhat back at the Gillian Lynne Theatre as we prepare for an exciting appearance at this year’s Royal Variety Performance. Look out for it on ITV in December! It should be fab.

Routine

I took advantage of the (mostly) sunny and warm September to walk from Banstead (near Epsom/Sutton), crossing the Thames at Kingston, up past the East of Heathrow Airport and as far as Uxbridge on the London Loop. Not all in one go, mind, but about 3 hours per day before an evening performance. The big advantage of ‘sitting down’ with a show in the West End is being able to get some routines going, and I am definitely being more active and eating a bit better. I get out for a walk/run/swim once a week each if possible, plus some Apple Watch Fitness+ exercises indoors if the weather has turned, and then cook at home before heading in for the show.

I certainly want to be feeling as good as possible at the moment as my long stint conducting Crazy For You continues. This week I am down to conduct all eight performances, and it’s lovely to get into a routine with the show. I also have friends & family popping in to watch, which breaks up the days nicely.

My mum turned 70 yesterday (1st October). She’s on holiday in Corsica with dad, so a virtual call had to do, but it was nice to spoil her with a special lunch (my sister called ahead to the restaurant) and begin arrangements for a joint-70th treat for both of them early next year. Happy Birthday, Mum! Love you loads.

October, it won’t surprise you, looks to be much of the same: full-time at the show, conducting regularly, with some jaunts out in to the fresh air of Greater London when time allows. May the routine continue!

Looping

When I moved to my new place near Barnet in April, I spotted signs for the London Loop, which turns out to be a 150-mile walk around the edge of London, largely where suburbia meets green belt. A friend of mine had already started it, so I thought I would use my free time while working in Central London to try and complete it myself. Using my Sundays off to start with, before moving to daytimes when I had one-show days once rehearsals had calmed down, I am already 6 (out of 24) stages in, having covered an area from Erith, on the south bank of the Thames Estuary near Dartford, round to Banstead near Sutton. I have even bumped into two other people doing the walk, and had a lovely stroll getting to know them both! It’s just great to get out in fresh air, move my legs, and see parts of Greater London I wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Who knows, maybe I’ll move to one of these area one day…?

Crazy For You is nicely settled now, with busy shows each and every day. I had the wonderful pleasure of my 4-year-old niece watching me conduct a performance in August, and she was very well behaved and laughed a lot at the physical comedy! She also loved the dancing and recognised some of the songs as her mum often sings Gershwin as lullabies. We have completed understudy rehearsals, timed well with our first understudies going on for their roles and doing excellent jobs. We’re still busy, though, as we worked towards a very special appearance on This Morning (in the original Studio 1 at Television Centre).

I have been present at every performance so far, either playing keyboard, conducting, or watching performances. Tomorrow, though, I have my first long weekend away - a chance to visit family in North West England, have a bit of a sort-out and generally have some R&R. When I return, I start a six-week stint conducting most performances, as the MD Alan Williams heads off to set up our neighbouring show, Sunset Boulevard. I will, of course, be punctuating that time in the theatre with more stages of the fabulous London Loop!

Full Time

A big show like Crazy For You needs plenty of TLC, and although we are now very much settled into the run, I am still at the theatre for 10 or so hours a day. First up, post press night, was the small task of my first conducted performance, which was a lot of fun and passed without a hitch. Then we filmed our EPK which has now been turned into various trailers that you can find across social media and the official website. And now we are deep into understudy rehearsals, having completed work with the first cover cast and are now readying the second cover cast to do an understudy run in early August.

At least we haven’t been missing out on the sunny weather, as July ended out relatively cool and cloudy in London, but hopefully as rehearsals calm down into August the temperatures will finally recover! Although I don’t have a great amount of free time from the show at present, I am looking forward to getting out and about around the capital once again.

Press Night

Seven weeks have slipped by since we began rehearsals for Crazy For You. It was a first day of introductions, a peak at the set & costume designs and a chance for everyone to learn a dance number together. We moved into the Gillian Lynne Theatre on 12th June to slowly tech through the show, adding lights, sound, costume, crew & orchestra, and the first preview was rapturously received by a full house on the 24th.

After some small tweaks to the show during the preview period, we have reached press night, when we officially “freeze” the show and the main creatives depart for their homes back in the US. Our work on the show outside of performances doesn’t stop; we continue with understudy rehearsals for the next few weeks, and I have the small matter of conducting the show to learn/get right this week!

It’s my first time working at the Gillian Lynne Theatre - a slightly strange design as the stage is actually three or four floors up, with the band platform two floors higher than that still! The orchestra are also ‘technically’ front of house, which has the advantage of being able to see friends and family in the foyer before the show and at the interval. We then disappear into our specially-built room for the show proper - a platform suspended above one of the wings, thankfully with its own supply of air conditioning!

It is also great to be back in this part of the West End. Taking a right out of stage door, the streets become very familiar after my months and years working at the Cambridge Theatre just down the road. It’s great to see that some of my favourite cafes and restaurants from those times are still going strong, whilst also getting to try out loads of new places. And as a way of helping the local economy, loads of establishments are offering us discounts and special memberships - a great way to feel welcome as a worker in the West End once again!

K-ra-zy

Gershwin’s music has taken over my days practically non-stop since I last updated my website. At first it was my own practice, putting the finishing touches to playing the behemoth of a vocal score that Crazy For You has, before heading to the rehearsal room and meeting the rest of the company. It was a very good thing that I prepped as much as I did, as on Day 3 of rehearsals I was called upon to play the entire score cover to cover for a read-through in front of the entire cast and creative teams!

We are now into Week Four in the rehearsal room, with show preparations now a closely-guarded secret until we unleash this company into the public eye, aside from the odd rehearsal photo on social media channels. One thing to say, though, is that it is possible one of the most well-run rehearsal rooms I have been in, with not a single weak link among the cast, crew and creatives who are on hand. This is allowing the piece to come together beautifully, and allowing the formidable cast to really hone the production into a glorious piece of artistry. And I almost have the score finally under the fingers!

June sees us move in to the theatre for technical rehearsals and previews, with press night coming up early next month. Book tickets here if you are yet to do so! I will be up conducting fairly early on and with good regularity, so just drop me a message if you would like a tip-off of any of my dates.

I gave myself a small break from Gershwin early on in May with a final trip up to Cheshire to collect items for my new flat, as well as one final visit to the parents, timed expertly well with the Liverpudlian festivities that encircled Eurovision. It made for a fine distraction before the hard work began! We even attempted a “Eurovision Buffet” with different food and drink for every country participating in the final. I’m not sure it was the best idea in the end, though, with a lot of food left over and a certain amount of indigestion to deal with the following day! But it was great to see such a wonderful festival of Europe come to the North West, and the images of Liverpool in the sunshine, with crowds bedecked in blue and yellow (as well as all sorts of colours of the rainbow) will live long in the memory.