シカゴ-東京

Today, New Year’s Eve, we completed our 24-performance run of Chicago The Musical in Tokyo. I feel very fortunate that this short run fitted well into a break in the tour of Girl From The North Country, allowing me to revisit a show (and piano chair) that I adore so much ten years after my last contract, with the added bonus of travelling to Japan, a country I have never visited before.

The company was entirely made up of people who had done the show before, some in the past few months, some <inaudible> years ago! While it would have been easy to treat this as a bit of a holiday, the passion for this show was very much on show across every single performer, with everyone making sure to pack their A-game for the long haul flight. There was a fair handful of familiar faces amongst the company, so these past few weeks have been great to catch up with old friends and colleagues, make new friends, and explore Tokyo with them all.

I also had the pleasure of working again with musical director Adrian Kirk, who I worked with way back in 2008-2009. We were able to pick up where we left off and have had an absolutely blast together once again. Our band were all from Japan, and we had translators on hand as our Japanese wasn’t that great…! They were the best of the best, and the show had that same flair that I remember all those years ago playing with the West End musicians. I’m just glad that the muscle memory in my fingers was still there after all this time, so I could keep up with them!

I never left Tokyo throughout the entire run. There was simply too much to explore, and only a small number of days/evenings off. I loved my visits to both Tokyo Tower and Skytree, where I was able to witness sunset and the glinting of the city lights as night set in. I was told to visit Golden Gai and was not disappointed, with its incredible array of tiny bars and eateries. Disney Sea theme park is as good as people say, and my one-on-one tour guide around the temples and shrines of one suburban district (a brilliant Christmas present from my sister & brother-in-law) was a true eye-opener. We have one more night left, and I plan to see New Year in at one of the temples as the bells are rung for 2023.

So it’s back to the UK at the start of January, and back to my ‘day job’. We finished our 2022 run of Girl From The North Country with a really lovely week at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. The rest of the cast are, I’m sure, enjoying a well-earned break and ready for one final long push through various cities, starting strongly with a visit to Liverpool. Before that, I’m looking forward to some overdue family time, having completely missed Christmas! But this month’s adventures will live long in my memory.

Zojoji Temple & Tokyo Tower, December 2022

Sunset over Mt Fuji, as seen from Tokyo Tower, December 2022.