But now you're backstage at Something Rotten, which is just, has it just opened at Manchester Opera

House? Yes, we had our second preview last night.

I'm in a, I'm actually sat, currently sat on the floorway of a hallway because I was trying desperately to find somewhere that we weren't going to be interrupted by backstage announcements or people doing sound checks or anything like that.

But yeah, we've just finished an afternoon of preview notes where we're just doing some little tweaks.

And yeah, and then we open next Wednesday.

It's so exciting.

I love it so much.

And on the Opera House stage, how's it looking on there? Because the Opera House is quite a small theatre compared to the ones that you've probably seen in America especially.

What is going on, sir?

You have identified the challenge of the show, for sure.

I loved the characters straight away, and I loved the dialogue and the songs, and so I was like, this is gonna be really great, but I think in order to keep people engaged with two people, you need to make sure that the picture's always changing, and that you're thinking of the macro all the time, and so that was the biggest part of my job, really, because once they're in a scene, The material's so electric, it can sort of look after itself, so it's just looking after the flow of the whole piece.

And Sucha Gilmore, who is just the most insanely brilliant designer, has created this playground that's ever-changing, and it sort of, It feels a bit like how I feel New York is as an outsider, where every time you turn a corner, there's a new surprise or there's a new secret.

And that's sort of what the set has delivered for us.

And it means that we're forever able to just change location in a moment and just keep it on the go.

And I think that captures the energy of what these two guys have written.

There's a lot of math

And tell me when that show came into your life.

So it was actually back in 2018.

I was approached by one of the producers, Tim Johansson.

And I'd worked with him about six years prior Previously, I'd been the musical supervisor for Floyd Collins in the UK, and we had such an amazing time together.

And in the time in between, we kept in touch with each other and he knew that I was super passionate about new musicals and getting involved in as many as I possibly could.

And at the time they weren't looking for a director.

They were just looking for a dramaturg to help steer the ship and develop the script and the songs.

It

Why come so quickly to the U.S. when it is so dicey for new musicals?

Yeah, well, I'm glad that we did and well done to our producers for making it happen because it is brave.

I think we had recorded an album in the UK that had really caught fire and lots of people were streaming it in America and we were able to see that there was an appetite in New York.

And we've since then recorded another album with the Broadway cast and that's going bananas as well.

So I think we knew there was an appetite and the opening song of the show, New York, had gone viral and we were getting a lot of love from America and people saying, please bring it over, please bring it over.

So I think that it certainly is a risk for our producers, but one that seems to be paying off so far because I think a lot of shows open just before the Tonys, but ours was open well before the end of last year.

So we've sort of we've been doing pretty good business, I think.

How does it feel to be kind of like the small but mighty contender in that space?

it makes me wonder whether you were in New York City or even now, it, have you had any encounters yourself with strangers that you feel like left you changed for the better?

I've had so many encounters with str- strangers, and, like, I feel like that's the privilege of working in theater and working in an environment where I just move from different, like, projects all the time is, like, I will meet...

In, in any job, I will always meet a handful of people who will have some sort of special impact on my life, and some of those people are...

Like, I met a fan from, a fa- a super fan of the show the other day, and, like, um, she...

It's this, uh, amazing person called Savannah.

And, and they just were, like, so...

Just to see the excitement for the show, um, is so in- it was so invigorating for me and so intoxicating.

Yeah

When did you decide to take the creative turn?

Do you know, I've had such a circuitous route to get to where I am now, but I'm really glad that I've taken that route.

So I, I've worn many, many hats over my career.

So I w- well, after going to school, I went to university and I studied music.

I went to Oxford University, and I thought I was gonna be a clarinetist and a, an, an instrumentalist.

And my, I specialized in orchestration.

I was like, "This is what I'm doing, and I'm really passionate about that." And then in my three years there, I sort of got more and more into the theater scene, and then decided after that to go to drama school and trained as an actor.

What was it like to work with them? How did you have a simonious, whatever's the fancy word, symbol? I don't know the fancy word relationship together.

Can you just tell us like of your kind of entering thoughts into directing and choreographing this show of how you're trying to make this world?

Do you know what? It was a gift because of what was already on the page.

So when I came on board back in 2019, I think I read about 10 pages of the script and then called the producer and was like, please, please, can I do this? Because the characters just jumped off the page and they were so full and so dynamic and so lovable.

And so I...

I felt very confident that the show could exist with just two people and that those were two strong enough characters that could carry a story across a couple of hours.

What the writers have done so cleverly is that they've they've included all these other characters that exist in the world around Dougal and Robin.

And even though we don't see them, we really feel like we know them.

It's, I mean, it whizzed by Tim and,