My fourth collaboration with the Bridewell under the direction of Clive Paget.

I had listened to the cast recording whilst performing Hello Again and the ever lovely Jenna Russell convinced me that should the theatre produce it, we both had to be involved. I, however had two reservations: although I found the lyrics clever and articulate, and the music exciting and immediately captivating, it struck me that the sum of the show's parts was more than the show itself: Songs is a wonderful collection of cabaret songs in search of a plot. My other concern at that time was that no one was auditioning me (let alone employing me) other than the Bridewell and I wondered if I was becoming too linked to the theatre. I also wondered if the loyal Bridewell audience might be tiring of me as a performer.
Jenna allayed my fears and when the time came I agreed to play Man 2 with a cast of great friends and a talented tried-and-tested production team. The original line up was Jenna Russell ( Bertrande when I was in Martin Guerre); Anna Francolini (my sister Nellie from Floyd Collins); Craig Purnell (my brother Homer from Floyd) and me. Within days this line up would change dramatically. Anna was offered Mahlers Fifth in the West End opposite Antony Sher and was replaced by the wonderful Golda Rosheuvel ( Hello Again), and Jenna arrived for the first day of rehearsals and within 15 minutes of our initial 'meet and greet' in the Pump-room bar, had been offered the BBC series of Born and Bred.

With a desperately short rehearsal period, names were quickly thrown into the mix and on the Thursday of our first week we were joined by Sarah Redmond, whom I had worked with at the Drill Hall on a new musical workshop of Nick Bloomfield's Adrenalin. Sarah is a realy fast learner and she threw herself in with her usual fantastic energy and wickedly dry wit.

With Clive at the helm, Michael Cahill assisting him, and Sam Spencer-Lane as choreographer, rehearsals were creative and exciting.

The process consisted of trying to find a physical language for the show using the two giant stairways which would be our only set, and find a character archetype that would fit with each person's journey through the songs. Thus, Man 2, as father/cynic/darkness/self destruction counterbalanced Man 1's son/youth/ light/dreamer.

Jason Robert Brown (the composer) arrived about three days before we opened. You might think I would be used to performing for the writer ( having worked with Bernstein on The Mass, Maltby and Shire on Baby, Adam Guettel on Floyd Collins, Michael John on Hello Again) but it never gets any easier. I revere writers, never having had the facility myself, and believe that their gifts are truly divine. They pluck words from the ether and a blank page becomes a world of words, created from somewhere quite mysterious.

So Jason arrived and had a very clear vision of how the show should be performed. Unfortunately my style of delivery did not fall into his remit. I remember a stand off in rehearsals when he obviously hated my work saying that I was playing this simple man as if I were performing Sweeney Todd. Here was a wonderful composer, whose work I adored, calling me a 'vulgar' performer.

I was numbed and resentful. I lost all confidence in my work and thereby hated the run, feeling betrayed and unappreciated.I know Craig, with whom I had most of my stage-time, sensed this and throughout the run was tremendously supportive and generous.

The run of Songs was 5 weeks- long by Bridewell standards- and the expectation was that, as it was a hugely popular piece in musical theatre circles with a wider appeal to mainstream musical theatre-goers, its success was assured. Despite it being a best seller CD at Dress Circle (the show music shop in London), the houses were disappointing.