Musical Director's Notes.

This blog has been requested by James, as he feels that his constant blogging is getting a bit boring. Having read them, I agree and will attempt to rectify the situation.

First, a round up of directorial news:

1) The absence of Delyth Jones has led to near anarchy on stage, with some ad-libs of epic proportions, and the transformation of the final scene into something resembling a roller-disco. I'm looking forward to hearing what could be the longest ever session of director's notes when she returns.

2) In light of the on-stage anarchy, I am starting to fear what people will start doing to the music as soon as I leave. We've already had suggestions of an operatic Robin Cook cadenza, and a Robin Cook descant over the Blair Babes. I hope I can trust James in his preciousness over his music to ensure nothing too bad happens when I leave, but who knows?

3) The direction of the show has been praised as "creative" in the Edinburgh Evening News, although criticised for "relying somewhat too heavily on pre-recorded music". Bit of a slap in the face, as there are two stressed and sweating musicians at the back of the auditorium. Maybe they thought the cast were gesturing to a CD player during their bows.

4) After being told by Ian that "no-one knows who you are, so no-one's going to come and see us because your name is on the flyer", imagine my satisfaction when I received a 'phone call from the Music Manager of the Really Useful Group, saying they'd seen my name on a flyer and were coming to see it. Imagine my greater satisfaction when said Music Manager very much liked the show. Yay!!!

5) One comment received by James said that the "chatter from the musicians at the back" somewhat spoiled the performance. I didn't know that pre-recorded music could chat.

A few stressful moments with the backing tracks aside (such as the performance in which they decided to mute themselves at random intervals), the music is getting tighter and better with each performance. Yesterday was the best show so far (Del, 1, 2 and 3 were fine...), and I'm hoping we can reproduce such form for the next performance in about an hour.

3 performances until I leave...

Tickets still available

We've had some enquiries from people trying to get hold of tickets through the Fringe office and finding the show sold out. Just to reassure you that tickets ARE still available for the show - more have been released for sale through the Fringe office, but if they are sold out then you can still book them through the Gilded Balloon.

Another round up of links for today:

Reuters, News24, Edinburgh Festivals' re-hash of the Scotsman story, and a blogger called Rhod.

And finally... our daily Scandinavian mention, this time from Norway.

Thanks again for Dave Davies' stirling research into our web presence.

Vintage Hari

Tony Blair - the Musical features in today's Indpendent in what can only be described as vintage Johann Hari. "It's a neat conceit, but the news beyond the fringe – of Cameron's plummeting poll numbers, and Brown's bounce – shows the creators are too pessimistic", he writes. "Yet there is real charm here. Sure, the music is too brooding and bleak for such a jaunty idea... But this is a surprisingly intelligent way to process the Blair Years." And since that's about as nice as Hari generally gets about anything, I think we've done rather well there.

But better still, he says of my character: "Brown shambles on to the stage here as a chaotic, hyper-intellectual tramp, locked in a semi-gay sadomasochistic tango with Tony." Excellent stuff, and going straight on my CV.

The complete article is here.

We also have a four star review in today's Edinburgh Evening News, and have cropped up on the blog formerly known as Keep Blair for PM - and perhaps in our own small way we're sort of doing that...

Guardian article

Both Blair musicals are given a big article in today's Guardian, which you can read here.

You can also read about Nathan Kiley's brief encounter with the other musical's Blair, James Duckworth, in The Scotsman.

Last but not least, another foreign website gives James Lark his best misnomer yet, with him coming out in the translation as "Tony Jeers":

"The newly avgående British premiärministern Tony Blair am becoming huvudperson in an fresh musical. Tony Blair the music ska manifest on Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August , report BBC News. Musical tell utifrån Tony Blairs perspective and contents among other a tune with headings " ah what a promise the war on terrorism ". Self would balance discussions few per that watch all per his eye istället for that only criticises him and say "bang , bang , bang Irakkriget , wicked husband ", says regissören Tony Jeers , as also am acting Tony Blairs successor Gordon Brown in musical. Tony Jeers am meaning that the olds Labourledaren is perfect as substance."

Perfect as substance indeed. The foreign press seem particularly excited by our showstopper "ah what a promise the war on terrorism"...

More media coverage

Tony Blair - the Musical is reviewed in today's Daily Telegraph, alongside Tony! the Blair Musical and Jihad! the Musical, and it describes our show as "the longer and more comprehensive of the two, and the most musically sophisticated of all. It runs the melodic gamut from near-Weillian severity to knowingly schmaltzy balladry, and is packed with rich, tight harmonies." You can read the full review here.

The Independent credits James Lark with the (let's face it rather absurd) inference that he is more capable of setting words than Stephen Sondheim - "Even Sondheim would have struggled with lines such as "tough on crime tough on the causes of
crime" but James Lark's new satire has already earned rave reviews" - see the full article here.

BBC arts correspondent David Sillito mentioned the show prominently on the Radio 4 late news report from the Fringe on 5th August. We are also mentioned on Scott Packs highly popular blog here. And last but not least, we are mentioned on a Swedish website here.

Many thanks to Dave Davies for his constant internet vigilance in telling us about the above, and also for providing the following translation of the Swedish review (which affords James Lark his best misnomer yet):

"Tony Blair the music ska under textförfattaren James Jeers depict occurrences per Blairs egna eye. Multi nuance than pang pang , wars in Iraq , wicked husband " is ambition , says Jeers to BBC. Solid size as " ah! what a promise the war on terrorism " a nod to 60- digits antikrigsmusikal " ah! what a promise the war " am exposing enough that the in first hand tube themselves if stale good satiric. The is none but that husband among autumn Swede musikalutbud of Sound perceive music My fair lady " and The wedding single " ( yes , film am becoming musical ) yearn behind somewhat similar. Solid hardly with Persian in starring. Was making had never wherein equal very rock'n'roll as Tony. Calle and options "? For very barnpjäs. Dataintrånget the folkpartiet grand "? Am matching enough better as konspiratoriskt rättegångsdrama. But why not " Monaco the music ". It has all. A classic dramaturgi : rise , case , revenge and a thrilling cliffhanger 2010. And also understand a grand potential audience as never ridge for that mingle politics and song."

Nice ring, Tone

One of the joys of working with director Delyth Jones is that she doesn't even try to mince her words when she thinks that you have done something crap. All of the cast (not to mention the musicians) have got used to her giving us notes like "you know that thing you did in that scene? Don't do that" and "yeah, you're loving that bit too much now, I'm taking it away from you".

As the show's writer it is even more clear cut when she thinks something is a bad idea. And of course, throughout the fertile creative ground of the rehearsals I had plenty of inspired new thoughts which were met with a raised eyebrow and a tiny shake of the head which condemned them to a quick, dusty death.

So for the sake of posterity, rather than lose them altogether, I'll take this opportunity to give you some of my greatest ideas that will now never see the light of day thanks to the Delyth Jones filter...

- John Prescott saying "bloody hell, it's hot in here" removing his shirt to reveal a Rab C. Nesbit-style string vest underneath. Paul Sockett, our Prescott, was very happy with this idea, so it clearly fit in with his conception of the character. Just not the director's.

- A more recently rejected idea was to have Michael Fish finish his weather report and then sit in the corner of the stage with his weather map glugging a bottle of wine for the remainder of the scene. Rejected out of hand without so much as an explanation.

- At one point Blair's phone rings with music from Wagner's Ring. My feeling was that Gordon Brown responding with the line "nice ring tone" would be funny on so many levels ("nice Ring tone", "nice ring, Tone") it absolutely had to go in. The director didn't agree.

- The final song, "Party's Over", proved inspiration for many, many good ideas, most of which didn't quite make it into the show. Such as Tony Blair stripping off his suit to reveal a tight pair of leather trousers and "Tony Blair" daubed onto his naked torso in glitter. Or a guitarist dressed as Brian May standing on a model of Buckingham Palace in the background.

Of course, Del leaves Edinburgh in a few days, so it may be that we can sneak these things into the show without her knowing. And who knows what other brainwaves we might have while she's away...

What's in a name? #2

Tony Blair - the Musical has been getting extensive coverage on BBC news; the BBC online article is here, with a link to the television news item.

Both Nathan Kiley (who plays Blair) and James Lark (writer of Tony Blair - the Musical) have been described on different news reports as Chris Bush (writer of the other Blair musical up at the Fringe this year). However, there is no truth in the rumour that they are all in fact the same person.