Freelance Keys-Depper

Work as a freelancer tends to come in waves. Following a relatively frantic few days, I'm now faced with the prospect of the first five days of April with a clear diary (for now). I'm certainly looking forward to a bit of downtime!

The start of March saw the end of the Jersey Boys tour. As fully expected, the show went out in an explosion of noise thanks to the fantastic audiences at the Edinburgh Playhouse. The city made for a great backdrop as we flew through five days' worth of shows and socialising.

Less than a week later and I was playing my first show on Mary Poppins, on the notoriously tricky Keys 1 chair, in Birmingham. Hence there wasn't a huge amount of time to down tools after the previous few months on tour, but that's pretty much how I like it anyway - no standing still! The show has been great fun to play and I'm 8 performances into it now.

I've also learnt and, as of last night, played the Keys 2 chair on Mrs Henderson Presents, a show I'm yet to see from out front but from the pit (and based on audience reaction) seems to be going down a treat. Completing the set of current "M" musicals, I've also made a return to depping on Matilda at the Cambridge Theatre. It's great to be back playing on that tremendous production!

Away from the depping, I've been having meetings about prospective future projects, I've been to see Raiders of the Lost Ark with live orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall (I'm a sucker for those kind of nights) and I took my mum to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when she came down to visit my sister and I. We also both went to see aforementioned sister singing at the fab restaurant-cum-cabaret venue Circus, as she briefly returned from working in Australia before jetting off on a round-the-world honeymoon trip - lucky sod! I also made sure I had a pleasant Easter weekend back at my parents' house in Cheshire, since not many shows are going to be booking deputies around a bank holiday weekend...!

The freelancing continues as ever in April. I have a ticket to see Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard... and that's about it! Hopefully much more will have happened by the time this month is through. I'll be back with an update then.