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Joseph Behind the Scenes - cast and creative team blogs
THE LONDON MARATHON 2008 (MILE BY MILE) MILE 1: Approx’ 10:01am MILE 2: Approx’ 10:08am CHARLTON MILE 3: Approx’ 10:18am WOOLWICH MILE 4: Approx’ 10:27am MILE 5: Approx’ 10:37am NEW CHARLTON MILE 6: Approx’ 10:37am GREENWICH MILE 7: Approx’ 10:59am MILE 8: Approx’ 11:09am DEPTFORD MILE 9: Approx’ 11:19am ROTHERHITHE MILE 10: Approx’ 11:28am MILE 11: Approx’ 11:41am MILE 12: Approx’ 11:49am BERMONDSEY MILE 13: Approx’ 11:58am WHITECHAPEL MILE 14: See Mile 15 MILE 16: Approx’ 12:30pm MILE 17: MILLWALL See Mile 18 MILE 19: Approx’ 13:01pm MILE 20: POPLAR Approx’ 13:15pm MILE 21: Approx’ 13:23pm MILE 22: Approx’ 13:33pm WHITECHAPEL MILE 23: Approx’ 13:44pm MILE 24: Approx’ 13:54pm MILE 25: Approx’ 14:06pm WESTMINSTER MILE 26.2: THE FINISH LINE ------------------------------------------------------
Read about the build up to the Big Day in their training blog below... It's getting close - the excitement mounts as the Big Day approaches... MARK's DIARY Weds 12th March Weds 19th March Please bear in mind that we may be slightly quicker/slower on the day so please do add 10/15mins either side of these times to allow for this. Apologies in advance if we miss you!! If you click on the following link it will take you to the interactive map on the Official London Marathon web site, you can check the Mile Marker points. Oh yes, and where the pubs are!! http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/site/?pageID=2&article=168 KATE's DIARY Marathon Training Blog - Episode 2 MARK OXTOBY DIARY Fri 15th Feb Sat 16th Feb Sun 24th February Monday 10th March Marathon Training Blog - Episode 1 Catch up with cast members Mark Oxtoby and Kate Tydman as they prepare for this years London Marathon. KATE TYDMAN DIARY 28th Jan 3rd Feb 8th Feb MARK OXTOBY DIARY I started running in 2006. Partly for fitness reasons, the fact that my wife and I were trying for a baby and wanted to get into the best shape possible and partly because I am fickle and like the free t-shirts and shiny medals! Ooohhhh, look at it shine!! In fact I’m so fickle that I don’t usually enter a race if I don’t at least get a shiny medal! Ooohhhh, look at it shine!! However, when I was offered a place with the children’s charity WellChild for 2008, I jumped at the chance to run for this children’s charity, especially now that I’m a Dad and because of the fact that WellChild sponsor one of the wards at the hospital my daughter was born at! And of course that I can work my way to a new shiny medal! Ooohhhh, look at it shine!! After 5x 10K races, 1x 7 Mile race and 2x Half Marathons...Oh yes, and a 10 Metre sack race (which I won, beating John Clarke our Resident Director – Oh, so that’s why he calls me in for extra rehearsals!), it's time for the BIG ONE!! Tuesday 29th January 2008 Weds 30th January 2008 Sat 2nd February 2008
Find out all about what happens behind the scenes from rehearsals through to opening night, in our exclusive cast blogs from John Alastair, who plays Joseph's eldest brother Reuben Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 7
The technical rehearsals are a little bit of a battle sometimes; the cast easily gets restless. They are under the hot lights and often wrapped up in several layers of costumes for extended periods. It can be really uncomfortable and concentration can wander. However, Nicola, Anthony and our Stage Manager Natalie (or Arthur as she is fondly known) kept a really tight ship. They made sure the tedium of these rehearsals was made bearable by keeping the atmosphere buoyant and ensuring everyone could have a bit of fun too. It was lovely that there were no strops or arguments and definitely no visible dark clouds lingering over the theatre. Except one day — one afternoon some of our Stage Management were in their office, no doubt enjoying a nice warm large double shot decaf skinny latte mocha-choca-chino or perhaps a slutty pot noodle, when the clouds started gathering…not in the theatre, not even in this production but menacingly over the West End of London. These were serious, thick dark clouds that were saying in a loud deep booming voice “…don’t mess with me!!!”, but someone then must have as they just opened up. A torrential rainstorm ensued and, although it was an amazing sight to see, some feared flooding was inevitable. Within the structure of the backstage there is a hole in the building. It is a square recess that is perhaps four meters square and it runs from the top of the building to the bottom. It has no roof and is therefore fully exposed. Our poor old stage management team resides in a room at the very bottom, with a window looking out into the hole. Now imagine, if you can, that hole filling up as the rain is falling down. Fortunately the window was in place but they sat in their office watching the water level rise up the window and beyond. Now, do you remember that scene in the film Titanic when things go really wrong for Jack and Rose? Water gushes all over the place…well as our unsuspecting heroes sat and watched the water rising suddenly the glass gave way. In poured the water and the ship started to sink! Well not literally of course but everything got soaked – fortunately no injuries were reported. This and another flooding underneath the stage meant that the rehearsal for that day had to be postponed — something we all hated of course! As the preview dates got closer and closer so the rehearsal got tougher and tougher. We all knew we had a show to put on but then things kept cropping up that put us behind a bit. With the first public preview looming, a professional head was what was needed and this is exactly what everyone put on. We had a few full dress runs before our first public night with everything that we had and making do without everything we didn’t have. My “didn’t haves” included my facial hair, a codpiece that fitted properly to accompany my rather dashing purple 60s jump suit, and a pair of white trousers for the Mega Mix! All in all, not all that problematic! We had a rather well organized photo call about a week before preview first night. Different costumes were required at different times throughout the afternoon and then that evening the photographer was snapping all the way through the show. Snapping sounds a bit of an insult for a professional photographer. However, when you see the finished results you can see why the expertise and experience of a professional are so important. The souvenir program contains hundreds of fantastic photographs and montages of the show and rehearsals that really show off the colours and scale of the production. And so we headed rather quickly to our first public performance. We obviously had no idea what the reaction would be but we did know that we had sold out every ticket in the theatre! Gulp! In fact the show had pretty much sold out until October, no doubt helped by the power of TV; it’s the sort of publicity you can’t buy. We were actually quite tired; we’d been running the show for several days, generally doing two runs a day, and the first public preview day was no different. We had a run in the afternoon, and notes session, a short time off for a bite to eat…if the nerves would permit, and then we were on. It’s a very strange feeling - you work for weeks and weeks on a show not knowing how it will be received and then all of a sudden you are put up in front of an audience paying the full price for tickets unsure if its going to work or not. Of course, that’s what the rehearsals are for but sometimes the sheer amount of ‘show’ in your brain means you can’t really take an objective view of it all and a lack of confidence can set in and then of course the nerves. Well my nerves didn’t really kick in until the, now familiar sound, of the overture starting. The build up during the day did not fuss me at all but when I heard the busy sound of the full house and then the orchestra starting, adrenalin started to flow. Adrenalin is a very good thing; not only does it focus my mind, it makes it sharper and much more alert. It’s funny for me that the only other time I manage to use adrenalin to my advantage has been in the Fire Service. But if I find myself in any kind of physical, or potentially physical, confrontation it normally gets the better of me and I start shaking vigorously - I know, a bit of Nancy, but that’s what it does to me. On stage it’s a different kettle of fish and I have no problem with it at all…in fact I really quite like it, it’s that kind of ‘being in love’ feeling…it’s wicked and I…well…love it! And what a show! The audience went absolutely mad for it… and for Lee. They laughed and cheered through the show and kindly gave us a standing ovation at the end. It was a fabulous night. Now, if the truth were known, I was still struggling a bit with most of the dancing. Some of it was in place but none of it was second nature or secure. It’s strange to think, sitting here catching up with the blog some months later, that I ever had problems with it. I say that optimistically but no doubt someone reading this will come to see the show and think that I am still a mile behind the others but I feel pretty good about my dancing now…in the main. What I mean is - the dance routines I have to do in this show; if I was given any other new routines to do I’d be back with the Danglys, two/three left feet, sweating like a fool and down in the dumps. So although I do say to people in fun that I am now a ‘Professional Dancer’ it really is just a laugh… gut bustingly funny as I am sure you will agree through your hysterics.!! I guess I could say “I have Professionally Danced” though!! Yeah that’ll do me! The problem early on was that if something or someone put me off I was in trouble! You see I can’t think about the choreography upfront, I think there and then. So when something goes wrong I am still thinking about that bit and not about what is coming up and when I do think about what is coming up it’s too late because that moment has then gone and so I’m then two moves behind, then three, then four and I am heading for a disaster movie! It was not good. However I felt the rest of the cast were very patient with me. Even now almost half way through the contract, I still manage to catch Verity’s feet every now and then but thing are better, much better…I think…lord knows I hope! The costume also proved to be a bit of a distraction. Long, hot, heavy and all over the flipping place. Well Brother Reuben’s gear mainly. All of the brothers wear thick canvas/cotton trousers, boots, a sweat shirt (a white cut-down t-shirt) and an over smock. However my dearest brother Issacher (Adam Pearce) and I, both Danglys, I hasten to add, managed to draw the short straws and ended up wearing ridiculous over-shawl type things on top of our smocks. They hang down a bit like superman’s cape and then there are two strips that hang down on either side at the front. They have three large poppers on each shoulder holding it in place and it’s the perfect length to tread on, slip on, trip on and I for one still regularly do both – as do some of the other brothers! I mean it’s not their fault of course, it just happens. I have taken to holding both of the front strips of the thing up in front of me in my cupped hands when I move as this alleviates most problems and I figured that it was what Reuben would do if he had an over shawl that he kept tripping up on - either that or he’d throw it away. A luxury I do not have…unfortunately. So, Press Night was approaching fast. The preview shows were going really well. The audience absolutely loved Lee; a big cheer went up every night on his first entrance. We always knew Lee would be popular, given the massive TV coverage Any Dream Will Do had had. But for me, and others I think, it was the type of audience that was often most exciting. They were not the usual ‘theatre’ type audiences. The etiquette one would normally expect was not there and, although strange, I personally felt it was really nice performing to all these people many of whom, I suspect, had never been to the theatre before or maybe just never been to see a big show like this before. Sometimes they would cheer or shout things out. On one occasion our Musical Director’s score was covered in what can only be describe as undergarments that were destined for the stage but fell short. They were actually a rather nice leopard skin pattern, very brief and would have looked marvellous on me albeit rather snug but probably not so good on Mr Mead!!! I presume that was the intention but I found out afterwards that that’s not his thing at all! The feeling this sort of audience gave me was the sort of feeling that I get doing Pantomime. You know that for so many of the children in a Pantomime audience it is an introduction to the magic that theatre can bring into your life and so I think there is a responsibility to ensure that they enjoy it. Of course the fact that they have paid and enormous amount of money for their tickets is reason enough but somehow for me the feeling goes beyond what is expected. Does that sound a bit pretentious? I hope not because for me it’s a thrill. Throughout the previews the show develops, changes and gets reworked. The keen eyes of the various heads of department mean that it is altered daily. This in turn is reflected in the performances on stage. It leads to the performers altering their show and in addition to this there is also a natural development for each of us. You a can feel when things work well and also when things fall a little short. We have an opportunity each and every night to try changing things, often very subtly, in order to refine what we do. It also means that you don’t get into too much of rut doing exactly the same thing; the same response at exactly the same moment every night…eight shows a week, month in, month out. The audience will never know that this is happening, nor should they, but it is really important to me to just change something every night. It’s important to be responsive to what is going on and not reactive…what does that mean I hear you say? Well…in life you have no idea how you are going to respond to what someone has said or done to you, you just respond to them naturally and automatically. Acting should be the same but the problem is you know what is coming next. When you do the same thing every night the tendency is to react in the same way to it. This can mean responding inappropriately to an event or it just becoming boring and monotonous. Think about how many ways there are to say hello to someone – it depends on your environment, are you in a thunderstorm outside or in a quiet library, are you in a good or bad mood, do you know the person you are talking to etc etc. There are many things that influence a response. It can be difficult on stage particularly when things like dancing or stage position are set but for me that is part of the fun. Finding new ways to do things or at least thinking about how you can keep it fresh and different. Not everyone does it and in my opinion it is to their detriment. The choreography, of course, has to stay pretty much the same. Strangely this is an area that changes for me all too regularly…not the dance but my interpretation of it…and still the opening night approaches! Please let me get this damn dancing in my bones. I was working at home again by this stage…in my front room ‘dance studio’ just trying to get it right. Looking back over the video that Brenda did for me and worrying …A LOT! There was another slight problem popping up occasionally. The set automation could be a little temperamental. It was not always obvious to the audience that things were going wrong but on the odd occasion, the show had to be stopped for a minute or two. We would be told by the Stage Management what was happening and where we would be re-starting from. An announcement was made to the audience to explain exactly what was happening and then we’d be off again. These things do happen occasionally and is exactly the purpose of the previews to try an iron out the problems before we get into the actual run of the show...little did we know the writing was already on the wall and a year of previews wouldn’t have been able to Tippex it out! It always amazes me how the Stage Management deals with these situations. There is no panic, no hint of even the smallest bead of sweat on their foreheads and certainly no raised voices. The cast? Well, we just sit tight and wait to be told what to do. I actually think the audience quite likes it too; it’s exciting, it’s something unusual; it’s certainly something that doesn’t happen every night; and normally you can hear them buzzing with anticipation. One night, the front curtain/iris jammed and, hard as the Stage Management, Stage Crew and other technical masters tried, it could not be fixed. We had managed to get to the interval as this part of the set is not very often used, but it was jammed in the closed position and to continue in the normal way it had to be in the open position. The decision was made to perform a concert version of the second half with all the cast on the forestage in front of the stricken iris. I think we were more apprehensive than the audience. We would all be there, fully exposed all of the time - hoping to get the story across and above all entertain. As our fears began to slowly subside and our confidence began to grow a few improvised dance routines and ‘business’ crept in – kind of step dig, step dig on a piece of stage the size of a camel’s toe but the audience were treated none the less. I just need to clarify that I…me…John Alastair…DID NOT venture into the realms of improved dancing, not even a tip-tap-tapping of the foot. I felt very comfortable doing the odd improvised smile and an occasional ‘spur of the moment’ nod of the head but that was all. I left the dancing to the elite! What an amazing round of applause and cheer we received at the end. Really the audience deserved that from us! Fortunately we had no Mega Mix to do. So not too tired but sweaty with fear nonetheless, we had a slightly early night - which is always nice! And the first night continued to loom very large…
Now, I am not going to go into what is happening NOW just yet, but I need to fill you all in on what has happened over recent weeks. We were about to start the technical rehearsals when I ended my last entry and so much has gone on since then that I want to try and cover it. Also this new entry is appearing on a very new and shiny Joseph Web Site so a lengthy addition is both warranted and timely. So Monday came and we were, for the first time, at the theatre. There was clearly still much to be done but the set in all its glory was up and the basic mechanics and the automation were working well. There are two large revolving areas in the centre of the stage: the smaller one in the centre and a large one outside of that. These can move independently or together and in different directions if needed. Accompanying these revolves is a large full stage width panel wall that flies in from above. It has various slides and doors in it where entrances and exits can be made. Scenery can also be set behind on the revolve and, on the nod of the Stage Manager, the doors open, the revolves move and in come the props and scenery for the next scene. The revolves stop when the props or scenery are in the correct position. As you can imagine this all takes a great deal of planning and practice. There are many more automation niceties with this production but I am not going to reveal them as they may spoil your enjoyment when you come to see the show; you will then appreciate why we were scheduled to "tech" for nearly two weeks. Some shows take many more weeks to run through and refine all of their technical aspects and organise their backstage choreography (who does what and when, what goes where and when etc). It’s all very exciting. When you look out into the auditorium you can see a sea of temporary work benches littering the stalls with all sorts of electronic equipment; leads, keyboards, monitors, coffee cups etc. Glowing Apple logos are sprinkled like stars around in the darkness; today I counted seven. I think there are a great many people in the entertainment industry who use Apple Macs…I sincerely approve! After an introduction to our dressing rooms (our homes for the next year) a tour of the theatre’s back stage and the front of house, we got straight into rehearsals, costumes an’ all! Why the costumes if this is purely for technical purposes? Well costumes can affect all manner of things, different colour costumes look very different in certain colour light. For example a black t-shirt can look dark red under a blue light...I think that’s right! The lighting team needs to see how the costumes work with or against the lighting design. There is also all a gaggle of gorgeous dressers waiting backstage; is gaggle the correct collective noun for wardrobe staff? Perhaps it is a sew (???) of wardrobe staff or a dress of dressers...anyway enough! However those dressers need to know and rehearse their own backstage plot; where quick changes are to be made and what new pieces of costume need to be laid out. Most of the wardrobe department were still occupying the circle bar front of house and regular visits there for fittings/humiliation were always enjoyable...only if you are a masochist of course! But the dressers were working with us on stage. All around us was activity. At the mere sniff of a break for the actors, the stage team were buzzing around doing stuff; a new clip here, a hanger there. “...a complete dressing table and quick change area for 11 female dancers including lights and mirrors please Chris...no no they are on a fifteen minute tea break so you’ve plenty of time!” And suddenly it appears! How? Only the God of the backstage knows or maybe the theatre ghost! There is a place appearing for everything. Shelves appear in obscure places stuck with mystic labels saying things like “ Potipher slab” “Canaan Days Fag!” “Sweaty wet tissues here...PLEASE!” and “Bev is Cool!!!” So bit by bit, day by day the whole show falls into place. The plans I had for my time off during the technical weeks were immediately dashed. I assumed that we would be working 9 -5pm type hours and I had intended to take in some shows that I hadn’t yet seen in the West End each night. As it turns out we are rehearsing 1pm - 10pm Sometimes our breaks were extended due to technical problems on stage so we got a bit of extra time to settle in to our dressing rooms. Us lads were lucky enough to be given the very top floor of the building, you know, only 5 floors up from the stage! There are three dressing rooms up there; three swings in one, 6 chaps in the other and five including myself in room 10. The rooms are actually quite nice, there are a couple of sinks and a fridge in ours and, after various bits and pieces were bought in from home, it gets to feel pretty comfortable even on the TOP FLOOR!!! Pictures, photos and cards soon begin to litter the mirrors and that man smell starts to ingrain itself into every area of the floor. The girls are one floor down. They have two large rooms, and very soon there is tons of make-up laid out everywhere lots of flowers and the constant sound of nattering. Our Jacob, Stephen Tate, also has his dressing room on this floor and at the end of the corridor are the wigs and wardrobe departments respectively. This is where the REAL work is done. Their rooms are not so much living environments but working areas that have to double as living spaces for the terrifically hard working ladies and gents. The next installment is coming very soon and heads on up to the opening preview night. Stayed tuned - it won’t be long...promise!
Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 5 The cast meet their Joseph!
I felt sorry for him in a way as he had had weeks of being put through the mill week in, week out and, just as he wins the final, he has to start all over again with a group of people who have already spent a couple of weeks working together. He had only one day off to try and let it all sink in, then he was pretty much straight into rehearsals, back the beginning. What was very clear from the outset and through the next few days was that he absolutely understood this amazing gig he was headlining in. He spoke of all his amazing new experiences over the weeks of the show and loved every hard-working minute of it. But underlying all of it was the knowledge that however glitzy and glamorous his journey has been to date, and will no doubt continue to be, he still had a job to do and a great deal of expectations to meet. Talking to him and working with him, I am one hundred percent confident in him delivering on these expectations and giving another 100% on top of that. It took a few days for him to completely finish his early press and PR commitments and then we had him, and camera, in all of the rehearsals. They are filming his journey for a documentary to be screened later on in this year and so the camera, sound and production team follow him around two or thee days a week - EVERYWHERE. He found them in his wardrobe the other day and was then buying a coffee in Covent Garden when he realised the entire BBC production team had in fact squeezed into his rucksack. These guys will do anything for a good shot!
What is a SitzProbe? My god what an experience!! I didn’t even know what a Sitzprobe was until Thursday. It sounded like a type of Salami to me, but as ever I am learning things daily.
I thought well there’ll be a lot of instruments and musicians there and yes there were but I had no idea about the other paraphernalia that would be present. We all had microphones; the band had monitor speakers, there were wires everywhere. I had already met Jo, the top cheese of the sound department, a week or so ago and today Scott and Van, her team, were there accompanying her. We even had a couple of chaps there who were music copyists. These guys sit there with their Mac Laptops and an A3 printer and print out music score alterations to order. I should have put in a request for a more relaxed tempo for the mega mix but only remembered this missed opportunity on the train on the way home a couple of hours later...too late! We also met the RED team for the first time. We have two teams of children working on the show the Reds and Blues respectively. Both teams were there at the Sitzprobe and they were as good as gold, clearly excited - the work we have heard them doing over recent weeks has clearly paid off. They sounded terrific and spent the afternoon giving it their all. It really is such a pleasure to see them enjoy this wonderful experience and it’s very warming to feel that some of them will, I am sure, one day enter this profession with fond memories of the time they spent in Joseph. At one point James and myself were almost in tears watching one of the girls give it her all. I mean red face and everything. She was giving it 400% - brilliant. Go! Go ! Go Kids. Another thing I learnt today was the role of the ‘Fixer’. Now I kind of expected a dirty white van outside with a hotmail email address and other slap-dash finery advertising a handyman for all eventualities. You know, a shabby padlock and clasp holding the back doors tog ether, mud around the wheel arches and a half eaten kebab on the dashboard. But no…a Fixer is a person who organises all the musicians; g ets a quality orchestra tog ether; deals with contracts and clashes with other engagements and then the music department put them through their paces. When I looked around at those present in this rehearsal room, from the musicians to the cast, technical, company and stage management (Stage Management are always there, to help and somehow seem to smile the whole time) this team, this wealth of amazing people at the top of their game, it makes me feel sort of humble. To think that the offerings I bring to this cocktail party are somehow included in the mix with the great and good present, makes me tingle and very nervous. Anyway enough of the compliments and my obsequiousness! I should also add that the environment in that rehearsal room at the end was hot, dirty, smelly and frankly pretty damn disgusting and each and every one of those present have to take part of the responsibility for it. You see it’s not all good. I think it’s probably mainly the musicians or the kids! One thing I did think during the run was what a difference it makes when there is a percussionist present. They give so much intricate detail and never ever seem to stop, I mean he really never stopped, and all that he did added beautiful highlights to the sound. I personally think he must be a bit mad because the day you decide to be a percussionist is they day you need to buy yourself a very, very big van and resign yourself to the fact that you will be the last one to the pub, a mile behind the flute player who walks there with his instrument casually tucked in his back pocket. I am probably underestimating when I say the percussionist must have had 30 different instruments and struck, banged, shook or rumbled every single one of them. John Alastair
Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 4 This was written before Lee joined the cast Firstly, apologies for not writing this blog for a while. It’s been too long and I hope this will not happen again. Every day I am making copious paper notes about what has been happening and who’s been doing what but I have been finding it a terrific struggle to find the time to write it out in ‘best’! This week Preeya Kalidas, star of Bombay Dreams, joined us. She is playing the Narrator and although in stature she is tiny she has this amazing HUGE voice. Dean Collinson (Pharaoh) and Stephen Tate (Jacob/Potiphar) also joined the rest of the cast. More on them later. Preeya has in fact been in and around a fair amount and all of them have been rehearsing for some time on their own, so it’s not as if we haven’t seen them at all. We are now running parts of the show and gently joining sections together. It has been fantastic hearing new things as the sections come together. Preeya moves things forward and kind of acts as glue to join the sections together, so getting her in there as soon as possible has made the whole thing not only more coherent but also given it a very different dynamic. The sweat for me continues to pour. Everyday we run through the Megamix, tidy it up again and then run it again and of course again. We have had a rehearsal set for a week or so. Several bare wooden platforms and two sets of stairs. The Stage Management team move these into place manually as the scenes commence. Before we had this set, all of the rehearsal rooms had been meticulously marked out with tape of varying colours to match the position on the stage of various bits of set and props. This tape has to be redone quite a bit as the feet of the dancers…or should I say US dancers, scuff it off continually. We also have rehearsal props from the outset and some people have rehearsal costume; the girls that dance so brilliantly in the One More Angel in Heaven hoedown have rehearsal skirts and we also have a rehearsal Dreamcoat consisting of exactly one colour, cream, if only the real one was just one colour!!!!! I could then concentrate on the new set of things to learn…everyone’s Surnames!!! You see all of our individual calls for rehearsals and costume fittings etc are being listed as Mr this and Miss that. Suddenly I realise that I now need to know everyone’s surname too! Colours, First Names, Stage Management, Creatives, Company Management and now flippin’ surnames – my brain continues to ache.
Fiona and Lisa stripped me off (; I hated that of course) and laced, fastened, pinned, stitched and forced various items of costume onto me. Then I was frog marched in front of a mirror to ensure that I realised the true extent of my humiliation in front these people I have been acquainted with for little more than ten minutes. Now I should get this into perspective. I am not saying the costumes are bad, uncomfortable, unstylish or unnecessary. I am, however, saying that I wouldn’t slip into any of them for my Aunty Mary’s 80th birthday party unless it happened to be a ‘Joseph’ fancy dress do of course. A great thing about going for the costume fitting at the theatre was that I got to see how the stage was progressing. I was a bit disappointed actually as there were no indications of Mark Thompson’s wonderful set. There is such an enormous amount of work to do before the set gets anywhere near the stage and there was just a team of very sweaty people doing stuff; lots of wires and lighting bars and boxes and, of course, loads of Gaffa Tape! I still find all of that pre-production stage work interesting to watch but not particularly interesting to write about. I don’t really have any idea of what they are doing and they are far too busy to answer my questions although if I did make the effort I am sure they would oblige but I also had another sweaty rehearsal to get back to. On the way out I noticed that the front of the theatre now had the Joseph livery in place…very exciting.
John Alastair
Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 3 June 10th, 2007 By Thursday I had got it into my head that Azure Lloyd Webber was the chap who wrote the music for this show and Lilac, Lemon, and Violet are just three of our amazing dancers. Whereas Joseph’s Dreamcoat was now Red and Andrew and Green and David and Tamlyn and Emma and Pip….you get the picture, my head was full of stuff! This ’stuff’ was/is sinking in, but confusion has been manifesting itself daily and, in addition to this, today, well this evening actually, was to be our first company excursion into realms of dance. A day full of singing did not prepare me for the evening ahead but I confidently tightened my dance jock, pulled my leg warmers up, took a large cool swig of fresh mineral water from one of the many water fountains placed around our rehearsal facility, and skipped confidently up to Studio 4 for the warm up. 20 minutes later hot and gasping for breath I staggered downstairs to change my clothes as I was already, unsurprisingly, sweating like an idiot. So much so that I looked like I had been under a shower with my clothes on. That was just the warm up! Anthony Van Laast and Nicola Treherne took time out to explain the show, this production’s roots, and their intention to be true to Steven Pimlott’s original production. Then before we could say “Who’s it gonna be Lewis, Keith or Lee?” we were off. We started with a couple of super fast moves from the final number of the show, the one that is stupidly fast, and then, with those moves in the bag (NOT!) we moved swiftly onto Go, Go, Go, Joseph. I realised very quickly what dancers can really do. It takes just one or two explanations of a section of a dance routine and then they are off, hands here, hips there, head flicking everywhere; all in time and looking marvellous and then there is me at the back. Yes I had gone through this routine with Brenda many times on my own but, hey, in spite of all of that preparation work, my limited knowledge; a little sprinkling of dancing hundreds and thousands; the skimpy dance gear and figures to die for as an added distraction - all these things - mean that I am suddenly falling in a nightmare, unsure if the bottom of the black pit will wake me up in any kind of sanctuary. I tripped Verity (or was it Chocolate) at one point and, at another moment, managed to catch Crimson, sorry Lucy, in the face with my fist. I tripped myself with a loose shoe lace and slipped clumsily on a puddle of my own sweat, but all that carnage aside I think I did rather well! At one point Brenda asked me, in a silent kind of mouthing action, if that was what she had shown me. I nodded yes and then before I knew it the head of a female dancer, who I now know as Louise, but at the time thought was Mark, had flicked round and was questioning whether I had had special rehearsals…I had been rumbled! Not only had my secret been revealed but it had taken all of about 10 minutes!!! Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad, but my dancing on its own would never have been plausible evidence of any special rehearsals and it was just a slight misjudgement that had given the game away…shucks! Aching all over and too tired to change out of my ‘Leroy from Fame’ gear, I wearily minced home and simply slept like a baby! Pip, our Dance Captain, was charged with kicking each day off to a regimental start. A decent aerobic workout to rouse the troops, a long stretch out to ease those tight tendons and muscles and a bit of spit and polish to clean yesterday’s cobwebs off of our old dance shoes and finally over to Dan for a vocal warm up. I guess our wake up session lasts around 40 minutes. Then every day we are taught a new step in the MegaMix. We also go over the steps learnt yesterday and gradually we build up the routine. We all develop sections of the show and then, as the days and nights go on, we glue all those bits together. Nicola worked us really hard. Everyday I took in several changes of clothing and needed all of them. One time on Wednesday I was sat on a break in Studio 2 watching the girls learn and rehearse the Hoedown Dance for my song, One More Angel in Heaven. It was so exciting. The sad thing for me is that the general public never get to see this level of work in the flesh. They see the finished article, which believe me will be absolutely fantastic, but they can never appreciate how difficult these things are to put together and how breathtakingly hard the dancers work. I hope I am doing them justice in this diary but somehow I fear not. As a member of the paying public of course you would expect it to be nothing but brilliant, that’s what you pay your money for, but you see the dance routine just once. What I’m seeing is the girls putting the routine together bit by bit, messing up a move here and there, clashing with another dancer occasionally and then starting at the top again each time it doesn’t work out. Eventually the routine works in all its movement and they manage to go from start to finish with few hitches. Relieved and exhausted, they have barely time to catch their breath when they are once again starting from the top for another run through and more refinements to be made. This process is repeated time and time again until eventually they are given a break. Once it’s in good shape they go downstairs to the hellhole of studio 1. It smells terrible, has no openable windows and just an extractor fan that runs so loud you can’t hear each other speak. When you get thirty odd cast, Swings, Stage Management and Creatives in there it’s not nice. Throw the full Hoedown routine into the recipe, then do it again and again and, you guessed it, again for good measure, the atmosphere is disgusting; you only have to look at the face on anybody walking into the room to realise what you are festering in. The routine, however, was looking good and my efforts, although nowhere near the perfection needed, had enough of a glimmer of hope in them to keep me buoyant! Also the Danglys came fully into the picture. The Danglys? Aren’t they in Lord of the Rings? I hear you say! No, Adam, Mark, Fiona and I class ourselves as the weakest dancers in the Company and therefore proudly wear the title of the Danglys. It’s a very, very special club for those that have to make extra effort in the dances and who sweat a hundredfold more than the others. However, this Hoedown afternoon really was hard work. I know this as even the female dancers were physically sweating. Normally they just have an elegant glow about their bodies but not today, they were sweating like the lads so you knew it was hard work!!! Go! Go! Go! Girls! John Alastair
Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 2 28th May 2007 However, a bright and beautiful sun shone at the 'meet and greet' in the rehearsal rooms. The 'meet and greet' is what happens on the very first day of rehearsals. The whole team gets together, has a coffee, perhaps a nibble or two and basically sits round in a circle of chairs and, one by one, we introduce ourselves and what we are here to do. Normally all departments are present but in this case there is such a huge amount of work to be done elsewhere in such a short space of time, including, apparently, some sort of TV show going on, so not everyone was able to attend. All the Stage Management were there, the musical team, some of the management and the cast - with just one notable exception! Everyone was looking fantastic - first impressions count and all that. I am sure that as the weeks progress we'll all get used to each other in our normal 'work' clothes...sweat an' all. It was a relief to see a couple of familiar faces in the cast, Russell and Paul. I always find the first day a really nerve wracking time and although I have not actually worked with these two on a show, I have met them through friends and so I didn't feel too alone on this the first day. I guess you just feel under the spotlight from everyone, which I suppose you are, but everyone is in exactly the same position so it shouldn't feel as bad as it does. It was great to hear that quite a few people have come from Evita, which closed on Saturday night, straight into this show. After we had all said hello, it was time to get down to work. Dan Bowling, our Musical Director (MD), got us all up on our feet, stretching out, lots of breathing exercises and a 20 minute vocal warm up. This is where the magic began to reveal itself, and so soon! The quality of the voices and the sound they made as we sang through Ave Maria brought goose bumps up all over me. As you would expect these are seriously talented people. I had not even heard any individuals singing yet but knew it was going to be a treat. So, what of my worries about the 29 colours of Joseph's coat? Laugh!!! I laughed with worry as, amusingly, there are 32 cast members, 37 listed members of the creative team plus many more I would imagine, so that silly little list of colours that I have been working on pales into insignificance when compared to the names of all these Company members! Well I say insignificance, but when you throw in the harmonies and the choreography dear John-boy here will soon start to struggle - you'll see. Dan has a couple of rehearsal pianists, Louise and Laura, so he can concentrate on directing us. They are terrific and can nearly always predict when Dan is going stop or start and what part of the music he will want to work through. It seems to help the rehearsals flow really smoothly. We are initially split into harmony groups. Neil will hopefully be my rock as he is singing Tenor 2 with me...don't let me down, Neil. As we work through each song, Dan has a brilliant, kind of poetic way of describing how we should be sounding. At one point he stopped and asked us to "...think of dark billowing storm clouds forming over the Arizona desert and then make your ahhhhhhs sound like rays of sunlight piercing through one by one before being smothered by yet more clouds." Another great one was "...make those la la la's sound like a rum punch cocktail!" - Luv it! A bit confusing for a lackey like me though as after a rum punch cocktail or two I can't even make a la sound. Having initially been split up from the girls, we got back together just before lunch to have a good sing through the final number of the show and, yes, there were a few bum notes, and, yes, the odd hesitation here and there but blimey overall it was sounding pretty good and just a couple of hours into it! Simon Lee, the Musical Supervisor, popped in to have a listen too which was nice. He picked up on some missed detail and the odd flat note but seemed fairly happy overall. A break for lunch and time to meet the P.L.B! The Packed Lunch Brigade...Go! Go! Go! PLB! You Rock! For those of us that are vehemently against the ludicrous London prices of sandwiches and wraps, fruit and yogurt, juices and shakes we obviously bring in our own food. Unfortunately in the past I have been the only saddo lunch-boxed up to the eyebrows, but in this company there are loads of us!! Salad City, Pasta Plaza and probably plenty of other alliterations besides, but not only are we now saving money and eating healthily, we are being fashionably environmental too as far as recycling goes. Keep it up chaps! More music in the afternoon and a beard fitting! Throughout each rehearsal the Stage Management team, headed by Natalie, are on hand keeping an eye on things, ticking us in in the morning, ensuring everything is running smoothly and unobtrusively pulling people out of the rehearsal to have costume fittings and the like - basically making sure we actors remember our fittings and are on time for them! As well as playing Reuben, Joseph's elder brother, yes that is ELDER Brother, I am a Cover for Jacob, Joseph’s dad. A Cover is what is commonly called an understudy. Most parts in the show will have two or maybe even three Covers. This of course means that if someone is ill, has holiday or pulls a muscle or something, then there is always some other body to fill in the gap. As a performer this is a way of making up a little bit of extra money as Covers receive a weekly 'cover fee' and a fee for each time they actually go on in that Cover role, but in addition to the financial rewards, it is also a great way of adding variety and freshness to your work over the 12 month contract term. Marching way, way out in front of the Infantry that are the Covers, are the Special Forces! And I mean Special Forces! Imagine having to learn every single harmony in the show, every single dance step and every single entrance, exit and costume change in the show - impossible? Not for the Swings. These amazing performers sit at the front of the rehearsal room day after day watching and listening to each and every person on the stage and writing detailed notes and diagrams describing what they do and when they do it. When someone is off for a show they will fill in the appropriate gap with an ease that betrays the effort and skill that is required.
What about the dancing? COME ON !!!!!! I have been building up for it and I am R for READY! Well, it seems that no one will witness my slick pick-ups, shimmies and loose hips for another couple of days and it's driving me mad. I just need to get out there in my matching dance jock, leg warmers and sweatbands and be seen for what I am! John Alastair
Joseph Rehearsal Blog - Episode 1
16th May 2007 I am not entirely new to all this. I spent two years in the West End in Mamma Mia! and certainly in my first year I did do a fair bit of dancing and loved it! It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s just that it takes me a little longer to pick things up and fortunately for me, I now have Brenda on video to look at every day during my own rehearsal at home. Move the sofa, the chair, the Afghan rug and something called an ironing board, yep I have no idea about that one either, and there is a miraculous transformation into a dance studio. Luckily I have a rather nice retro mirror above the fireplace to practice my ‘looking’ with! God know what the neighbours must think but hopefully it’s “…oh it’s just that acting, singing bloke next door puffing and panting! Just turn the telly up a bit could you dear?” So it’s preparation, preparation, preparation! I have learnt the words to my songs…almost… and although the 29 sequential colours of Joseph’s dreamcoat are still a worry, we are definitely making ground. For your information and for a little bit of practice for me they are: red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange and blue. All heaved from the depths of my mind whilst sitting here in a Hertfordshire laundrette waiting for my washing to dry. I think Reeney behind the desk thinks I’m mad mouthing the words into my laptop…still I not sure of she’s ‘all there’ herself! I got back home and there was a call from Katy at the Really Useful Group saying that plans have changed for Friday and I now have a costume fitting at three and another one to one dance call from four till seven with our heroine, Brenda. No worries for me, but secretly I suspected that the canny wardrobe department found out a) that my dance call was originally BEFORE my costume call and b) that during my dance rehearsal on Wednesday I sweated like an overworked, overweight burger eating brickie, so they flexed their lean yet gentle muscles and put some kind of emergency action plan into effect. Well who can blame them? Having to take intimate measurements of a large, half naked, pale and exhausted fella would be bad enough, but throw a couple of gallons of sweat into the equation and…well you get the picture. 18th May 2007 I then whizzed straight over to Pineapple, a real professional dance studio in Covent Garden…. get that, me at Pineapple…to meet Brenda again for a few more hours of sweat and tears. I’d managed to get in a couple of hour’s rehearsal at home since our session on Wednesday and so confidence was my middle name! Now, not only is Pineapple a highly regarded dance studio but it is, unsurprisingly, drowning with fit, young and gorgeous dancers, and, unfortunately for me, every studio has a window in it! A sight those young professionals do not need or want is that of me, a confident two left footer, in one of their dance studios cutting the Joseph groove in my own early style. Every time I checked the mirror, doing my ‘looking’, some heavenly female dance goddess in a vest top and spray on hot pants was glancing in on me with ‘that kind of look’ on her face’ and it was frankly a big distraction. I mean what can a man to do…ignore them? Anyway, it took Brenda a fair while to make progress with me but progress I think we did eventually make. We got through the whole of the Go Go Go Joseph routine and although my sweat levels in the first hour led to three vest changes (dancers wear vests don’t they?) I was really pleased with myself; it seemed to be sinking in. Hooray! Then we started on the Megamix dance, the final number in the show…my jubilation was dashed to the floor…I was just terrible! Quite apart from being inhumanly fast, it is also extremely intricate – for me! So I think we got up to about half speed with some of the moves and no more than about 20% for the rest. Lord help me! ie. Lord Lloyd-Webber please sort the tempo out! Brenda was as encouraging and confident as ever and I can’t thank her enough for this head start but with over a week off now before we get into full rehearsals I am still in a state of concern and shock. I am however itching to get going, dying to meet the rest of the cast but still losing sleep over the dancing. John Alastair
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By Wednesday he was there with the PLB (Packed Lunch Brigade - Go PLB...remember?) sitting, like the rest of us have to, on the dirty floor of the rehearsal room eating and chatting away like he had never even been on the telly. I kept saying to him "...do you know, you really look like that bloke on the telly..." (See I love flexing my comedy wings now and again!) We all roar with laughter when I come out with those types of comedy gems! It's been really hard for him just slotting into the show. He must have felt very awkward, as anyone would have done, trying to g et it right every time, struggling to take in the mammoth amount of information that is given to him by Nichola, Dan, Stage Management, film crew, cast...the list goes on. Presumably he has a life outside of Joseph too, so how he is managing the normality of that is beyond me. Keep up the good work, Lee, you're doing just great! 
By the end of the week we had started to run Act 1 properly but I felt seriously lacking with Act 2. My Act 1 dancing is finally starting to feel a bit more secure and, occasionally, I am thinking ahead rather than in the moment, which is starting to help enormously. This means that I am prepared, even if not fully ready, for the next move. 
Talking of costume, I had a fitting this week at the theatre. The first floor bar at the Adelphi has been turned into a temporary wardrobe department. There are costume rails and shoes had hats everywhere. Underneath all this clothing, thread, needles, scissors, glue, files and thimbles, I found Charlotte, wardrobe Top Boss, and some of her team.
As you can see I do look a real picture. Get that body!!! I am particularly keen on the purple, zip-up jump suit with patent leather blue Chelsea boots and cod piece! 
By close of play on Saturday, spirits were high, a great deal of good work has been done this week and our principles have been showing their wares as it were and they are all just great. “They are all just great!”…Get me! - I hope this isn’t turning into an “everything and everybody in the Company is marvellous diary” although sometimes is does feel like it. I will write down issues if they arise but so far there is just nothing juicy, gossip-wise, to write about. 
So Beverley, an Assistant Stage Manager, quietly pulls me out of rehearsal to have my beard fitting. This was a very similar process to the wig fitting I had a week or so ago using cling film, sticky tape and a chinagraph pencil. Something I never knew was that once the mould has been taken, the gauze is shaped to fit it exactly. Then the hairs are individually sown on onto the gauze, which are then cut and styled. Can you believe that? I thought I had the patience of a saint but that would kill me! In my book they deserve medals for what they do or at the very least a really nice silver-plated thimble each!
