We're off...

I'm afraid my daily blogging fell victim to the stresses and strains of opening the show, and we're now well and truly on our way. Our dress rehearsals went amazingly smoothly, as did the previews, and I can only hope the audience enjoyed our press-night performance as much as I did. I'm not surprised at all to find that the show is great, great fun to perform, and people's responses to having seen it are so far very favourable, I'm pleased to say. All in all, I'm really chuffed with what we've got and am excited about sharing it with as many people as possible over the coming weeks. Hope you can come and have a peak yourself...

Week 5 - Thursday

Day two of our technical rehearsal, or 'tech', and perhaps now would be a good moment to explain briefly what a tech is. Basically, it's the first time every element of the production comes together. Costumes, lights, sound, scenery and props are from now on exactly as they will be in performance. We start from the very beginning and work gradually through the whole play, going over every scene- and costume-change, lighting and sound cue, entrance and exit, until each one is happening smoothly and at the right time.

It's a slow, laborious process and usually takes several days just to get through the play once. West End musicals and other big technical shows can have techs lasting a week or more. There's a lot of waiting around while lighting cues are re-plotted, or more efficient scene-changes figured out, and all the while the costumes are being observed under the lights, and changes made where necessary. For us actors, it's also an opportunity to get very familiar with the layout of the theatre, and plot our various journeys through the play: where to go for each change, what entrance to use etc. We can also use the time to get accustomed to the performance space: what the acoustic is like, or what the sight-lines for each part of the audience are like and so on.

So there you have it. When you next hear an actor talk about 'going into tech', hopefully you'll have a bit more of an idea what that means.

Week 5 - Wednesday

Our first day of tech. Usually, in totally new surroundings and with so many new technical elements to take on board, techs can make you feel like a pretty useless actor. It feels like all your work has gone out of the window and you don't believe a word you're saying. For some reason, I felt totally the opposite today. Not that I suddenly became sensational or anything, but I felt very much more comfortable than I had in the rehearsal room.

There are a number of factors here I think. One is that for once no one is remotely interested in the quality of your acting. They care if you're in the right place at the right time, wearing the right clothes and holding the right props, but for now the standard of your performance is pretty irrelevnnt. This really eases the pressure. Free from the shackles of scrutiny, you can play the scenes on your own terms and have some fun. Another factor is that because you're suddenly faced with the banks of empty seats where the audience will be, exactly what you have to do to communicate the story to them is immediately more clear. Everything seems simpler. It's also in the nature of a tech that you repeat things over and over, which in itself is no bad thing.

Slow but steady progress through the play, and we were apparently on schedule at the end of the day. When I had the chance, I snuck 'out front' for a peak, and the show looks and sounds fantastic.

Week 5 - Tuesday

Our last day in the rehearsal room. We had a very productive morning, mostly searching for a higher gear in our performance energy for the songs. When you've so much to think about all at once in an actor-musician show like this, one strand of your various tasks can sometimes unconsciously take a bit of a back seat. Often it's the lyrics that suffer as we all start to mutter a bit. We've had several notes about this issue from Ian, so it was really helpful to drill the numbers with this in mind. Everyone was much happier with the results.

Our final run before tomorrow's technical rehearsal (or tech) was a good one, and a definite step forward. Most of our morning's work had been retained, and the general energy level was certainly higher than yesterday. The show's not quite baked-through yet, but a few days in the oven of the tech should see to that.

Week 5 - Monday

Another morning of preparation for an afternoon run. 'Working notes' I suppose you'd call it, with the choreographer and musical director. Part of the morning was difficult because we found that setting one of the songs raised some convention questions which we couldn't really answer definitively without Ian in the room.

The run was a little mechanical, or 'Monday-ish' as Ian put it, but sometimes this can be no bad thing because it beds in some of the technical challenges of running the whole play together, and provides a firmer platform for the future. Let's hope so anyway.

Week 4 - Friday

I learned a bit of a lesson today. I'm someone who likes to retain a little bit of freedom and improvisation in the staging of scenes, as I'm sure a number of exasperated ex-colleagues would tell you... Because of this, in my first scene, where I have to handle a whole load of different props, I've tried not to have all the various picking-ups-and-putting-downs set in stone too much. The trouble was, I was finding myself having to think about those things instead of about the scene, when for the character these physical tasks would be second nature. So before today's run, I spent a bit of time working out exactly when and where I'd put my clipboard down, and when I'd pick up the boots etc etc. It really paid off. I felt much more comfortable in the scene because I wasn't tripping myself up with the props all the time. And ironically, I felt the scene actually had more freedom, because I wasn't constrained by physical uncertainty.

In fact, I found the whole run much more enjoyable than yesterday. I just felt like a play, instead of some scenes we'd chucked up in the air to see where they fell. Went into the weekend with a great deal of optimism.

Week 4 - Thursday

A bits-and-bobs morning in preparation for our first full run in the afternoon. The run itself felt a bit like being lost in an enormous forest that I'd visited before in a dream. The immediate surroundings were familiar, but it was very hard to keep a sense of how things fitted together. Parts of act one still felt very uncertain and under-rehearsed, and although act two still seems in good shape, that wasn't so much of a pleasant surprise this time. Still, I think the other actors are doing some really great work.

Dennis King, the composer, came to watch the run, which was great. We've had such a good time working on his fantastic music, so it was nice to have an opportunity to thank him for it. I found my violin-playing became a little tense, but I think I can forgive myself that. Dennis seemed extremely pleased with how the production was shaping up, which is really encouraging.

Week 4 - Wednesday

So... a run of act two. We all felt this was in much better shape than act one had been when we ran it. Plenty to do of course, but definite cause for optimism.

In the afternoon we went back to act one and did some more detailed work, particularly on the opening of the squad's Jungle Jamboree show. The musical stops-and-starts that time in with the brilliantly awful gags are quite complex, but they work really well when we nail them.

Week 4 - Tuesday

The final sequence of scenes was our focus in the morning, which wasn't too tough going for me, for reasons that will become clear when you see the play! The afternoon was mainly spent working on the links between scenes - a similar job to the one we did with act one. There is a nice, logical progression from scene to scene in act two, which makes it easier to remember what is coming next.

The evening session was spent entirely on the music, which I really enjoyed. It's a great relief not to have to worry about dance steps, or the next scene, or what you just messed up in the previous one, and just concentrate on one thing. I think we made some real progress.

Week 4 - Monday

For the first part of this week we'll be concetrating on getting the second half ready for a run on Wednesday morning. The Privates on Parade sequence is a major part of the second half - its anchor-point if you like - so it's great knowing that we've already worked that section a great deal. The scene that follows it will I think be one of my favourites, and it takes place in a railway carriage on the 'up-country' tour. There's a great dynamic between the four squaddies, with lots of banter and micky-taking, but this time with a sting in the tale...

Week 3 - Friday

In the morning we showed off the results of yesterday's graft to Ian, who seemed pleased I think. We then did a few bits and bobs in preparation for a run of the first half in the afternoon. The run had some good moments despite being a little scrappy in general, but that's to be expected at this stage. It was really useful to have that entire half laid out in front of us so we could see clearly what needed some extra attention.

Week 3 - Thursday

We were a director down today, so we took the opportunity of drilling and polishing lots of the the dances and music. It was a tough day, and we finished a little before our intended 9pm release-date because basically everyone was too tired to think any more. There will definitely be a positive pay-off for a day like this though.

Week 3 - Wednesday

A dancey day. We gave the opening song a much-needed polish, and finished setting the mountain that is the Privates on Parade number. A little look too at the shower scene (don't get excited - it's not how it sounds!) and the funeral. Everyone's quite tired, it seems.

Week 3 - Tuesday

After the Bank Holiday Monday off, we're back to the grindstone. Bits and bobs of music and dancing in the morning, including the setting of the Flanagan and Allen song, which hopefully should be quite charming. The moves are simple and economical, which I think is sometimes harder to carry off well than complex choreography. You can't hide behind the steps - each one has to be executed with precision, and hopefully a little style and grace.

Much of the afternoon and evening was spent going through the play, looking at scene changes and finding ways of making sure that instruments are where they need to be for each song. It's slow work, but with a piece like this, all of that mechanical, technical stuff really needs to be done before you can start running scenes together.

Rehearsal photo album

Week 2 - Friday

The end of week two. We're roughly half way through our time in the rehearsal room, so it's time to take stock. At the moment it's very hard to get any perspective on where we are with the play as a whole. There are so many different technical elements to the piece, with so much music and dancing and so on, that it takes a long time until things are ready to be run together. Nevertheless, some individual sections feel well on the way, and I feel fairly confident about getting all the music learned in time - we'll largely be playing without sheet music. I think when we do start stringing the material together, we'll be pleasantly surprised by just how much we have under our belts already.

I had my first costume fitting this morning. It's always a real privilege having clothes made for you, and fascinating to see the garments in various stages of development, being refined slightly according to their fit or to the designer's taste. Some of the clothes are hired or bought, but look out for my pin-stripe jacket, South American frills and Cinderella ball-gown... Tailor-made, darling, tailor made!

Week 2 - Thursday

Most days, I come in a bit before rehearsal to warm up and do some violin exercises. This morning I was working on my bowing and repeating the same sequence of notes over and over when a lady came in to clean the room. By the time she was finished I was still looping the same few bars, and she stood in the doorway and looked at me, clearly of the opinion that I was one fiddle short of a string section. She's probably right.

We made a start on the staging of the title number this morning, which so far isn't quite as complex for me as the opening, partly because I don't play and sing at the same time too much, and also because (to start with, at least) we're marching in formation rather than doing complicated steps. It's a great song, and will be a lot of fun to perform.

Also had our first proper look at the little Flanagan-and-Allen-style duet that I have with Matt Woodyatt. It's my job to give a hint of how Allen performed in their songs, which was mostly just speaking, leaving Flanagan to carry the melody. I've listened to a few of their recordings already, but now that I know which of the two I'll be 'giving', I'll need to do some research in a bit more detail.

Week 2 - Wednesday

Today we were revisiting scenes from the first half for the first time. Second rehearsals tend to be so much easier than the first, because by then you're much more familiar with the lines, your fellow actors, the director, the rehearsal room and the rest of the play. I felt a lot more grounded when returning to the first scene, which is moving in the right direction. It needs to find its rhythm a bit, which it will do I'm sure.

We set the rest of the dance for the opening number, which I almost certainly will have forgotten by tomorrow. David and Joe also rehearsed their number, and I was pleased to find I was able to do the violin part without music... So that's one down, umpteen to go...

Week 2 - Tuesday

More music in the morning. There's a great piece which runs into the scene on the railway carriage, where parts of the opening number are heard again, but this time broken up by bits of underscoring that give a sense of the accelerating train and the squad's journey in to the unknown. It's very atmospheric, but quite complex with various shifts in pace etc. so we spent a fair while getting a sense of the shape of it.

In the afternoon we started setting the dance for the opening number. It's going to be great fun when we've got it, but for now it's a bit of a brain squeezer for me because I'm dancing, singing and playing all at the same time. Crikey. We also watched a documentary together about the 'emergency' in post-war Malaya which is the context for our play. Fascinating stuff, and it was good to have a reminder of just what it was like for people to be living with their lives constantly in danger.

Week 2 - Monday

A latish start for me today, which meant that I could wave my wife and daughter off at the station before heading to rehearsals - these things make all the difference.

We had a brief look at a scene involving a military funeral, which will require a fair amount of practice to make it precise enough to be credible rather than mildly humorous! Other than that it's not too complex a scene.

The afternoon was mainly spent setting one of the dances, which I help provide the music for. This meant going over each section of the music many times, so it was a useful way of getting some violin practice in. Not overly taxing for the other band members and me, but you might hear a different story from the dancers...

Day Five

The end of our first week, and it's amazing how much we've covered. Many of the songs are very familiar to us now, and are rattling round my head for most of the day and night. We've come less far in terms of the actual scenes, but it's really important that the music and dances are looked at early on to get them well bedded-in. There's plenty of time for the scenes to come alive in the coming weeks.

The company depart for a well-earned weekend break, although I'm sure many of us will spend a good whack of it getting some words and dots memorised. ('Dots' meaning musical notes.) Some people disappear off to their loved ones back home, and others will stick around to see a bit of Leeds - our first opportunity to hit the arcades!

Day Four

A first stab at some scenes today. The first time you put a scene 'on its feet' is always a little awkward and stumbling, but it's good to have a preliminary sketch of the scene's physical shape.

One of our company is ex-army and he put us through our paces with a few drills of standing to attention, at ease, and a little marching and halting. Obviously to real soldiers these actions are so well-practiced as to become totally automatic, and it's important that we work towards that ourselves. So the more we're drilled by our honorary Sergeant-Major the better, as far as I'm concerned. I hope I don't regret that thought...

Day Three

We've now at least touched upon all the music for act one, which is great progress. The music is really fun to play, and Sarah seems to think we're playing well together, which is encouraging.

The big event of the day for me was getting my hair cut! For every show I've done for the last couple of years, the designer has always asked me to let my hair grow, and it was getting a little too long for my taste - right down to my shoulders... This is not a good look for a man of progressively depleting follicles! So quite a relief to get a soldier's short-back-and-sides. I don't think they had hippies in the army in 1948.

Day Two

We worked through the whole text again, this time stopping to check the meanings or pronunciations of any Hindi or other non-English words with Peter Nichols, as well as military slang and various references etc. Peter also gave us a fascinating talk about some of the real characters he'd been writing about, and told some great stories about his time in Singapore on which the play is based.

The afternoon was given over totally to music. I play the violin, which means that in theory I ought to be able to sing one line of music and play another, unlike the woodwind or brass. This is always a struggle, but it's very rewarding to be able to do once you've put the work in. Lots to be learned!

Day One

First days are always slightly nerve-wracking for all concerned. Many a new name to learn, and the dreaded read-through - the latter made an even more daunting task than usual by the presence of the playwright. Still, a great privilege to have Peter Nichols around for the first few days to answer our many questions, and he put everyone at their ease by singing along heartily to the play's songs as they were played by the composer Denis King.

The exciting compensation for the day's nerves comes with the showing of the set model, which looks fantastic. Mark Bailey went through the key scenes of the play, showing us roughly how the stage would be set out for each one. It's great to be able to picture clearly where we're all heading.

Finally, the musical director Sarah Travis lead us through our first bash at some of the music, which will all be played by the acting company in this show. It's sounding great right from the off, and Denis King seems particularly pleased - and perhaps a little relieved!

I'm already really impressed by how efficiently all the theatre's staff seem to be running things. They had us all measured up for our costumes in about 10 minutes, and the rehearsal room looks brilliantly organised and ready to go.

A good start!