Jamm Blog

Things That Are Occurring

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:36:07 GMT

So as usual, I’ve not blogged for a while, basically because I’ve been uber busy. Well that’s the usual excuse. Anyway, what news? Well, I’ve been drafted by the wonderful Ed Burnside and Dorset Corset Theatre Company as Sound Designer for their Autumn Tour of Frankenstein – The Year Without A Summer. It’s a totally new piece, devised from scratch, about how the Frankenstein story came about at a Lord Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva in 1816. The show includes a huge amount of original music by composer Eamon O’Dwyer (War Horse, National Theatre) and we’re going to be recording with members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. My job on the show is going to involve producing all the atmosphere sound, effects, background and a whole lot of rain and thunderstorms. It’s a real thriller, set in a rambling old villa, so it’s going to be a lot of fun to create and a new string to my bow too, in sound design. The tour starts in Trowbridge, Wilshire on 5th October and heads across the South West with about 30 dates through to mid-November. Details here.

Other creative things in my life currently include the next move in my online collaboration with Eliza Witte in Vienna on a new opera. Although this is moving at a glacial pace, it’s proving to be really quite interesting. The libretto she’s written is complete, but now we’re at the stage where I write sections of music and the key arias and get a singer into my studio to workshop and record demos. I then send these to Eliza, we discuss by email, we both make edits, discuss again, it’s quite a process. We’re also on the hunt for producer, so if you know of somebody looking to commission something new, shout.

Disney Interactive continues to keep me gainfully occupied in videogame music – Disney SingIt Family Hits and also the new pop game SingIt Party Hits are both fully in the submission process now (which basically means the production work is all done and it’s now with the printing factory and distributors) and they come out end of September. The studio also made a fabulous game for the Grease license for 505 Games called Grease - The Game. It’s stunning and a lot of fun and comes out on Wii and DS in August 2010. And I’ve got my music featured on a little Facebook game coming out soon, more about that when it’s released.

If you’ve got five minutes, I’ve got a couple of new pop song demos on my Composer page. They’re on my Facebook profile too and on AudioBoo.com
Everytime (Over And Over) is a happy, up-tempo pop dance track, about the joy and elation of love, and Let The Rain Fall Down is a more resigned effort, about heartbreak. They’re both for female vocals so ignore my poor singing on the demos.

Hope you’re enjoying the summer (what’s left of it or if we’ll get any more that is).

Jamm x

Crazy Christmas Crackers

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:10:00 GMT

Good Lord it's the end of 2009 already. So this month has been super busy. The most exciting thing though is that I've produced a track that'll be played every night for 8 weeks in LA CLIQUE at The Roundhouse, London (on the very same stage Shirley Bassey appeared not 3 weeks ago).

The fabulous Le Gateau Chocolat (impossible to describe, impossible to resist - look her up) is appearing in the show from tonight until 3rd January 2010 singing, amongst other numbers in that inimitable super bass opera voice, a re-imagining of the perenial Walking In The Air. Now, before you roll your eyes and switch off, imagine a larger-than-life, black, opera bass, in full drag, dressed as a gigantic snowball in 400 yards of net curtain, flying 20 feet in the air, singing Walking In The Air, to my arrangement of the song (put your head phones on and hit the play button at the end of this post). Aled Jones, eat out thy heart. I've worked with Le Gateau for many years now and even though we lead wildly different musical lives, we've grown both artistically and together, so much in the years since we met at uni.

The Puppy That Ate Christmas has taken another exciting leap and it looks like it may have walkies not only in Christmas 2010 but also a tour booking for 2011, which is brilliant news. More details to come still, but very excited.

I've also started work with a new collaborator on a musical set around the flying industry. I find it really inspiring to work ideas through with another creative and director & lighting designer Ed Burnside is about as creative as they come. More news on this as it develops.

Work for Disney has reached an all time climax with some of the team working 17 hour days at the moment, but all worth it as I'll soon be whisked off to America for the recording session of my compositions for the Sing It Pro section of the game. It's for the next video game in the Sing It series and it's with a HUGE singing star, but annoyingly if I told you any names I'd be killed by lawyers and also fired. But all will be revealed soon.

My studio is also currently prototyping a new game concept which will lead the way in music gaming next year. It's really exciting stuff and the best part is seeing the old ways of game development being thrown out the window and more creatively demanding, artistically authentic methods have taken their place, with proper musical guts and totally new audio design at the core. Shut up Jamm. This is one of the things wot's inspired me this monf though, innit.

Meanwhile, the Kinky Boots project continues to take pigeon steps forward, but while that drags its heels (genius) there's a demo from it on my Composer page - the second song on the green media player, called Red, where Lola (the drag act from Soho explains to the provincial bootmaker Charlie that he's no longer making boots, he's making "two-and-a-half feet of irresistible tubular sex".

I hadn't noticed, but drag's really finding me this year, isn't it? Dont' panic, there's no danger of me squeezing into a frock and belting out showtunes anytime soon. Thoughtful pause....

17 March 2010 - I'll be doing an extravaganza concert in the Claygate Music Festival, click the link for booking details. It'll be a wonderful, civilised show for the folk of the Surrey village where I grew up. My parents actually organise the whole thing - some 20 concerts and events over the month of March. It really is quite a feat, I'm sure they're meant to have retired by now. It would be great to see some familiar faces there, but it usually sells quite fast, so get booked up soon. It'll be a programme of popular musical theatre and opera all the way, with a few of my own songs from things I've been working on recently.

So that's my news - Pete and I will be spending our first Christmas at our new home on Telscombe Cliffs (just outside Brighton) with some good friends and good wines and good foods and I'm really hoping for snow this year, if just for the pictures on the beach. It's been a ridiculous year, never worked so hard in all my life, moved house, renovated half of it, been dragged through drama after drama, but all in all, I feel lucky.

x

Terribly clever and moderately challenging, or just a bit crap?

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:20:00 GMT

So I've been knocking some ochestral sketches together and using the left over bits, wound up with this. Can't work out if it's a mildly challenging, contemporary wonder or if it's actually just a bit lame. Click the play button below and have a listen for yourself - (please excuse unmixed, unbalanced, ropey midi sounds ((I was just sketching)) and give it a second to load).

What A Large Organ

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:05:00 GMT

I love to cry at weddings,
How I love to cry at weddings
I walk into a chapel and get happily hysterical,
The ushers and attendants,
The family dependants,
I see them and I start to sniff,
Have you an extra handkerchief?
And all through the service
While the bride and groom look nervous
Tears of joy are streaming down my face.
I love to cry at weddings, anybody's wedding
Any time, anywhere, anyplace!

[from Sweet Charity - Dorothy Fields & Cy Coleman]

Particularly in glamorous ski resorts, like Morzine, where I played a gigantic organ for my friend’s wedding in June. It was a terrifying first, having never played an organ for actual live people at an actual wedding. I was told by the bride it was a little organ and the church was like normal church sized. I got there and it was enormous. It was an ancient, three manuals and pedals affair, with hundreds of pipes. Altogether, the thing was the size of a house. Incredible to play, but some pipes were out of tune. Once I got to grips with the stops and levers and things, it went really well, but the idea that I could totally ruin the biggest day of my friend’s life loomed solidly throughout. Thankfully I didn’t, and I think I’m up for some more playing of the merry organ in the future, it was a nice challenge.

On other fronts, The Puppy That Ate Christmas received a very warm response at the rehearsed read-through. Funded in part by the Arts Council, New Writing South and the New Vic Workshop, it was a brilliant opportunity to see the piece on its feet and find out what works and what doesn’t. Thanks to a brilliant cast, directed by the wonderful Ed Burnside, the musical came to life in a way none of us expected. The writer Andrew G Marshall and I have since been busy with a few re-writes and new music and the next step is to get these demoed and into workshop. Then on with a small development production, then when it’s finished probably a full pro run for Christmas 2010. It’s very exciting seeing your work performed by other people. Scary, but exciting.

I’ve just had a gander at the proposed track list for the next potential Disney Sing It release and holy-moly it’s brilliant! I can’t say any more or I’ll be in trouble but just name your favourite Disney animated movie and you’re on the right lines. Super exciting stuff.

Meanwhile, Jamm World has moved lock-stock to a new home on the coast. Having gone through the house-selling-buying hell we’ve finally come out the other side with a beautiful house right on the seafront on Telscombe Cliffs, just along from Brighton. Ripping it apart and renovating the whole thing top to bottom is of course taking all our time and money but it’ll be worth it in the end. This very morning, before work, I tore out a unit from the kitchen to make room for the dishwasher, tomorrow I’ll be plumbing in a sink upstairs, window man’s replacing three windows Sunday, plasterer Monday morning, plumber moving gas things Monday, sparky coming Tuesday for some rewiring, there’s a queue of tradesmen out the door. But once they’re done, each room will be a bit closer to being ready for decorating, and that’s the fun bit.

Also thinking of making a little addition to the family soon, one with paws and a waggily tail….

Tarra for now x

Sleeping Pills & Mother's Ruin

Fri, 29 May 2009 19:22:57 GMT

How To Be A Lush, Lesson 1: Never take sleeping pills on a week day after midnight. Unable to get to sleep at 3.30am (selling the flat, buying a house etc taking its stressful toll) I knocked back a couple of Tylanol PMs and a stiff gin. I’m now at work feeling utterly ropey and decided all I can manage is a bit of a ramble on here. And it’s about time I did, as I just noticed my last blog was three months ago.

So what’s being going on since February? Did A Month Of Sundays musical theatre writing workshop, run by Chris Grady (www.chrisgrady.org) at the RADA. I’m not usually one for courses, but I have to say this is one of the best things I’ve done for my creative self for years. Met some interesting and passionate people and learned a lot from some very well respected people in the industry including, amongst others, lyricist Jeni Toksvig, the general manager at The Donmar Warehouse, director Jeremy Sams (The King And I, currently at the Royal Albert Hall) and composer Conor Mitchell. It was wonderful to be immersed in a sea of musical theatre and learning, something I’ve never experienced before.

What I have learned at AMOS has been driving much of my writing since then. The most important thing though is that structure is everything. Absolutely everything. It’s pushed me into a decision which I thought I’d never make: to not write a scrap of music until the entire structure and story of the piece is resolved and complete, because it instructs and influences every aspect of the piece.

Meanwhile, The Puppy That Ate Christmas musical has begun to take on a life its own now and the workshop weekend in June is looming fast. I say life of its own, but it’s really the book writer and lyricist Andrew G Marshall who’s doing all the hard work. The show also has its first outing at a West Sussex school on the 29th June 2009, which is going to be terrifying and exciting all at once. Kids make the harshest and most honest audience, but hopefully this will serve as a safe test run, highlighting all the areas that don’t work.

Speaking of Christmas, I’ve bravely booked a venue in Brighton for Saturday 19 December 2009 with the idea of putting together a huge Christmas Variety Show, with various acts and Christmassy things and carol singing too. I’m looking for anyone who’d like to put something into the programme, so get in touch if you have a party piece that would suit a Christmas variety show.

In other news, I have a fabulous new agent in Dave Jordan at Gigz Management (www.gigzmanagement.com – check out my hot new profile!) It’s a highly regarded and well respected agency and I’ve been wanting to work with them for a long time now. It’s good to have somebody of their calibre managing my pianist work as it leaves me more time to get on with all my various music projects.

And on that note, Disney Sing It: Pop Hits is creeping nearer and nearer to completion. Most of the my music work on it is done and I’ve got a tasty composing credit on the game too, as I’ve written all the Sing It Pro vocal exercises, recorded and taught by Disney Channel personality Tiffany Thornton (The OC, Hatching Pete, Sonny With A Chance, 8 Simple Rules). The recording was so much fun and she’s absolutely adorable. So check it out when it comes out on Wii and PS3 in the Faaall (that’s Winter to you and me). There are a few articles around about it already, here’s one with some lovely screenshots from the art team... www.uk.ps3.ign.com

Ooh, and I hope you like the new-look website. Got bored with the colours and art so had a little play and stole some art from here and there, et viola! If you find a link that doesn’t work, let me know.

The sun is shining and it’s Friday. Today, I need sleep more than anything in world. But, in the words of the lovely Tiffany Thornton, tomorrow is like totally a beach day. Awesome!

You f'coffee sir?

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:20:00 GMT

House mouse count: 0 Current skin colour (1-quite pastey, 10-thoroughly ethnic): 7 but fading Just got back from Palm Springs in sunny California, up in the mountains outside LA. What a lovely little holiday, I'm brown as a button and I got six new songs sketched, sat by the pool. There's one huge benefit being married to cabin crew: you get global, upper class travel for free. Fun as this is, I treat it as work time for some very good reasons. As a composer, you either do your writing around everything else in your life, or that is your life and everything (and everyone) else fits around the writing. Either way, you're constantly battling against all sorts of interruptions, noise or time constraints. The most annoying thing is when you're busy getting something down that's in your head, you're interrupted by something, which in hindsight is thoroughly unimportant, then you look back at your page or the screen and it's just not in your head anymore. It's gone, lost forever in the creative ether. However, sitting in an enclosed seat pod on an 11 hour flight to LA, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic, surrounded by nothing but your whim's desire, and most importantly white noise, allows you a glorious freedom from the world that you can't find anywhere else. It's a totally artificial environment, it's comfortable, it's completely removed from your everyday, you can't go anywhere, you can't distract yourself, and it's perfect for writing. The only interruption you'll ever get is a smiling face presenting beautiful things to eat and drink. What further bliss could a composer with a robust appetite ask for? Coming to think of it, I've written the majority of my music onboard concession flights, although I should point out that trying to write anything when sat in Economy is totally impossible and utterly inconcievable. The moment somebody sees music dots or scribblings of a strange nature, they can't help but stare, which is very off-putting, especially as they're practically sat on your lap back there. And worse still, you get stupid casual comments like, "oh, so you're writing the next big hit are ya?" or "I play a bit of guitar, used to be in a band years ago." Would you go up to a person reading a newspaper and say, "oh, so you're catching up with the latest headlines, are ya?" No you wouldn't. It's rude. They'd give you an odd stare and hope you'll go away, and quite rightly so. Rant over. My joy was also doubled by the fact that on this trip I was working on a musical revue show about flying and being cabin crew. What better place to write it? I'll keep you up to date with that as the demos start to take shape, but there’s one attached to this blog, so turn your speakers up and have a gander of the ear. It’s a song for a girl (so ignore my voice) called Back To Back. Our heroine's standing there exhausted on the second of her two back-to-back flights, with her trolley in the middle of the aisle, struggling to do a meal service on her own and realises her life back on the ground is falling apart. If you like the song, please feel free to share the link to this page on your profile on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, what-have-you. And if you know a good girl singer who'd like to record a demo of it, drop me a line (contact) Meanwhile, a first draft of The Puppy That Ate Christmas is complete at last. Next, it'll go into workshop this year and then go through the usual edits and rewrites to keep everybody happy. The publishing end of things needs sorting out too, but our agent is handling that admirably, and hopefully it'll go into production for Christmas 2009. I can't wait to actually sit in front of it and actually watch it, like an actual audience member. That's going to be a proper thrill (unless my songs turn out to be terrible, in which case I'll leave before the houselights come up). In other news, not much. I had a cull of Facebook "friends". It was brutal. I looked at the list and I thought, come on Jamsheed, you couldn't even name these 329 people, let alone call them all friends. So I got delete-happy. It was quite cathartic really, deleting people with a stroke of my index finger, like some power-crazed mafia king. At this point, I'd normally keep typing, but given you won't know if I culled you off my list (mwahaha), the subject is at best only mildly interesting to me. Therefore I shall sign off. Goodnight, and don’t forget to have a listen to the song! x

Mouse traps and showtunes and pianos, oh my!

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:43:58 GMT

Being humane requires more effort than I thought. Every time you catch a mouse in a trap, the trap’s useless until it’s empty again. So you have to take it for a walk far away from the house and let it out, bring the trap home, wash it out, stick some more peanut butter in it and set it again. Given there’s a foot of snow outside and there may be an untold number of mice in the house, this could go on forever. So I called the council and today the rat catcher paid me a visit.

He was not unlike the child catcher from Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and of course knew all about mice and rats and other pests, but was resolute in telling me all I could want to know about them too. I suppose, if that’s your vocation. He seemed friendly enough, but as he laid the little cardboard traps in all the likely places, I could swear a glint of world-domination malevolence crossed his withered face. Anyway, him and his halitosis will be back in three weeks to examine the results. I just hope I don’t start finding dead mice everywhere, I’ve grown quite attached to the little things.

Anyway, back in music world, I did a piano gig at a hotel in London last week, where usually I’m playing to a small bar full of American tourists or bored looking business folk on some boring conference jolly. But this gig was different: the entire staff of Delfont-Mackintosh were having their late New Year party around my piano, all 130 of them. Now if, like me, you’re a musical theatre boy/girl you’ll understand my excitement. If you don’t know who Sir Cameron Mackintosh is, then look away now and close this browser tab immediately.

The company owns, amongst other things, seven West End theatres and their current slew includes shows like Billy Elliot, The Sound Of Music, Oliver!, Phantom, all the biggies. At the time of evening I was playing, the party consisted of all front of house, directors, producers, box office, accounts, management folk. All the cast members and backstage people from the shows hadn’t finished work yet. As their entertainment for this part of the evening, I was suddenly faced with something of a musical dilemma: What do I play? Should I play it cool and stick to jazz, swing and pop songs, blatantly avoiding the musicals altogether? Would they notice that? Would they appreciate it? Would they understand I’m trying not to stereotype them and I’m not trying to get into their hearts using the music of their trade? Would they get that I was just playing it cool?

Or should I just abandon all decorum and self-consciousness and roll out the Barbra-Streisand-sings-songs-from-the-shows routine, with bonus chorus number medleys of everything Cameron Mackintosh has ever produced? Well, put a few theatricals in a bar with free drink and you can imagine what inevitably happens. By the end of my gig, I had the front of house staff from the Prince Of Wales and the producer of the Chinese run of Mama Mia belting out everything from Abba to The Little Mermaid around the piano. It was great fun! To be honest, I’ve never been that loud-voiced, piano-man, all-round entertainer type, but once you’re rolling along, you just have to go with the crowd. I find it a bit destroying, but it does make me wonder how I’d feel if I ever saw people gathered around a piano belting their way through songs that I had written. Would I be proud? Would I be appalled? I’m hoping I get to find out one day.

Mouse About The House

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:42:45 GMT

So it turns out Pete and I are sharing our home with a mouse. Now I’m told that everything happens for a reason and I’m wondering if the mouse has one. Given he’s not really a threat to anything serious and is probably ever so cute, if he ever presented himself in person/rodent that is, I’m not particularly bothered. He’s eaten through some curious things under the sink: one carrot and coriander soup carton, three dishwasher tablets and the best part of a Brita water filter and the scurrying in the roof above the bedroom of our loft conversion can keep us up at night. It’s also possible he left an unwanted gift in some leftover peas that Pete ate last week, resulting in a very upset tummy (for Pete, not the mouse). So common sense has reared its head and a humane trap must be sought. I really don’t want to kill it, it’s done nothing it shouldn’t and even if it had, death by trickery is surely a bit mean to say the least. As with most domestic questions that arise in life, I turned to the internet to see what might be best. And also to find out if it’s likely our friend has any its own friends or relatives living with him. Apparently, if you remove a mouse as soon as you can, further invasion is less likely. If you leave it, then they set up home and suddenly there’s an extended family feasting on your soup cartons. Makes sense. I also read a much more interesting forum post somewhere that claims playing Wagner to them, day and night, will drive them loony and send them packing. Experiments were carried out using feistier passages of Berlioz, Mahler and some angry bits of Beethoven, but Wagner yielded the most favourable efficacy. Call me bonkers, but I might actually give this a try. It didn’t tell exactly which pieces were used (should that be what Wagner works worked?) but the point is that it’s basically noisy, long and complicated. I’ll start with Das Rheingold I suppose and see how we go. If they’re still hanging about when we get to Götterdämmerung then we might be in trouble. But hopefully mice just aren’t into chromatic harmony. I’ll have to report back with the results, but hopefully we’ll have the poor mouse evicted soon. I wonder how he’d react to Mozart’s Die Fledermaus? Oh my word, it’s just struck me! The mouse does have a reason – he’s been sent to improve my appreciation of Wagner. Out

Time to Blog

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:46:46 GMT

So, despite my usual wish of not wanting to be attached to a computer every waking hour of my life, I’ve decided to embrace that age old tradition of blogging. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to know my innermost thoughts but apparently, a regular scribbling of thoughts is good for the creative spirit or something. Most of my if-I-had-a-blog ideas, or what I think I should write here, occurs to me in the shower in the morning, but most of it is forgotten by the time I’ve put my helmet on and scootered off to work. So when I say regular, I don’t know how regular exactly, but as the juices strike me, I shall pour forth. And I’ll try not to sound like a pretentious twat.

Excuse me, how much is this artistic freedom please?

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:40:00 GMT

I’ve been thinking, the more you squeeze a tube, the more comes out. (Didn’t I tell you most of my greatest thoughts come to me in the bathroom?) This suggests to me that it is more productive to squeeze the tube than to let the tube just do whatever it wants to. The tube, while potentially full of promise and an endless stream of product, is rather like us (well, like me) and essentially lazy. In short, I’ve decided the more I’m restricted, the more productive I am. I don’t mean just musically either, I mean in life too. The more things I have to squeeze into a short space of time, the more I’ll actually get done. I’ll do all the things better and I’ll be more inclined to actually do stuff rather than put things off. For the last four years I’ve worked for a videogames company. My division is currently on a singing game for Disney called Sing It. As Disney is the publisher and we are the developer, we are the ones that decide what the game will look, sound and feel like. Yet, they place all sorts of restrictions on us. Given that all the assets (songs, videos, characters, sounds, names etc) belong to Disney, they obviously have the right to say what we can and cannot do with them. As a result, we’ve developed a very slick, modern, exciting game with lots of features which is great fun to play. Now if Disney had said to us, “Make a game for us to publish, do whatever you like, but make it good” I can guarantee the first hundred beta attempts would be terrible. It would be a sprawling, unfocussed game and would get bad reviews, because there were no restrictions, no definitions, no guides, no parameters. When it comes to music, it would seem churlish to say freedom produces bad results (definitions of good and bad and subjectivity being another discussion altogether) but in the musical world in which I compose, it would be impossible to write anything sellable or listenable for my audience without any restrictions. I write for musical theatre and the odd bit of pop and rock when I’m in the mood. Although it’s extra to my full time work, I take it seriously enough to know when something’s commercially worth pursuing or not. I also know the music of Disney and Hollywood Records’ catalogue inside-out (sometimes not such a good thing, the Mouse messes with your head) but I have a pretty good ear for that particular audience. The restrictions that I place on my writing are pretty straight forward. Firstly, I demand a good tune at all times. If the melody isn’t whistle-able and easily sung, it needs making so. This usually boils down to form and the way something flows. The best way is to write it, pretend it’s perfect and just get on with finishing it, then leave it, forget about it and come back to it. All the errors of judgement and problems with the form are always much more apparent. And yes, there are always improvements to be made, music is never perfect. The second restriction I exercise is more of a question: What is the piece saying? If it’s not saying what it needs to, it’s not right. If this happens, I usually bin it (meaning I put it in the magic place of stray bits of music and lyric for possible future use). Similarly, if the audience for whom it’s intended won’t hear what it’s trying to say, then it needs work. I often find that if you try and write something without anything to say, you end up with drivel. It’s the same as listening to somebody talking who actually has nothing to say: small talk, polite chitchat, drivel. When you apply this to orchestral music then you have a set up where you’re trying to say things with instruments. They’re the same as voices, but instead of conveying what they want to say using words, they use sound to emote. For me, this is far more powerful than the human voice, especially when it comes to extreme sadness or high drama. The vocal equivalent of a tutti orchestra going full pelt, kettle drums and all, can say so much more than a hundred people shouting, “Drama! High drama!” (that’s basically what it comes down to in musical theatre) at you. Or a well arranged cello part can portray the story of a sad tragedy in a much more palatable way than somebody droning on about their misfortunes. In any case, my point is that without this restriction, there’s no point in writing. You may as well go and make small talk with strangers at a bus stop as artistically you’d be achieving the same thing. For me, a musical is about the story. Yes, it’s called a musical not an historical, but the music is the means by which we experience the story. Now if the story is weak, the whole thing will unravel, no matter how good the music, book or performance is. This isn’t true for opera so much as worship is usually offered wholly to the score, giving vast leniency to an often ropey plot. Ooh get me. I’ve seen a few very well received musicals, the story of which falls apart ruining everything for me. Needless to say, Sondheim wrote musicals that had seamless stories, which always wrapped up firmly and inevitably, err, inevitably: What should happen to the narrative always did happened. But there are shows like Stephen Schwartz’ Wicked, which is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, until you get to the last quarter and you’re not entirely sure what just happened or why, but the action continues to a dramatic close as if the story reached a natural conclusion. Gregory Maguire’s book that it’s based on is deeply complex so the stage show has to be pared down. But just a little too much is left for the audience to wonder about at the end. This is a shame because the music is gloriously powerful and very moving in places and the characters and the world they inhabit is fascinating. As the musical is all about the story for me, the last thing you want is a score that pretends it’s invented a new chord or sounds like the composer has revolutionised the western system of music as we know it. Musical theatre is simply not the place for this sort of business and it interferes with the experience. As with many experiences in life, if somebody is making an absurd song and dance about one thing, it’s usually another more awkward thing they’re trying to avoid or distract from, ie a weak plot. I’m going to wrap up my first blog entry there as I’ve said what I wanted to and to continue needlessly would, as I mentioned, result in drivel. Jamm x