Blog 84! Showers, Pancakes And Cast Change!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Thursday! Hope you're all well and happy and have had a great week since my last blog.

I am feeling nice and spritely this morning heading into work for two shows. It has been a busy old week but a very good one.

Last Friday I woke and decided to head straight to the gym to have a swim and then shower before rehearsals, so I jumped out of bed, wolfed down some porridge and headed to the train station, only to find that the trains were (ONCE AGAIN!!!) delayed and cancelled! I get so impatient with it all nowadays because it's happening more and more. I kind of miss the days when I used to work at the restaurant with my Mum and Sister in North Wales when I was a teenager because it only took about 5 minutes in the car to travel just over a mile to get there! It's such an ordeal to get anywhere in London. (Rant over)

So I had to get a bus, having not showered I felt like I was doing the walk of shame (on a bus home after a night out, when everyone else is going to work!)

I ended up being too late to go for a swim and too late to eat before work and, yes, you guessed it, too late to shower before the physical warm up! - Now don't get me wrong, I had showered after work the night before but I'm just a bit of a clean freak and like to think that if you rubbed your index finger on me I would squeak - like the washed up dinner plates on the old Fairy Liquid adverts! So indeed, Squeaky clean, I was not. The resident director came up to me after the warm up and went to hug me and I said, "don't touch me I haven't showered" and he froze in his tracks with a disgusted look on his face! 

Needless to say, I headed straight to my dressing room to shower before the rehearsal started.

It was a full run through of the show for the new cast members. It was really fun because whenever we were doing scenes on stage that didn't involve anyone new, we were just having fun with it and everyone was putting me off by delivering all of their dialogue lines looking directly at me - which is REALLY alien and very bizarre, because (incase you haven't seen the show) from the moment I get shot, I am then a ghost (hence the title) that no one can see unless they too are a Ghost, so I really wasn't used to making eye contact with people! It was funny as hell!

After the rehearsal I went for a swim, well I had to right?, before doing the evening show! 

Saturday morning I had a tidy up of my flat ready for the arrival of my Mum & Sister who were arriving Monday and then I headed in to do the last two shows with the original cast. It was a great day.

I woke on Sunday nice and early and went to my local cafe for a nice breakfast before popping to see my good friend Wayne for a catch up and for him to cut my hair! Then I walked home (a couple of miles) to get ready for the What's On Stage Awards concert at the Prince Of Wales Theatre. It was really nice to  get dressed up for an event that celebrates theatre. I met everyone who'd been invited from the Ghost company at the Haymarket Hotel for some champagne beforehand (my first alcoholic drink in 5 weeks!) and then we headed to the event! 

I have to just take this opportunity to tell you how privileged I feel to have met and spent time with the writer of both Ghost the movie and Ghost The Musical, Bruce Joel Rubin last week. He is an incredible man who's full of wisdom and amazing tales and stories and is certainly one of the kindest and most generous people I've had the pleasure of meeting and working with.

I tried to point out to him just how wonderful I thought the story of Ghost is and how privileged I feel to have been given the responsibility of telling this story to West End audiences night after night! He was way too humble and modest to take the compliment but I meant it with so much sincerity! I think he's a genius!

So the night was a huge success. Ghost won 3 awards, for best lighting, best set design (which I collected on Rob Howell's behalf) and Richard Fleeshman had flown back from New York to collect his well deserved award for Best Actor in a musical. 

I then went out for some food with a couple of good mates before getting a car home. I love being driven through London at night. When you drive over the bridge across the Thames River and past all the beautiful buildings it always makes me think of how lucky I am to be happily living and working in London and also makes me think of how different my life is now to when I was living in Wales up to the age of 16! You can never predict the future folks, much as you might like to or try to, so just let that feeling of an unknown future excite you to your core and it will make every day as good as it possibly can be! That's how I try to live my life anyway and please forgive me if you feel I'm preaching at you but sometimes people need a little nudge to remember that life is good!

I woke on Monday and raced around town buying a few little treats for the cast for opening night gifts because it was the first performance for the new 2012/2013 company then I headed in for the final dress rehearsal. Two shows on a Monday felt odd let me tell you.

After the dress rehearsal, Siobhan and I had a photo session and then I met my Mum and Sister for some food before they watched the show for the first.

The show went well and all the new guys did a great job. My Mum and Sister loved it and we all had a couple of drinks in the reception afterwards before getting a car home and chatting over some healthy nibbles.

Tuesday they left to head back to Wales in the morning and I had a bit of a lazy morning watching Brothers And Sisters - because I'd slept on the lounge floor the night before which wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had. Then in the afternoon I did a couple of hours at the gym before the show. I had a fair few pancakes after the show which was really nice then slept like a baby! 

Wednesday (yesterday) was a good day. I met up with Ben & Zoe who I worked with on Wicked, and it was really great to see them and catch up properly over lunch! I then went to the gym for a couple of hours before my guitar lesson. 

Last night's show was great and then I headed to a friends house for lots of nice food and watched some fun video clips of when we worked together etc,

Which brings me to today, ready and raring to go with two shows! Bring it on. 

Tomorrow at 1pm there is a new newsletter being sent out to everyone on my mailing list. Don't miss it, it includes all my holiday dates where I shall not be performing in Ghost! Sign up here if you're not already on the mailing list - 

http://t.opsp.in/1AJaP

Have a great week people and remember try and be positive whenever possible, I find it makes life easier!

Believe

Sh-boom

Mark 

Blog 83! Can't believe I've written 83 of these! (Just Saying!)

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday

How has your week been?…….. No seriously, I want  you to answer me. Have you had a good week? (Cue readers vocal response here)

Good well I have had a good week too since last Thursday!

Last Friday I met up with my good friend Ashleigh (who duetted on my album) and it was lovely to catch up with her! We always have such a laugh! I love going round to her home too cos it's like mine, ridiculously OCD as far as things being tidy and her cleanliness etc! 

After that I got a train into town then walked a couple of miles across London to the rehearsal studio to run the show with the new cast of GHOST! It was a really fun afternoon. One of the new ensemble boys, Scott had popped to the loo and we were all waiting for him so that we could start act two, so we decided we'd all run into the room next door and hide so he came back to a massive empty studio. The room next door which we were hiding in had glass doors so we were all peeping through to see his reaction! It was priceless! This little prank proved that we have a great group of people who are really gonna enjoy working together and it's gonna be a fun year!

The new cast of the show open this Monday evening (February 20th). We will be sad to say goodbye to some of the original cast who leave the production this Saturday. It's been a manic year for them between rehearsing in london then taking the show to Manchester to tech it, preview it, open it and run for 2 months, then return to London for more rehearsals, another tech period, another preview period and then finally opening in London - months after the first day they met. So it has been a year of full on hard work for the entire company and Ghost the musical has become a huge success and a lot of that is down to the extremely talented original cast. Those who are leaving will be missed and I wish them all the very best of luck for the future!

I am typing this on the train at the moment on the way into town. There's a young lad and his dad who just sat down opposite me and they are discussing going swimming with the boys friends Theo and Myles but he can't pronounce his 'th' sound so his friend's name has become Feo! Cute! 

Aaaaanyway……

Saturday morning I got up to make some food and was planning on going for a swim before the 2 shows but London transport decided it wasn't to be by cancelling all the trains into London.

So I went straight in to work and after the matinee I met 4 of my friends from Wales and we had some food before two of them, Aimee and Carys watched the evening show. Aimee and I headed home in a taxi after that and chilled with a movie and a cup of tea with some toast! Isn't that what everyone does on a Saturday night? Tea and toast? ROCK AND ROLL!!! 

Sunday morning we had a lovely lay in before going for a long walk to Dulwich which I love. It has lots of cool shops and cafes and restaurants. We wondered around a bit before sitting in a pub to watch Wales kick ass in the rugby! Good times! It was a great game! 

Sunday evening I cooked a lovely dinner for us and then watched a bit of Dancing On Ice. I have to admit, I get a little bored with it at the moment. Do you? There's still too many of them in it and the programme is too long in my opinion. Get rid of the not so good ones and let's make it exciting to watch. My friend Matt Evers and his partner Jorgie clearly deserve to win it! She's incredible.

We then watched a bit more TV - including a programme called The Wedding Proposal. Did you see it? I only watched it because they were showing bits of Ghost on it. It's basically a programme following 4 men who decided to propose to their girlfriends in original and extravagant ways. One of which was a bloke coming on stage at the end of Ghost in a costume and bowed with the cast before Andrew Langtree who plays Carl announced to the audience that there was in fact a new person on stage and that he was there to speak directly to one special member of the audience - his girlfriend, who had just watched the performance of the show. Needless to say she said yes and it was edited very well - I thought and was very romantic! They only looked about 14 years old though. haha. Nice idea.

Monday we woke and met a friend of mine for brunch then Aimee headed back to the green green grass of home in North Wales and I for some reason thought it would be a good idea to do 3 whole hours in the gym! I mean seriously, I am a nuttier!!! I felt great afterwards but I tell you what, by Tuesday all I wanted to do was sleep ALL DAY!!! And there was no chance of that happening cos it was a busy day.

(I had to stop typing on the train as it arrived at my stop so I am now in my dressing room, having swam 30 lengths of the pool, had a steam and sauna and then warm up on stage and I've just had about a litre of protein shake with rice milk so I am now bloated and feel like I have swallowed an entire aquarium. Loads of liquid swishing round my belly! Bleurgh!)

Anyway, as I was saying, Tuesday was a very busy day. Siobhan and I had to be at the Mayfair hotel in Central London by 1.30 to run through and sound check our set for a gig we were doing there after the show on Tuesday night. We then got driven to the theatre to rehearse with the new cast before I had a guitar lesson and then the show. Crazy times.

After the show finished we had about 20 minutes to shower and get dressed up before our car arrived to take us to the hotel.

Basically the gig was in aid of the Prince's Trust. We were singing 4 songs from Ghost and giving them a taster of what the show has to offer. We arrived the hotel and about 15 minutes later were introduced onto the little stage to perform to a 50:50 ratio of rich people and celebrities, along the lines of JLS, Arlene Phillips, Faye Tozer, Sam Kane, Linda Lusardi etc etc. You can decide if they're A list or some other letter, way down the alphabet !!! Tee hee!

Anyway we sang and got out of there as soon as possible as it had been a long day and we needed sleep. (I did nab about 6 smoked salmon sandwiches in a napkin for my journey home though! Yum) 

Wednesday (yesterday) I had a lovely day I did 50 lengths of the pool before a physio session and then spent the afternoon with my best friend and her fiance so that we could shop for a suit for me and the other two brides men for their wedding. I'm the man of honour. So there will be three brides maids and three brides men! It's gonna be great. The outfits we picked were in the first shop we went into so the rest of the afternoon we just chilled out which was lovely.

I had some friends watching the show last night so I went to stay with them to catch up before a rise and shine this morning to fit in 30 lengths of the pool before warm up for today's two shows.

So that brings me to here right now (wasn't being stagey but that does happen to be the title of our opening song of Ghost!) (*Cue singing)

I just finished the matinee then popped out to sign a few things at stage door and now I'm gonna tuck into my food and enjoy an episode of Brothers and Sisters, which I am loving! 

Have a great week everyone.

If you're coming to see Ghost I hope you enjoy it!

Keep in touch on Twitter and Facebook folks. Love hearing from you all. Some tweets recently have really been making me laugh.

Love your lives & believe

Sh-boom!

Mark 

Blog 82!!! Snow, Food and stuff!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Thursday!

How you all doing? I'm good. Very good. Getting psyched up for a double show day. Really takes it out of you, dying twice in one day!!! I love it though!

So it's been a good week since the last blog.

Thursday night after the show I finished the last episode in the 3rd season of 24! My god I actually tense right down to my butt cheeks when I watch it! I loved the whole of season 3 but decided I needed a little break in my life before immersing myself into the next series and was wondering what I should buy that was a little lighter to watch.

Friday I had a good gym session before a rehearsal with Siobhan for a private Ghost gig she and I are performing after the show on Valentines night then I had my vocal massage before heading to work for physical and vocal warm up before the show! 

On Saturday before heading to work I popped to HMV and I bought the box set of 'Brothers & Sisters'. I'd heard great things about it and they were selling all 5 seasons in a box set that was reduced from £120 to £49 so I thought it was too good to leave on the shelf!

I watched the first 2 episodes of the season in my dressing room between my matinee and evening performance and intended to watch a couple more after I got in before getting an early night so I could head to Wales for my West End In Wales 'Sunday Funday' that I run in Rhyl 3 times a year. Well that plan went completely out the window when I walked out of the stage door on Saturday night and the whole of London was white with snow! I could barely walk in my nike airs which I'm wearing at the moment for a bit more ankle & knee support - they are NOT designed for slushy snow!!! 

I walked as quickly as I possibly could to my train station only to find that all the trains home had been cancelled. There was a queue a good 80 metres long for the black cabs (of which there were none arriving anytime soon!) so I thought I'd try a bus. I waited 25 minutes for a bus and nothing came, so I walked to another bus stop only to see that there had been a collision between two buses which meant that the road was blocked and no other traffic, including buses could get through. I spoke to the driver and he explained that there had not been a collision but two buses had "touched" and the TFL (transport for London) rule is that if two buses make contact they have to wait there absolutely stationary until someone can arrive to make an accident report. In the mean time the hundreds of people who were on the dozens of double decker buses behind the 'touched collision" were encouraged to get off and find alternative ways of getting home. Well there weren't any!

So with no trains, taxis or buses, there was only one form of transport I could genuinely rely on - my legs! I decided to walk in the direction of home hoping that a bus would come along. I walked about a mile and a half and then a bus did indeed come along and I managed to sneakily squeeze myself through the exit doors because there simply wasn't enough room to fit a candidate of America's Next Top Model on there, let alone someone who's about 4 times the size of one of those said candidates - so needless to say it was not a comfortable journey. We travelled about a mile and a half and then we stopped on a hill in traffic for 25 minutes. I decided I was bored of relying on other people to get me home so bit the bullet, popped my umbrella up and walked home! It was 3.5 miles so I decided the only way I could get through it was to buy myself a little treat from every 24 hour store that was open along the way! I had a packet of kettle chips and a Lucozade in the first, an oat cookie (which was the size of my head) from the second and a bag of mini eggs from the third! By the time I arrived home, 3.5 hours after finishing work I was not only a sopping wet mess I actually felt a little queezy from all the sweet food I'd eaten! 

I had already accepted that it was highly doubtful that I would get up to North Wales on a train that was meant to depart at 6.15 the next morning if I wasn't able to get a train a simple 7 miles across London that night!

I woke Sunday morning early to check out the situation and then just had to call the staff of my Sunday Funday, Aimee & Gareth to say I was unfortunately unable to make it back and they were more than happy and definitely more than capable of running it without me.

So I ended up trying to chill out during the day after an exhausting two shows and 5 mile walk the day before. I watched the next two episodes of Brothers & Sisters, then in the evening I headed to a mates house to have some nice food and watch the film 'The Kids Are Alright'. I thought it was great. Great story and very well acted! It was a good night!

I am however, craving an alcoholic beverage at the moment, especially when I'm relaxing on a day off work. It's because I know I can't drink as I'm still on antibiotics for a week and a half since my vocal infection. I'm telling you, as soon as I'm off those pills I might fill a swimming pool with Red wine and do my daily swim in it to get my fill! I don't even drink that much but it's always difficult when you can't have something, you think about it even more! No matter how hard you try you can't block it out! If I tell you to not to think of the colour red right now, your picturing it regardless! Stop thinking of the colour red, no seriously stop it! See I told you! That's what I'm like but add the word 'wine' after the word 'red' and that's a little more accurate to my state of mind! Oh my god am I a border line alcoholic!??!!?

Monday was a very productive day, I had a healthy brunch with a friend before heading for a good session at the gym and then I walked through the park to the big WHSmith in Victoria station to buy a magazine I knew they had that I wanted. The Men's Health Nutrition Manual. It is amazing. It has loads of recipes in there for pre and post gym workouts and explains exactly why things are good for you and what foods you should have when to maximise your energy levels. I am finding it really interesting and so on Tuesday morning I went to Sainsburys and spent £114 stocking up my cupboards and fridge and freezer so that I have most of the ingredients I need to cook all the recipes I liked from the manual. It actually works out so much cheaper on a weekly basis by making all your meals at home!

I find it really satisfying making food! I have worked in two restaurants, a bar and a pub in my lifetime and in the two restaurants I used to make a lot of the food and help with preparations and service! I think maybe in another life I'll be a chef. It's therapeutic, rewarding and even better that it tastes great whilst still being very healthy.

I'm now sat in my dressing room in between today's two shows and I've just munched on my home made chilli with rice that i made last night before bed! Yum! Loving the healthy food!

All this talk of food reminds me of how I used to write some of my earlier blogs way back in september 2009! I talked a lot about food then!

So the rest of the week since Tuesday's food shop has revolved around cooking, working out at the gym, doing the show, an afternoon's rehearsal with the new Ghost cast and a guitar lesson! So there's not much else to report.

Oh yeah, I meant to say, on Monday night I got the Brothers & Sisters DVD out to carry on watching what I thought was season 1 when I realised I had in fact been watching the first 4 episodes of the 5th and final season! I'm such a muppet. So I started at the very beginning and it's a bit annoying cos I am kind of just sat there saying,"well I know that you die, and you end up with him and you go off to do this etc etc etc" - Anyway I'm still finding it very entertaining and can highly recommend it to you all, just do yourselves a favour and start at the beginning! 

So that's about all I have to say today. I'm gonna get ready for my second show of the day and then head home! I had a swim this morning too  - Don't know what I was thinking doing that before two shows but I haven't crashed yet so fingers crossed tonight will be a breeze! Ha. I wish!

Keep in touch folks, Twitter & Facebook, I always read your messages even if I don't have time to reply. I do try! Oh and by the way, to all of you who have gotten in touch somehow saying you've seen me on the new Ghost poster - I have to inform you that it isn't me! It's a friend of mine named Jack. That poster is the new Ghost The Musical poster for every production world wide, and that's why they're not using any of the cast members because it shouldn't be specific to any particular company around the globe. By next year there will be Ghost London, Ghost Broadway, Ghost Holland & Ghost Melbourne! - It's taking over the world! And so it should, I'm very proud of this show and think it's great! 

Have a great week folks! Keep believing!

Sh-boom!!!

Mark

Blog 81! Back to my loud and proud spooky self!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Thursday, Happy Blog Day, Happy double show of Ghost day.

This edition I imagine will be written at regular intervals throughout the day. I am currently sat on the train into work but I know I won't finish writing this by the time that I get there so I may have to finish it after the matinee! My typing is really rubbish right now because my fingers are numb from standing on the freezing platform waiting for a train. I had to use mind over matter and imagine I was really warm, doesn't change the fact that I'm now typing my blog as if I have been given an extra 3 fingers on each hand and they're all just pushing any button they want uncontrollably!!!

I hope you've all had a great week. I certainly have. If you read last weeks crazy ass blog you'll remember me being ever so slightly frustrated for being muted for 5 days, well I am very happy to report that I went to see an ENT specialist last Friday for a follow up appointment. He had a different technique to look at my vocal chords - the first guy I saw at the beginning of the week just had a camera at the end of a metal rod that he just placed at the back of my tongue to see what he needed, but oh no, this other guy clearly thought he'd be clever and spritzed some anaesthetic spray up my right nostril and then proceeded to insert a long tube up my nose with a camera in it so that it went down my throat, it was weird and I couldn't really feel it until he started taking it out again, only then did I realise just how much he shoved up my shnozer - he pulled about 10 inches of tube out of my nose by the end, I'm surprised he couldn't see my bowels with that camera never mind my vocal chords!

However, as usual, I digress, he was happy to inform me that he was looking at a very healthy set of vocal chords and that all was well in the land of Mevans!

I was so relieved, a) because I was able to get back to work and b) because it meant that the frustrating silence had all been worth the effort in the end!

I am now writing in my dressing room as I bumped into a couple of friends on the train so thought it rude to keep typing. I have just been to the Whole Foods store behind our theatre to get some lovely healthy food for a two show day and I picked up their 'Mum's Chicken Soup' - I'm telling you, whoever that 'Mum' of theirs is, I want her to adopt me cos that woman makes one hell of a soup! I could feel it being digested in my body and on the way down it was looking at every molecule of the sniffly cold I've developed and declaring "alright nothing more to see here, move along, you're not wanted" - Cold, be gone with you! Mwahaha (panto villain laugh)

So I went back to work on Saturday evening and I loved it! It was almost just like a reminder of what I'm suppose to say and where I'm suppose to stand and how I'm suppose to react etc but it was good to be back with this wonderful company! They're a great bunch, on and off stage! 

Sunday was yet again a chill out day for sure! I had a lazy morning before heading for a long walk to lovely East Dulwich and sat there for a couple of hours in a coffee shop and started organising my best friends 'Hen Do' cos I'm her 'Man Of Honour' at their wedding in June!

Then I walked home in the fresh weather - I say fresh, cos it makes me laugh that whenever us brits are walking around in the winter and we're almost freezing we insist on saying "ooh it's nice fresh weather"…it's not, it's just really bloody cold. It makes me think that they just mean it's so cold that your face could actually fall off, leaving you with a new 'fresh' one from that moment on! Gives a whole new meaning to the term fresh faced!

I cooked a lovely bolognese Sunday evening and enjoyed it with lots of ice cream to follow and then chilled with my good mate Jack Bauer (24 obsessed) and then hit the hay!

Monday I woke and headed to the gym before meeting a really great friend of mine, Amy who I worked with on Spamalot many moons ago, who I don't get to see often enough! It was great, we went to Bills in Covent Garden which I've mentioned in previous blogs and it was lovely. I then headed to the theatre to begin a wonderful week of Ghost with a healthy voice and feeling very rested! Good times!

On Tuesday I woke to go for a swim before meeting my friend Hollie (again at Bills), we worked together on High School Musical 4 years ago now, when I looked 'fresh faced' enough to play a 16 year old - that would never happen now! I would say my face is more weathered than fresh now!

After a nice catch up I headed to the rehearsal rooms to work on some of the show stuff with the new cast who open in our show on February 20th. It was great to meet them all finally. I wasn't able to make the official meet and greet last week because I couldn't speak. I thought it would be a bit rude to turn up and just wave at them instead of saying hello!

They're a lovely group of people and very talented. Very much looking forward to working with them all!

Then I headed to the work and after the show I met some friends who were watching for a good catch up.

Wednesday (yesterday) was a busy old day. I had two hours of radio interviews to do before a meeting with my manager and then I had a guitar lesson. I'm enjoying the ole gee-tar at the mo! It's really chilling to work on different stuff! 

Last night's show was good, then I headed straight home to get to bed so I could rest as much as possible before today's two shows! - I did however watch an episode of 24 in bed though to send me to sleep (really tense). I woke this morning and had a massive breakfast whilst watching another episode of 24 and I worked out I can watch one in between the two shows (which is what I'm about to do) which would leave me with the last episode in season three so I can finish it TONIGHT!!! I can't wait!!!

Have a great week folks! If you're coming to see Ghost I will see you soon if you're not (why not?) I'll see you sometime I'm sure!

Love your lives, love each other and love yourselves!!!

Believe!!!

Sh-boom!!!

Mark