BLOG NUMBER 17!!!!!!!
So I am sat on a train back to North Wales and making the most of the downtime to write to all you lovely people!!!
Apologies for the lack of blogging this week – I’ve had loads to say but no internet to actually upload it! As I’ve written before, my folks live on a farm in the middle of no-where in North Wales and I can’t even get phone signal there let alone reception on my internet dongle!!!
Last time I blogged I was sat in the hotel room in Cardiff feeling very refreshed and ready for a good days recording – and that it was too. I arrived Caryl’s house (she’s the writer of Marcaroni) and she was running late so ended up spending a couple of hours with her lovelydaughters making peanut butter cookies which was great – I ate about 6 then got on with the recording before being driven by Tony (good ole Tony my driver) up to my folks place ready to start the week with Oklahoma in Rhyl!!!
SO THE WEEK IN RHYL!!! Where do I start!?!?!?
We opened on Tuesday to an incredible reception. I really felt like I was being welcomed back to the home land. I walked on stage for my first entrance singing ‘Oh What A Beautiful Morning’ and got a huge cheer and entrance round from the audience – I was so overwhelmed, all I could think was “for god’s sake don’t trip over the box” ‘cause I jump up on a box to sit on a water feature thingy near the beginning of the song, and believe me I have tripped up on it numerous times trying to look cool and do it without looking where I step – it’s even been mentioned in a review in one of the venues “Mark Evans as cowboy Curly resisted the urge to corpse after he absolutely stacked it on a bit of the set” (or something along those lines-ha). Anyway, I digress, they were a wonderful audience and it remained that way for the entire week. It was a real pleasure to perform to such wonderfully warm crowds in the Pavilion and to see the theatre so busy!
Thursday I spent in silence to try and rest a very tired voice. I was given another Zac Efron film to watch by Alex in the cast after I told her I’d enjoyed his performance in ‘The Death And Life of Charlie St. Cloud’ – It was ’17 Again’ where he plays a 40 year old guy (acted by Matthew Perry) once he’s been transformed into a 17 year old to revisit that part of his life. It was very good and yet again I thought Zac Efron did a great job!
I then went to pick up my niece Ellie who is 4 from school which was amazing! Spending time with kids is like someone giving you a lesson in life- if only we could all be as innocent and carefree as 4 year olds I think the world would be a much happier place – Clearly I understand that is impossible and would get dull but I like the thought at least!!!
On Thursday after the show the ‘Friends Of The Rhyl Pavilion’ group (about 60 people I’d say) held a reception for us all in the bar of the theatre and I can honestly say we have never had a reception like that. You would not believe the amount of food that was on the buffet table and so many genuinely lovely people who were so kind in what they were saying to us and had seemed to really enjoy the show and really appreciated us being there which is lovely, particularly having been touring with this show now about 8 months visiting over 30 different towns – It’s nice to be welcomed in such a way (even better that it was my local theatre-good ole Welshies eh?!?!?!)
Friday daytime we had rehearsals for our replacement ‘Andrew Carnes’ in the show – Gary Davies who plays the role can’t come to Italy with us to finish the tour as he has other work to go onto so we needed to have rehearsals – it was quite fun actually because everyone was in a bit of a giddy stupid mood. Ha.
So then Saturday came and I had to give the car back that I had very kindly been allowed to borrow from the minister of our local chapel in the village at home. It was very handy and nice to have that feeling of independence you get when you have your own car. The two shows on Saturday went well. Mum watched the show for the 6th and final time with my Dad and auntie and uncle!
I was picked up by good ole Tony on Saturday night to go down to Llanelli (about an hour west of Cardiff) to stay in a hotel ready to get up Sunday to record the final 13 songs for Marcaroni. It was a very productive day and we have now finished recording my vocals on all 52 episodes now I won’t be in until I start filming on December 13th!!! I have 52 scripts to learn in the mean time!!!
Then last night good ole Tony drove me back to London which took a lot longer than it should’ve because of traffic but I didn’t mind as it gave me time to study and do some research for a couple of meetings I had today.
I am now about to arrive Rhyl on the train so my Mum can pick me up to take me home for the night. I am over 90 minutes delayed but I don’t care as I have had a good day and delays are not going to ruin it – however the bottle of red wine I have waiting for me at home will make it a lot better!!!
I fly to Derry in Northern Ireland tomorrow. Thursday night is our end of tour party. It’s a big one – we’re having an awards ceremony which we’ve all submitted nomination forms in for which include as an example – best mishap on stage etc! The next blog will be after the party next weekend and I shall give you the lowdown on who won what and if I have an award to put on my mantelpiece in London!!! It’s going to be a great party!!! I will also post the link to our lady Gaga video which I think I have mentioned before. Gemma (Laurey in the show) decided when we were in Sunderland to take on the challenge of recreating the Lady Gaga/Beyonce 10 minute music video to their smash hit ‘Telephone’. The entire company have worked on it all year since then and it was finished last week and will be shown for the first time at the party next week!!! BE WARNED: There is footage of me in heels as Lady Gaga!!!
Anyway I’m getting tired of typing. I think you’ll agree it’s been a busy week and weekend – but a very productive exciting one!!!
13 more performances of Oklahoma! left!!!!!!!!!!
Keep messaging me folks. Love hearing from you. Hope you’re all well.
Keep smiling.
Mark
