Nine Edinburgh Festival

The London Run

2010-09-05T11:35:00.001-07:00

And so it all begins again... The poster has been approved and the first few have been displayed around school. Tomorrow the tickets are officially on sale. The email will be sent to all current parents and a downloadable copy will be on the website. Please get your order in as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Preparations for London

2010-09-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

The London run is about to get underway, with the first scheduled meeting tomorrow in The Royal. In the meantime, here's an email we received from a Lovely Couple in Oxfordshire:

We had a six-day splurge at the Edinburgh Festival in early August. One of the shows we saw was Nine presented by your students. It was one of our highlights. By way of comparison we had earlier in the day gone to see an American High School production of Applause. Absolutely dire. So it was a great pleasure to restore our faith in student productions by enjoying this dynamic and highly-professional production of Nine. The performers and band were superb. Inspired by an example of musical theatre we had not seen before, we got the movie version out of the library. Frankly the lead performances by Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench did little to enhance the show. So we will happily remember your production as definitive. Congratulations to Eltham College.

regards
David and Vicki Campbell

I would like to say that I like these people very much indeed.

The Last Performance

2010-08-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting the grandparents of Keyboard One. Apart from being lovely people, they are also followers of the blog and were fulsome in their praise. I have therefore sacrificed sleep to get up and write a few final lines on the day of our last show. I gather they are not my only followers among the grandparental fraternity. Obviously my blog appeals to a mature audience. I am a sort of Terry Wogan for Edinburgh fans. Frankly, I’m pleased to know that anyone is bothering to read it, as I’m sure that the majority of the cast never take the time.

It’s a shame that we have come to our final performance, but I am so pleased with the show and can’t quite believe that we made it work. Publicity has gone well this year thanks to our friends in orange on the Mile. We are definitely at an advantage to be able to go out with a live band, but I also have to single out the sheer star quality of Maurice La Fleur (the artist formerly known as Mr Bumble) whose rendition of “Folies Bergère” is a huge crowd-pleaser. It’s also the best number in the show, but it really is the flimsiest, most gratuitious big production number in a musical ever. Suddenly La Fleur says, “Tell him what I did to that designer who double crossed me when I owned the Folies Bergère….”. It’s an extraordinarily brazen way of shoehorning in a wonderful song which has absolutely no relevance to the plot whatsoever. Is it even possible for one person to own said nightclub? I guess we should count ourselves lucky that it was the Folies Bergère which he owned. What would the modern day equivalent be? “Tell him what I did to that customer who double crossed me when I owned Primark…to that waiter…when I owned Nando’s.” And so on. There is no doubt that we were lucky to get Bumble back. He must be good – even Ms Patronising from Broadway World thought so.

Talking of reviews, I am disappointed that at least three publications have reviewed us but then nothing has been published so far. There’s not much point in reviewing shows after we have gone home. I am also sorry that once again “The Scotsman” hasn’t bothered to see us. After three years, it would have been good for them to come because although we have a youngish cast, the production values are high and the show choice is not exactly “High School Musical”. I don’t think there are many Edinburgh shows with a 12 piece band, and it’d be good to get a little more credit where it’s due.

The actual performances are always the easiest point of the day. I have had to deal with some backstage unrest from some quarters and allegations of disorganisation. I wasn’t especially thrilled by that, as the most of the work on this show has been driven by Self (since April) alongside Producer, Musical Director, Assistant Musical Director, Lighting Designer and Lee. The actors just have to turn up and still they complain. To stop the wave of discontent, I had to make an emotional speech on stage after Thursday’s show to explain some of the rationale behind our decisions and remind them that I wasn’t built for moving scenery. I hope it’s all blown over. I am certain that this is our best production to date and have been amazed by the support we have had from so many people, especially all those who have made the effort to come up here from London to lend a hand.

I’ll sign off for now – there may just be time for a value breakfast in Musselburgh’s Burgh café before we go in to do publicity. 48 pre-sales this morning is the highest figure yet, so I’m hoping for a good House to end on.

2010-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Half Way

I have escaped the joys of communal living and made an early journey into Edinburgh to get a break from a common room of thirty five excitable, loud young people. For the first time in weeks, I have some time to myself and I am enjoying it in an Italian café not far from Waverley Station. It’s almost a sunny morning here too, which is great because the one drawback of being here in August is that it’s utterly freezing.

‘Nine’ is going really well, certainly far better than I dared hope. The first couple of days were quite hard going. Having arrived on Thursday evening, we had to be in the venue by 7am on Friday for the hell of the Technical Rehearsal. It was nothing like as hellish as last year, but still to have to programme all the lighting cues in four hours is a tall order. It certainly was for our newly appointed Lighting Designer (promoted from Bassoon Two last year), who keeps us biting our nails with his innovative approach of plotting as we go and stubbornly refusing to refer to a script for cues. Instead, he and I have developed a great system whereby I sit I front of him and give elaborate hand signals and, occasionally, angry gestures to ensure that the right button is pressed at the right moment. Thanks to a bit of extra time from the venue, we have now got the lighting just about as we’d like it, and I’m hoping that from today I can sit more centrally in the auditorium. I have to say the technical support we have received at C this year has been great. I’m sure it’s partly because we are more experienced, but that sense of students sitting around finding fault with our every move seems to have gone. The relationship between Francesca and Costume Designer lightens everyone’s mood. I’m still deeply disappointed with our poster allocation, but fear not, dear reader, I am taking matters into my own hands.

We did have the luxury of a dress rehearsal this year, and somehow the fact that it didn’t go particularly well meant that for our opening show on Saturday there was an excess of fear which translated into an amazing first performace. There were 93 people in the auditorium, which I think is amazing for a show which certain people told me would be hard to sell. We had almost the same number in on Monday and 120 yesterday, so I am feeling pretty vindicated. The fact is that I simply cannot bear the thought of investing so much time, energy and money into something I don’t love. And I really do love ‘Nine’, much more than I love ‘Oliver!’ If you don’t know its music, then it’s you who is missing out. Having watched the show four times now, what I like about it most is that every song is strong. Obviously ‘Folies Bergère’ is a highlight, but there is so much variety in the score. Why isn’t it more famous?

Monday was probably our best performance to date. We had an excellent audience whose obvious intelligence meant that they laughed at all the right moments and helped us to unearth some hidden comedy in lines which I had never found funny before. A highlight of Monday’s performace was being approached at the end by my new friend Mehmet Ergen, Artistic Director of the Arcola Theatre. He was full of praise for our production and we had a very good chat in the C Bar afterwards. The obviously warm atmosphere on Monday makes me all the more annoyed by Ms Broadway World, whose review banged on about the age of the cast and the fact that they are too young to understand the emotions they are portraying. Well, love, the point of the Fringe is that it is a place for young people to perform in shows which they might not do elsewhere, and perhaps if you had such an aversion to youthful amateurs doing adult shows, you should have gone to a different show before you put your patronising pen to paper. What gives these people the right to get a free ticket to a show and then fail to point out that the other 92 people in the auditorium were having a great time? The real problem I have with Edinburgh critics is that the majority of them are no more professional than we are. I didn’t invite Ms. Broadway World to my show, which means that by my reckoning she owes us about ten quid, whereas the gentleman from The New Current who last night gave us a five star review is now officially my New Best Friend. You can read it here:

http://www.thenewcurrent.com/2010/08/10/edinburgh-fringe-2010-review-%e2%80%93-nine-c-venue/

Apart from doing the show, we have been quite busy on the Royal Mile doing publicity. We have been really lucky to get cancellations on the stages; musical performances always work well. I feel sorry for performers who have to actually act al fresco, because it’s always hard to hear what they are saying. When we return next year, I’d like us to be able to appoint a full time Publicity person because our one remaining problem is that we are trying to wear too many hats at once. I do think that we have one of the best posters on the Fringe, and it’s a delight to see it adorn The Mile. And the cast have been really good about flyering; there has been almost no complaining at all.

In free time, the most people have been good about going and seeing other shows. Sound Operator seems to have given up eating and sleeping in her quest to see absolutely everything (for free) which C Venues have to offer. Somehow I just can’t share her enthusiasm. Time off in the early days of the run is precious and I’d rather enjoy The Garden than risk the avant garde. Anyway, time to sign off now and await the arrival of The Cast to go and sell our final four shows.

Day Three

2010-08-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

It’s just been hectic to keep up with this blog. Our rehearsal period was so intense and the first couple of days in Edinburgh so manic that I simply have had no time to put finger to keyboard. To quote Don Henley, “a lot of things have happened, since the last time we spoke. Some of them are funny, some of them ain’t no joke”. Mostly things have been really good and the main thing is that we had a great first couple of performances (with 92 people there on Saturday) and at this very early stage in the run, “Nine” is shaping up to be everything we hoped it would become.

The second half of the London rehearsal period went pretty smoothly. Set construction was much easier this year, partly because we avoided the evil that is steel deck and bought four very cool trusses, those tall metallic towers on which they hang lights for rock concerts. The legendary Dave Factotum made us an authentic Italian camera onto which Artist painted the words Cinecitta, although I am beginning to regret that particular prop as it has developed a mind of its own and keeps getting in the way during the Grand Canal sequence. The only real props hitch we had was the lack of Stefan IKEA chairs, which was one of those problems which was only solved by the selflessness of Self, who, having spent the whole day rehearsing and then tidying up the theatre, was forced to drive to sunny Croydon to buy said chairs. Ultimately it wasn’t the chairs which were the problem, it was the meatballs. For some reason the IKEA restaurant was running a Swedish food promotion, which meant that I was refused meatballs on their own. Instead I was informed by a somewhat belligerent distribution lady that I could only partake of their meatballs in combination with some decidedly rancid looking fish. To add insult to injury, it was live music night, which meant that I was forced to listen to a particularly nasty rendition of “My heart will go on” as I sat there alone enjoying the Swedish fare.

Phil The Printer pulled out all the stops to get the programme completed on time, although he does exaggerate. There really was no need to describe it as “the usual cock-up”. Time has taught me that he likes to moan a bit, but always comes up trumps once the glitches have been ironed out.

Many of us travelled up by train this year, which was certainly a huge relief for me as it meant that I didn’t have to drive that hateful heap of metal known as The Minibus. The train was full and we couldn’t all sit together, but Musical Director and I enjoyed Costume Designer’s company as he flirted with Ticket Inspectress and entertained those around. The “In Train Dining Experience” (I made that up, but I’m sure that’s what they would have called it if they had found words awful enough) was a major disappointment. Why can our mainland trains not be more European, with space to enjoy a six pound bottle of Chardonnay? I asked The Lady whether there was anywhere one could enjoy their overpriced merchandise, to which she replied, “Aye, there,” and pointed to the teasing corridor leading to First Class and posher, richer, successful people.

There’s a certain familiarity about The Burgh 09 and 10. Both accommodation and venue are the same as last year. The actual house and the facilities are fine, but I really am not enchanted by Musselburgh. On the first night the restaurant we went to served tinned peas and oven chips with everything. Mrs Sowerberry (on the flute this year) burnt the toast on our second morning, which meant that my alarm clock turned into a fire alarm and two members of the cast didn’t think that the fire alarm was for their benefit and thus took a ridiculous amount of time to emerge. This infuriated Patricia, our hostess, who berated them with the soon to become legendary Scottish phrase “Four minutes – shoddy!” I’m sure her anger at this early arising had nothing to do with her birthday celebrations of the night before….LOL (Footnote to adults reading blog – I am aware that this is not good English, but when you spend intense periods of time with teenagers, you have to mould your speech patterns into formulae which they can understand. I learnt this lesson at the age of five when we moved to Derbyshire and I knew that I had to adopt the local dialect overnight to avoid being bullied).

No more time to write now. We have to rehearse our performance set for the street.

Programme notes

2010-08-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

Just been too busy rehearsing to up date this in recent days. Four more rehearsal days to go. Will try and update later today if possible. In the meantime, here are my notes for the programme.

Director’s Notes

Welcome to this production of Nine, which is our third show at C Venues after Kiss of The Spider Woman (2008) and last year’s Oliver!

Nine is certainly a departure from Oliver! and that is deliberate. Having spent five pale weeks last summer inside a dark, hot theatre working with children and an invisible dog, I wanted to do something more intimate and with an older cast. We spent the usual five months arguing over the choice of show, writing lists of reasons for (short) and reasons against (long). Ultimately, we opted for Nine because none of us wanted to spend ten stressful days fighting to get a man-eating plant down the narrow staircase at C venues and we couldn’t face the idea of traipsing the Royal Mile singing “Little Shop (clap clap) little shop of horrors.” I actually love the show and one day it will be perfect for school, but none of us was really committed enough to that particular idea to make it work.

Musicals are a tricky genre and the reasons as to why certain shows find an audience and others don’t are sometimes hard to fathom. I have certainly had the same conversation about Nine so many times this year. I am asked whether we are returning to Edinburgh this summer. I say we are. They ask what show we are taking. I reply Nine. Blank face. I explain that in December of last year it was made into a film (directed by Chicago Director Rob Marshall) and was Oscar and Golden Globe nominated. Flicker of recognition. I begin to list the stellar cast (Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, Fergie – of Black Eyes Peas fame, not the financially challenged lady from the Royal Family). Only then do I sense a vague flicker of recognition. I think that is a shame, partly because anyone who likes musicals and is not familiar with the incredible score of Nine is missing out, but mostly because it strikes me as utterly ridiculous to reject something just because you have never heard of it.

I have absolutely no idea why I was unaware of Nine until November last year. I cannot explain why I didn’t go to see it at the Donmar in 1996, and my only excuse for not going to the Broadway revival when I was in New York in 2003 is that it seemed too much to spend a hundred dollars on a show whose score I was unfamiliar decision. That is a decision I now regret hugely. My Nine road to Damascus experience came courtesy of Robert Jacobs (Musical Director) who rang me when I was at a charity Karaoke evening to tell me that he had seen a trailer for this most amazing musical film. I spent the month of December listening to the Broadway soundtrack on Spotify and realized that he had indeed unearthed a diamond in the sometimes rough world of musical theatre. Although I enjoyed the film and appreciated its cinematic beauty and obviously lavish budget, I was also hugely disappointed because it cut so many songs and I felt (perhaps controversially) that Daniel Day Lewis’ Guido was just too cold to care about. I think that Nine works so much better on the stage.

Sometime in late December last year we decided that we wanted to do this show as our next Edinburgh project. That was obviously a ridiculous decision because the cast requires one male and seventeen females. We are from a predominantly boys’ school in South East London and we knew that it would be extremely difficult to persuade so many people to commit to a show of which they too had probably never heard. But once we discovered that some of the roles could be played just as easily by men, there was no stopping us and by Christmas we had already cast the not particularly crucial role of the Cardinal. We were on our way!

On January 4th I sent an email to Samuel French requesting the rights to perform the show. I had no idea how torturous the quest to secure said rights would become. London kept telling me that it was all in the hands of “America” and that I just had to be patient. Would it help if I rang “America” myself ? No, they would only refer me back to “London”. Finally, I insisted on putting a name to this “America” and decided to approach Samuel French in New York directly. This turned out to be a good move, as thanks to my new friends Chris Lonstrup and Brad Lohrenz , at the end of March I received the following email:

Dear All,

Please allow this e-mail to serve as permission for you to produce NINE
at the Edinburgh Festival.

Have fun!

Best,

Brad

To give you a very brief introduction to the action which is about to unfold,
Nine is based on an autobiographical film by the Italian Director Federico Fellini called “8 and a half” (in numbers). It was adapted into a musical by Maury Yeston in 1982 and enjoyed a hugely successful Broadway run in an extremely stylized production directed by Tommy Tune. For some reason it never crossed to London at that time. There was a concert performance starring Jonathan Pryce in January 1992 , but the first professional London performance was not until 1996 at the Donmar Warehouse.

I hope that you enjoy the show and that this beautiful score does one day find a wider audience on this side of the pond. Stranger things have happened: in 1996 I appeared at the Edinburgh Festival just up the road on Nicholson Street in a then little-known musical called Chicago…

Ben Pollard (Director), July 2010

2010-07-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that three days have passed since the last post, but rehearsing and preparing takes so much time and it's not always easy to spend the evenings blogging. I was pleased to learn via twitter that our rehearsal period began on the same day as the rehearsals for the forthcoming actor/musician tour of "Chess" (a justjohn production in 2005) and on the same day that Stevie Nicks returned to the studio with Dave Stewart to continue work on her forthcoming album. Not that these have anything whatsoever to do with "Nine", but it's good to know that I am on the same quest for creativity as my idols.

Things are going well so far, although we did have a bit of a setback a couple of days ago when we lost a cast member, who decided (much to our regret) that she didn't want to continue in the show. Thankfully, the official artist has been dragged away from her acryllic paints and persuaded to return to the stage. She is now by turns a frumpy, sandal wearing German, a glamorous Parisian showgirl and lustful Italian hooker. That requires quite some imagination when you're from the sleepy Kent village of Eynsford. I feel very lucky to have these people who nearly always say yes to every ridiculous request.

It's been good to start putting scenes on stage at last. Yesterday was especially productive and we managed to block the first twelve pages. I think the long rehearsal hours are starting to take their toll a bit today, although an awful lot of work was done today on the Grand Canal scene, which is as tacky and desperate as it should be. Full credit for this week's progress must go to our amazing Choreographer, who has worked tirelessly to get these scenes looking good. She has been a gift to this production from the outset and we will be lost without her for the next couple of days. A lot of work was done today on the two big dance numbers "Folies Bergere" and "Be Italian". Producer was about as stressed as I have ever seen him as we dropped set-related bombshell after bombshell, but my understanding is that a catwalk needs to be walked on, so he's going to have to resolve that. While the cast and Choreographer work fiendishly, we sit and argue and generally mock Technical Director who today told us that it would need an 8 DVD Blu-Ray box set for him to save yesterday's ten minute rehearsal footage, as the files on his ludicrous camera are so huge. Lol.

Everything is a bit more intensive than last year, although some things are unchanged. The theatre in which we rehearse is divided into zones. Now that we have managed to finally break that hideous old grand piano (the leg fell off), we have a new upright and this has enabled us to clear a dedicated area now known as music corner. Assistant Music Director has always been amazing at getting on with the boring task of putting the various parts into Sibelius. What has been particularly great this year has been the willingness of various cast members to help. Younger Brother of Musical Director deserves real credit here, so much so that he will soon have earned his own title for blog purposes. Whilst Musical Director and I sit in the auditorium chatting and pretending to work, Younger Brother carries on adapting the score without fuss. The other revelation of the week has been Dave Factotum (who turns out not to be called Dave at all, but I'll stick with this nomenclature to protect his anonymity). He is a one man building machine and even as we arrive for the 9am production meeting (Blackheath Costa Flat White in hand), the drill is whirring and the set is coming together. I use the term "production meeting" loosely. Today I reported Producer to School Housekeeper for refusing to clean the toilets and I performed the glamourous task of polishing the new piano, as I'm sure that otherwise I will be accused in September of having spent the summer destroying it.

We had to bid farewell to our brilliant Associate Director today - some excuse about having to return to Leeds to prepare for another Edinburgh production. I tried to tempt him to stay with a promised promotion to the role of Stage Manager, but he didn't seem too excited by this prospect, and so we are now on our own until Edinburgh.

One more day and ten we are going to have a day off. There will be less dancing tomorrow, but still plenty to block and, excitingly, the return of Luisa (Guido's wife) from a totally unnecessary trip to Amsterdam. The revolving door cast of last year has been far less of a problem this year, although tomorrow we lose the wonderfully demure and regal character known very grandly as Our Lady of the Spa, who is off on a Club 18-30 trip to Kos.

The day concluded in the usual fashion with a Production Crew meeting in The Royale, Mottingham's classiest public house. We were all a but tired and nearly had an argument (it wouldn't be the first, and it won't be the last) about travel arrangements to Scotland. Rejected suggestions include asking disgruntled parents to drive the vehicle and hiring a London double decker bus.

Day Two

2010-07-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

We had the full cast and crew today, which was great. Probably the last time that'll be the case until the day before we go to Edinburgh, but it meant that we had a very productive day. Some of us arrived at nine for the daily Full Production Meeting. Actually, these are never as productive as they should be because half of the fun of putting these shows together is the time spent doing very little at all and arguing about not very much. Today saw the return of the Italian contingent. Obviously I went out of my way to avoid asking about their trip and I certainly wasn't going to tell them they looked well/tanned. Instead, I pretended that it hadn't happened (without me) although I did enjoy some of the ridiculous photos. And I learnt how to capture the image from an iphone screen, which is obviously going to be very useful. We welcomed a new person to the justjohn team today, the Choreographer. Our usual Choreographer decided that she had to have a holiday, which was a great sadness to us but we have found an excellent replacement, who just happens to be the Producer's cousin. That is proving to be particularly useful as she has access to a cache of family secrets which we can never unearth and these are going to be useful bargaining tools when we have the inevitable arguments about the set. It didn't take long for this to ensue. I don't think we have quite agreed on the final version yet and I certainly don't think making me spend over £1000 of some stylish, yet overpriced metal is enough to warrant the term "set design". Would Les Mis have worked with just four poles? No, and that barricade wasn't built in a day either. Once the actors had gone home, we had our usual disagreement in which I say what I want, although actually this time it was the Choreographer's turn to be demanding (note to self, don't get on her bad side ) and she insisted on the need for blocks. Producer and Associate Director tried to fob us off with the usual backstage blocks, but Choreographer and I were angling for more. We want "at least four" (which obviously means five), and in the end I came out with my usual line that I didn't know why we were even bothering with the conversation, as this time tomorrow we will have five blocks as requested. Let's just hope that we remember to fire-proof them this year. Meanwhile, Guido's schoolmate/Brother of Musical Director entertained us with Coldplay and Michael Buble songs on the piano, before dropping the massive score onto the keyboard to give the whole thing the sense of the absurd which makes this so enjoyable. Apparently it's called "production banter"; I know we have missed it and it's great to be back.

I keep having to invent rehearsal schedules to appease the cast. What I want to say when they ask for a schedule is that it is "all day, every day", but I need to give of an aura of organisation (our aim this year is to be "profess(ional)") and so I make up all kinds of lies to try and keep them calm. We did read/sing through the whole show this morning which was very useful. It was great to hear the Italian accents, and there was some lovely singing already. We are hoping for some accent coaching from a Proper Italian Person, but in the meantime I was hugely impressed by the work the cast has done. I have no idea what they put in the water in Nottingham, but it's done wonders for Guido's mother, who was whacking those top notes out as though her life depended on it. It's a shame that for various reasons I think some cast talents will be underused, but the beauty of "Nine" is that almost everyone is on stage for most of the time, so none of them will be idle and I certainly hope they have the bladders for a 90 minute show.

They started the dances too, which already have the makings of the show's highlights. I'm still worried that we will get it all done in time, but already there is a very different feeling from "Oliver!" and I know that we will be able to get a lot done in a short time. Of course there are the usual boring things we have to sort out, especially the cleaning of the toilets. A Producer's job, surely?

First rehearsal days

2010-07-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, the first proper blog update has been a long time in the making. Since the announcement of our having finally obtained the rights to perform the musical "Nine" at this summer's Edinburgh Festival, I have had to deal with illness and the cancellation of a trip to Italy. This means that while Musical Director and Keyboard One/repetiteur enjoyed a few days in Barcelona, and the Triumvirate (Producer/Assistant Musical Director - promoted from Keyboard Two last year/Technical whizzkid) has been actually being Italian, I have spent the longest period of my life in Bromley to date. It's not a particularly good look, although I have blended well into the premature pensioneresque existence of morning strolls to Bromley (the daily excursion), meeting friends for coffee at Costa (having defected from Starbucks, whose Flat White is inferior) and standing behind slow people dithering in Sainsbury's.

But in the words of Smash Hits (which will mean absolutely nothing to our younger viewers) as of today I am back. Back! BACK! At least I hope I am. The road to "Nine" has not been easy, but if this musical teaches us anything, it is that creativity comes at a cost. I can't tell you how many times I have explained to blank faces that we are doing a musical called "Nine" this year. Despite a hugely publicised (albeit disappointing) film starring Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz and Fergie (the one from the Black Eyed Peas, not the debt-ridden ex Royal, almost no one to whom I have spoken seems to have heard of it. After a while I have perfected the art of smiling and changing the subject. It's obviously ignorant and plain stupid to assume that something which you haven't heard of is by definition rubbish. And much as I loved the success of our production of Oliver! last year (three sell-out shows in Edinburgh, four in London), I don't miss it because rehearsing it was five weeks of hell, stress and children.

Today is very early days, dear reader, but I think it's high time we got this blog on the road again. We didn't have the whole cast there today, but it was a big day for some of them, as they have joined us from Cambridge and Birmingham and didn't really know anyone in the cast before today. It was a day full of learning music, but it is already sounding great to hear "Folies Bergeres" sung live. Tomorrow we have the full cast, costumier, choreographer and our Technical Director who is finally going to get this website up and running in preparation for The Burgh 2010.

Nine

2010-04-22T10:58:00.001-07:00

justjohnproductions and Eltham College are delighted to announce that, having chased the rights for almost four months, they have finally secured permission to stage the musical "Nine" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We will be doing eight shows in the amazing C Venue from 7th-14th August, with two London performances to follow on 16th and 17th September.

Please check back to follow the show's progress via our website. A full update will follow soon.