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!