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
