Tempus Fugit #2

In case you didn't see it, the Through the Door concert in the West End went well. The only disappointment is that it was a one-off. Julie, Olly and Paul with the rest of the excellent cast did a grand job. John Brant (director), Paul Herbert (musical director & orchestrator) and Jason Pennycook (choreographer) all did amazing work in such little time. I was so pleased with the whole event - given the time restrictions of just two weeks rehearsal, I think the results were awesome, and reaction to the show has been universally good. Judy and I want to do some work now on the second act, which lacks a little ooomph, it's book-score ratio is a little off kilter and there are a lot of musical climaxes which I love but they tend to devalue each other by their quantity. There is a little rejigging to be done in the first act too, but it's mainly the second act that needs work.

Having spent so many years working on Tomorrow Morning to get it to where it is now (did I mention we won an award for Best Musical [midsize] at the Jeff Awards in Chicago?!?) - which is... well, I don't know where, but it is now an award winning musical... did I mention that? - it has been great to work on Through the Door, to care about it just as much as TM. And ultimately, I think it will prove to be better and more successful and hopefully that will only help TM which is floundering a little as it tries to find its place in the cruel world of crass commercialism! This little show has delighted literally dozens of people... hey, I do us a disservice... several dozen, here in London and in its vastly improved and rewritten form in Chicago. But it is still knocking on the door of reaching a wider audience. Still a larger audience in the USA beckons. After our award winning (did I mention that?) production in Chicago, which was over a year ago, it is still unfortunately the case that an off-Broadway production is just not viable in this climate, the numbers don't add up, not for a four-person show that would play in a tiny house, with an unknown [British] writer. That ain't gonna happen. What we need now is a regional producing house in the US - and if you run one, listen well, and for Chrissakes gimmee a call! - with a remit to produce quality new musicals, who can take this show on and make it their own. Hey, you know what if that was to be in the UK, I would love it, but it becomes even less likely to expect it from a producing house in the UK. That is so not gonna happen.

On the subject of the UK, even as I write this the matinee of The Lost Christmas is playing down at Hazlitt Arts Centre at the Hazlitt Theatre in Kent. A great bunch of young people are doing a grand job with this show - I saw a dress run the other day and was really pleased. Martin Cleverley (director) and Richard Healey (music director) have come up with a lovely production, again in such a short time. Thanks to Mandy and all at the Hazlitt Theatre for taking a gamble on this production, and to my manager Andy for making it happen.

On the subject of me, I mention Andy Barnes who manages my shows Through the Door and The Lost Christmas and the new project Girlfriends, but I am delighted to also team up with a new agent now in Kate Weston from the literary agency Janet Fillingham Associates. I am very excited to be working alongside Kate.

So what does 2010 hold in store? Well, we are working on Girlfriends after the epic three-and-a-half hour reading that was, during which the cast and team aged visibly around a long conference table at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the West End. Of course, we knew it was a long draft (one of the producer's team predicted four hours, but we fell short) but I was pleased there was a lot of good material to work from. We are back at the drawing board, working on the next draft of the show which will be, well shorter, but also very different... some really strong ideas came out of the reading which I hope will lead us to a great piece, ultimately.

I have a few stand alone songs to be working on for hopefully a couple of recordings and a concert this year, and Girlfriends has deadlines to meet which will take care of probably the first half of the year.

The Australian premiere of Tomorrow Morning is expected to happen in September in Victoria, but it will be a very small, regional production. This is an exciting event though in the life of TM, following on from my dubiousness above, the saga does continue for my baby!

One thing I have been determined to figure out this year is whether or not the novel that I wrote thirteen years ago is any good, to convert it to a format I can edit (it was written on a Canon Starwriter! Yes, it was so long ago I didn't even have a pc!) and fix some of the out of date bits (like, "quick, let's find a phone box!") and decide whether there is any chance of it finding an audience of readers out there. I will, if I can publish it, definitely publish it under a pen-name and not LMW, because it's hard enough to establish oneself as Composer/Lyricst without confusing the issue with Author. Still, it's an interesting idea - the book is a crime thriller with a supernatural twist. It's pure entertainment - kind of like John Grisham meets Stephen King. I often wonder if it's any good now, having been 22 when just locked myself away for three months and obsessively wrote it.

Likewise, when I was coaching/teaching and lecturing in song performance and audition technique, in London at all those musical theatre colleges where I used to work, I wrote a musical theatre audition guide that I know people used to find useful and I sold quite a few many years back. I want to dig that out and make it available online somehow, since I wrote it before I was using the internet, and now it may prove a useful tool for people auditioning for musicals and musical theatre colleges.

Following on from a blog I wrote about two years ago, I also want to paint in 2010!

Apart from that, I am always open to offers, folks!

Sale of the Century...

Tempus fugit, as always, and we have now completed recording the demos of the new show, Girlfriends, which has a private reading for the producer next month in the West End, and then we will see where it goes from there. I have just finished the editing of all the songs, which were recorded with a fantastic cast in a very informal nature at my friend and colleague Hilary's wonderful apartment, overlooking the Thames. A thoroughly enjoyable experience, if a little knackering as we recorded the whole show in three days with no rehearsal time.

Also great news that the LMW Online Shop is now up and running, and the Tomorrow Morning vocal selections book is available online from there and also instore at Dress Circle in London. So if you go to my website and click on the "Shop" link at the top, it'll take you to a new part of the site where you can buy sheet music and mp3s that will be delivered straight to your desktop, you don't even need to get out of your chair. What could be more wonderful than that? Also you can order the book or my CDs which will be delivered to your door, so you may need to get up to answer the door, unless you have a butler who does that for you.

What this does mean that the requests I get for sheet music can now be more easily satisfied. If there is something you want that isn't yet on the site, let me know and I'll see if it can be done. The individual songs from TM are not yet up there as the book is now on sale, but I'm gonna have one or two of the audition worthy songs from the show maybe available individually too.

Quick update for those readers whom may have noticed I haven't written here since April... April! God, the year is flying by.

Girlfriends is now on draft 2.3 - all the initial songs are written save for the finale, and we are about to record demos of the new songs to send off to Korea to hopefully impress our producers out there. We've got a great lineup for the demo - Nicole Faraday, Shona White, Paul Baker, Jon Robyns, Chris Thatcher, Rachel Bingham, Dougal Irvine, Sarah Wallace, Kerry Washington, Nikki Gerrard, Sophia Behn, Lucyelle Cliffe and Emily Bryant have all valiantly agreed to take part, so as long as we can work everyone's schedule out that should be the cast of the first demo recordings of the show. Very exciting, but still early days. Then we do a reading next month and see where we are with it all - it's been a hurried period, really I think we did a year's work in four months, so we won't know until the reading and demo etc whether it all feels a bit rushed or whether it has benefited from being created apace. We'll see. I've been really excited about the project, but it's always ups and downs with these things - one minute you love it, the next you worry you're writing a pile of shit, such is life. It's certainly a far cry from the slow, painstaking process of the early years spent creating Tomorrow Morning and I always insisted I must start writing faster. I have been, but still, there hasn't yet really been a show to follow up TM, and frustratingly TM is not quite where it should be, or could be, yet.

The Lost Christmas will play at the Hazlitt Arts Centre in Maidstone this December. We've got a great bunch of kids who will star in this show which will be the first production of the new, refined version of the piece after our workshop at the Hazlitt this year, since the original version played in Dartford in 2007, so I'm really excited to get the show on and can't wait to see it.

Through the Door is gracing the West End stage for one night only, November 6th, on the mainstage at Trafalgar Studios (on the set of Othello, very nice). The cast who will join Ms Julie Atherton will be announced in October, and I am really thrilled that Julie is still with us to debut the lead role of Charlotte in this show, the role she created in our first workshops of the show last year, and hopefully the role she will play eventually in a full production of TTD. We are working hard at the final script and I'm about to start working with the orchestrator Paul Herbert who is charged with making the score work for our band of merry men - all that work for one night!? Jeez, I hope it's all worth it!...

Perfect Pitch just did a concert in Edinburgh which had a few of my songs in it, which is also playing in Eastbourne next month where I hope to get to see it. I didn't get up to Edinburgh this year. Sophie is now in Oliver! so once again she has a busy schedule; and what with deadlines on Girlfriends to meet and planning the recording, plus lots going on with the business that I co-own with my missus Claire, we have had a busy summer that has quite simply flown by. Rocketed by, I should say. We managed two days away this week, where we found a nice hotel (with pool - strict criteria!) in Kent and just tried to forget about work for a bit and concentrate on the girls.

The sheet music book is at the printers, so it should not be long now before Tomorrow Morning is out in the world in one more small way! There are still plans bubbling, but they're not exactly boiling, let's just say that. The wheels seem to grind very slowly as far as my baby is concerned!

So that's it. There are a couple of smaller little projects on the pile, but that's about the size of it for 2009. I am of course available for movie scores, bespoke hit songs and Broadway gigs for 2010 so please don't hesitate to give me a call. I'm hoping to remain resolutely, blindly and pig-headedly passionate about music theatre for at least another twelve to fourteen months, and then, seriously, I think film and TV music might once again become my prime ambition!

And then if that enigmatic genius of a jetset director whom I kind of know is reading this (and why wouldn't he be?) I have just one thing to say... let's get on with that show, it's been put off for far too long! Why not gimme a call, I'm ready to lyricize just for you and our old pal Giovanni...!

And on that note, I close; apart from saying that I am in awe of the following people this week: Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis, Jenny Meadows, Greg Rutherford and Will Sharman. Go GB!

Keeping up appearances

It's been some considerable time since I wrote my blog, it hardly justifies being called a blog at all. I had resolved to only sit and write this when I had something specific to write about, rather than sitter and twitter (to coin a phrase) on about nothing, and end up publishing something I shouldn't, thinking that no-one reads it anyway, when actually people do! Because there you are, and I thank you for your attention again. Above is the promo video from the Chicago production of Tomorrow Morning... enjoy!

So, I will now sit in my loft, aloft, and soft like Croft (in the surreal words of Stevie Smith) and write about only those things I have any business writing about - ie, my work, my shows, my writing, my family... no, not the sitcom, dummy... the people wot I lives with.

We lost our cat. Did I tell you that? Poor thing was run over outside our house - now all I have left of her is a picture of her on Google Earth Street View. How thoughtful of them. Well, we have her ashes too. We miss her. I used to moan about her a lot. Now I miss moaning about her. Go figure.

We took a break down to Eastbourne, had a lovely time, but again I yearned to live in a place where there are lakes aplenty. Filling my time on Google Earth, I visit the places in Canada and the US where we have visited, all those hundreds of lakes, all crying out for little ol' me to be out canoeing on them, and here I am in a country that is marvellous in many ways, but severely lacks lakes - well, at least in the South. And definitely in the South East. Don't ask me why I ache for fresh water cabin living, but my favourite two places in the world are, in no order: Manhattan, and out on a lake somewhere, anywhere. I could go to Scotland, or Wales, or Ireland. Bexley is lacking lakes, even though we have one, so it beats a lot of places! It's not the same. Manhattan, and beautiful lakes. Go figure. But Eastbourne is nice.

To work: Tomorrow Morning... the music book will be published in a matter of weeks, as promised here not so long ago. I try to oblige all the requests I get for sheet music - this way, I might soon be able to make some cash doing just that. The book will be in Dress Circle and available to order online. I'm very happy, but a little snowed under by the work required to get the music ready, but it's all fun. Re the off-Broadway production, things are moving slowly - the producers of the show in Chicago are talking to other producers who might be coming on board to put the show on in NYC. Producers, if you are reading this and you want in, call me... ;-)

I am hoping too that the show will be published in the States this year too, so I still have everything crossed for my baby. But I'm a little bit like an absent father, I have a new family, (my new work), I just see TM on weekends! Don't worry - it'll do it good!

Through the Door: After our successful showcase in Perfect Pitch in the West End last year, Judy Freed and I are working on a new draft of the show. Judy has been busy in Chicago and New York with another show, distracting her from our little piece, but she's on the case, and I have been waiting on her. I wrote some new stuff for the show, but it got to the point where I have to wait for Judy, or we could be working on different lines. To put it in perspective, in 1956/57 good old Steve and Lenny work in separate rooms a lot of the time while writing West Side Story, getting together every few hours to share their work. Good old Judy and Larry, in 2008/09, are taking the approach a little further, we work on different continents, and get together every year or so to share our work. Go figure. Actually, in seriousness, Skype and email are wonderful things - we couldn't have worked together this way even a decade ago. TTD will have a reading in May, and something public will happen with this show this year - I feel it in my water.

My fingers ache from typing too fast - those years of playing piano twelve hours a day haunt my digits like a spectre.

The Lost Christmas: Lots going on with my little family show, but all behind the scenes stuff that means I have nothing to announce but that it looks very good, things are moving really well and touch wood there will be a production this coming Christmas. Plans for the storybook development alongside this are moving, but are a little dependent on how stage productions pan out, so are kinda shelved at the moment.

I am about to start work on a new show (well, if truth be told, I actually have kind of kicked it off because I wrote something this week for it) which is with a new UK collaborator whom I am excited to be working with, and it's a commission from a producer I am very excited to be working for, and a great bunch of people. But I don't think I can say anything else! I haven't signed a contract yet, and it'd be so my luck to announce it, spend the cash, get a t-shirt printed, and then for something to upset the applecart, so I'm keeping... how d'you spell this, shtum!?

What I will say is that it is a commission for a pretty big show that I hope will go into a theatre in London, since Tomorrow Morning never quite managed it yet - maybe in years to come. This gig is quite a big one so pretty much everything else that was on the drawing board is shelved for the next, well, the rest of 2009. Obviously there are my commitments to finishing Through the Door and The Lost Christmas development which goes on, but writing this show will move fast once we're all signed - this is the joy (and pressure) of writing a show at the behest of a producer rather than on spec.

And the thrill - all of my full scale musical pieces have been written on spec. The commissions I have had have been for short pieces of music, one 'micro-musical', a fifteen minute show, stuff like that. It's a thrill to be hired for a bespoke piece of work, for a big theatre with a big cast. For years, our agenda has been small-affordable-producable. I want chorus lines, staircases, feathers, dancing girls! Bring it on!

Anyway, watch this space, we'll announce this show as soon as we are allowed to, rest assured.

That's me in a nutshell, on this Thursday night, as I sit here a full 14 miles from Centre Point, 3000 miles from Central Park and 200 miles from the nearest decent lake. My littlest girl can point on the globe and tell me where Santa lives, where it's hot and where it's cold. My biggest girl and I sat at the movies together tonight watching Zac Efron, and while she swooned over him, I felt pretty sure that I was watching a real star in the making, like watching Tom Cruise in Risky Business back in '83... I was about Sophie's age then. Maybe in 26 years time, she'll be looking at Efron and thinking, wow, look what scientology and conspicuous privilege did to... stop, wait, there I go again. I am keeping all opinions that are not directly related to LMW.inc to myself! What I mean is, the kid is a star; if you've seen the movie 17 again, and like me you're around 35 with a coupla kids and you still wanna fulfill your potential, it'll speak to you!

Anyway, the Zac Efron movie? - Great fun, well worth the ticket price. Sitting in the movies with my girl, gorging on popcorn and coke?

Priceless.

Sophie's Last Night in The Sound of Music

What a night! Sophie's mum and I had not seen the show together since her first night back in November, so it was a real thrill for us to sit together once again and watch the final performance. We have both seen the show several times now, I guess maybe six or seven times each, and each time I'd sit with a grin from ear to ear, humming the tunes and enjoying the slickness of the production and the great performances. The children grew in confidence as the run went on, and they are so drilled to perfection by Frank Thompson and children's MD Ros Jones that by the time they reach the stage they are practically faultless - the timing of each move and line lands really well, you'd hardly believe that for some of these kids, like my Sophie, this is a first professional experience in a big theatre.

The final curtain call was just fantastic, we were so proud of her and all of her team who have all grown so close over the last few months. It was a truly bittersweet night - we felt privileged to be involved, albeit ourselves on the periphery, of this unique experience - the last night of a great production of a classic musical at the greatest theatre. And what with the chaos at the Stage Door after, with all of the kids who had ever been in the show, plus a crowd of adults all congregating there, it topped of a crazy and wonderful night. It's not often I buy my eight year old dinner in the West End at midnight on Saturday, but it seemed fitting to this unique and amazing time.

How lucky she has been to have this experience, and at this age. To be a part of something so lavish, with such effort behind it. I wrote recently that I had accidentally criticised this production when I had been attempting to observe that I thought the book had some issues; sitting there watching this performance with the cast on top form and the audience of 2000 people loving every minute of it I realise my huge mistake in criticising a show that has been so deftly constructed and so beautifully realised on stage by this creative team. The reason this show has survived is because it's just marvellous.

And so on Sunday morning we all had post-show blues, and I guess we still do. Something like this for someone her age dominates all our lives, from Mum, me, sister and cat, every day was planned around whether we had to get our little West End star into town for a performance, and how we planned to pick her up again at the Stage Door afterwards.

It had to end, of course, as we knew from the start. All good things do, apparently. But it was a time we'll never forget, a production that I think a lot of people will never forget, and I think whenever it happens that a producer decides to bring this show back to the West End, they will have a lot to live up to. A mountain to climb, perhaps!? Or maybe that's one dry gag too far...

And depending on when that happens, if the show were to be revived again one day, I know of a girl who will be ready to audition for Brigitta/Louisa/Liesl/Maria/Mother Abbess, depending on what year or decade it might come about! 'Til then, the wonderful show at the London Palladium will remain with us for a long time to come, and we may find ourselves traversing the country to catch the next stop of the tour, just to catch a glimpse of it and ease our withdrawal symptoms!

The Art of Writing?

Who was it who said that the art of writing is the application of the seat of the trousers to the seat of the chair? I quoted it today and completely couldn't remember. Well, Google kindly informs me that it was Mary Heaton Vorse, so my guesses weren't even close, but in the words of Leslie Neilson, that's not important right now. I have put a photo of Ms H.V. above, and as you can see, she doesn't really look like a happy bunny. Well, I guess being a suffragette'll do that.

The sentiment is of the above quote, however, is important to me - always - but I think I'd like to add an addendum, in that the art of writing is also making sure that you're not just blogging, because one's seat is firmly in one's seat, so to speak, and fingers on keys tap tap tapping away, but what are we writing? Great art? Noooooooooo! Shit art? Not even that, alas. I'm writin' me blog, mate.

I am in fact penning a quick blog because it's late, and I don't want to pull at that thread tonight, I'm trying to only work in the days now unless I'm battling deadlines because no matter what time I keep going to or decide to hang up my, ahem, pen at night my little Lottie will still be calling for me at 7:30am to come get her. She couldn't give a tiny rats ass what time I go to sleep. She wants breakfast!

But I am deeply invested at the moment in new material for the show Through the Door which I am really excited about, and about to embark upon a series of rewrites of The Lost Christmas, so there is plenty afoot on that front. In fact, I'm so excited about Through the Door I simply can't wait to continue with this piece, and for the next legs of its development. And I am very confident that its going to emerge as a really noteworthy show, something that has a long life ahead of it.

But enough of that. I have been intermittently working on a stand-alone piece, a song-cycle of some form or fashion, a musical I suppose, if you will, a folly or a fancy, call it what you will because it ain't really anyfink yet, but I was chatting today to my friend-slash-colleague-slash-manager-slash-producer-slash, well, I just call him Andy, who is an all-round genuinely good guy and invariably we find ourselves chatting about musicals, and we were talking about the "Song Cycle" as a form and how it works, and it got me to thinking again about this piece that really is just something I work on in my, ha, "spare" time and as a release or distratction from other more complicated or demanding projects.

I know it works, because really Tomorrow Morning began in this way... the germ of an idea that takes root and ferments. Can a germ ferment? I don't think it should. But still, whatever this idea is, and however many times it gets pushed aside for other projects that charge ahead, take precedent or ultimately pay the bills, sooner or later I'm going to give my song cycle an airing. After all, it must be less complicated than a musical, mustn't it? What d'you need? A concept or theme, a handful of singers who are nice to look at and listen to, a room with a piano and an audience of some kind. Easy, done, book the theatre.

Oh, hang on. Songs? Done deal mate, got them comin' out me arse - I've been writing them for donkey's years. Curious expression. So what's this song cycle's theme? What's it about Laurence? Let me guess, time travel and infedility? Actually neither. It's about ... hmmm, how best could one describe something like this, about a blank canvas of musical theatre potential...?

I think it's going to be about those things that keep me awake at nights, those things in life that you know you've got to get right, that if you screw it up it's not even you who has to bear the consequences - I think it's about being a Dad or a Mom and raising a child, or two, or three, and about watching that kid try to find it's own way in the world. It's about trying to show the world that you are a normal family, when inside you're secretly deeply concerned that your domestic world is chaos. (And simultaneously secretly proud of it - whoever wanted to conform anyway!)

Because that is my world! One of the things that I am grateful for in Sophie finishing The Sound of Music is that we can get back to a normal life... ha! Who am I kidding???

Sheet Music

I'm getting quite a lot of emails asking for Tomorrow Morning sheet music. That is very fine by me, I really want people to be singing these songs, so I thought I'd write a quick posting on the subject, since it's still a little up in the air about when this show is actually going to be published, and when a proper book will be on the Dress Circle shelves and suchlike.

The answer to both questions is: I don't know! The publication of Tomorrow Morning in the U.S is all down to when and how the proposed off-Broadway production happens. Obviously, I am not rushing to a publishing deal prior to this now if the show does have an NY run, it'll be much better placed to then hit the market for regional productions in the States and elsewhere, and then the publishing of the printed sheet music is kind-of a given.

The question really is whether we move towards trying to release the sheet music earlier than that, which is something that is being looked into.

In the meantime, there are songs from TM that people are wanting to do for auditions and to sing at college and in concerts, cabarets etc. So, what I think may happen is that there may be some kind of digital publication whereby artistes can buy the sheet music online like with any number of websites, but paying via paypal or suchlike, then download (or get sent) a PDF of the score for the individual song, rather than having to purchase all the songs. I am working on getting this facility available for at least the most popular handful of songs.

This way, I'm hoping to be able to satisfy the requests for sheet music in advance of whenever the show actually gets a book printed, which I hope will be this year or next. Therefore, please keep an eye on the website for how and when these things are happening, and in the meantime if you seek TM or any other of my sheet music (ie Through the Door or The Lost Christmas) email info@laurencemarkwythe.com and the request will get to me, and I can let you know how it may be possible to get it. I may even just send it to you, as I did the other day for someone who wanted a song, The Girl in the Mirror, and I was feeling particularly generous that day!

Theatregoer's Choice Awards

I'm sure I mentioned before in my old blog that I had been lucky enough to have the adorable and immensely talented Suranne Jones - she of Corrie and other TV fame - playing the role of Mum in the West End showcase of The Lost Christmas last year. And anyone who follows my progress will know that we were lucky to have the also adorable and equally talented Julie Atherton - she of sticking her hand up a puppet's ass in Avenue Q fame (sorry, Julie, just kidding!) - creating the role of Charlotte in both the workshop and the showcase of Through the Door.

I am delighted to say that both will be singing a song from each of those shows, respectively, at the Theatregoer's Choice Awards at the Prince of Wales Theatre on February 15th. Suranne is singing her showstopper Action Man, and Julie will be performing The Window.

http://awards.whatsonstage.com/

Blog

Well, here we are in 2009, and I have decided ultimately to relocate this blog directly to the website, since the other hosting site doesn't like long gaps between posts, which is my 'style', and likes to delete blogs in revenge. So this is the new blog, and I'll try to avoid this pitfall in future!

Which I should be able to do, since I have promised to keep up to date and to be more thorough in keeping up with contacts and replying to messages and so on, here and through Facebook, so I'm turning over a new leaf! What my daughter would call a New Year's Revolution.

So I shall be posting info here about how the plans for the off-Broadway production of Tomorrow Morning are going, following on from the show's great run at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago last year.

I shall also be posting updates on stuff that will be happening in the UK this year with the new show Through the Door and my new family show The Lost Christmas.