I have spent the last couple of days starting a project that will be completed some time in the summer - complex new and extremely witty songs sung by some of the West End's finest, written and conceived by Alexander Bermange, whose name alone conjures up a stifled giggle, and who I have known and held up a torch for for a few years now.
I produced his The Route To Happiness album with luminaries Kerry Ellis, Louise Dearman and Ben Forster singing the 'through sung' musical a couple of years ago and it holds up as a fine example of new writing and also has received some glowing reviews in the MT press.
This project is a follow up to Act One, which I also produced with Alexander, except that this time the songs are stand alone and they all have one thing in common - they are funny, really funny! Yesterday we recorded Tracie Bennett and Ian Bartholomew singing two songs and please imagine, if you will, a recording studio where even our engineer, Keenan, was reduced to giggles and the day before we had Cassidy Janson (singing a full 7 ½ min song and making it seem like 3 mins!), Nigel Planer (brilliantly dour) and Simon Bailey (fresh as a Jersey Boy).
More brilliant West End 'Turns' to come later so I will update anon when we next go in to the studio.
Suffice to say I still love my mad job!