My work here in Florida continues, with 'The Wizard of Oz' (featuring my orchestrations) still playing in Miami, and my musical 'Hansel & Grettel' running in Fort Lauderdale.

Meanwhile, I am preparing for a trip back to the UK - my native Northern Ireland to be precise. Big Telly Theatre Company, the Province's longest-established independent theatre producer, is preparing for the May opening of my new water show 'Sinbad' and it's time for me to catch up with developments and attend auditions.

Big Telly is best known internationally for producing my last water show, 'The Little Mermaid', which the company toured around the world in 2005 and 2006. The show was so successful, and formed such a big part of all of our lives during that time, that it's actually hard to believe that it hasn't been around for over a year - it seems like yesterday that we were working on it.

'Sinbad' is our follow-up production and has been put together by exactly the same creative team as 'Mermaid' - we're hoping that the new show has as much success as its predecessor and that audiences, still keen on a 'Mermaid' revival, will enjoy this new adventure just as much. Touring dates in Ireland and the UK are to be announced shortly, but I don't think I'm breaking any confidences when I tell you that our main production in England will be in Leicester, where we had so much success with 'Mermaid' in 2006.

There's a new trailer for the show which is just about to be unveiled online at pbmusicals.com, but as always I'll preview it here first. And while you watch it, I'll start to think about what I need to pack for my trip. A swimming costume is probably a good start ...

So, 'Wizard of Oz' finally opened ...

... albeit with one cast member down. The Wizard himself came down with walking pneumonia just a few days before opening night, and so the director had to go on, which increased my workload as we all tried to compensate for not having the director's input during the last few rehearsals. All has gone well, though, and the cast member is planing to reassume his role by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Meanwhile, it's one week until 'Hansel & Grettel' opens up in Fort Lauderdale, and so tomorrow I am off to attend rehearsals for that. There are no cases of pneumonia reported there ... so far.

Now that it's 2008, it's time for a re-design and a brief update.

This is my first post of the year as things here in Florida have been keeping me very busy. For the past three or four weeks I've been orchestrating a musical production of The Wizard of Oz which opens at The Actors' Playhouse in Coral Gables next week and runs until April, whilst at the same time I've also been attending rehearsals for my own musical Hansel & Grettel which is about to receive its US premiere, opening in Fort Lauderdale on 11th February.

www.pbmusicals.com/whatson

Earlier this month The Tale of the Beauty and The Tail of the Beast came to the end of its very successful premiere run at The Castle theatre in Welingborough, Northamptonshire (see previous blog entries for details) and it's hard to believe that that's it for another Christmas season - until next month when negotiations for the 2008 season kick off. With the show now closed, my previous 'Beauty and The Beast' inspired blog design had to go, so I've now opted or a darker design inspired by ..

.. Sinbad - The Water Spectacular which begins rehearsals in Ireland in May before heading off on tour. I'll be back in the UK for that and I'm looking forward to working on this new show as it has been four years now since we first began working on The Little Mermaid, the water spectacular that took us around the world.

www.pbmusicals.com/whatson

listen to music from 'Sinbad'

And finally, 2008 is the tenth anniversary of one of my most successful shows, Alice The Musical. We are currently putting together plans to mark the occasion, details of which will be announced soon! In the meantime you can still watch the video of the show online here.

www.pbmusicals.com/musicals

Here are some production shots from "The Tale of the Beauty and The Tail of the Beast" which continues its hugely successful run at The Castle, Wellingborough, until 31st December!

More details online at www.pbmusicals.com where there will also soon be some exciting announcements about forthcoming productions both in the UK and the USA!

The reviews are coming in for 'The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast' in Wellingborough following last night's Press Night ...

The BBC said ...

(Reviewed by Martin Borley)

An 18th Century theatrical troupe transports The Castle audience into a magical world. Forget the Disney version. Beauty & The Beast at The Castle is more magical. The audience is transfixed by a fairy-tale world conjured up by a talented group of actors and musicians. The show is set 300 years ago. A troupe of travelling players is rehearsing stories to a group of children. By using songs, costumes, props and shadow puppets, the players bring to life the weird and wonderful tales.

In recent years, Christmas shows at The Castle have been rough and ready and bright and brash. The Castle's new artistic director Karl Wallace, who's also the director of Beauty & the Beast, has single-handedly raised the standard. His production is sophisticated and atmospheric - the sort of quality we'd normally associate with Northampton's Royal Theatre.

The Stage said ...

(Reviewed by Caroline Morris)

What a delight to see a new production of this wonderful tale taking the original storyline. The stage is dominated by a magnificent and brilliantly used gypsy-type caravan, with travelling players telling the story accompanied by musicans chiefly on old English instruments. It is traditional, captivating storytelling with refreshing staging, humour and superb acting.

Jemma Harris as Didi brims over with character, humour and facial interpretation, and Vanessa Havell plays the drunken and humourous Mimi. Oliver Hume is the vastly adaptable Monsieur Affable. Congatulations go to Karl Wallace for his first production as artistic director - more of the same next year please.

The BBC also interviewed the audience as they were leaving the theatre to hear their views on the show. Listen by following the link here.

Good luck to the boys and girls of The Tale of The Beauty and The Tail of The Beast company, whose first preview performance is tomorrow, Friday 30th in Wellingborough!

In no particular order my love, thanks, and good wishes go out to:

Vanessa Havell as Madame Gabrielle

Steve Pretty as the musician

Lauen Adams as Mademoiselle Suzanne

Jemma Harris as Mademoiselle Michelle

Ben Sleep as Barbot

Ben Samuels as the musician

Oliver Hume as Monsieur Affable

... as well as to director Karl, designer Diego, and musical director and my partner in (musical) crime Stephen. More information on the show can be found here.

My new show previews from this Friday, 30th November, in Northamptonshire!

© pbm 2007. Give it a minute ... it'll play.

Another crisis-induced e-mail from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland ...

The arts in Northern Ireland are in danger of dying from neglect.

Keepourartsalive is a campaign by the arts sector and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to improve funding for the arts through the NI Draft Budget 2008-2011 public consultation phase, which closes on 4th January 2008.

Visit www.keepourartsalive.com to see how you can support the campaign for an urgently-needed funding increase for the arts in Northern Ireland.

It's not too late - changes can still be made to the budget.

Send a response to the budget consultation!

Participate in one of the public consultation meetings!

Your contribution is vital to keep our arts alive.

The first image has emerged from the rehearsals of my new show ...

Click to enlarge

After a very busy and exciting week in rehearsals for my new show The Tale of The Beauty and The Tail of The Beast in Northamptonshire, I am now back in Northern Ireland for a few meetings.

It feels odd to have left rehearsals when the show is still in its early stages - but the cast members are so talented, and the creative team so incredible, that I know the piece is in safe hands. We have a great director in Karl Wallace, the musical director and arranger Stephen Brown already has the songs from the show sounding amazing, and the set and costume designs by Diego Pitarch are stunning!

I'll post some images as soon as I have them e-mailed to me - and if you're in the Northamptonshire area, check out the show for yourself and let me know how it went (booking details can be found on the pbm web site here)!

In the meantime, it's time to turn my attention from 19th century France to 15th century Arabia as I prepare for meetings connected to next year's premiere of the new water spectacular Sinbad. Here's the latest trailer for the show, which features the newly-remixed music. Once again, it's here on the blog exclusively before it is posted on the pbm web site and before it starts to be used for promotional purposes by the marketing team.

If you are having difficulty watching this, try the .mov version in my media section here.