Simon writes...

Well at the beginning of 2009 I guess the last place I expected to be writing my end of year blog was Toronto - but here I am rugged up and writing from my dressing room in the Princess of Wales Theatre where I'm donning the lederhosen once again and climbing back up the mountain in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. At the end of a deliriously happy 3-month season of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES I was asked to come and reprise my performance as Captain von Trapp for the last 5 weeks of the very successful Toronto run. It was a pretty big ask as I only had three days rehearsal to get it all back in my head and in my body (and it had 15 months since I finished my run of the show at the London Palladium) but I was helped immeasurably by the wonderful Canadian cast, crew and creative team all of whom have welcomed me to their country and their company with open arms. It's a great joy to be able to revisit Jeremy Sams' beautiful production and to be introduced to a whole other SOUND OF MUSIC family, in particular my two Marias - Elicia MacKenzie and Janna Polzin, who, like Connie and Aoife in London, were winner and runner-up in Canada's HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MARIA. A cute piece of trivia is that I actually met both Elicia and Janna in my dressing room at the Palladium at the beginning of 2008 when they flew to London with the other 10 finalists to see our production. Another even weirder piece of trivia that we've gotten a kick out of is that the last person I kissed onstage before my Marias was the man who helped to choose them, none other than Mr Barrowman himself. I also get to add another 16 von Trapp children to my already very large brood of 57 - "a captain with 73 children - what's so fearsome about that?"

It was just as well I had a big challenging project to sink my teeth into as soon as I finished LA CAGE because I really needed something to take my mind off the great sadness I felt saying goodbye to that show, that role and that wonderful cast. I don't think I've ever felt as happy as I was night after night to packed houses playing opposite JB and alongside all those great performers and great people. A very special, crazy, all-consuming, completely joyful and special time. Thanks to all of you who wrote in my guestbook about the great time you had at the show too - we could certainly feel your love!

LA CAGE of course coincided with the release of my first album SOMETHING ABOUT ALWAYS, which I'm happy to say has sold really well so far and now has another outlet - the foyer of the Princess of Wales - who knew that putting "Edelweiss" on the CD would be a great future marketing ploy! Thanks to all of you also who have bought the album and taken the trouble to write to me about it.

Finally can I wish you all a joyful and successful 2010 - thanks for all your support and I wish you and yours a very happy holidays

love

simon

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