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.
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