CINDERELLA - Derby Playhouse

It’s Panto time, and that means every theatre up and down the country will be opening its festive production. I’m taking a year off from pantomime this Christmas because I’ve been flat out with teaching Musical Theatre at colleges around Cornwall since last December. So, instead, I wanted to look back on one particular pantomime that I did, and which I am still so incredibly proud of.

In 2000, I was asked to be the Musical Director and Musical Arranger for the Derby Playhouse production of Cinderella. The Playhouse's pantomimes had always been so well received and reviewed, with audiences traveling from all over the area, and so it was a real pleasure to be asked to take over the reins in their 35th Anniversary year. It was to be the usual mix of pop songs plus new material, which I would end up writing during and after rehearsals.

Under the expert direction of Mark Clements and Hannah Chissick, the entire cast and crew created a truly unforgettable production that included the most amazing flying horse that I have ever seen in a theatre. The mechanical horse was built in-house by ex-Rolls Royce engineer Alan Jackson, and the sight of it flying out into the audience at the end of Act 1 was absolutely magical.

The end of Act 1 was the biggest section of music that I had to write for Cinderella, and it contained the transformation, a UV scene, and the flying horse. The tech for this section alone took us two days, but all of the hard work was definitely worth it. Unlike the shorter runs you find today, we played from 28th November 2000 to 20th January 2001! The Derby Playhouse would become the Derby Theatre in 2009, and I am so pleased that I got the chance to work at this incredible venue.

The cast was made up of Nicky Adams (Dandini), Pete Dunwell (Buttons), Caroline Head (Prince Charming), John Jardine (Baron Hardup), Laura Strachan (Cinderella), Juliet Prew (Fairy Godmother), Gary Sharkey (Ugly Sister - Abby) and Andrew Westfield (Ugly Sister - Fabby).

The creative team was Author Mark Clements (Author & Director), Hannah Chissick (Director), Steve Hill (Musical Director), Chris Crosswell (Design), Colin Mayes (Costume), Alexandra Stafford (Lighting), Nick Greenhill (Sound), Madeleine Loftin (Choreographer) along with Greg Hagger (Bass), Jim Fleeman (Drums) and Paul Brown (Guitar).

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE

This year marks an incredible 30 years since I took on my first Musical Director role on the original UK tour of Five Guys Named Moe. The show had been phenomenally successful in London’s West End, opening first at the Lyric Theatre in 1990 before transferring to the Albery Theatre in 1995, and so being entrusted musically with the first British touring production was a great honour.

The original Director, Musical Supervisor and Producer were all so supportive - Charles Augins, Neil McArthur and Cameron Mackintosh - and we played to packed houses up and down the country. I have so many memories of that time, but will never forget being bundled into the back of a black cab by Charles after the first performance, on the way to the opening-night party, and him playfully saying, “We need to talk about them tempos, boy”.

I have gone on to work with so many of those cast, band and creatives on other shows over the years, but unfortunately only got to work with Charles Augins once. He truly was a legend, which is why everybody that worked with him was so sad to hear of his death in July of this year. Five Guys Named Moe was an incredible experience, not just because it launched my career,, but I could never have imaged at the time that it would be a show that I would return to 22 years later!

The 1995 cast was made up of Jon Clairmont (Nomax), Parrish Collier (Four-Eyed Moe), Robert Grose (No Moe), Paul Hazel (Eat Moe), Horace Oliver (Little Moe), Walter Herron Reynolds III (Big Moe) along with David Christopher, Christopher Coloquhoun, Lothair Eaton and Colin Roy Patterson.

The 1995 creative team was Charles Augins (Director & Choreographer), Tim Goodchild (Designer), Andrew Bridge (Lighting Director), Noel Howard (Costumes), Bobby Aitken (Sound Design), Stacey Haynes (Resident Director), Neil McArthur (Musical Supervisor), Steve Hill (Musical Director), Maurice Cambridge (Orchestral Management) and Cameron Mackintosh (Producer).

When I was asked to go for a meeting about returning to Five Guys Named Moe in 2017 as the Musical Director and Musical Supervisor, it felt as though everything had come full circle. Rehearsals were due to start within a week of the date of that first tour, the original writer would be the Director, my original Little Moe was now my Big Moe, and I even had the drummer back from that 1995 tour.

The London revival was staged in a specially constructed Spiegel tent, and was called the Marble Arch Theatre. Directed by Clarke Peters, who was the writer and the original Four-Eyed Moe, it took its inspiration from that original London production but this time had audiences on three sides. Nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, we opened on 14th September 2017 and finished the limited run on 24th March 2018. Five Guys Named Moe will always be an important part of my career, but will it return to me for a third time?

The 2017 cast was made up of Edward Baruwa (Nomax), Ian Carlyle (Four-Eyed Moe), Dex Lee (Know Moe), Emile Ruddock (Eat Moe), Idriss Kargbo (Little Moe), Horace Olivier (Big Moe) along with Omari Douglas, Nathanial Morrison and Mykal Rand.

The 2017 creative team was Clarke Peters (Director), Andrew Wright (Choreographer), takis (Designer), Philip Gladwell (Lighting Director), Ben Harrison (Sound Design), Mykal Rand (Resident Director), Steve Hill (Musical Supervisor & Musical Director), Sean Whittle (Associate Musical Director), Sylvia Addison (Orchestral Management) and Underbelly/Steven Harris (Producers).

You can watch the trailer for the 2017 London Revival Production below.

FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY

This October I'll be returning to Falmouth University to teach repertoire with the Musical Theatre students on the three-year BA(Hons) course. Alongside Naomi Schulke, we’ll be working on helping them find their individuality through the material and also cementing their song choices, so that they can be used for both industry auditions and public performances.

Having a solid repertoire of rehearsed material is vital in today's industry, as auditions can often be at very short notice. So, if an actor's song selections include a variety of styles from various decades, a lot of the pressure is taken out of those first-round auditions.

It was wonderful to be invited by Lewis Butler to teach at the University as a Visiting Tutor when I first moved down to Cornwall in 2024, and so returning to Falmouth for the 2025 autumn term will be an exciting addition to an already very busy year.