The Perilous Musical

Today on the train into London I was re-reading The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. This is the source material for a work of musical theatre I'm composing for with book and lyrics by Grace Burson. At the moment I'm reading a chapter at a time and the re-reading.

On this second reading the themes are becoming a lot clearer which I find really does help me with the score. However, I wish I could find a pure and basic version of the Tam Lin story. The Perilous Gard is supposed to be an amazing re-telling of this folk story, so I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the genius that Pope has plowed into this novel.

I'm not a particular fan of Elizabeth Marie Pope's writing style though, it's somewhat J K Rowling-esque and we all know how much I hate her. Well maybe you didn't, but you do now. I hate J K Rowling's writing style. It's vaguely children's novel and this distresses me.

I also hate the way the heroine is such a tomboy. Strong heroines are a bit last season these days but it's the super-constructed way Kate (said heroine) comes out with these stupid "oh look at me I'm so not a girl" lines as she takes matronly control of absolutely everyone. It is my hope that in the musical version of this show it can be a lot more naturalistic. Sure the character has to be spunky and gutsy and not like the other female characters but at the same time she's pretty iritiating. Quite frankly I'd like to shove her down a well too.

The setting of the novel is adding to the confusion. It's Elizabethan England which is fine, but it's sometimes hard to visualise such a period setting especially when it can seem a little at odds with the themes of the book, which are then at odds with the themes of the novel. I just need to get my head around it. Imaginging Elizabethan fairy folk is then more complex. For some the period just makes it hard for me to visualise things. There are very few musicals set in this time period that aren't comedies. This is going to be a difficult project.

Writing vocal folk music is quite difficult because things like jigs and reels are much more dance or instrumental in nature. Vocal folk music (i.e. folk songs etc) are more difficult to write I think because many of them are based on modes and writing techniques that are hundreds of years old. I think that the instrumental music would be easier to pastiche in that respect, whereas the vocal music I think has a lot more unique features or authenticity that needs to be observed. Then there's the question of how pastiche this music should be and how authentic it should be. 2 hours of folk and elizabethan pastiche is going to be pretty heavy going. At the same time writing songs and then just orchestrating them in an authentic way means that the show has no credibility and sounds totally manufactured. That said, we're assuming that the music should have a flavour (or be thoroughly grounded) in the music of the period settings. Then again LES MISERABLES aint exactly french and the orchestration isn't period either.

Yet another problem is that there are lots of songs in the novel and people sing them. Problem is, Elizabeth Marie Pope, bless her, wasn't the best lyricist in the world. The lines have absolutely no melodic phrasing to them with stupidly uneven lines in 3 line stanzas.

Urgh.

Writing musicals is difficult.

Thursday Is Dodge The Bombs Day

One thing Londoners love to do is bitch about the London transport system. We (not that I'm a londoner really; I'm kind of the diet coke of London, one calorie, not quite London enough) really need to just get over the fact that the underground (please don't call it the tube to try and be trendy) was a wonderful system invented for probably a 3rd of the capacity it is now expected to deal with.

As many of you will know on the 7th of July this year there were several terrorist attacks on the London Underground. These attacks took place on a thursday. Now every thursday the police are out in force to protect us all. Now I'm all for protection, but if the terrorists we have to deal with in 2005 are smart enough to co-ordinate a simultaneous 4 bomb attack on key underground lines at times when it will cause the most loss of life possible, then I think we have to realise they'd be smart enough not to do anything on a Thursday ever again. This hyper vigiliance leads to gross over reactions like suspending the entire Circle and District Lines because of a suspect package at one station and tragedy's such as shooting innocent people in the head 7 times. Such disruptions do not make me feel safe, certainly not in terms of job security when I arrive an hour late to work.

RENTALIFE The Musical

The weekend was pretty uneventful seems as I spend most of my time being tired. On Friday night I had band as usual (www.beenhamband.org.uk) which was fun and managed to get myself involved in the committee which decides how the band should be run. They have positions of responsibility and positions for a couple of band members. I might have to do the odd thing like organize a theatre trip (yeah I have to suffer for my art) or just give my opinion which I suspect will be brutally stamped upon as I am very much the young upstart.

Saturday was spent doing some work on the new score of Dracula. Margaret and I decided to open the show with Jonathan and Mina's engagement party. Now, I used the material from the later wedding scene here but it just didn't sound right coming after the Overture. I am not sure why; it could be just because it has never been there before or maybe there is something really wrong with the idea or the music. Not sure. I'll have to think it out a little more. Trying to underscore the opening dialogue is also proving difficult and now I'm starting to loose faith in the through-sung concept. Not good.

On Sunday night I went to see Nightwish in concert at the Hammersmith Carling Apollo. Nightwish is a goth rock/metal band from Finland (www.nightwish.com). Their lead singer is has had classical vocal training and tends to sing in an operatic style while the music underneath is very punchy and dramatic. It was pretty excellent with a good investment in the pyrotechnics and lighting. They even played their cover of The Phantom Of The Opera so there was at least one song I knew really well. Their music can sound a little samey given its style but it was a good concert. They were supported by Paradise Lost (www.paradiselost.co.uk) which wasn't billed and was apparently a turn up for the books given that Paradise Lost are in some ways bigger than Nightwish. Nightwish was also featured in today's Metro cartoon NEMI, so I felt really cool that I was in on the joke. When you commute 3 hours every day in London you have to boost your self esteem somehow. For those of you not familiar with London, Metro is a free newspaper that you can pick up on the underground.

Gordon has booked tickets for the new musical RENTAGHOST (www.rentaghost.net) based on the children's TV programme in the 1980s. Given that the tickets are £9.50 each I suspect this will be amateurish in the extreme. Given that this was a kids comedy programme I suspect this will also be funny and for kids so you can understand that I'm not particularly thrilled that Gordon has booked Row A Stalls seats (Orchestra seats). Sitting in the front row is a prime audience participation target. Should any audience participation take place I will be booking Gordon a single ticket to see the new musical RENTABOYFRIEND.

Handwriting Recognition Makes Xander Look Stupid

Having re-read some of my previous posts it has become apparent that I look slightly dyslexic and this somewhat blunts my razor sharp wit. Rest assured, I am not dyslexic but that the handwriting recognition on my PDA is not that good (especially when it's trying to discover what I was trying to write when standing on a train).

The last few days have been uneventful. I had a job interview on Monday which was cancelled because the agency thought I was above it. I'm thrilled they think so highly of me but not thrilled that they tell me this about 3 hours before the interview after I've been forced to pay £33 to have my hair cut by a "stylist" who apparently costs more than normal hair cut lady at SAKS. Before anyone screams "How can you possibly spend that much on a short back and sides? Why go to Saks?" it's because I live above a SAKS salon so it's convenient and I had to pay that much because I could only get an appointment with stylist lady that early on a Monday morning. Stylist lady was very funny though providing me with 101 reasons why I shouldn't give to charity or beggars. I agreed with her.

Reading has quite a big homeless person population although it is getting better. However, they are all very nice people and Gordon even used to date one of them in primary school... or something. Anyway, my compassion was brought to an abrupt end when I finally met Freakguy. Freakguy (also known as Freakdude or "that freak") is a professional homeless person.

I know he's not homeless because he has a flat in a building across the street. My apartment has bay windows in every room facing onto the street providing a perfect view into Freakguy's flat. This guy generally looks homeless in his appearance, but it's the contents of his flat that make him truly interesting. He has many strange things hung up on his walls including a Hannibal mask. He seems to own the flat, but always needs someone else to buzz him into the building. Anyway, I eventually got a bit bored of this guy pestering me for money outside our local Sainsbury's Metro (Reading is soooo metro) and so when he went for the classic "Could you spare some change?" I just stopped, squared up to him and went "I know where you live". The temptation to add "ya freak" at the end of the sentence was overwhelming. Lots of people in Reading probably think I have a mental disorder and stalk homeless people. I continued my shopping adding a bottle of champagne as a present to me for being so fabulous. "Let them eat cake" should be my new catch phrase.

Tuesday night was my first session at a flute group based in Reading. It was brilliant as the leader is a very good flautist and you get an education (tips, advice, critique) not just a play. We spent about an hour doing a warm up and exercises, which was really refreshing because the gigs I do are generally with people who aren't flautists and therefore don't expect much or care. The second hour was spent doing duets and stuff. It was great.

There's a flautist in my apartment block who has gone from being a complete novice to being about Grade 2 standard in just 2 months, probably because they practice for 2 hours every morning and every evening, sometimes to the annoyance of the chavs (www.chavscum.co.uk) who live in the same block as Freakguy. That really is an apartment block of quality. I don't know who this mystery flautist is but I am slightly worried that when people see me practicing in my studio/study/second bedroom/dumping ground they will think that it's always me and hurl abuse at me. This has led to me making sure I always play very advanced repertoire when I dopracticee so that people can tell the difference. I hope they know it's highly unlikely that someone who plays Ba Ba Blacksheep every day is likely to also play Mozart's Concerto in G as well. However, these people wear tracksuits all the time.

Perhaps the stupid people in my life should all get handwriting recognition PDAs so they had something to blame for their stupidity but they'd probably be too stupid to use them and decide to have 5 children instead.

UPDATE: I've just realised that this post is completely redundant given that I went back and corrected all the typos in my original posts.

Xander Demolishes His Show & Then Wishes Someone Had Done The Same With FAR PAVILIONS

So I'm standing on a train writing my log. Oh the joys of handheld computing! The reason I’m standing on a train is that Gordon left this afternoon for his Trivium concert (http://www.trivium.org/ ) without his tickets so I have to bring them to London. Much as I love London I prefer not to love it 7 days a week. At least I have tomorrow off work.

Yesterday I came into the city to met up with Margaret my collaborator to discuss some aspects of our show, Dracula (http://www.draculamusical.co.uk/ ) in detail.

One of the major conceptual problems we faced was establishing who and what Dracula is. The novel near really provides a back-story for any of its characters, least of all the villain. There's a brief reference to Vlad Tepes the II or III (I can’t remember which) The Impaler but flits doesn't really explain any of Dracula's motivations. It was originally my idea to limit the voice and appearances of the character thinking that what an audience cannot see is much scarier. However, after much discussion we decided that Dracula's character should have a more profound impact both directly on the audience and indirectly through Mina while remaining unsympathetic.

The problem with the undead is that they are caught half way between tortured, broken people and monsters. It has become very important to us now to show these sides in equal measure. The line we took with our human heroes and their undead enemies must be very fine because the audience need to believe that crossing the border is both possible and tragically easy. Margaret and I went on to develop a picture of Dracula as a man suffering from years of excess, debauchery and consumerism like an addict desperate for his next hit but at the same time as longstanding sufferer off a terminal illness who is kept alive by his drug but cannot be cured. We soon found that this fleshed out character did not undermine our existing draft but provided a more solid foundation for us to create a better piece of musical theatre.

Having made headway on this concept we then explored the contrast between Dracula and the humans. The story dictates that, together, these men and women are both victims and the agents that bring him to justice. The only way to transcend this apparent contradiction was to ensure that each character had an inherent strength but also a weakness. The next few stages of development will be concerned with integrating these character traits into the framework of the book. Indeed the nature of musical theatre is that everything must be condensed and concentrated especially as the audience aren't able to get into the heads of our characters in a way they could will the first person narrative of the novel.

In the hours that we discussed the show we managed to almost completely rewrite it including cutting and adding a song, changing the Prologue and the transition between Act I and Act 2. If the latest revision of this show was a house renovation, we didn't just gut it, we demolished it. This is evidently going to mean more than a paint job. While these planned changes mean that I'll hare to pretty much start from a blank slate will the score I firmly believe these changes are both recess or is and highly beneficial.

I’m now on the train back from London now haring dropped off tickets and stopped to have a quick pint. 1 felt the urge to BK and am now regretting the latest episode of my over-eating. This is something I need to stop before my 32 inch trousers no longer fit. Looks like Monday will mean back to Atkins (http://atkins.com/ ).

Last Night I went to see the final performance of the FAR PAVILIONS (www.thefarpavilionsmusical.com/) at the Shaftesbury(www.thisistheatre.com/londontheatre/shaftesburytheatre.html).
The atmosphere was nice with a large percentage of the audience being friends and family of the company. The orchestra were also entitling into the spirit of things brandishing grasses of champagne. This intoxicated atmosphere obviously explained quite a few over zealous performances. However, this was probably a difficult pitfall given that the entire show was overly melodramatic.

The plot lurched from one big moment to the next with no rest capturing the key plot moments of the book while missing other more important ones (Margaret loves this novel, but I’ve never read it). It was incredibly constructed with token “comedy” songs and Les Miserable-esque songs about fighting and dying. Other key features were clearly ripped right out of other successful shows. The turntable set which was for the most part stunning (created by Lez Brotherson) was not only Les Mis, but also very LION KING with it’s spiralling motion upwards. The music by Philip Henderson was very easy on the ears, but not particularly catchy. The title theme is a gorgeous sweeping melody that will probably stick in my head, but the other songs went in one ear and out the other. The choreography and costumes were colourful and this production was quite visually entertaining. Hadley Fraser, a Les Mis veteran (http://www.hadleyfraser.com/) did well in the role of Ash, but I find his acting a little too stylised sometimes… again I think it was what he had to work with that was problematic. The real surprise of the evening was Dianne Pilkington in the role of Belinda (did they just import the entire cast from Les Mis or what?) who I didn’t recognise until I read the programme on the way home (on a train). She really has a lovely voice and she was able to deal with the role very realistically despite the 101 personalities that she had to embody thanks to book writer Stephen Clark. Dianne pulled off the best two songs of the show, Who Do You Think You Are and A Woman Like You as well as giving some very much needed comic moments. She is a real find and completely underated.

Overall for this show I think The Stage review of this sums up my feelings (http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/7405/the-far-pavilions).
I’m glad I saw it, but not devastated that I won’t see it again. I would like a soundtrack though. How this £4.4million musical was ever produced I do not know. This only goes to make me more angry that my work isn’t on the West End, although Margaret and I decided that given the décor and layout of the theatre, we certainly wouldn’t want Dracula to run there.

Xander Unplugged

Being one of those people who hates it when someone doesn't update their blog every day I was pretty annoyed that during my business trip to Chesterfield the office internet connection went down like a cheap hooker. So this meant I had no e-mail access and no web access for 3 days. Had it been 5 days I would have freaked out spectacularly. It also meant I had no choice but to do some work... a very scary prospect.

Now I could go into how terrible it is that I'm so dependent on technology, but you're probably thinking that about me already. I actually find it difficult now to use a computer that doesn't have a net connection, even if I'm not using the internet. It just feels incomplete. Actually it's not surprising I am so dependent on technology given that I shop, order food, manage the money I don't have, organise travel and generally communicate with everyone using the net.

I've managed to get tickets to see the final performance of THE FAR PAVILIONS at the Shaftesbury Theatre (in London, where else?!) on Saturday. Part of me hopes that this is a mediocre experience that I won't want to go back to, simply because I won't be able to see it again. I've heard good things about the production values of this show but it seems to have the two problems that it's not unique enough and is at a theatre where shows go down quite quickly (like a more expensive hooker). It's off the beaten track of the West End and has a big capacity.

Perhaps all this talk of loose women stems from the motel that I staying at complete with the Tv top guide to adult movies. This was a pretty classy hotel. I met up with the other temps who were on a business trip to Nottingham and we went out to a great restaurant, Chino Latino and then went on to some clubs.

Damn this insurance lifestyle. Oh well at least I'm plugged into the mothership again.

Those Crazy Expats

Being new to this Blogging thing I thought I would seek out the writings of my friends in America who all have these journals. Reading through many of them brought me to the inevitable conclusion that these people are crazy. They are a rare breed of Americans who actually realise that their country is not the best thing since Sliced Jesus and are desperate, or at least were desperate to come over to England or Europe to start a new life. I really should be flattered.

HOWEVER...

These people's blogs are full of basically long analyses which are ambigious as to whether they are praising or criticising England. After the analyses of our history, culture and infrastructure they move on to write endless lists about things that are cheaper or more expensive over here along with the things they miss from America or love about Europe. They really seem to know more about my country than I do, especially when it comes to price of just about everything.

Two such people are my collaborators on my musical and good friends, Margaret Pritchard (http://www.blogger.com/profile/3555400) and her sister Grace Burson (http://www.blogger.com/profile/5086118).

I don't know what my point is here other than I find these typical expat blogs quite amusing but also quite strange. I think that perhaps I'm too boring to get excited about how lime pickle is half price over here.... or perhaps not boring enough. They get addicted to supermarket chocolate mousse and things like Marks & Spencers. In some ways it makes you really appreciate the good things you take for granted without paying for a flight and the joy of American customs first.

When my other friends from the USA came over for their year abroad I was increasingly annoyed about the way they used the phrase "In America...." all the time to describe how things were better, cheaper etc etc but this shouldn't really be the case with people who were desperate to get out of the country. My friend Josh (not the husband of Grace) is famously quoted as saying;

"Do you know what would make this country like a billion times better? If it was America."

I must say, I find myself saying the same thing when I'm in the US. It's a strange situation of the grass being greener on the other side of the pond but all the same, you like the grass on your side too. Personally I love England and being English especially when it comes to culture and our truly cosmopolitan make-up (especially here in London), but I don't like to over analyse what England is and how our country works. I think with all the problems America has, maybe Americans like to take a good hard look at where they could improve and why such a great idea went so wrong. I love America too though because things are cheap and there is lots of choice and good customer service (I'm not turning into one of them I promise!).

This poorly constructed essay is really just an excuse to pass time at work today. The rest of the office are watching the cricket and my colleague is perving at all the male cricketers. If you're going to perve at least find a sport which has an ounce of sex appeal. I'll have to forgive her momentary lapse in taste given that her grandfather died at the weekend. Another expat, Theresa comes from New Zealand and now is in the sad position that she cannot afford the time off work or the cost of the flight to attend his funeral. This must be one of the worst aspects of leaving home behind to start a new life and I guess I hope that England( in all it's glory) is worth all this trouble.

Tonight I'm going out for drinks with the temp team from my firm. I work in a group of 7 temps all who do pretty much the same job of traveling all over the country processing client details and producing quotes for my insurance company. As I said, Filbes (Filbers, Filby, Sillby etc) or as you know him in this blog, Laurence, is leaving at the end of the week to start a better life. This leads me to one conclusion; I have to get out of here.

Sense The Impending Doom

Well it’s the dreaded Sunday feeling yet again.   The feeling of wanting to make the most of what’s left of your free time and the feeling of impending doom that Monday brings rolled into one.
Today I was way too tired to socialise and go out for what was originally dinner at a friend’s house and but eventually turned into a full on house party and games night.  I made my apologies and stayed at home in my Sunday clothes (or rather what I always wear indoors when I don’t care how I look) and worked on my new Cello piece.

This piece is going to be called Stream of Consciousness and I was it to be a kind of organic experiment.  We have stream of consciousness novels which are perhaps lacking in structure but very fluid and spontaneous, so I don’t see why we can’t have music like that too.  I’ll upload an MP3 of that sometime.

I really don’t know how much I have to say today but I find it intensely annoying when people haven’t posted something on their blogs for a while, so I am determined not to let that happen.  

Next week I’m off on a business trip to a broker’s office in Chesterfield for a couple of nights staying with a colleague who has been lucky enough to get himself a new job.  This job is good in a way that he’s getting out of this company (who’s initials are BS and let me tell you, that says a lot) but I am not sure it’s right for him in the long run.  He has no direction, so maybe this will give him some and I’ve always said to people that not knowing what you want to do in life is a lot easier than knowing what you want to do.  Knowing what you want to do means you limit your options, you become overly focused, you find yourself unenthusiastic for anything else but that one thing.  In some ways being open to everything is a very quick route to happiness.  Either way, it will be really good to spend his last week with him and we will definitely be exploiting our company’s lax expenses policy when in our hotel rooms.

At the end of the week I’m hoping to catch THE FAR PAVILIONS (I write all show titles in capital letters, get used to it) which is a new show in the West End which is closing after what must be about 6 months.  From critical and Joe Public review there doesn’t seem to be too much wrong with this show apart from the fact it tries to be LES MISERABLES.  People say this like it’s some cardinal sin.  Everyone says they want the next LES MIS, but when they get it, it’s TOO MUCH like LES MIS.  Just seems like shows can’t win.  It closes on Saturday and given my schedule I might not make it.  I try and see everything I can on the West End in the hope that it will inspire me to be a better writer.  Normally it depresses me to think how many rubbish shows make it when there are millions of betters ones waiting un-produced.  

I’m glad I can post to this remotely by e-mail, it means I’ll have something to do in the more boring hours of my business trip.

An Introduction To My Amazing Life

You know the temptation to start this blog thing with "Oh my god, My first blog" is really quite strong. However, those who know me (why else would you read it?) or those who have an ounce of common sense or intelligence (again why else would you read my blog?) will notice that this is my first posting.

By now, those of you who aren't my friends (and perhaps not so intelligent) will have a million questions. So here goes...

I'm a 21 year old living in Reading, England who works in London, presently in insurance but secretly and desperately wants to work in theatre. I went to Royal Holloway, University of London which I graduate from a few months ago with a first in Psychology.

Since the age of about 7 I have had a serious passion for theatre and from about 11 I have had a developing passion for musical theatre. I started composing when I was in secondary school (i.e. highschool for all you americans) and have since written a musical. Check it out http://www.draculamusical.co.uk . It rocks although it needs some work. One of my collaborators, Margaret owns one of these blog things and while she has some really bad ideas (like calling me freakishly long legged) she has some very good ones as well like suggesting I get my own blog rather than write comments on hers.

Enough about Margaret, she has her own blog which is funny but champions her own mental instability way too much. Mental instability is like money. Everyone knows you have it but you never openly tell people you have it.... unless you're mentally unstable and have no friends.

Why am I here?

My aim is to become the next Andrew Lloyd Webber but much more attractive. I recently took part in a debate about whether he was a good composer or not. One of my friends, a very talented composer called Andrew Lowe-Watson (http://www.andrewlowe-watson.co.uk/) said that people who criticise his music do some out of jealousy. Maybe right, either way I think Andrew Lloyd Webber writes a damn good musical theatre score... and that's what I aspire to do as well. I don't want to write 13 musicals that make the West End or Broadway but I'll settle for one or maybe two. Right now, making it with one is proving a big, big hassle.

So that's a summary of me. Quite scary to think that you could sum up my entire existence in one internet blog post. Was this a good start? I don't know, but it's me and I have to run with it.