The Sound Of The Musicals in Ipswich

Last week was spent pretty much wrapped up in a show in Ipswich - drumming for The Sound Of Musicals at the stunning New Wolsey Theatre. It was my second musical of year, following on from The Wedding Singer a few months back, but the thing is - I really don't consider myself to be the kind of drummer that is suitable for musicals. For starters, I don't read music - which for this particular session looked like it might cause a real problem because some of those songs are bloody complex...and there's 27 of them. They were proper 'show tunes', with music from The Lion King, Company, Avenue Q, Wicked etc - a departure from the usual stuff I play but then again that's why I love being a drummer, picking up new grooves, new inspirations. It could have easily been a real mess, what with the band meeting for the first time on the Monday, and three (nervy, shaky) rehearsals later the show opened at the 400-capacity venue, with us behind the 18-strong cast of singers. For the first couple of performances we 'got away with it', by the end of the four night run it was clear that we had virtually nailed it and were even starting to enjoy ourselves.

It was a really tiring week - learning 27 songs (with some radical tempo changes and time signatures) by ear in just a few days and then having to perform them on a relatively big scale was a challenge I enjoyed, and it was great fun to work with the band - Paul, Lewis and Emma as we fought to make this show work. The audiences seem to enjoy it too. Have to admit, on the Tuesday I really didn't think I would work out, but it did, and it's another interesting notch on my drumming CV.

For the record, the songs we played were...
LION KING - Shadowland
CITY OF ANGELS: Opening, The Tennis Song, Ev'rybody's Gotta Be Somewhere
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: The Lonely Goatherd
EVITA: Don't Cry For Me Argentina
AVENUE Q: The Theme, What Do You Do With A BA In English, It Sucks To Be Me, There's A Fine Line, If You Were Gay
SISTER ACT: How I Got The Calling
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: Dirty Laundry
WICKED: No One Mourns The Wicked, What Is This Feeling, One Short Day
SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD: A New World, Just One Step, I'd Give It All For You, River Won't Flow, Stars And The Moon, Flagmakers, Hear My Song

As much as I enjoyed it, these songs are now stuck in my head, which is a little annoying. Need to focus on fringe stuff for the next few days now - writing a new scene for 'Greatest Goal' and back in rehearsals for Oscar Pike as we have our next preview this Friday. On Saturday I head off on tour with The British IBM. These are lovely times.