Tall and Smart and Strong and Brave

Rehearsals for the Matilda Tour are officially underway in London! Performances might not start until next month, but the children have a rehearsal process that lasts 11 to 12 weeks before they perform in front of an audience. The adults rehearse for 8 weeks. Almost everyone is new to the show, so our initial sessions are very much about note-bashing, blocking and choreography in separate rooms. These elements will start to be brought together more and more over the coming days.

I know I always say it, but this cast is going to be good! Rehearsals feel very much on track at the moment, and every day we continue to discover new angles to this material - the density of the book, score and choreography really helps with this. I am able to teach the show this time around with my prior knowledge from working on the original tour, which personally is making it a very enjoyable process for me. We all move to Leicester in a couple of weeks, at which point we’ll begin to add technical elements, costumes, a band, and finally paying public! I can’t wait to see the final result.

Obviously my diary is dominated with rehearsals, so I made sure to catch a handful of West End shows just before they got underway. It also made for a great excuse to catch up with various people in the industry! I saw Just For One Day, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Cabaret & The Great Gatsby. The rude health of London theatre continues to impress me. The immersive world of the Kit Kat Club was extraordinary; the original story entwined through Benjamin Button’s life was incredibly strong; the sheer scale of Gatsby’s set has been a rarity in theatre in recent years; and the entire company, band and crew at the Live Aid musical look to be having an absolute blast performing all of those songs!

Now, though, it’s time to start packing for another tour…

Just That Nice Kind of Quiet...

A relatively quiet July became a good chance to spend time with family (timed perfectly with my birthday), catch up with friends and support others in various productions. I proudly watched on as one friend made her West End debut in Fawlty Towers, many of my company members from the 2022 tour opened a new Old Vic run of Girl From The North Country, and my Crazy For You MD and friend Alan Williams absolutely nailing the score of Evita for its summer season at the Palladium, complete with hands-down the best portrayal of Eva Peron I have seen by Rachel Zegler. I even managed to pop to the Royal Albert Hall for a prom and jumped at the chance to see Tim Minchin on his concert tour.

All of that works nicely into my next Minchin-themed project, as rehearsals for Matilda The Musical’s UK & Ireland tour are well underway. I am once again in the role of Musical Director for this awesome show, with a cast and band to die for. The children are currently rehearsing in Manchester with the Children’s MD, Jodie Oliver-Howar, and I got to meet them all properly on their first exciting day of rehearsals. I get going full-time with the adults in London later this month, so for now I am making the most of my free(ish) time by catching a few more shows and seeing friends. All being said, I cannot wait to get started!

London to Bucharest

I returned to the Phantom of the Opera International Tour for a week as one of its keyboard players for its run in Romania. We had superb weather for (almost) the whole week, a swimming pool at the hotel, a lovely park & lake nearby to stroll & jog around, and even managed to fit in an interesting walking tour around the city centre.

Memorial of Rebirth, Bucharest

I didn’t quite know what to expect from my visit. Being 35 years or so since the revolution that ended communism in the country, there’s certainly a vibrancy to Bucharest. Maybe the good weather helped, but the coming together of so much different architecture (from ancient Greco-inspired monasteries to Paris-cum-North Korean inspired boulevards - yes, really) and cultural influences from across Eastern Europe & the Balkans, it made for quite an interesting place. And again, another city nailing good coffee! They also seem to enjoy platters of meat with a little side of sour soup, pickled veg and potatoes, so I wasn’t complaining.

As I gear up towards some more serious work in the coming weeks, I have been taking some down time with a chance to catch up with friends and lead a somewhat healthier lifestyle after all that Romanian meat…! It times very nicely with the likes of Wimbledon, with the hot weather in the London area at the moment a perfect excuse to not move around too much and instead watch lots of great tennis.

July will include a chance to head north to Manchester again for a couple of concerts as well as more catch ups (plus family time) and continue to enjoy another great summer of sport and festivals!

London to Sofia

The jet-setting continues! With an increased appetite for West End & Broadway musicals across the globe, and with travel restrictions easing enough post-pandemic, there is now a fair amount of work in the theatre industry that involves travelling to interesting parts of the world, across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Eastern Europe has also started opening up much more to musical theatre, and this month saw the first ever performances of Chicago The Musical in Bulgaria at their prestigious National Palace of Culture.

National Palace of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria

It was my first time visiting the country. I had heard good things about their coffee culture, and was not disappointed! There were delicious hits of caffeine on offer across the city, and it was a delight to give their local cuisine a try. Good English is spoken, at least in the capital, and there’s a feeling that Bulgarians are welcoming to the moderate increases in tourism as word gets around that it is a relatively cheap yet beautiful destination to visit.

As for the show itself, I always love returning to this musical, which at 636 performances is now officially the show I have played the most in my entire career! The band, a mix of Brits and Greeks (this international tour began in Athens last year) were great to play with, and the cast (similar to my Tokyo adventure with the show in 2022) was a criss-cross of Chicago alumni, some of whom I had worked with back in 2010, as well as friendly new faces. It was great to make new acquaintances and reacquaint myself with some very beautiful old (!) faces.

Back in London I offered my pianistic hands to the London leg of Matilda auditions as they gear up for a cast change in the summer, and was able to support my friend Tamiko Dooley as she launched her new musical Flyology - a really fun piece that also leads into a wider discussion of how history remembers those great achievers, especially female ones, by featuring three historical figures hailing from Surrey. And it was great to finally meet Tamiko’s proud parents!

It’s June already! That was spring, then, I suppose. I continue as an International Man of Mystery with a trip to Bucharest, Romania. I wonder how many more countries I can tick off before the year is out?

London to Belgrade

April was a rather varied month (for me!) with a mixture of work and pleasure. The Matilda auditions (for the tour, at least) reached their conclusion, with news of who will be heading out on the production’s 2nd UK tour due later this summer. The first Sunday of April was a real delight as we got some of the Come From Away band back together and took over a pub in London with a session of trad music and suitable refreshments.

I had some down time over Easter, spending some of it socialising around London. A group of us have got into pub quizzes, and I won two weeks on the trot at different pubs! We’re trying out yet another one next week. My parents came down as my mum had a voucher (from me) to use to watch ABBA Voyage. It was the same day as The Boat Races, so I convinced my parents to come watch a bit of the race before hot-footing it across a busy London to make it in time (only just!) for the show. It is quite the spectacle and does really need to be seen to be believed! My sister also came to London. As she had a milestone birthday last month I treated her for a day to cocktails, a gourmet-themed treasure hunt and tickets to Titanique, which was brilliantly funny.

After the social whirling, I took some time back in Cheshire during Easter proper for a bit of a reset and a sort-out (trying to clear the garage and attic of stuff I have hoarded at my parents!) but also managed to pop into Manchester to see the new musical A Knight’s Tale, as I have friends working on the music side. It’s a proper fun night out that really doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the band sounded like they were having FAR too much fun!

Back in London, I became a little bit too obsessed with an Easter Egg hunt that had popped up across the capital. With eggs placed in most of the big central locations, it was a good excuse to head out and stretch the legs. And yes, of course, I found them all! You needn’t have asked.

April culminated in a rather unique hop across continental Europe to play on Phantom of the Opera in Belgrade, Serbia, as part of its world tour. I last played these keyboard parts in 2013, but thankfully the muscle memory just about started to work back into my body by the time I was walking into the Sava Center.

The stunning weather experienced in the UK at the end of April was equalled in Belgrade, thankfully, and I managed a little exploration of the city during my brief two-day stint there. I found the locals to be very friendly, and there’s a beautiful Roman fort up on the hillside where the Sava and Danube rivers meet. I hope to return someday!

May has a similar feel, with more social events, more Matilda auditions (this time for the West End production), and more adventures across Europe, this time to join the Chicago world tour in Sofia, Bulgaria! Bring it all on.

Auditions

The forthcoming tour of Matilda is auditioning at the moment. The Children’s auditions have been taking place in Manchester, with adults in London. As you can imagine it is a rather thorough process, with various rounds as the whole cast is slotted together like one big jigsaw piece.

I haven’t actually been on an audition panel for quite a few years, but I always find it fascinating, and is experience I take into educational settings to workshop auditions with prospective theatre students. How do you enter the room? How much small talk should you expect? How best do you engage with an audition pianist? What brief or material have you been given? A big piece of advice I often give is that the panel are always on the side of the person auditioning. So often it can feel like it’s “us vs them” but the reality is that we’re willing that person on to show themselves off to the best of their ability, so as comfortable as we can make that person feel before they audition, the better.

Everyone in theatre/TV/film industries will talk of rejection from auditions or job interviews. It’s inevitable when we see almost 600 people for just a handful of roles! It more often happens that those let go are insanely talented, with so many other factors coming into play as to why they aren’t taken further in the process, such as how the understudying needs to play out amongst the ensemble cast, or that a role requires a certain vocal range or vocal quality.

All being well, the Matilda tour should have its cast in place in the next month or so, with rehearsals due to begin in later summer!

Hobbies and Habits

You know those things you put off until you have more time? Well the sporadic work diary of February, which kept me busy on certain days with Matilda’s West End rehearsals for a children’s cast change and a half-term week of training with young Stagebox performers, has meant I can get back out on walks, ramp up my nutrition and exercise plans, and even make time to do a brief but free photography course at Apple’s Covent Garden store! It’s thoroughly recommended if you want to learn more about the various camera functions on an iPhone, and I was quite pleased with my results when we headed outside to capture Portrait shots. I learnt a great deal about using exposure, for instance!

Back to Stagebox; it’s a company I have wanted to work with for some time now, and finally availability allowed. I had a great time working with their young performers for four days, with the overall brief from management being, in essence, “show what sort of professionalism is expected in a rehearsal room”. The kids are all super-talented already, so to be able to work on general aspects of work ethic to achieve the best results ended up being rather gratifying. They were brilliant. I have no doubt I will be bumping into a lot of them on future productions!

At home, I have returned to food logging and nutrition coaching now that I can actually buy in lots of fresh ingredients and cook for myself most nights, rather than relying on eating out too much. One aspect of being on tour with a show is that it’s very easy to put on weight! So while not on a diet per se, I felt, since I had the time at the moment, I should look at what new habits I could form when it comes to eating, drinking and exercise. I couldn’t believe that on one day of rehearsals I found myself setting an alarm for 6am so that I could fit in a 45 minute run (in the dark) before the workday began! What have I become??

March has a little more going on as I pop to the family home in Cheshire to see how things are up there, and then I find myself involved in auditions for the forthcoming Matilda UK tour, which starts performances in the autumn.

Europe By Rail

As the Come From Away tour hit its stride, news filtered through of a possible extension to the contract. Was it London? A World Tour? Woking? In the end it turned out to be a short run in Trieste, in Italy. I have played Il Rosetti (the theatre) once before on a European Tour of Evita, and remembered what a beautiful venue it was, with a ceiling of stars that lights up.

Before getting there, and after seeing in 2025 with family and friends, we had our final few days of Come From Away in the UK. There were some tears as a handful of company members were leaving before the Italian job, and also a wonderful end-of-tour party on The Quays in Salford, at which I was presented with the People’s Choice Award! It was a nice opportunity (although I had downed quite a bit of wine by this point) to wax lyrical down a microphone about one of the best tours I have done in front of producers, cast members, and many more than I had hoped that I can now call friends.

So with Salford done, there was a five-day gap before performances began in Trieste to allow travel time for cast and set. I headed out a couple of days early, flying to Venice and spending a night there. Some of the band had made a similar decision, so we were all able to meet up by the canals. On to Trieste, the short run did have an air of us being sent on an all-inclusive package holiday together at the end of this tour, albeit with a handful of performances peppered throughout the weekend! The very last day was of course emotional, and the 4pm show time allowed most of us to head out for a slap-up Italian meal that evening in celebration. I slipped away as the evening went on for an early night as I had plans…

I had hatched an idea some months back to sandwich the Trieste run with some European exploration - it was a case of working out exactly what. As previously mentioned, I flew into Venice before Trieste, so I then decided - accompanied by my friend Kevin from the cast - to travel back home to London exclusively using rail travel, in a sort-of Race Across The World style. It took six days, leaving Trieste at breakfast time on Monday morning and travelling via Verona, Milan, Saint Moritz, Montreux & Paris, spending a night in each city and travelling by day. The literal high-point of the trip was the route across the Alps, where special rail services wine and dine you as the train winds through valleys and over glaciers. Exceptionally sunny weather throughout helped it to become one of the most memorable trips I have ever taken - highly recommended! Incredible views, sensational food, beautiful cities and the perfect way to detox from a year of wonderful work.

Back with a bump to real life, sorting the flat out (I now appear to have two of everything, having “lived” on tour for a year) and getting back into freelance mode, I have found myself dipping a toe back into the Matilda The Musical family, as this time of the year sees the West End production rehearse in a new children’s cast. It has been almost three years since I last worked on the show in any capacity, but the memories flood back every time I am there to play rehearsal piano!

January also saw me asked to help out on a workshop, which is always a hugely interesting and oft-rewarding thing to be involved with. It’s also important that details remain scant in public domains until the work is ready for a wider launch, but needless to say it was a truly joyous week, with everyone in the room invested in making the piece as brilliant as possible in a presentation to industry professionals. I hope I get to do more of this kind of thing in the future.

February is yet more freelance mode! It’s a nice change of pace to a contract, with the diary kept fairly malleable and waiting to see how it pans out.

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!