AMAZING…RELIEF!

I got a call this week asking how I was feeling about going to see my musical ‘Amazing Grace’ being performed at the Sherman Theatre.  This is a special production by the Wales Academy of Voice and Dramatic Arts. I suppose there were a lot of different emotions running through my head.  I was excited to see how the director Angharad Lee had taken the words and story and set them on a stage.  I was looking forward to hearing how Musical Director Kieran Bailey had adapted the music for a live band.  But before I could really think I just said, ‘relieved’. 

My friend was surprised by my response and wanted to know why.  I was headed to the theatre in anticipation and for the first time I didn’t have my house on the line!!

For the past month or so students from WAVDA have been working on their end of term production.  Back at the end of May I went to chat to them on the first day of rehearsal. 

I started working on the musical back in 2003.  At the time I totally immersed myself in the story of Evan Roberts, the 26 year old ex miner who told family and friends that he had been personally commissioned by the Almighty to lead a worldwide religious revival starting in Loughor.

The musical was set in 1904-5 when Wales was a melting pot of industry, immigrants, religion and radical socialism.  The coal mines and steel works turned Wales into a new ‘Klondike’ with workers drawn to those smoke filled valleys from all over the world.  They were attached by the relatively good wages compared with working on the land. Of course eventually they would pay a heavy price.

I wanted to make sure that my story was authentic and based in fact.  As well as reading everything I could about the Revival I also spent time with the renowned historian Sir Glanmor Williams.  I remember spending a day with him going through the script.  It was like being given  a masterclass whilst also taking a viva for a PHD. 

We Will Raise The Flag Again.

One of the main points of conflict for my story was religion and radical syndicalism, an ideology that emphasised the ‘class struggle’. As the new religious converts stopped drinking and started being ‘family men’ they also turned up to work sober and produced more output for the bosses.  The radicals attacked the Revival saying it was turning their lions into lambs. At the end of the day Sir Glanmor closed my script and said well done, I think you’ve just about got the balance right.

We’re Going To Break Him

The other main conflict for Evan was with the pillars of the church who did not take kindly to a young miner telling them what God was saying.  That was relatively easy because much of the controversy was carried out through the pages of the newspapers.  It was in January 1905 that Rev Peter Price, a Cambridge educated man from Dowlais, wrote a damning letter to the Western Mail.  In this letter he claimed that there was indeed a revival taking place in his church, but this Evan Roberts Revival was a ‘sham’.  He questioned the role that women were playing in the meetings and also questioned the motivation of some of the female converts who said, ‘oh, but he does have such a lovely face’.

By 2005 I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t anyone alive who could bore on about the intricate facts of the Welsh Revival as well as me.  The trouble was 20 years later I was in a room full of students asking me in depth questions which I knew that I used to know but I didn’t know anymore!!!  Boy, that was a wake up call.  For some of the questions I could only say there really was a reason for everything in the show, it’s just for the moment I can’t remember, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

This is where the director comes in. I suppose it was unusual for the students to have the writer of a show they were working on available for interrogation. What normally happens is the director takes the words and comes up with their own vision for how they make the story come to life so that it makes sense to the cast and the audience. 

This production is directed by Angharad Lee.  I’ve known Angharad for over 20 years. She was in the cast of Amazing Grace that played at the Wales Millennium Centre in 2006.  She was also in the original 2007 cast of my musical ‘Contender’ which was based on the life of the boxer Tommy Farr.  In fact she had to leave ‘Contender’ when she found out she was pregnant.  Now in my mind that was not very long ago.  When she told me her daughter was looking at university places I suddenly realised that production really was a lifetime ago. Anyway, I knew the show was in safe and sympathetic hands.

The written music was always a problem for my shows.  The actors and stage management needed a written score, but I don’t actually write music on paper.  Back in the day, using some rudimentary computer programmes I was able to get something on paper but that was no use for my band.  Although a number could read ‘proper’ music if forced to, we liked to play our own parts. As we had been in bands since our teens that was not an issue, but we never wrote done the band parts.  When the band left their parts left with them in their heads.

I was delighted to find out the Musical Director for the show was Kieran Bailey.  I’ve known Kieran since he was a boy.  Our band the Jacks played at his mother’s 40th birthday party and when she said her little boy played the drums of course we dragged him up on stage to join us. I was able to find a grainy old video of a performance at the Wales Millennium Centre and together with some original recordings and with help from Eilir Owen Griffiths, the Director of WAVDA, they were able to pull arrangements out of thin air for real people to play.

After the show with Musical Director Kieran Bailey.

So back to my conversation earlier this week about why I was feeling relieved.  Taking on the writing of a musical has been one of the biggest commitments of my professional life.  I was lucky that it was Olivier Award Winning Director Michael Bogdanov who took me under his wing over 20 years ago.  He was there to guide and protect me as I took my first steps.  But with a new show there is so much fear as well as excitement.  How will people react and almost if not more importantly will they buy tickets.  Also, more than once I have bet the house on bringing a show to life. Yes I was relieved.

As I sat there I saw all of the people who had given so much to originally bring the show to life.  Gary Iles at the Swansea Grand, Michael Bogdanov who stood by me through those darks nights of the soul. 

Peter Karrie as The Rev Peter Price.

Peter Karrie the West End Star who stopped the show every night as the Rev Peter Price and my band who would play practical jokes on the cast and crew every night.

WAVDA I was blown away by your talent. I am delighted and so proud of everything you have achieved.  I hope this show will mean something special to you as you progress in your careers.