Azura A005 - Day 1 (26th May 2010)

Ummm, where did that month-and-a-half go?? I'm not sure... well, I do have an idea - it'll have gone on doing shows and rehearsing quite a lot!!

We're actually on our 4th cruise now (it's named A0005, but our 1st 'real' cruise, the maiden voyage, was A002 - get it?) and the time is racing by. Although we manage to jump off the ship every now and then (not literally!) and run to an internet cafe (!) tt's been pretty tough work at times, as there is such a lot of material to learn, and then get each show up and running in the theatre. We're working on our 7th show this coming cruise, with 2 more still to do. It's great to have the variety of material, but it does lead to some slight brain freezes at times!

"My Generation" is what will be keeping us busy for this next cruise, along with some pre-rehearsals on the vocals for "Reel To Reel" and "Tropical Fever". I must admit, given some of the weather we have had on the 1st few cruises, I hope we wait a while for "Tropical Fever" as it's our outdoor deck show. Brrrrr!

Although we won't have much time to see them, this cruise is our 1st 'Baltic' cruise, which is one I'm really looking forward to, as it includes some cities and I've never visited, and ends up at St Petersburg, which is very exciting. Hopefully when we re-visit this cruise later in the year I'll be able to spend some time ashore and get a feel for the places.

Neil & I managed to get our cabaret spot up and running on this last cruise, which was great fun. It was a little nerve-wracking at times, but we got through it. We were accompanied by the fabulous boys from Jet Set, which certainly helped as we knew we could rely on them (except perhaps for the odd 'segue'!) The response and comments from the audience after the show were really encouraging, so we'll look forward to doing it on some future cruises as well.

I am going to attempt to do some more blogging from now on (not sure how I'll fit it in... I can but try!) so hopefully it'll be a little more frequent than once ever month!!

Azura A001 - Day 5 (5th April 2010)

As I write I'm sat out on Deck 16 enjoying the last hour or so of sunshine on a very welcome (and rare!) evening off. 

Today started with a Crew safety drill at 9.30, so we donned our warm clothing, grabbed our head coverings and lifejackets and headed down to our muster station. The ship had been "moving" (!) somewhat during the night and continued to do so this morning, so by the time we got to rehearsals there were a few green faces amongst the cast. That even applied to some of the more sea-hardened travellers in our merry band, but once we got rehearsal underway and broke for lunch, things felt a bit calmer - phew!

We had a technical run-through with the band on stage in the afternoon, which went without any major hitches, so after a quick costume fitting for the show we were broken - in time to make our daily outing to the gym. Since leaving the shipyard (and because the Officers' Mess is being remodelled) we've been lucky enough to be sampling the cuisine in some of the onboard restaurants, as they prepare for passengers to come aboard from next week. Lucky passengers too, I say! So I have just come up from another sumptuous dinner in the Peninsular Restaurant and am getting a late evening sun tan at Breakers Bar. It's a tough life!!

BUT it hasn't ALL been suntans and cocktails thus far - there's been quite a lot of hard work too (honest!) As I've not had much time to keep up with the blog, I'll try and do a few 'catch up' sessions with photographic evidence over the coming days, so you can get up to date with the story so far.

It all began 19 days ago......

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 1 - 18th March 2010

(Ready for the off at Heathrow)
As our rehearsal period in London came to a close, another started for us over at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy - where Azura has been under construction. We arrived from London - via Munich, and via some minor baggage stresses... no names mentioned (Neil!) - and were bussed from Trieste airport round the coast to Monfalcone - about 20mins - and then onto the shipyard to get our first view of our new home!

(Our first view of our new home...)
You could tell by everyone's reactions that she certainly made an impression! Following a quick introduction meeting from the Cruise staff (Neil, Benne and Jack) we headed on board, and began the process of finding our way around the ship. The Headliners Theatre Company (us lot... HTC) had been assigned cabins on Deck 4 and Deck 7, so -with a little help from some crew who knew better than we! - we found our cabins. 

The next milestone, once we'd been issued with some "happy feet" (you might notice these in some of the pics... plastic shoe covers to protect the carpets around the ship - can you guess why they've become christened "happy feet"....??), was to be taken in to see the Playhouse Theatre for the 1st time. More general excitement all round and a fair amount of screaming from some.

(Welcome to the Playhouse Theatre)
It was great to finally see the place we'd be performing these shows that we have been working on for such a long time. The technical team and stage crew were hard at work as we arrived, and running a little bit of "Destination Dance", so we got a little feel for things right away. The next task was to get escorted en-masse and head down to the Officers' Mess to meet our next vital requirement - food. At every turn there were (and still are!) things to learn - rules to abide by, traditions to figure out, names to remembers, routes to forget and re-learn (!) - so for those of us who were not fully versed in life on a ship, the first few hours and days were quite an eye-opening experience. And tiring too - so, night all!

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 2 - 19th March 2010

(Sporting my fetching Hard Hat - you like???)
Following a breakfast that you could easily get far too used to, we were issued with perhaps not THE most attractive fashion accessory - our hard hats. Although we were lucky enough to join the ship fairly late on in the building process, there was still a fair amount of work going on around the ship, with lots of bangs and clatters from the Fincantieri staff building and finishing off various parts of the ship. What with the headgear and the happy feet, we looked terribly dapper.

We had a number of safety inductions during the morning, for both ship-wide things and also specifically for the theatre - lots to learn and remember again. Finally after lunch we got the chance to get on to "our" stage and start rehearsals proper for Destination Dance in the theatre. There's always quite a lot to take on board in a new performing space, so we scrabbled our way through the day getting used to the space, and the pieces of set, and the routes backstage and so on.
(Neil & Sarah sampling the delights of Monfalcone)
And following a brief encounter with an Italian TV crew, we finished for the day and decided to make a brief trip into town (Monfalcone) to see what it had to offer.

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 3 - 20th March 2010

On the whole we had all figured out our preferred routes to the 3 most important places for us on the ship at the moment - our Cabins; the Theatre; and the Mess! I think we all had the odd geography malfunction and ended up somewhere that we didn't recognise, hadn't been to before, and had no idea how to get back from... how many times that happened I shall keep to myself!

(The girls sorting out the 'Carnival Cloak' bit!)

We spent the day working on 'Destination Dance' technical rehearsals. There are quite a lot of technical "things" happening throughout the show - including things flying, things rolling, things going up and down ... and that's just the dancers! As it's a new show and a new theatre there were a lot of things to be sorted as each new section was reached. As ever with technical rehearsals things can take a little time, but it certainly gives you a chance to get things back in your head that you learned back in January!

We worked through to the evening, but our day wasn't over once we'd finished rehearsals as we had fitting sessions for the raft of costumes we will be wearing in the show. Although the show is only 45 minutes long, there are as many (if not more...) costumes as you'd find in a 3 hours show. Lots of quick changes - so a fair amount of Velcro needed too!  Ellie & Kate have their work cut out for them... forgive the pun ;-)

(Charles and I sporting out Lion King cossies....ooooh!)

Finally here...

A quick message, as it's only the 2nd chance to be online since joining the ship. Lots of news and photos to pass on - but it may have to wait until we get back to Southampton on the 7th April.

We joined Azura on the 18th March, and have been frantically rehearsing our shows in the Playhouse Theatre onboard since then; checking costumes, working with our new tracks, getting used to the space - and trying to find our way around an ENORMOUS ship! :-)

Everything is going very well, and we're all still friends - which is no bad thing. Lots still to do, as we do have 9 shows to get sorted, but we're working our way through and will be moving on to the 3rd next week.

More photos to come, and a bit of "catch up" news when I have time online.

One day more...

Well - we're nearly there!!

Tomorrow is the last day in the UK for the Azura cast for some time, as we fly out to Monfalcone Shipyard   in the morning of Thursday 18th March, and won't be back until the beginning of April.

We finished up our London rehearsals on Saturday with a bit of revision of the shows we have learned so far. It was tough week last week, as we needed to prepare a 'show off' of Hitsville USA, When Swing was King and also Destination Dance with a new number included (watch out for flying flags... that's all I'll say!)

So it was a fairly frazzled cast that said 'Cheerio' to Alford House on Saturday evening, headed home and will be meeting up again at Heathrow at 9.00am on Thursday morning for our flights over to Europe ... "Do not pass go; Do not collect £200; Do not enter the Duty Free"!! :-)

So the next instalment should be from somewhere in Italy - watch this space!

Azura "on trial"...

Well, she's on the water!

Click the link to see some pictures of our new home being put through her paces (Azura Sea Trials )

Good grief - she's ENORMOUS!!!

Rehearsals Day 57 - Ain't no mountain high enough...

Phew what a long day! Good, but tough... there's a touch of the "lurgy" floating around, so all the numbers are interspersed with the odd cough and splutter! Hey ho... get it all out of the way now :-)

It's hard to believe that we are in our final week of rehearsals in London (it's arrived AT LAST!) It seems like a lifetime ago that we all arrived on the 4th Jan, nervously introducing ourselves in the green room at Alford House on our first day. All old friends now... nice :-)

Yesterday saw us revising our swing show - "When Swing Was King", and also the Motown singers' show "Hitsville USA". Talk about a lifetime ago - until last weekend we hadn't visited Hitsville since January, so we needed some fairly hefty "reminding", I can tell you. No worries though, as we have spent the bulk of today working through the show and polishing it up. Also, we've been working in a more precise space which matches that which we'll be working on onboard. Hitsville is the show that we will be performing more as a lounge show, and not in the Playhouse Theatre, so it's more intimate. It will be great doing this kind of show in that setting - it just means we mustn't get TOO carried away with big dance moves!

The dancers had spent all day working on our Boogie show ("Blame it on the Boogie") and "Destination Dance", as we'll be performing these later in the week. And then - bless them - Jerry our Choreographer brought them all downstairs to watch our run of Hitsville to give us an audience... Awww!

So - we are ploughing headlong into our final few days of rehearsals on land. A little sign that we're almost there appeared yesterday as well, with the arrival of our Seaman's Discharge books... get us, all official! No stopping us... roll on Thursday 18th March - Azura here we come :-)

A real ticking clock...

 Check out the countdown clock on the P&O website for the arrival of Azura - that's us that is! ;-)

www.pocruises.com

Rehearsals Day 46 - The Final Countdown...

We're sliding headlong towards our departure for Venice - and it is coming up rapidly!! We have under 3 weeks left rehearsing in the UK now, and there's still plenty to do.

(Live from rehearsals as I type - the guys flapping their feathers in a number from "Curtain Up!")

We managed to get through a whole show last week - which means we've put "When Swing Was King" to bed already. It's a great show with loads of hits from that "Rat Pack" period, and lots of stuff I would never have thought would be in a swing show, but with some great arrangements the unusual numbers sound and look fab.

We started this week with the penultimate show that we'll be learning here in London, which is "Curtain Up!" - out musical theatre show (a little cheer goes up!). It covers the gamut of material from the 1950s classics, such as West Side Story and Guys & Dolls, and comes more up to date with the likes of Miss Saigon & Phantom.

Having a sneaky peek at some of the costume designs, there are going to be some stunning pieces in this show. Can't wait to try them on!

Rehearsals Day 35 - How lucky can one boy be?

We ploughed headlong into our new show yesterday - so another gear change!

(Scott, George, Daniel & Emma blow off some steam on the Table Football before the show-off)

We finished off some cleaning on 'Blame It On The Boogie' before showing it off to the assembled masses. It's quite a fast-paced show, so I think everyone was fairly knackered by the end of the run... hey ho, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!!

Yesterday saw the start of 'When Swing Was King' - our next show which is - yep, you guessed it! - a Swing show :-) Jerry is choreographing us for this one, so it was nice to see him back again - as our first week spent with him working on 'Hitsville USA' seems like a lifetime ago now. (That reminds me - we haven't finished learning that one yet!)

(It's a cold day - you can tell by the queue for the coffee machine! Charles, Neil & Sara looking rather sheepish if you ask me...)

This one is packed full of all the classic swing / Rat Pack songs that you'd expect and a few surprises too - some great arrangements of songs you wouldn't expect in a swing show. Don't worry - you'll be pleasantly surprised... trust me!

It looks like it will be a very classy evening (well, what else did you expect!) and it'll be really cool having the band on stage with us for this show too. A big benefit of having quite a few different shows to present is that there's a good variety. A real Smörgåsbord (and yes - I did have to Google the spelling!!) of styles and content so there's something for everyone. Crikey - sounds like marketing pitch...!

Rehearsals Day 30 - (Pt.2) Learning to let go

Despite a somewhat inauspicious start to the day, we managed to get through it... and I have to admit to a little excitement on my part.

It turns out I will be flying at one point in one of the shows - admittedly, I shalln't be doing anything as grand as Valerie would be doing, but it's a start! I haven't ever got much further than clambering up the barricade, so this will be fun. It may well be more of a "hang" than a "fly", but I can't wait.

Better watch that midnight buffet if some poor bit of machinery (or crew!) has to hoist me up!

(Oh - and a P.S. - hopefully you'll have noticed that I've tried where possible to use a line from a song in the title of each blog entry. Answers on a postcard as to which song each comes from. No prizes other than my admiration :-)  )

Rehearsals Day 30 - Saturday morning feeling

I managed to arrive about an hour early for work this morning, so find myself sitting in Starbucks with Sara preparing for the day!

There is a slight air of "end of the week" today - aching, tiredness, lack of ability to form proper sentences... but it's all good. Day off tomorrow for a battery re-charge.

(Skinny Latte, Skinny Muffin, Skinny Mac!)

Rehearsals Day 29 - When will I see you again?

How did that happen?? Day 20 to Day 29? I can assure you it isn't because we HAVEN'T been rehearsing - far from it!

Let me do a quick recap - Day 20 was our "show off" for 'Destination Dance' with a wee bit of 'Hitsville USA' thrown in for good measure.
(Richard explaining some moves to the guys)
We arrived in the morning to be presented with a few props, costumes and bits of set to work with during the run - which added to the panic factor a little! But it went smoothly enough, and we had a little re-cap session with Richard at the end of the day to get our heads back into 'New York City Rhythm' which we dived back into on the following day.

Day 21 ("in the Azura House" ) onwards we carried on working with Richard putting NYCR on it's feet.
(Charles & Neil giving Sara a boost in 'Native New Yorker')
His choreography is fab, exciting and quite complex, and eminently frustrating when you can't get it right!! But it is often the case that when you let go of the stress of trying so hard to get it right, it falls into place. So once it's there, it's there :-)

Monday this week - Day 25 - was our "show off" for NYCR, which seemed to go well enough.
(Scott, Dom & Dan giving it macho!)
As these are all brand new shows, we're quite aware that there will no doubt be some changes and alterations - probably right up to the first time we perform the show for the passengers, but that's fine - all adds to the excitement.

And now? Well now we're about halfway through 'Blame It On The Boogie' which is - have you guessed yet? Yep - a whole heap of 70s!! So we're funking it up with the Bay City Rollers, The Drifters, The Nolans, The Who... you name it. All held together by Charles' multi-character DJ. I'm just looking forward to the platforms and flares... can't wait :-)

Rehearsals Day 20 - Kiss today goodbye...

We gave our "show off" of Destination Dance today - so as it's likely that has been put to bed for a while, I thought now would be a good opportunity to include some more piccies.

Obviously, trying to do a bit of a David Bailey (or was it Bellamy?!) means that I don't get the chance to snap during all the numbers - or ANY that I'm in... so here's a selection of some that I have managed!

(Here's Sara being flung around by Scott and Daniel during the jive number...)

(... and then Scott doing something similar to Holly in the Irish.)

(Whoever would have thought we'd end up with the Virgin Mary's sister in rehearsals!)

(Something very spooky happening to Valerie's head...)

(A lot of skirt action in the Bolero)

(Valerie getting to grips with her hips...)

(A little slice of Africa in south London)

(Feeling it - Sara strikes a pose)

(As if we were in Spain... thanks Steph!)

(Neil giving it "Latin" in his big head...)









(Daniel showing the girls the RIGHT way to wear a dress...)

(Dom unconvinced as Charles and I have a moment)







(A little last minute revision of 'Nightingale' with Leigh)

Rehearsals Day 19 - Where is it all going...

The time, that is. I can't believe that we're already into week 4 of rehearsals.... how with THAT happen?

My slightly 'sporadic' posting during last week was down to nothing more than tiredness and lethargy on my part. It was a hectic week with lots going on, and it clearly took it's toll on my ability to do very much in the evenings at all - other than stretch out my aching bones!!

Last week, once we had given our "show off" of Destination Dance and some snippits of Hitsville USA to the powers that be, we started off with our next show - New York City Rhythm. Another doozy, with some great songs, and some pretty funky dance moves from Richard - our illustrious choreographer for the show. This one is also a little different as there is an original story running through the show, linked together with scripted passages and scenes - nice to have something to get your teeth into.

As we have a big "show off" for even MORE people from head office tomorrow, we spent today working through and cleaning Destination Dance, with some minor re-shaping and adjustments to make sure the show is "just so". This does appear to involve some fairly full on "flesh on leather" action (don't panic- it's nothing dubious - think more panto than porno!) - but nothing we can't handle.

We should also be getting hold of some of the props and 'accessories' that we will be using in the show from tomorrow, so it'll be great to start to get used to using those. And Neil and I got a sneak preview of our big heads (no comments please...) that we will be sporting for the opening section. Photos to follow :-)

Rehearsals Day 15 - Ease on down the road

Ouch... everything is aching now. I'm sure in some way it's good for me... but I'm yet to be convinced by that!! I think perhaps after a hot bath I may feel differently :-)

It's been a day of cleaning and running "Destination Dance" today, with a little "Hitsville USA" thrown in. We've set the whole of the dance show now, which is nice to be able to get a feel for the whole thing. And of course we need to get used to doing it repeatedly, as once we're on board any evening we are performing we will be doing the show 3 times. That's should certainly help with the keeping fit!

We will be showing the material we've learned to some visitors from "the office" (as in our bosses, and not the TV sitcom!) tomorrow, so we have been polishing the various sections, and also smartening up the Motown numbers we worked on during the first week. It seems like a lifetime ago already...

I took a few photos yesterday, but you'll have to wait for those until I retrieve my cable to get them online. I know - I am normally a little more organised.. maybe next week?

Rehearsals Day 13 - A little bit of Africa

OK. So it is still a bit chilly - hardly some sub-Saharan savannah; nor is it really anywhere near the equator - more like Kennington, but we have been trying to bring a little bit of Africa to rehearsals today. We're working on the next number in 'Destination Dance', and for much of the day we have been singing "Ingonyama nengw' enamabala" - which for those of you who are not fluent in Zulu translates as:

"A Lion and a Leopard come to this open place"

So there! In case you come on board and see the show, you will now be able to impress you fellow audience members with your vast linguistic knowledge. Definitely something to amaze and astound people with over dinner!

The dancers have been hammering through the numbers in the show, finishing off the Bolero number, a bit of leaping and stomping in the Lion King number, and putting together the final bits of the Irish section. Bless them - they've been taking in a lot over the past few days!

As we will be showing the 'powers that be' some of the material we covered thus far, we had a good run through our Motown show "Hitsville USA" with Sarah giving us some help and cleaning up what we'd done. And it also gave Neil a chance to have a real go at it, as he missed out on those rehearsals at the start.

So we have a couple of days of cleaning up and perfecting (well, you know what I mean!) the dance show before showing it off and then moving on up to the next one. No rest for the wicked :-)

Rehearsals Day 12 - Piling it on...

Yes - I know there was no "Day 11", but you'll have to get used to that. I was far too tired to write anything on Friday night!!

Today was the last day of week 2, and we are getting towards the end of "Destination Dance" - just a couple of numbers to get through now. A lot of the day was taken up with the guys learning the Bolero section (which I don't feature heavily in... probably for the best!) and then doing a run through for Steve of everything we've done on the show so far.

I can't deny feeling a few aches and pains on getting up and travelling into work over the past couple of days - it's my age, clearly! I think mainly brought on by the hoe-down stuff we've been doing. Oddly, it's actually only about 3 minutes of material, but feels like much longer when you're in the middle of it and the legs are having difficulty keeping up with the brain, which is having difficulty keeping up with the music. It'll get better I'm sure, but I am slightly worried that with all that concentration going on I had the classic "rabbit in the headlights" face on for most of it!

(OK... Rabbit, Monkey - same difference! )

A couple more days on this show for next week, and then - following another run through of the show - we will be moving onto the next one. Crikey. 3rd show in as many weeks. No chance to get bored that's for sure!

Rehearsals Day 10 - Everything's upside down

Mainly Sara, Scott & Neil as it happens! I feared for a short time that it was going to be me - but managed to persuade Rob that my talents would be much better employed dangling poor Scott by his ankles, head-first over the floor.

Scott and Neil were being dangled (Daniel was being Neil's 'dangler'!) in our number from 'The Producers'. It's fab doing a number from a show you've been in, and seeing done in a different way. There may not be any Adolf Pigeons in this one, but there's a few surprises... of course including Valerie!

The next bit of "upside down" work was from our very own Sara, who was held aloft by Scott and Daniel for what seems an age during the Jive number - yes, another dance! If the look on her face following the 'dismount' was anything to go by, she had a whale of time!!

Charles & I spent the rest of the afternoon bombarding poor Neil with music and choreography from Hitsville USA, so he has a slight head-start when it comes to learning it. Yes, so what if it brought on a headache - it's all worth it ;-)

Rehearsals Day 9 - Will drive you Maaaaaaad!

Today has been an odd one, it has to be said. More snow traumas for everyone trying to get into rehearsals for a start. It's tad boring now! And it really makes you yearn to be sailing away on the Azura somewhere warm.... ahhhhh.

Also,  our Ashley has moved onto a different ship (no, not 'The Great Cruise Ship in the Sky' - it's not THAT serious!), so we had our Neil joining us today. Bless them both. But I guess things in life are sent to test you, so you bite the biscuit, pick yourself up, wake up and smell the coffee, knuckle down, buckle under, shake rattle and roll, and weave a tangled web. No... wait - I think I've mixed my metaphors somehow...

Anyway. On with the show. Rob is putting the dancers through their paces this week (well, it is the dance show after all!) and we got some time to go over stuff with Neil - as he has a week's worth of material to catch up with. We've got quite a way through "Destination Dance" now, and covered a fair few dance styles already. (Shimmying-around-in-an-oversized-head" style is currently my personally favourite!)

(La, la, la, la, la, laa-la... etc. the guys having a little 'rest' after the Can-Can)

Our "scrunchy" vocal version of 'A Nightingale Sang...' will be gorgeous (when we nail the lyrics!) and the girls are gliding around behind us - almost literally - and making us look pretty, which is never a bad thing! Should be a lovely moment.

And then they up the ante when Emma & Neil and the rest of the gang with something a little more up tempo. I think we're busy changing into Laderhosen at that point (don't ask!)

(Neil & Emma giving us their routine)

We finished off the day with a run-through of everything we've done so far on this show. Quite exciting really - until it hits you how much we've still got to learn, as we're only on show 2!! Eeek....

Rehearsals Day 8 - Scrunchy

That's a reference to our harmonies - and nothing to do with our costumes (I hope...).

We spent the bulk of today revising the work we'd started with Leigh yesterday on 'Destination Dance', and on our close-harmony ' Nightingale' - which is going to be awesome (even if I do say so myself!). Dominic is involved in this one, with Steph, Sara and myself. So we disappeared off and learned our individual lines separately and then slowly built it up, adding each of us until we were all in the mix. And it's fab; and tight; and scrunchy - mmmmmm!

The dancers had been working on the next number to follow the carnivalistic (I believe I may  have made that word up!) opening, which is a slightly sexier one - you'll have to wait and see what it is. Needless to say,  Valerie is once again doing her special 'thang', and the boys are doing their utmost to keep it sexy. No comment.

Rob asked us to take a look at the finale of the show (which involves the stuff the dancers had been working on during their trip away... and no I'm not bitter) which will eventually involve all of us flinging our legs - but I may be foregoing the pleasure in this case, and leave it to the youngsters. We'll see... perhaps I may be flown in for it... :-)

For some reason, I didn't take any snaps today - so I'll try and remedy that tomorrow.

Rehearsals Day 7 - A new week - a new show!

So that's it - we've moved on! Hitsville USA is in the "ongoing" pile, and our next show - Destination Dance is at the top of the agenda. (Don't believe what hear that where the Singer's dancing is concerned it has been nicknamed 'dance disaster' - that's a cruel rumour!)

(Valerie doing what she does best!)

The Dancers have returned from their sojourn to the outer reaches of Greater London and are back from their extended weekend break. Not that we're bitter... It's great to have people back in the same place - Alford House was a little empty last week without them. Quieter, true, but empty nonetheless.

And today is the FIRST time the whole Azura Headliners cast has been together. Daniel has finished his Panto up in Derby (yep - it would have been a little too far for him to travel each day!) and Natalie has joined us ( - having only auditioned and got the part on Saturday... good girl!) we we're complete. Hurrah!

And no sooner had we all met together at last - than we all scampered off our separate ways to start working on the new material; singers to your singing room; dancers to your mirrors.

(Steph takes to the stage, have done a shimmy or two with her 'dancer boys' [and doesn't she love it!] and the girls join to do her number.)

There is a little less material for us singers to do in this show, as it's the dancers' showcase. So it'll great to have the chance to see a bit of what they've been doing as well.  The show combines some classic dance music, some musical theatre, some film music and some good 'ole Rock & Roll :-) We will be getting the chance to do some really exciting close-harmony work on a version of "A Nightingale Sang In Berkley Square" ... but we're saving that for tomorrow!!

(The dancers get to grips with some Carnival...)
And to finish off the day, Ashley and I were put into the opening number... and forewarned about the big Brazilian Carnival costumes we will have coming our way - comedy! Shimmying to my heart's content :-) I can't wait until there are some photos of that to show you!

Rehearsals Day 6 - It's like a Heatwave...

OK - so it's NOT like a heatwave, it's still blinking freezing - but anyhow!

Final day of the first week, so we've been adding on the choreography for a few numbers in Hitsville USA and smartening up the bits we've already learned.

(Here's Charles and Sara 'bumping' their way through "Heatwave")

Charles has been given a chance  to make use of his long legs, and has been taking over the mantle of 'dancer boy' for the girl's numbers. Lucky him (and lucky them, of course!)

We'll be moving onto a new show next week, which will be quite weird when it feels like we've only just started on THIS one! There's still a bit more to learn, so we will no doubt be coming back to it again soon... fingers crossed!

(Sara getting the low-down on some of next week's music from Leigh)

The Dancers have had the day off today (lucky buggers - school trip, hotel stays, exciting "off site pre-production work" (are you getting the idea with that yet?!), meals out, comedy paint effect... for some of them anyhow ;-) Sounds like lots of fun to me - when's our trip away?

Following the now almost daily trip to Tescos (eeek - that has got to stop!) we spent some time during the afternoon working on the Smokey Robinson section, which gives Ashley the chance to do his 'thang'.

(If you look closer it's easy to trace the tracks of his tears, ya know!)


With a quick look at the last number, the whole show is finally coming together. It'll be fab once we can get the last few bits sorted and try the WHOLE thing. We've also been working with some tracks of the original artists, which has been helpful to get the feel of the styles and rifs and 'interpretation' - so now we need to do our versions. I am sure they will be definitive... in one way or another!!

And yet again, to end the day, I got over excited by some of the material in the next show - Destination Dance. Admittedly the 'dance' bit will not be down to us so much (!) but there are some great numbers in it - and a little bit of comedy to boot... watch this space :-)

(Charles and Sarah discussing the finer points of the Motown era...)

Rehearsals Day 5 - Reach out for Meeeeeee!!

Us boys got done with Stevie's section this morning (that's Stevie Wonder to you and me), in a suitably macho way... well, as macho as we could muster on a Friday morning :-) and then we all hunkered down upstairs with Leigh (our MD) to hammer out some more harmonies.

(Some serious (!) work around the paino...)

It's all very well us thinking we'd learned certain sections just because we vaguely knew the steps and could sing-along, a la Karaoke. But no - we really DIDN'T know them very well at all.

Along with a little uncertainty with the harmonies ran a wee touch of uncertainty over the TUNE of some songs as well.

("Are you really SURE that's a G#?")

It's a case of hearing the tune from one line in the chorus; thinking "Oh, I know that one..."; then trying to actually sing it and realising what you know was just that - one line of the chorus! Hey ho. All part of the process I guess. It's great really though, as it means we're spending time listening to some great classic tracks, which is no real hardship.

Following a quick trip out for lunch, we finished off the last bits of harmony - so in theory we've learned it all now. In theory. Wait and see what the revision session tomorrow brings to light!

And of course, as it's Friday night, we thought it best we pop over to the "local" for a quick drink after rehearsals. Mine was a quick drink, but I left Jerry, Sara and Charles in the Pub... where they may well still be for all I know!

And we're planning to get t-shirts printed with our respective 'gender'/'number'/'pertinent comment' emblazoned on the front... mine would currently be "Boy 1 - I'm smokin'" (don't ask!), Ashley could be "Boy 2 - Tango" (a visual gag more than anything...) and Charles would be "Boy 3 - [something not to be written on my blog!]" But we'll see....

Rehearsals Day 4 - Signed, Sealed, Delivered

With More Snow. More late trains. More Dancing. More Singing. Apart from the first two, what more could you want from a day!

With the dancers away on their "pre-production" mission (- don't ask me about it, because if I told you I'd have to kill you! -) we had Alford House to ourselves today, and got down to it straight off the bat. Most of the material we'd worked on during Tuesday had stuck... with just a few 'pointers' needed from Jerry & Sarah.
(Ashley & Charles discuss the finer points of Motown, whilst Sara and Sarah bevel their socks off as the Supremes)
Steph & Sara took over the mantel as they 'became' the Supremes for their section, so we boys hid away in another room and howled through the new BVs and harmonies we'd got yesterday. Perhaps 'howled' is a little unfair :-) To give the girls a breather, and Steph the chance to head off to be a wicked queen, the boys began making friends with Mr Stevie Wonder's material on the dance floor. I'm sure he'd be impressed!!

Slightly scary is the fact that we only have 2 days left this week, and will need to have basically completed work on Hitsville USA, to be ready to move on to your "next" show on Monday. But exciting too, as it means a whole load more new material to work on. Bring it on, I say.

Oh - and although this won't mean much to many of you, today - for the record:
Ashley: "No way"
Jerry: "Ask me again in 6 months"

I'll explain this another time!

Rehearsals Day 3 - Stormy Weather

Clearly that's not a reference to the title of a song we're doing, or with any internal cast politics and more a reference to the fact that half the company struggled to get into rehearsals today... the snow is pretty enough, but a pain when you've got routines to learn!

(Our rehearsal space - Alford House... pre-snow!)

More work on Hitsville USA today, with some consolidation of our dance learned from yesterday (and yes - we pretty much remembered all of it... we even ran it WITHOUT mirrors....ooooh!) and then heading on into the mass of BVs (backing vocals) we'll be doing as well. Cool :-)

Us singers were left along today as the dancers headed off to do some 'off site pre-production work'. Which is a way of me saying "I'm not telling you what they were doing"! Suffice to say it's just another part of one of the exciting staging pieces that will be in our shows. Plenty more where that came from as well it seems.

Sadly, as Steph is still working hard as the Wicked Queen in "Snow White" at the Thameside Theatre (you can still catch it if you hurry!) and had to dash off early, she missed out on a little preview the producers gave us of the set drawings for the stage in the Playhouse Theatre onboard. They looked awesome, and I can't wait to see how it looks 'in the flesh' when we get to Italy.

Fingers crossed the weather gets no worse and we can actually carry on learning the stuff to put ON the stage!