BEHIND THE SCENES: The Perfect Pitch Showcase - THROUGH THE DOOR

It's a rainy day in central London. Julie Atherton and Paul Keating are sitting cross-legged on the floor of a rehearsal studio; Oliver J Hembrough is alternating between sucking on throat lozenges and hitting his high notes. It's a week before the latest version of Through The Door takes to the stage, and time for a relaxed run-through of the musical numbers.

"It's a semi-staged concert," says director John Brant. "It's more than a staged reading, but not quite a full production."

Atherton plays the role of Chicago-dwelling Charlotte who is finding life just a little too ordinary. Her husband Lenny works long hours, and the marriage seems to be going nowhere.

Oh, and then she finds a mysterious time rip in her kitchen that delivers her directly to seventeenth-century France. There, in the shape of handsome prince Jean Pierre, she finds the romance, adventure and passion that she has been yearning for. It isn't long before Charlotte is juggling life in both worlds - a life now so full of deceit and deception, she is inevitably torn between the two. When Lenny discovers the door and finds himself suddenly in the seventeenth century too, he discovers much more than he expected.

Brant's been attached to the project "since it was two songs and a paragraph", and has enjoyed seeing its development. "The greatest challenge in this production is the staging - how do you flavour it enough but not too much, and make it interesting for the audience?" he says. "The secret lies in rooting the two worlds in reality."

Through The Door was workshopped in last year's Perfect Pitch. "This is the next stage," says Brant. "This is putting it out there - a full version, showing people what it is, going out to the public and to industry. After this, it'll be great to see it fully staged. It has everything. It ticks every box."

Though Through The Door is eighteen months down the lengthy road of musical gestation, the four productions in this year's Perfect Pitch showcase are relatively new works.

Events coordinator Luisa Hinchliff is excited about the forthcoming week, though it's a very busy one for all at the company. "First up we've got From Up There by four ex-RSAMD students. We were due to do a workshop with them and then for one reason or another the writer wasn't able to come along that week, so instead we told the students, 'OK, guys, write a musical!'" she laughs. "Then we've got In Touch, a piece by Dougal Irvine, who we've worked with before. We've got The Go-Between, an adaptation of the novel. And finally there's Super Alice Smith, by Tim Driesen, who actually performed with us last year, in Rebels and Retail!"

Hinchliff is positive about the future of musical theatre, and would encourage anyone with a script or a score to get in touch. "The important things to remember is to keep developing your work - find a forum where you can get constructive criticism before you stage it!" she suggests. "We're keen on developing work with a clear commercial potential - and I mean commercial in the broadest sense, something that will have a life beyond a reading."

Perfect Pitch runs this week at the Trafalgar Studios.

From Up Here (by Adam Day Howard, Aaron Lee Lambert, Benjamin Murray & Adrianne Salmon)
Tues 3rd, Thurs 5th, Sat 7th November at 3.30pm
Wed 4th, Fri 6th November at 7.45pm

The Go-Between (by David Wood and Richard Taylor, based on the novel by L P Hartley)
Tues 3rd, Thurs 5th, Sat 7th November at 7.45pm
Wed 4th, Fri 6th November at 3.30pm

In Touch (by Dougal Irvine)
Tues 3rd, Thurs 5th, Sat 7th November at 3.30pm
Wed 4th, Fri 6th November at 7.45pm

Super Alice Smith (by Tim Driesen)
Tues 3rd, Thurs 5th, Sat 7th November at 7.45pm
Wed 4th, Fri 6th November at 3.30pm

Through The Door by Judy Freed and Laurence Mark Wythe)

Sun 8th November at 7.30

 

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