JBR

It’s almost midday and we have both completely forgotten the date, and not for the first time either. It has been a busy, BUSY few weeks and so it’s no surprise really. But we are just not terribly good at the day to day romantic stuff. Anyway, today is our 11th wedding anniversary. August is the anniversary of when we met, 18 years ago, but we took our time getting married! Our wedding wasn’t a big event, two dozen people in a coffee shop in Finsbury Park. That coffee shop is now a Lidl which we feel is very on brand for us 😂 The 11th anniversary is steel apparently, so we’ll probably go for a walk later and have a coffee and clink stainless steel spoons and wonder how on earth we’ve managed nearly twenty years together. We’ll talk expanding waistlines and receding hairlines and look into each other’s eyes and smile. And then we’ll get back to work and probably forget again next year. I love you @rhys.jenn . EYEMEO.

To the Bridge for Into The Woods. I have been listening to this score since I was 12 years old. Perhaps too much. I know every inflection, every breath, every texture of the original Broadway cast so every production sounds, initially at least, slightly surprising to me. There is so much that is surprising about this production, so many fascinating choices, in the direction, the design, the vocal choices, the acting choices. Melanie LaBarrie’s (@melanielabarrie ) Witch is nothing short of revelatory, in the Witches Lament in particular she is quite remarkable. I was on the edge of my seat. Rachel Tucker’s (@racheltucker01 ) Baker’s Wife has agency and wit and her moment of insight at the end of Moment In The Woods is simply breathtaking. And what a joy to see Hughie O’Donnell’s (@hughie.od ) Baker, absolutely the heart of the show and heartbreaking in the simplicity and elegance of his delicately nuanced performance. These woods are all diffused light and silhouettes and shades. They shift and slide, spitting characters out onto the apron and sucking them back in. The woods are ever lurking in the background, always present behind the darkness. We do not go into these woods, we are absorbed by them. Perhaps the most startling choice is the absence of the usual theatrical illusions associated with Into the Woods. We expect magic, theatrics, a fairytale. We come wondering how the Witch will transform, how the Giant will manifest, how Cinderella’s ballgown will materialise. Instead magic is relocated. It is less spectacle, more psychological. Magic is not something done to the characters, rather, it emerges from them. These woods are not governed by spells, but by choices and consequences.

To BIRD (@bird_conservatoire ) to see Cre8. The Cre8 project is a third year performance where the students work with practitioners on work that is collaboratively designed and developed. We like to describe this as “wet paint work”: work that is fresh, embryonic, still finding its form. Today featured two dance pieces and a musical theatre piece. Both dance pieces, a Cliff notes history of how the kick line developed from its origins in the quadrille, and a piece that explored a number of ideas before settling on cancel culture, showcased impressive skill from the students. It was, however, the musical theatre piece that was the reason we were there. This was a first showing from Darren Clark (@darrenclarkmusic ) and Charlotte Westenra (@charliewestenra ) of a piece they are developing around Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. Even in nascent form it pulses with possibility, promising to be baroque and carnal and deliciously transgressive. I’m looking forward immensely to seeing this develop. Well done to the students who committed thoroughly to the feverishly folkloric world with intellect and elemental force.

Today is our 7th anniversary and we’re keeping it simple. This is usually where agencies say “we started with a dream” and drift into something vague and inspirational that mythologises the journey. . We started with a business. Seven years later, it’s a better business. Tighter. Smarter. Stronger. We’re not lighting fireworks or sounding trumpets. The real work of an agency is mostly unseen and often unglamorous. It’s not red carpets or social media posts. It’s the email you don’t want to send, the call you dread making. It’s holding your nerve and biting your tongue. It’s the negotiation that goes on too long. It’s the risk that doesn’t pay off. Sleepless nights and long days. Contracts and arguments and tears of frustration. It’s knowing when to push, when to concede, and how to sit between art and business without failing either. Seven years in, I’m less interested in mythologising any of it and more interested in whether we’re still doing the job properly. We’ve built a body of work we’re proud of, a set of relationships we value, and, I hope, a reputation for being clear, fair - and difficult when it matters. No bombast. No braggadocio. Just the work. Trying to do the job well. Then trying to do it better. Rinse and repeat. If you’ve been part of that, as a client, collaborator, or co-conspirator — thank you. JBR.

I’ve wanted to see Lady In The Dark for such a long time. It’s a show that occupies such a unique position in musical theatre, a radical, groundbreaking complex piece. It’s kind of like an evolutionary missing link between revue style musicals and the integrated book musical, between European music theatre and Broadway. It’s intriguing and challenging. Congratulations to @lsmtdramaschool for pulling it off, what a treat it was and what a wonderful challenge for the students.

The back room of our house has, since we moved in, served as the office for both our companies. From my desk, looking out the window, I cried my way through the pandemic wondering if my brand new agency would survive. I wrote my book at that desk and, when I couldn’t write, I would stare out the window down to the Thames. After a while we noticed something happening at the bottom of the hill. Over the years we watched as an entire new town grew up. We’d walk Rusty down to have a nose around, we looked at the artist’s impressions, we talked about how the area would change. And all the while, we changed, without even realising it we were putting down roots. The agency expanded and became two agencies and we moved out of the back room and into our own office. And then the back room was empty and we had to wonder: do we need all this space? Meanwhile, the construction finished and still we stood, looking out the window. Then, one day, on a whim, we went to look at the show home, just to see, just to take a look. And we fell in love with it and put in an offer on one of the flats. And at first we didn’t get it. Self-employed people will know the difficulties! So we kind of put that dream to bed a little and moved on in our heads. Sort of. Because we never really stopped hoping. And one day, when we were looking out the window, a rainbow led us home. We picked up the keys today, six months after we first saw the flat. Six years after we first moved here. Time for a new chapter.

Every couple of years the really marvellous people at @mercurymusicaldevelopments and @musicaltheatrenetwork organise the Musical Theatre Conference, bringing together practitioners, producers, creators and more. It’s a chance to come together and talk about the industry; what’s working, what’s not, what we wish was better, what we’re angry about, what’s changed and what should change. I always come away with a head full of ideas, a notebook full of thoughts, a whole new group of people I’ve met for a few minutes and thought “this person is really interesting”, a lot of wishing I had spent more time catching up with friends and colleagues, and enormous respect for the incredible teams behind the two organisations who make the whole thing happen. This year’s event was slick, well organised, really interesting, and well thought out. And the venue was spectacular. I walked into the auditorium at @sohotheatre Walthamstow for the first session and I actually said “wow!” out loud. It is seriously gorgeous. Choreographers, producers, lawyers, writers, educators, directors, artistic directors, academics, writers - we heard from a range of voices and perspectives. Everyone spoke with intelligence and thoughtfulness, but my favourite speaker of the day was Josette Bushell-Mingo (@josettebushellmingo ) who spoke with so much power and gravitas and passion that I wanted to stand and cheer. She spoke about community and belonging and the value of what our sector does. It was inspirational and urgent. If Musical Theatre had a flag (why don’t we have a flag??) I would wave it and follow her into battle anywhere. Huge thanks to all at MMD and MTN for a wonderful day. #ukmusicaltheatreconference2026

Have had lunch at the Groucho club once before and it led to an exciting new opportunity. Looks like my second visit today may also lead in an exciting direction. And if it doesn’t work out, at least the food was excellent and the company delightful. Maybe I should become a member and see if I get offered exciting opportunities every time I have lunch there!

Musical theatre has always pushed boundaries and experimented with form and content. That is how the form grows, resists stagnation and remains relevant. As a medium it is broad and expansive, consistently developing. But we often approach it as if it is a fixed structure or sacred form. We bring our prejudices and presumptions about what it should be and what function it should serve. And at the heart of that is often a belief that above all it should be pleasurable. Musicals, like all art, have the right to be difficult, messy and challenging. New Substack. Link in bio.

How do you measure a lifetime? Clearing out a lot of stuff and going through thousands of programmes. The earliest programme is dated 1982. I have written the number 1 in blue pen on the inside cover; seems I knew from the start that this was going to be a lifetime passion. It is from a performance of Swan Lake at the London Coliseum, coincidentally this is the theatre where I would make my professional debut just three years later. Fringe venues, West End venues, regional theatres, school productions, Broadway playbills; decades of memories. Some with my name in the cast list, some with friends’ names, some with clients’ names, some names no longer with us, some starting out on their careers, some legends. If this was all that remained of me, if this could tell the story of my life, what, I wonder, would that story be?

To The Other Palace to see Ashley Goh in I Was A Teenage She-Devil. Last night at Flyby I thought a lot about how cerebral and complex it was as a piece of musical theatre and how challenging and difficult I found the characters. Tonight could not have been more different. I Was A Teenage She-Devil is loud and, well, louder. We’re in a world of 80s movies (count the references!) with all the recognisable archetypes; stoners, nerds, mean girls, prim girls, horny jocks, outsiders. It’s broad brush strokes and thin plots but all that really matters is getting to the next rock song as quickly as possible. The sound design is absolutely superb and has to be to cope with the variety of 80s musical styles. Superb too are the cast who are delivering high octane numbers at a blistering rate. It’s camp, queer, and knows its references intimately. Is the message that queer love conquers all? Or that staying in the closet turns you into a serial killer? Who cares? Bring out Satan in a studded jockstrap and party. I love that Flyby and She-Devil are so wildly different, that musical theatre can be complex and camp, challenging and fun.

To Southwark Playhouse for Flyby. This is a show that wants its audience to think. From the opening speech to the closing curtain, it’s a complex piece. The script, the lyrics, the music, the staging. Where some shows wear their hearts on their sleeves this one wears its intellect. Each aspect of this is elegant, Theo Jamieson’s music is stylish, shades (maybe?) of Adam Guettel? The set is vogueishly hip, the lighting design is breathtaking, the cast are exceptional, Adam Lenson’s direction propulsive. It’s not light entertainment, it’s intricate and ornate. But despite, or perhaps because of, all this sophistication I struggled to find an emotional centre.