The Summit — Andrew Corcoran

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.

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!