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 ...

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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.

I have been incredibly busy with work over these past few weeks, so I haven't had much time for blogging.

I've been putting the finishing touches to the script and music of my new musical The Tale of The Beauty and The Tail of The Beast which goes into rehearsals on Monday! (See the trailer here).

Click to enlarge

From this Sunday I will be in the UK to visit rehearsals in Wellingborough for a week (the show opens 30th November), and then I'll be visiting Belfast for a week for some meetings regarding productions planned for 2008.

One of the shows planned for 2008 is the premiere of my new water spectacular Sinbad, the follow-up to our international hit The Little Mermaid.

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I wrote the music for Sinbad last year (the show was originally scheduled for production in 2007 but this was delayed due to the ongoing success of The Little Mermaid), and I previewed the main theme for the first time here on the blog.

The music has been remixed since then, so before I disappear into rehearsals for a few weeks I will take this opportunity to preview the new version of the Sinbad theme here. This is a blog exclusive - the track won't be online at www.pbmusicals.com for a few weeks yet. Coming to a swimming pool near you in 2008!

Sinbad - Main Theme © pbm 2007