I Capture the Castle Showcase at Drury Lane

The cast of I Capture the Castle backstage before the showcase

After a period of intense work on the Musical Steve and I telescoped the material down to one hour.  Having taken advice about presenting new work we decided to present the material without any stage directions being read.  The feedback we had on this was all good, we never had to break the fourth wall by telling the audience anything, instead the action was continuous.

The presentation took place at the Grand Saloon at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to a mainly industry audience of 80.  To create more atmosphere in the Grand Saloon we used stage lighting brought from Watford, a small stage and a PA with four mics to enhance the sound.  Feeding the mics into the PA also meant that we were able to record the showcase from the sound desk.  Steve has lifted all the songs out of that recording and although they are not to recording studio standard we are very pleased with them.

I stood at the back with the director, Brigid Larmour, and my agent Kate Weston, to watch the reading.  From the moment I heard the first ripple of laughter I began to relax and really enjoy it.  The cast were absolutely fantastic and it zipped along at an exhilarating pace.  It was the closest we had come to realising the show.  Steve's beautiful music swept over us all and carried us from scene to scene.  Even though the actors had really given it in the songs during rehearsal, this was the moment it all came pouring out and it was such a joy to hear the songs we'd written performed so well.

The audience response was really very overwhelming - it was what I had hoped for, but never expected.







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