You'd be forgiven for thinking that very thing and so I have reminded myself that the purpose of this blog is to record progress in work related matters.

In the last few weeks I have been working on the new production of my 1997 musical "Hansel & Grettel". It has always been one of my most popular shows and this will be its fifth professional staging, and the second production of the show that I have been asked to direct personally. I revised the show extensively in 1999 (as I write script, music and lyrics I have the freedom to make changes when the notion takes me) for a production of the show in Belfast and since then the show has survived virtually untouched. Cameron Mackintosh once told me that great musicals aren't written, they're rewritten - and the truth is that I'm never completely happy with a script, even after a production has enjoyed a successful run. So I have taken pen and scissors to the "Hansel & Grettel" script for the second time in its lifetime and, as of yesterday, have a finished piece that I am happy to go into rehearsals with on 5th December.

Here are some pictures of the show in its various previous incarnations.

Hansel & Grettel 1999 © Lyric Theatre Belfast/pbm

Hansel & Grettel 2001 © An Grianan Theatre/pbm

Hansel & Grettel 2002 © pbm

For this latest version of the show, presented for the second time by my own production company, I am restaging the 2002 production as shown above. I enjoyed the set and costume designs in that particular incarnation and, as this years version sees the show running in Dublin for the first time, I don't see why I should make life difficult for myself by insisting on unnecessary change. I have a completely new cast (three of whom I've never worked with before) so I know that they will bring enough new material to the show to keep it feeling fresh without the entire production requiring an overhaul.

It's funny, but even though some of my most successful shows are adaptations of famous tales, with titles like "Hansel & Grettel", "Alice The Musical", "Pinocchio" and, of course, "The Little Mermaid", I've never sat down and intentionally written a show for children. I hate being referred to as a children's writer - I find it very constricting. I don't mind so much if a promoter refers to my shows as 'family friendly' or 'suitable for families' because that helps shift tickets and at least implies that the adults in the audience will enjoy themselves as much as their off-spring. I write the kind of shows that I myself would like to go and see - I write for my own entertainment. I like to think that the musicals I write can be enjoyed by groups of adults (office parties, group outings as so on) as much as families. There is plenty in there for the discerning theatre-goer or adult with a sense of humour.

And yet I am lucky that I seem to write the kind of work that theatres want to stage over Christmas, guaranteeing good exposure and nice long runs. I may never consciously have written a children's show, nor, as it happens, a Christmas show - but somehow I seem to have come up with the kind of product that theatres know will appeal to familes over the Christmas period and make them some much-needed cash. And this year marks my 10th anniversary of having work staged at Christmas. Sixteen productions in ten years, sometimes working on two productions in two different theatres simultaneously. This year will seem like a holiday by comparison.

In other work, preparations for the 2006 tour of my water-based production of "The Little Mermaid" are ongoing. Earlier blog entries talk about this show in more depth, as well as the 2005 tours of Ireland, Taiwan and Denmark, but suffice to say that, due to the success we've had so far, invitations to visit other countries continue to arrive at the production office. It looks like the 2006 tour will include China (Beijing and two other stops), Europe (including Belgrade in Serbia & Montenegro and possibly Germany) and the UK (so far Glasgow, Leicester and London have extended invitations). The show must be back in Belfast again by September because my co-creator, Zoe Seaton, and I are currently writing a second, sister-production to accompany "The Little Mermaid" on tour and it launches in Belfast in October. We are writing a new version of "Sinbad", also water-based of course, and once it opens the idea is that both productions can tour in tandem giving venues the chance to present both productions when we visit. All being well I will be working on a Mermaid/Sinbad tour in 2007.

As well as all of this, I have been in meetings about a large-scale production that is planned to open here in Ireland in November next year. It's a big project and will require a year of planning, so we have to start early and, although I can't say too much about it at this stage, it's very exciting and I look forward to writing about it at length very soon.

Also, I have been working on an adult musical. I have written adult-oriented work before (my musical adaptation of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy" toured Ireland twice in 1996, for example) but not for a while. I have been planning for some time to write a show where I can have characters swear and be outrageous - much of my own sense of humour teeters on the bawdy and I rarely get the chance to put that into a show without tempering it. Anyway, I started to write a musical called "Molly Wobbly's Tit Factory" (I can't begin to explain where that title came from) and fully expected to have a good few years to work on it quietly, in the background of my other work. However, a few months ago the show (such as it is at the moment) was shortlisted for a major UK award and I have to have more of it written for the end of the month to be considered for the award and eventual stage production. I haven't had time to think about it too much, but I hope to get some work done on it this coming week.

So - I hope this proves that I have, in fact, been working hard. Now I must do some work ... but which project to start with?