Pressing On

Another show done. Girl From The North Country was quite an experience - quite different to any other production I have worked on, being largely a play with a handful of songs. I was fascinated by it on various fronts: watching the acting process up close through rehearsals and from my vantage point on-stage in performance; playing acoustically with fellow musicians rather than using click tracks or headphones; touring with a show during the tail-end of a pandemic, and balancing the role of Musical Director and the welfare of my colleagues on a fairly long run on the road with my own welfare. I always say I like to learn something from every contract that I do that I can take with me onto future productions, and this show certainly allowed that!

We finished the tour by playing Leicester’s amazing Curve theatre, where the show sounded and looked utterly gorgeous, with an equally lovely week in Wimbledon. Being close to London, the vibe understandably changed as much of the company commuted, many friends and industry people came to watch, and the producers gave us a gala night send-off with a post-show party. The final day, inevitably, came and went rather quickly, but with two fine performances to round off the run.

I actually booked proper digs for Wimbledon - a one-bed place in nearby Mitcham - as I still don’t have a place of my own to commute from, but I extended the booking for a few nights after the tour so that I could do some proper flat viewings in anticipation of a move back to London over the next few weeks. The search looks to have paid off, as I managed to view 8 properties in person over the course of a few days before heading back to Cheshire. I got great vibes from one place in North London, so my offer is in for that place and all being well I will be able to start moving stuff in later this month!

April, otherwise, is very much dependent on how the move to London goes. I have a little bit of work back at Edge Hill University, as I accompany the final year Musical Theatre students at their showcase at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, otherwise much of my work is score-learning for my next show (still to be announced). I have plans to slot in a long-overdue spa break with my mum (my birthday present to her from over a year ago!) and enjoy the Easter break properly, but will largely just be seeing how April pans out! I hope you all have a lovely Easter, wherever you’re spending it.

Home Straight

February was all about the touring life! Girl From The North Country moved across the Irish Sea to play the beautiful Grand Opera House in Belfast to packed audiences throughout the week, before being ferried back across to Scotland for its final visit to the country, playing Aberdeen. Most of us flew to these destinations, admittedly, although I was taken a rather scenic route at one point, flying from Belfast to Inverness before being taken in a taxi (all paid for by the airline) the 2.5 hour drive to Aberdeen!

We are now in Norwich, and the tour very much feels on the home straight now. Excitement and trepidation as to what comes next for our company members is a hot topic of conversation in the backstage corridors. I have managed to line up my next contract - news to come soon - so I am busy preparing for that whenever I have a spare afternoon.

Otherwise, it’s basically planning for life post-tour, which for me involves finding a place back within spitting distance of London (I am still officially based with family in Cheshire while I have been out on the road). I am looking forward to a small taste of that when we play Wimbledon later this month, but the planning for my own London home now starts in earnest!

Adapting

Our tour of Girl From The North Country rattles along, with performances in Bristol from tomorrow. We also squeeze in visits to Birmingham, Belfast, Aberdeen and Norwich into the shortest month of the year. We’re not hanging about, that’s for sure!

The show has just had a rather intriguing visit to Chichester. The design of its Festival Theatre does not include a fly tower or a proscenium arch, meaning that fundamental parts of our show’s design had to be adapted especially for the venue. A lot of hard work at the beginning of the week to implement changes really paid off, as we presented a “thrust stage” version of the piece, with audience on three sides. The show worked brilliantly in this setting, with every performance (almost at capacity every single night) receiving standing ovations. We left Chichester a very happy company!

We also played Liverpool and Sheffield during January. Audiences in the north have been equally positive, with an added bonus that colleagues and students from my previous place of work - Edge Hill University - were able to pop along to watch. I was also able to visit them one afternoon while in Liverpool to see how the third year students (who I have followed right through from their first year) were getting on with rehearsals for their big production, the world premiere of a new musical Pop Art.

But before all of this restarted, and after my visit to Tokyo, I was able to squash in a weekend visit to Stuttgart, Germany, where my sister is currently performing in Palazzo. Her daughter and husband are with her as well, and I was able to time my visit at the same time as my parents were visiting, allowing our whole immediate family to be together having missed the opportunity over Christmas.

There are only seven venues left to visit on this tour. None of us are really ready to say goodbye to this show yet, which may well be a blessing in disguise, but there is a real family feel on this show. I feel very lucky to still be having such an amazing time on this production. I am however starting to plan how the rest of 2023 pans out… watch this space!

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.

Side Projects

It’s often great (and rather healthy) to have little side projects to work on whilst on the road with a show, whether it be a hobby, a new skill, or in my particular case, a concert of musical theatre repertoire back at the University of Huddersfield. When I graduated in 2004, musical theatre was only really performed in an extra-curricular way, such as when I cobbled together a 60-piece orchestra and 40-strong choir (twice) to play bits of shows that I liked. This time round had a similar feel, although with just me on piano and a quartet of incredible singers from Girl From The North Country.

While there was a great sense of achievement when it came to nailing songs from the likes of Jason Robert Brown, Stephen Sondheim and Marvin Hamlisch, the main reason to make the trip was to work with some students afterwards on a vocal masterclass and be able to answer their questions about the industry. My time as a tutor at Edge Hill University had already shown me the benefits this can have, and I was delighted by how successful our afternoon at Huddersfield was. Here’s hoping I can take performers there again in the future!

The only small issue with really wanting to do justice to the concert with a raft of new material was fitting in rehearsal time around the ‘day job’, which this month included work on our tour EPK (Electronic Press Kit), filming parts of the show to help promote the tour into 2023. We just about managed to juggle everything, although it did get a little tiring at times!

I have also been working on the physical scores as we ready Girl From The North Country for future licensing, making sure everything is legible and consistent across band parts, vocal scores and full scores. Having done this years ago with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I will be intrigued to see what future productions of this show look and sound like.

We have now ticked Plymouth, Milton Keynes, Woking & Bradford off the tour list, with just one more venue this year: Cardiff. The show then powers down for a winter break, returning in January, with most of the company readying themselves to spend Christmas with friends & family, or heading off on a winter holiday. I am, however, heading straight into another show! Chicago The Musical is playing for three weeks in Tokyo over Christmas, and they needed a pianist. Having never been to Japan, the opportunity was hard to resist. It does mean having to drive straight from Cardiff to Heathrow Airport, but can’t wait to get started!

The Tour Continues

A small update this month as the tour of Girl From The North Country continues to roll around the UK. We are very lucky to have been able to visit the likes of Bath, Edinburgh and Cheltenham in the past month, with more lovely cities still awaiting us later in the tour. In some ways it’s a shame to only be in each venue for a few days, but there’s always a different feel to a weekly tour, as you daren’t fully unpack your suitcase ready for the next dash across the country!

We have had sporadic rehearsals as we continue to keep our understudies at the top of their game, as well as recently welcoming a new company member. A few of us are also prepping a concert, to be performed for students at the University of Huddersfield as part of a series of masterclass recitals, which we are delighted to be a part of.

This month we visit some old reliable venues - the likes of Plymouth, Milton Keynes, Woking and Bradford, with plans surely to enjoy a curry or two at that last one! Hope to see some of you as we continue our romp across Britain.

"Not What I Was Expecting"

The tour is up and running in earnest, now. We have sped through York, Glasgow & Salford, and complete our run in Newcastle this weekend. Four beautiful venues ticked off, with many more thankfully still to come! Audience buzz has been fascinating to hear, whether it be in the auditorium when watching (now that I have the fabulous Alan Berry & Luke Holman both up and running as cover conductors), outside the theatre after a performance, or on social media. I have overheard the phrase “not what I was expecting” more often than not, thankfully in a positive tone!

It was a somewhat strange month, though, with the death of Queen Elizabeth II dominating the airwaves. The funeral didn’t have a huge effect on the run of Girl From The North Country as we weren’t scheduled to perform that day anyway, and audiences seemed to appreciate the escapism that the show offers. It has been lovely to see familiar faces coming to watch, with one or two even booking again immediately after watching, planning to bring more people to see the show! I’m so glad that it resonates with my friends and family in the same way it has with me.

October is more of the same, as we travel to Bath, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Cheltenham all within the space of this month. The challenge at the moment is squeezing the show into smaller houses like Bath and Cheltenham, whilst also expanding it for the likes of Salford and Edinburgh. Our tech teams continue to work their magic in this regard, with the show looking and sounding fabulous every time.

Finally I’m delighted to be once again taking part in the MD Mentorship Scheme in its second year, with plans already to meet my current mentee, Rob, in person this month so that we can get cracking on various projects.

Back on the Road

After the full-on fun that was Girl From The North Country in Dublin, August was a far more sedate affair with just one week of performances in Canterbury. The Marlowe has had a near-100% redesign since I last played there way back in 2005, so I had to explore the venue (and most of the city) as though it was my first time once again! The theatre and surrounding area are stunning, made all the better by fine weather. The show adapted well after its first move, with a built-in rake now on tour with us, and a rather clever fully-working ‘prop’ piano that replaces the real one that we hired when over in Dublin.

Before and after the week of performances, there was a chance to rest and recoup at home in Cheshire (while it was boiling hot yet again), catch up with plenty of London folk, see a couple of shows (Moulin Rouge and Beauty & The Beast, if you must know) and generally get sorted ready for life on the road proper.

A few months back, knowing we had a designated ‘holiday’ week in place, I booked a 10-years-later trip to New York City, having first visited when I had just turned 30. This was a chance to revisit landmarks, explore new parts of the metropolis and, of course, catch a Broadway Show or four (A Strange Loop, Beetlejuice, Hadestown and Into The Woods, since you asked). Again it was boiling hot out there and I even made myself sit in the sun watching US Open Tennis at Flushing Meadows for a full day - and I bloomin’ loved it!

It feels like we finally start the tour proper in a few days - crazy when you think that we started rehearsals for this show in mid-May - as we begin our first of nine venues in a row over the next nine weeks, starting with York’s Theatre Royal. I suppose I should get back to unpacking from New York and repacking for ‘Old’ York!

(Touring) Life Begins

I am now 40 years old, and 18 years in to my theatrical career, having started touring with my first show in 2004. I think this is my 14th circuit of the UK (someone in the cast asked me to try and count them) and Girl From The North Country is my 37th professional show. I think that’s enough numbers for now, though!

Dublin is not a bad city at all to celebrate such a big milestone, and to be able to spend it with so many new mates from my new company made it pretty special. My parents even took the time to pop over to Ireland to spoil me rotten, and a perfectly-timed show watch on my actual birthday was made possibly by original Musical Director Alan Berry agreeing to fly over to cover the conducting responsibilities. All in all it made for a fabulous birthday!

The show itself played all 41 performances, even though it was faced with a severe covid outbreak, tummy bugs, a power outage and even a fire next door one night, and the audiences were on their feet at the end of every performance. Although understudies were thrown on at short notice left, right and centre, we managed a fair amount of regular cover rehearsals before the run ended. Socially, we aimed to ‘discover’ as many nearby pubs and bars as we could, and Sundays were the perfect opportunity to explore the farther reaches of Dublin and the surrounding hills and coasts.

The show is now on a welcome two-week hiatus. After a pretty intense rehearsal and tech period, the show itself has its own beautiful intensity, and the whole company have become heavily invested in delivering what is a pretty super show each time. It was pretty clear on the flight home, though, that R&R and catch-ups with friends & family were now at the forefront of most people’s minds! We will all be back later this month, fully refreshed, ready to show the United Kingdom this rather brilliant piece of theatre. For now, though, I have a few days seeing friends in London before a few days back in Cheshire with the family.

Meet The Band

I am now officially part of a band called The Howlin’ Winds. Chosen (very democratically) from a list of suggestions put forward by the rest of the company of Girl From The North Country, our name was officially announced just before our press night in Dublin yesterday evening. Tradition dictates that each production of GFTNC names its band, and we are very happy with ours, being (as it turns out) a lyric from the title song!

So for the first time since the pandemic hit and abruptly paused by theatrical career, I am back on track as Musical Director for my own show. I have really landed on my feet with this one, looking forward every day to the rehearsals, enjoying a stress-free production period (even though the start of technical rehearsals was delayed by 18 hours due to customs issues) and a proper feeling of honing the show through previews ready for a pitch-perfect press night. Even after celebrating until 4am, I can’t wait to get back there tonight to continue our run.

The support I receive is one of the greatest aspects of this show, from a trusting band of musicians, an onstage company who look out for each other, the incredible ovations from audiences each night, a really thoughtful production company, and the truly lovely words of wisdom from Conor, Simon and the rest of the most ridiculously talented creative team to have worked with.

We stay in Dublin for the rest of July, where I have family flying out due to a rather important (40th!) birthday that I have this month. This is certainly a great city to celebrate such a milestone!

(North) Country Life

Last month, it felt like my two worlds of work bumped up against each other.

The current semester at Edge Hill University came to an end with various assessments across the Musical Theatre course. Most of my time was spent with the second years, who rounded out this part of their course with a sing-through of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, a presentation of popular musicals (this year’s were Rocky Horror Show, Half a Sixpence and Heathers) and debuts of their own musical theatre creations. The students stepped up brilliantly and are well set-up for what will no doubt be a fabulous final year.

I took some time at my parent’s house in the Cheshire countryside to finish up my marking commitments and ready myself for the next adventure, both packing, prepping and simply resting up after a rather full-on few months of freelancing & tutoring. As great as it was to be so busy, the reset was very welcome!

And on May 16th, rehearsals began for Girl From The North Country. A play by Conor Macpherson, it has songs by Bob Dylan peppered throughout. This is its third UK outing and the sixth worldwide, and will mark the first time the show has played Dublin (as well as the rest of the UK outside of London). The production is less remounted each time, more rebuilt around the performers involved, and it makes for a fascinating process. I have the absolute pleasure of working alongside Simon Hale, the music supervisor and orchestrator/arranger of the music throughout the show. I try to learn something new from every production I am involved in, and on this one I have felt like a 6 foot tall sponge every day, taking in as much information about the piece as I can. The cast are already stupendous - they need to be seen & heard to be believed - and the support and belief in the room every minute of each day is palpable.

We are now on a Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday pause (another welcome rest), and on our return have two more weeks in our London rehearsal venue, the second of which involves the rest of the musicians (who join the action on stage throughout). We then head to Dublin for a week of tech and previews before our official opening later this month. See you soon, Ireland!

Jet-Setting

April was quite the city-hopping month, as I visited London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin (to name the slightly more glamorous ones). It was my first time back on a plane since the pandemic began, and although the likes of pre-departure tests and passenger locator forms are largely a thing of the past, mask-wearing was still a requirement on the trips. It was lovely to see cities that I hadn’t visited in years, as the Dreamgirls tour visited Edinburgh and I was sent across to Ireland for an appearance on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show to promo my next show (watch the YouTube clip here). It was just lovely to enjoy some haggis and whisky in the former, and a pint or two of the black stuff in the latter!

At Edge Hill University, the students are deep into their practical assessments. The third years got to perform a showcase at the Liverpool Everyman - a gorgeous evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein music arranged for two pianos - while the second years still have Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens to work towards in May. I am winding up my regular involvement on the course as the university prepares for its long summer break, although I certainly hope I am allowed back on occasion whenever my schedule allows!

Finally I took the opportunity to return to my am dram routes, playing on a production of Calendar Girls at The Met in Bury, Lancashire. It’s always so lovely seeing so many familiar faces and to appreciate the sheer strength of talent on show.

I have a couple more weeks of assessments at Edge Hill before heading south mid-May to start rehearsals - I’ll finally be back working on my own show!

More of the Same

Another month juggling six shows and university commitments, forcing me to really make the most of any free time I have left - active relaxing, perhaps? Things were complicated mid-March somewhat by various shows being hit with covid-positive incidents, and I helped to cover where I could. At one point I seemed to be a close contact almost every day, but thankfully it seems my recent bout of Omicron has meant I have stayed negative and able to work.

I am trying to be more mindful of spreading myself too thinly, while still committing as regular as I can to the shows I actively deputise on, although it seems the biggest energy drain is the sheer distances needed to travel, and the long days the create. Last week involved a 20-hour day, for example! Not exactly sustainable. There is an end in sight, though, as Edge Hill University reaches its assessment period post-Easter, before hitting the summer break. Thankfully, though, each day I have spent either covering at Matilda, another show, or at Edge Hill has been a real joy and well worth the commitment!

As seems regular for me now, I am using the Easter holiday break from university to cram in some more shows, including a visit to Edinburgh for the first time in a long while. But my hope is I can chill out a little more between each performance. I am also hoping to start making plans for a show of my own, slated for later in the year! Stay tuned…

Here, There, Everywhere

While Edge Hill university has a reading week, meaning I’m not required in-person on campus, I have decided to “holiday” back at my old job, playing Bedknobs & Broomsticks in Liverpool, conducting Matilda over the weekend, popping up to play Dreamgirls in Sunderland, across to Cheltenham to hammer out the piano part for Chicago and returning back to London to familiarise myself with the keyboards of Mary Poppins, before another weekend of Matilda fun. Until theatre wants me back full-time, I will make my own full-time work out of all of this, thank-you-very-much.

In a “regular” week (whatever that’s meant to mean) I am settling into a pattern of tutoring at Edge Hill in Lancashire in the week and playing on Matilda the Musical in London every weekend. So far it’s going well, even with the 6am starts for university and 11:30pm home-times from the show, but I am trying to be mindful of not overdoing it. It has meant less chance to pop out for a walk or a run, and my list of TV programmes and films to watch is getting ridiculous (time to start sacrificing some of those, unfortunately!). My parents have moved “Sunday roasts” to a Monday (my day “off”) and I am missing my niece’s 3rd birthday today due to work commitments. I keep reminding myself of the weeks and months on-end of sitting at home through lockdowns and am very thankful to be busy once again, but perhaps this rather fast-paced start to post-pandemic life needs to calm down a little as we head into spring!

Indeed, March sees the pattern of weekday university work and weekend theatre work remain, with the final year Musical Theatre students preparing for a showcase in just over a month’s time. I also hope to start planning for the months ahead, as more and more theatre productions are remounted across the UK.

Different Hats

Thankfully my work diary wasn’t as up-ended this month as it was over Christmas, and everything went ahead as expected, with the odd covid-related dash to cover a show thrown in here or there for good measure. Notably, I played my first performance on the Keys 2 chair at Dreamgirls - a show that I have wanted to play for YEARS - as well as Keys 1 of Bedknobs & Broomsticks, returned to the Chicago tour in Birmingham to fill in on the piano chair for a week, and revisited the score of Matilda the Musical in preparation to play/conduct the West End run on occasion from February onwards. Pretty much every week has involved some “first show nerves” somewhere, somehow, and I feel as though I have been practising for one very very very long musical these past few months! But I really wouldn’t have it any other way right now, especially as I get to play some beautiful scores, with great musicians and singers, and see loads of friends & familiar faces for the first time since the pandemic hit.

Much of the month, though, was dedicated to rehearsing and workshopping a brand new musical by creative duo Ollie Hancock & Ed Payne. They had tasked the third year cohort at Edge Hill University with a script and score for The Girl In The Hat, a passion project of theirs over the past few years that had never been staged before. The true story of fashion icon Isabella Blow and her demise, it was a fascinating process brought to life with incredible costumes and hats by the in-house wardrobe department helmed by the fabulous Dawn Summerlin. The photo below is one of several designs used throughout the performance:

The students lapped up the entire process, and I think surprised themselves with what they were all truly capable of. It will be fascinating to see what happens with the piece in the future, especially as musicals about the fashion industry are few and far between.

February sees the students back to earth with a bump as a new semester full of new modules, lectures and assessments gets underway. I am dividing my time largely between Edge Hill in Lancashire and the Cambridge Theatre in London as my involvement at Matilda the Musical increases somewhat. Thankfully I have found a lovely place to stay just north of London to ease the ‘commute’ across the country for these next few weeks/months! Hopefully the M6 will be kind and my little BMW stays in one piece.

Christm-isolation

Well, December didn’t really happen as initially planned. I have never known my diary to fluctuate so much, with last-minute SOS calls as musicians are forced to isolate, phone calls to say shows are cancelled all over the place, even while en route to the theatre on more than one occasion, and the greatest plot twist when I contracted Covid-19 myself just before Christmas, emptying my diary for the week in a flash and forcing me into one room for pretty much the entire holiday. What times we live in! Thankfully I was asymptomatic, if rather bored.

I managed to play a grand total of one-and-a-half performances in the whole of the month, as I returned to deputising on Mary Poppins in London and a night of Bedknobs & Broomsticks was curtailed due to a technical fault. Thankfully, Edge Hill University had enough going on to keep me amused as students worked towards assessment deadlines. I even had time to see my sister in pantomime, play piano for a lovely choral Christmas concert and catch Back To The Future in London and Dreamgirls UK Tour in Liverpool, both of which were brilliant spectacles of live theatre.

But here we are, 2022, and we’re all desperately hoping that we can turn a corner in this pandemic and have more guarantee of work as we edge through the year. It’s notable how few “new show” announcements there have been recently, as producers maybe wait for the right moment, but for now I do at least have a handful of shows to freelance on, as well as my continuing part-time work at Edge Hill. I’m looking at my diary for January and just hoping the majority of what is in there goes ahead! A very Happy New Year to you all.

Matilda 10 & Remembering André

Jitters within the industry returned in the last few days as a new virus variant started doing the rounds. An increasing number of theatres have decided to make masks mandatory, and the university I tutor at is all set to bring back similar requirements should the government announce it. However, all is still going to plan on campus and on the various shows I freelance on, for now!

November was the now-usual mixture of deputising on various shows - with the addition of the utterly brilliant Addams Family tour to my diary - and continuing to work with Edge Hill students on their various degree modules. The third years are making decent progress with rehearsals for a workshop of The Girl In The Hat, with the composer and lyricist making a special visit to see it all coming together for themselves. It’s a fascinating process which everyone is enjoying, with a presentation of the show in Edge Hill University’s very own Rose Theatre slated for later next month.

I also had a trip to London to reunite with my extended Matilda The Musical family, as the West End run celebrated 10 years with a special gala performance. The day was tinged with sadness due to the death last year of one of its producers, André Ptaszynski. André also looked after our UK Tour a few years back, and it was always a delight to have him visit as he was always so friendly and calming. There was a special memorial concert earlier in the day at which friends & family spoke, the cast of Matilda sang and the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Minchin performed special material. It was lovely to share memories of both André and Matilda with great friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. I even found time to catch another West End show, slipping into the back of the stalls to see what all the (well-deserved) fuss was all about with Frozen!

December looks to be more of the same. While both Chicago and Addams Family take Christmas breaks, Bedknobs & Broomsticks takes up residency in Leeds Grand Theatre for the month, so I will be popping in there on occasion. Edge Hill University will also wind up for the Christmas break eventually, so there’s the real danger of me having a second relaxing Christmas holiday in a row!

How Does This Work Again?

On the 14th of March, 2020, I played my 4,349th professional performance of a musical. 572 days later was my 4,350th, as I played the piano chair on the tour of Chicago the Musical to allow the Assistant MD to have a show watch. This month I have joined the production in Northampton, Bradford, Nottingham & Wolverhampton, and it has been great being back on stage playing with such a fabulous band and cast!

I was also called up to start helping out on the tour of Bedknobs & Broomsticks, a brand new production that has just got underway. My first show on keyboard ended up being rather short notice, giving me just over 48 hours to listen to the show, practice the music and get to grips with all the magical sounds and effects! Thankfully I appeared to get away with it, as I was invited back to learn the other keyboard chair.

As well as the above, work at Edge Hill has really ramped up. Now that the students are back full time, there is a noticeable change for me compared to last year as many more of my hours there are practical-based, whether it is helping students learn songs, perfect their warm-up routines, note bash harmonies and generally help create exciting performances. They’re all really appreciative of any advice I can give, and patient when I end up waffling on about some anecdote or another in the process! The first years continue to work towards an assessed 10-minute performance in December while the third years are hard at work on a workshop of The Girl In The Hat, an exciting new musical that is still in its earliest stages. I am sure the second years are also busy, but I am not timetabled with them this semester!

I have also continued to help out on the music front on an exciting digital project, Frisky & Mannish: PopCorn, which you can get streaming tickets for throughout November. Starring my sister, with excellent technical work done by my brother-in-law (amongst other people, of course), I am very excited to see the final result!

November sees me popping briefly to London to celebrate Matilda the Musical’s 10th Birthday, helping out on a local charity showcase concert, more depping and of course plenty more trips to the Edge Hill campus. Great to have a busy diary once again!

Back to the Edge

Today marked my first day back on campus at Edge Hill University, welcoming the 1st Years to the Musical Theatre course! This semester will feel very different to the last, all being well, as much more practical work can be done in person. This includes full concerts, showcases, and productions, with the 3rd Years helping to workshop a brand new musical currently in development, which should be an exciting process!

September obviously involved prep for the forthcoming semester, as well as helping my dad demo a song that he reckons is a potential entry for a future Eurovision Song Contest. I also began my work on the Musical Director Mentorship Scheme, a brand new endeavour that sees current MDs paired up with aspiring ones. I have actually been given two people to mentor, with the scheme running for nine months.

Away from the Edge Hill tutoring, October sees me back in an actual theatre, deputising on the UK Tour of Chicago. I have also decided to train for another half marathon (again, not a real race, just the distance) as the extra free time this summer saw me get back to being much more active than I usually am! The only thing now will be to see if I can fit all the long training runs into my schedule…!

Laid-Back Summer

My plans for August have shifted so often over the past few months. At one time I looked likely to be deep in rehearsal, before unfortunately the production was pulled. Other possibilities came and went, before in the end it became a rather welcome summer break, catching up socially with friends with the odd spot of freelancing. I saw my first couple of live shows, witnessing NYMT’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Manchester Cathedral (albeit from within the orchestra due to being there in an assessment role) - a glorious sound from singers and musicians alike - and Heathers at Liverpool Empire as the new UK Tour of this production gets going. I think everyone has had a similar overwhelming experience stepping back into our main proscenium arch theatres, with audiences bustling about and the band warming up. If you know, you know, and if you are yet to make a return to see a show… you’ll see what I mean when you do!

September will see my finally emerge, blinking, from my summer recess, as I start preparations for a busy autumn. Music needs practising, projects continue to build and the diary slots into place. Still some “I”s to dot and “T”s to cross, but looking forward to what’s ahead!