Grüße aus Zürich!

A very busy January ends with us finally ready to show our 2017 version of MARY POPPINS to Swiss audiences here in Zurich.

Since my last post I have now conducted the show in its previous incarnation twice, at the end of the UK Tour in Cardiff earlier in January, then we continued cast change rehearsals in London before jetting off to chilly Switzerland for a week of technical rehearsals ahead of previews.

As ever on a huge production like this, the rehearsal period has been pretty intensive, not helped by me acquiring some sort of stomach bug along the way. The sheer amount of work somehow helped me to fight it off, and I've managed to just about pace myself through these rampant few weeks...!

We've had some changes to the show over the past month: a new Mary, as well as around half the cast made up of new personnel. James Powell has redirected some sequences and James Dodgson, MD of a previous incarnation of the show, has been around to refine some of the musical corners and in recent days work alongside the sound department to create a brand new sound design for the show. We are into previews now and a certain amount of attention has turned to making the two keyboards sound as good as they possibly can out front as well as in the pit - no arguments on that front from me!!

In the mere moments I've had away from the show, I managed to see Harry Potter & The Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. As expected the magnitude of theatrical wizardry on show is incredible, although I struggled to completely enjoy the experience as my stomach bug was taking hold that day. I may have to go back for a second viewing in a year or so! I also got my final bit of depping out of the way on JERSEY BOYS, as they will be shuttering the show on my return from Zurich, so it was good to have a final send-off with that wonderful company and band.

A huge gala-style press night is planned for our show tomorrow, which I'm very much looking forward to. Once everything settles back down, we'll get on with the pressing matter of understudies, as well as relearning the conduct for this new version of the show, and then I look forward to exploring a little more of Switzerland!

Adieu for now.

Poppins Into 2017

Happy New Year!

As ever in our wonderful showbiz industry, the festive period was also my busiest work period. Following my stint helping out on Mary Poppins, it was straight back to London to take over temporarily on keyboards and as associate conductor at Jersey Boys at the Piccadilly Theatre. Added into that, the Poppins lot still needed me to be playing rehearsals for the new International Touring cast who start performances next month in Zürich, Switzerland.

I've also had my head down in the above score as I'm now learning how to conduct the show ready to take over full-time as the Assistant Musical Director for its international legs this year. It's a little strange as I've basically been going around with this show since April, but I'm excited anyway to be joining as an official member of the company finally!

I'm holed up in this Cardiff hotel room overlooking the theatre (if you look carefully, you can see the Wales Millennium Centre through the window in the above photo) buried in score prep as rehearsals continue for the new cast. It's all going on!

There has been a small island of calm in this hectic month: I flew to Austria for Christmas itself to join the family in a house on the edge of a frosty forest just outside the city of Graz, where my sister and brother-in-law are currently working on a show out there. It wasn't snowy, but that didn't stop us getting the wood-burner going, mulling some wine and cooking up some great festive meals. A wonderful change of pace for three days.

I also managed to see the press night of Rent at the St. James's Theatre and, just after Christmas, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial film with live orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. Both scores sounding fabulous in their own right, full justice being done to both legendary productions.

January is full-on with rehearsals for Mary Poppins, as you can imagine. The first public performance for this new cast in Zürich is on February 1st. I'll be back with you when I'm in Switzerland! Exciting times.

Corry & Curry

It's been almost an entire month spent in one place: Bradford. Inevitably this has led to some fabulous curries, and of course the reason I'm here in the first place has been to continue my stint playing on the Mary Poppins tour. It's been lovely to do so many performances on the trot, and being "up north" has meant I've been able to get back to see my parents in nearby Cheshire every Sunday. The log fire and cat on the lap has been something to look forward to!

Exciting developments for 2017 in terms of keeping me busy have been set in motion, which I hope to share with you soon. In the meantime I finally head back home to London next week and, for most of December, I'll largely be covering at Jersey Boys. Hopefully the dance moves and backing vocals are still somewhere in my muscle memory!

I'm also looking forward to spending Christmas in Austria, as my sister is working out there and makes for a great excuse for an Alpine retreat with the family. Bring on the snow!

Rhythm-Settling

A slightly odd start to October, as an entire week went past without a single piece of work coming my way. No shows. No rehearsals. No auditions. No worry, though, as every week up until Christmas was full of work after that, and indeed I've managed to sow up a busy diary now until late May! More on that in a future post.

So the week off was very useful before heading away from London for an extended period of time. First: get the Sky Planner emptied as best I could; Second: get as many promised catch-up drinks sorted as possible. In the end I was meeting up with old friends from previous shows, university and even secondary school practically every day, and I felt very refreshed ready to tackle the final quarter of the year.

First up: the Chicago tour. As luck would have it they very kindly plonked the set into the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, a mere 4 miles from my flat, allowing for another week sorting out at home before leaving properly. It really took me back a few years to do a full 8-show week (in a good way!!) and a pleasure to play with what is surely one of the best set of musicians on a musical in the UK at the moment.

Then it was straight up to Newcastle to begin my seven-week stint on Mary Poppins. It's proving to be a busy period: a couple of 9-show weeks to kick off with, then straight into rehearsals for a new adult cast member before the tour is joined by new principal children. Now that I'm there effectively full-time, they've promised to use my piano fingers to their fullest extent! Well, it will certainly keep me amused in the production's' November venue, Bradford, aside from the contractual curry nights, that is.

November's getting off to quite the start, though, as I head into the Piccadilly Theatre this afternoon for my first conduct of Jersey Boys in London. Yes, the freelance work carries on, too!

c'est la vie

September was very much a month to get back properly into my freelance rhythm, especially as it appears this is shaping up to be one of the more extended periods of my career without my own show or chair to worry about. I made appearances at all five of the shows I currently play on, heading to the Piccadilly to cover for a week while the MD of Jersey Boys took some time away, then to Liverpool to help out again on Chicago, straight to Newcastle to catch up with the folks at the Mary Poppins tour, and popped my head round the corner of the stage door of the Queen's & Cambridge Theatres to keep tabs on Les Mis & Matilda respectively.

The fallibility of this industry reared its head again, though, as the company of Jersey Boys were informed last week that the London run will shutter in six months' time. With that finishing, plus the tours of Chicago & Mary Poppins reaching the end of their course, I'll be on the lookout for some new challenges come the early part of 2017.

Elsewhere, it was great to be back in the loving four-breasted bosom of Morphic Graffiti once again, as Luke & Stewart did their usual trick of working themselves to the bone to give a justifiably wonderful presentation of one of their earlier triumphs, The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes, to prospective theatre owners. The cast and I had great fun performing the scant-heard Leslie Bricusse songs in front of the composer himself in a condensed 30-minute version of the show, and fingers crossed that it can become a full-scale production somewhere down the line!

I had a small city break to Paris in the past month, as you do. I'd never been before, and I'd promised to take my sister around Disneyland as a 30th birthday treat (she's 31 now - that's how long it's taken to get around to it). We were fortunate to have stunning late-summer weather for the two-day trip, taking the Eurostar through the Kent & Northern France countryside. The theme parks were nice and quiet and the city looked in stunning shape from the upper deck of the open top bus. And lots of yummy food and drink helped to tie the experience off very nicely!

I took myself to see two things in London last month: Groundhog Day at the Old Vic, a new musical by the team behind Matilda, was stunning as I fully expected. Very much a "Version 1.0", the ink on the score & script was still wet, but it's in fabulous form ready to be tinkered with for a US audience ahead of its Broadway debut. I'm intrigued to see what it comes back to the West End as in a few years! I also saw Independence Day at the Royal Albert Hall, yet again a film with live orchestra. I can't get enough of these! It's fascinating to see how each concert improves on the next. This time there was a definite addition of surround sound and extra sub-woofer equipment, and the sound op (internationally renowned, we were told), had a fully mic-ed Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a separate effects channel and a dialogue channel to play with, and mixed the whole two-hour film live with very impressive results in the cathedral-like acoustic of the RAH. A definite highlight had to be the 20th Century Fox Fanfare being played live right at the start! But a fab job by everyone throughout the whole evening - I still can't believe the orchestra managed to compete and stay together while the rumble of an entire city being destroyed effectively drowned them out!

October sees the start of some extended periods of time on the shows I currently help out on. Starting with Chicago, I'm helping out on the tour for a week as the new MD settles in and the show welcomes a new Assistant MD. Then I head to Mary Poppins again for a stint on Keys 1 as the regular player heads off to do another project for a few weeks. Indeed, I'll be getting my Spoonful of Sugar fix nightly through until early December. But first, this week I have time around London to catch some more shows and natter with some people I either haven't seen for a while or won't see until I'm back. So if you'll excuse me...

Back to New Jersey

August has been one of those months where every day I've woken with something definite to get done that day. Much of the early part of the month was spent scrabbling around getting the last of my errands done before essentially hermetically sealing myself in for the duration of the Rio Olympics. The last bit of actual work done involved filling in over at Les Mis as well as a little bit of Matilda rehearsals.

As expected the Olympic period was not so much a rest, but it was certainly a departure from the norm! Up to 15 hours per day was spent researching GB athletes and keeping on top of all the main twists and turns throughout a typical Rio day, with the ultimate aim being to show that ByTheMinute, a new platform I really believe in, was capable of keeping those visiting the site fully in-the-know with goings-on in Rio. In the end, I was tipped off that various news organisations were using my own Team GB updates as reference for their reports!

I tried to make sure I didn't become one with the couch throughout the 17 days, though, so I promised myself that I would prepare and cook every single meal properly and healthily throughout the Games, as well as an hour's-worth of exercise at the start of every day. I was also only allowed an alcoholic drink each time Britain won a medal. So, to start with, I was rather sober. By the middle weekend, however, it was starting to get difficult to see the screen!! Ultimately, though, the whole experience was a lot of fun, far cheaper than going abroad on holiday, and I return to my professional trade in the music business feeling refreshed and raring to go.

Thank goodness I felt refreshed, considering my very first gig back from my Rio holiday was my Keys 2 debut on the West End production of Jersey Boys - a show I know very well from being its musical director for the latter stages of the recent UK tour. The Keys 2 chair, though, is a little further out of my comfort zone, considering that it involves backing vocals, 20 minutes of memorised playing, dance moves and even a featured B3 Organ solo just to finish me off in the dying seconds of the exit music! I've had a week's worth of shows so far which has really bedded me in, and the whole band have been really supportive throughout and a good laugh. That's always a massive help. I'm looking forward to joining them for more performances throughout September and in the near future.

Unfortunately my Grandma passed away in the past month. Marie, my mother's mother, was a really wonderful parent and grandparent, leaving behind a large family who depended on her support, love & laughs over the past decades. Her funeral made for a wonderful reunion of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends, sharing memories and anecdotes. A reminder as ever that I don't see my Timmons clan nearly enough now that I have moved away from the North West. I toasted my Grandma with a Gin & Tonic late one night when I found out the news, and she will be sorely missed.

September is already another busy month: more Jersey Boys, back to Matilda, a visit to Liverpool to play Chicago, immediately followed by my first of a few visits to Newcastle to play Mary Poppins. I'm also visiting Disneyland Paris, as well as the French capital itself, for the first time in my life with my sister. I have another date in the diary to watch a live film with orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, this time Independence Day, and I return to Morphic Graffiti, helping Luke & Stewart out with a mini-project involving one of their recent successful productions, The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes. Busy busy!

Popping In

Amongst a fair few months of jumping about between half a dozen different productions, July afforded the chance of almost three weeks in one place, helping out on the UK tour of Mary Poppins as the company finish up rehearsals for new cast members. Norwich, in July, with nice sunny warm weather, is a fantastic city to visit, and as temperatures went above 30C on the 19th July I was very lucky to spend my birthday picnicking on the beautiful beaches of Holkham in Norfolk with my sister and brother-in-law. In fact, just being "responsible" for playing a keyboard each evening, many a sunny day was spent exploring Norwich and beyond.

A run of 20 straight performances was certainly welcome, and the tour as ever is in tip-top form and thoroughly supported by the audiences in Norwich. It was also nice for the team at Cameron Mackintosh to provide nice accommodation for me during my stay - a very welcome change from having to scrounge for my own spare bed!

Away from Poppins, I had a couple of visits up to the North West, most notably to get back into the am dram spirit by playing on the annual Showcase at the Lowry, an utter pleasure every time and a great chance to finally gig with Patrick Murphy, currently the MD on the UK Tour of Billy Elliot, who also lent his fingers to the cause. It was also of course a pleasure to play once again with Simon, John, Danny and the Pauls.

I also had a great first proper visit to Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick. Traditionally they end each academic year with a little informal showcase, and I was tasked, along with Grant Murphy, to get a class of 1st years to learn a 5 minute blast of Young Frankenstein. The four-day project flew by and was a proper good laugh. Arts Ed are, of course, training the new batch of up-and-comers extremely well and they took to the score with gusto and we were all laughing and smiling for the whole project. I get the impression that the corridors of Arts Ed are constantly a happy and smiley place!

August includes my quadrennial leave for The Olympic Games. My staycation largely involves side-stepping into amateur journalism to be one of the main contributors at By The Minute which will be covering large chunks of the games with a live text service. A change is as good as a rest... that's what I believe they say!! Either side of the Olympics, I'm helping out with some holiday cover at Les Miserables this week, and then helping out with paternity cover over at Jersey Boys come the end of the month. The freelance snowball rumbles on!

Sun & Shows

Another month in the freelance world goes by. Mrs Henderson Presents bowed out at the Noel Coward Theatre, one of the shows I was helping out on, so I've replaced that by making a triumphant return to the Chicago piano chair (now combined with elements of the 2nd piano and accordion chair) which is currently touring around the UK. Having played the show 574 times in London, the show felt unnervingly familiar even after nearly four years away, a different cast, a different theatre and a lot of new notes to play.

I got my promised few days in the sun, relaxing by the pool and Mediterranean Sea in the north of Minorca. I was somewhat distracted by news from home, though, as it was the same week as the EU referendum, when British politics started to resemble a one-off special of The Thick Of It. Still, it was warm and sunny and the food was great, so I certainly made the most of it!

July gets off to its traditional start of lots of tennis watching as well as playing keyboards for Showcase 2016 at The Lowry, the annual get-together of am-dram societies from around Manchester to strut and sing their way through 15 minutes of a favourite musical. I have an extended trip to Norwich to help out once again on the Mary Poppins tour and also my first dip of the toe in the water of Arts Educational, helping out with a small summer project.

Enjoy the sun! Once it eventually arrives, that is.

More of the Same

The freelancing continues! A busy month full of one show here, one show there, a trip up to Edinburgh for four performances of Mary Poppins at the start of the month, and a trip to Southampton at the end of the month for the very same show. I'm now up and running on both chairs on the Mary Poppins tour, bringing the total chairs I concurrently play on up to six, with music for three others currently sat on the piano over there being learnt (or relearnt).

The advantage of the bitty nature of the work is it opens up opportunities to see other events, meet up with people or generally sort my life out at home. I saw my sister for the first time in three months, newly back from her round-the-world honeymoon, perfectly timed with an evening soaking up the Eurovision Song Contest. I also went to see the Gladiator movie at the Royal Albert Hall, another part of their season of films with a live orchestra. In a rare treat for me, I hadn't actually ever seen this film, so it was a perfect evening taking in the score for the first time whilst enjoying a story I didn't know the ending to. My next filmic adventure will be Independence Day later this year. Can't wait!

June (busting out as it once did) sees me balance the freelancing with making sure I see my favourite sporting moments. I've already failed at the first instance by agreeing to play Mary Poppins at the same time the French Open Tennis final is scheduled to be played. D'oh! I'm sure I will cope (and the pay packet of course helps). Today I'm off to see Funny Girl at the Savoy with my mum who's popped down to London for the day, and later in the month I'll finally get some full-time R&R in when I join my mum & dad in their apartment in Minorca. I should finally get that tan started! (Ha.)

New Look

It's the May Day Bank Holiday, and I finally decided it was time for a major overhaul of my website.

With the help of the guys over at SquareSpace, I now have a site that should, in theory, look great no matter what device you're viewing the site on. This is very much a "soft" launch and I hope to add more content over the coming months, including my back catalogue of blog posts as well as embedding some video and audio where appropriate. As ever your thoughts are welcome!

While the site has changed, real life for me has stayed constant through April. I continue to build up my freelancing work as I now juggle five keyboard chairs, four of which are in London. I thoroughly enjoy peering at my diary at the beginning of each week to see what delights await over the coming days - a Matilda here, a Les Mis there, a day off, a day sight-reading a workshop of a brand new show (wink-wink). This past month I've seen more friends & colleagues and more shows than probably the last six months combined.

As well as playing on shows, I managed to see three productions as a punter. Sunset Boulevard lived up to the hype and, not being au fait with the show, was an extremely rare opportunity to experience a Lloyd Webber score without knowing it as a whole beforehand. There were, as a result, some surprisingly powerful moments exquisitely played by the full orchestra on the stage of the London Coliseum. Glenn Close was, of course, the perfect choice to reprise the role of Norma Desmond.

I also saw the press night of Show Boat. I've seen it previously in a production at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago and this Crucible version has done a great job of maintaining the flow in what is quite an epic storyline, plus keeping the run time well below 3 hours! Finally, I got to see In The Heights in its new(ish) home at the King's Cross Theatre. The production won three Oliviers at the beginning of April and my night at the theatre made it very clear why those accolades were thoroughly deserved. The show is in spine-tingling form.

May sees me continue the depping work, including a trip to Edinburgh next weekend to help out on Poppins, which I'm very much looking forward to! There's also the Hither Green festival this month where the entire community descend on the piazza outside my flat for a world food fayre, amongst other festivities. I also have another visit to the Royal Albert Hall, this time to see the film Gladiator accompanied by a live orchestra. No doubt I'll catch a few more West End shows, too. Now I'll let you get back to exploring my new site! Speak soon.

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.

Off-Road

I'm coming to the end of the Jersey Boys tour. Next Saturday will see the show close in style at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Following on from tours with The Glenn Miller Story & Wicked, this also marks the end of being on the road after almost 14 months straight and I look forward to bedding myself back into the capital (and my flat) once again!

I've also been fortunate to have had 17 months of near-constant work spanning four separate shows that dovetailed nicely one after another, making some great friends along the way. The unknown nature of the forthcoming enforced bout of freelancing always has an element of anxious excitement, but with a number of great productions on the horizon I'll definitely be making myself known to relevant parties.

February saw the Jersey Boys tour finish up in Northampton before moving to Wolverhampton. Neither of these towns are especially exciting, although I got to stay in the same wonderful digs in Wolverhampton that I used on a previous tour, which certainly helps. I've been staying away from London, largely because my bathroom is being refitted, but it's given me a chance to spend some time with family up in Cheshire, made better by a 10-day break on the tour before it plays its final venue, Edinburgh.

Last week was therefore a good chance to spend a few days at the Mary Poppins tour, which is currently in Manchester, seeing it both from out front and from the pit. The show is in typical "Cam Mack" sparkling form and I very much look forward to depping on the Keys 1 chair next month when the show moves to Birmingham.

Talking of next month, other than the aforementioned Jersey Boys swan song in Edinburgh and Poppins in Birmingham, that's all that is planned, which in a way is rather nice. I'm planning to check out some shows and concerts and there's a filing cabinet in Hither Green that could do with a good sorting out. Back next month with an update as a freelancer!