Observer Mondays Director Maisie Holland gives us the lowdown on SPEND SPEND SPEND

Week 1

The first day started with a meet and greet. I quickly got to know the wonderful Birkbeck Assistant Director, Elizabeth, who pointed out who was who and made sure I had all the information I needed.

We started with an activity where we had to come up with an interesting fact about ourselves in pairs and then everyone else had to guess whose fact was whose. Ben the musical director and I fooled everyone, having bonded over the fact we had both won niche things in competitions on the radio! We then played a game where we had to throw a beanbag in a specific pattern around the circle while also saying our names in a specific order. This was very chaotic but was great for focus and getting to know everyone’s names, especially in a big cast and creative team.

Josh, the director, gave a detailed presentation on the cultural context of the different time periods that the show spans and the differences in consumer habits between the 30s when Viv Nicholson was born, the 60s when she won the pools and the 90s when the end of the show is set. He also read us an article detailing the construction of the concept of consumerism and how rapidly it was socially manufactured, followed by an interesting discussion with the cast about their thoughts on it.

Then it was time to start singing! Ben and Livi (the Musical Supervisor and MD) led the cast in a vocal warmup before starting to teach the cast the big number at the end of Act 1, naturally titled Spend Spend Spend. Ben talked about the re-arrangement he’d done on the show’s music for this revival and how he’d really leant into the time period each piece was happening in, so making the songs set in the 60s have more 60s style vocals and orchestration and so on, it was so interesting to learn about the level of detail and aesthetic put into the music. That evening I listened to the original cast recording and it was really clear where Ben had sharpened and elevated the original for this new version. The afternoon was dedicated to learning Spend Spend Spend, as the number is almost seven minutes long and features lots of difficult rhythms and complex harmonies. Throughout, Sarah the DSM was calling different cast members out to the room to go for costume fittings and they would catch up on what they had missed from the others totally seamlessly when they returned. Working the costume fittings around the rehearsal seemed like a very well orchestrated dance. By the end of the day, the cast had finished learning Spend Spend Spend and quickly learnt the vocals for the Prologue as they are musically very similar. I spent the rest of my week humming Spend Spend Spend as it’s just so catchy!

It’s so exciting for the building to be filled with the buzzy excitement of a new show company and I can’t wait for next week!

Week 2

We began with the Dance Captain and ensemble member Abi leading a physical warmup. Elizabeth and I heard the description of “moderate exertion” and opted out immediately! The warmup was definitely needed as the cast then went straight into a workshop with Lucy, the Choreographer, to work out how to dance with the bedazzled shopping trolleys that would be part of the number Spend Spend Spend. Lucy encouraged the cast to play with the trolleys and test their capabilities, so straight away the cast were running, jumping and spinning with them, as well as testing how many people could fit in and hang off them, which was equal parts funny and creative. Lucy showed us some videos of synchronised swimmers, which really helped work out how to emulate grace and flow with the trolleys. Josh was in constant communication with Lucy throughout and they worked out a few sequences which Lucy then filmed for her to take away and work into the final choreography.

The next part of the morning was a character discussion between Rachel Leskovac, who plays Viv, and Josh, Elizabeth and Nickie, RET’s Associate Director. Rachel played Young Viv in the original version 25 years ago and her perspective on the character and throughout the whole process has been so incisive and considered, she brings a level of deep understanding and care that is so evident. In this particular discussion, Josh was asking Rachel about any particular moments or motivations she wanted to explore, which led to an interesting discussion about Viv’s relationship to her mother and her husband. There were consistent dramaturgical considerations throughout, as Viv narrates the show it’s essential to work out where her character sits in the ebb and flow of the story.

The rest of the cast then came back in for some music forensics, where Elizabeth had gone through any discrepancies between script and score, for example one lyric saying “was” and one saying “is”. This was a really good insight into the level of detail considered to keep things sharp and clean, as well as into what some of the responsibilities of an Assistant Director can be! The final task for the morning was for the cast to learn the song Big American Car (which is seriously catchy) and brush up on the vocals for the prologue.

After lunch, Livi led the cast in a vocal warmup before the first full read and sing through. Members of RET staff and one of the writers, Justin, came to watch the readthrough for a first real glimpse at what the show would be like. The musical is almost entirely sung through, so it gave a very good flavour of the show. The readthrough was absolutely amazing! Getting to hear all the songs for the first time felt like a very exciting privilege. It was hard to believe that this time last week they had learnt one song and suddenly there was the beginnings of a whole show! It made me very excited to see all that would happen in the following weeks time.

Week 3

When I arrived this week, the rehearsal room had been totally transformed! All the windowsills were covered in a fantastically colourful array of props and one wall had been plastered with reference images, moodboards and model photos of Designer Grace Smart’s amazing set. Being able to see the designs for every scene was so pivotal to understanding the aesthetic that the team were working towards and how much that informed the work being done in the rehearsal room. I was also told about the practical design concept that the stage was representative of a conveyor belt and wherever possible, everything could come out of one specific door and out the one opposite, like a conveyor belt. Having seen a lot of shows at the Exchange, I’ve noticed that the doors sometime aren’t used for their maximum creative impact so I was hugely excited by such a well thought out concept. The first task of the day was to stage the Prologue. Josh talked with Rose and Rachel (who play Young Viv and Viv) about the ideas and dream sequence nature of the moment, what the giant cheque that would be hanging from the ceiling represented to Viv and Young Viv and their differing reactions to it. He encouraged Rachel and Rose to play around with their reactions before Lucy used that to choreograph the moment. More actors then arrived to work on the choreography for Scars of Love with Lucy. I don’t have much experience in choreography and had always assumed that for large musicals it was a case of the choreographer just teaching pre-made set choreography. Instead, it was hugely collaborative and creative. As the cast were dancing in pairs, Lucy asked each couple to come up with a few moves exploring softness and connection. Each couple then taught the other pairs their moves and Lucy then knitted them all together to make really beautiful choreography.

During the tea break, I talked to Nickie and Elizabeth about the work that they’re doing with the covers and swings to plan for how the show would run if an actor was sick/injured. This requires a huge amount of spreadsheeting, planning, plotting and some additional rehearsals, the logistics of which I’d never thought through before and really novel to see Nickie and Elizabeth’s detailed work.

The next task was an improvisation exercise to workshop the number A Brand New Husband. George and Lejaun began playing around to the music dressing George in new outfits to represent each new husband, and seeing how differently he’d interact with Rose and Rachel. This was funny and creative, while also being hugely informative for the blocking and choreography. They also tried the same exercise without costumes, just to really focus on building the physicality and personality of each husband, before starting to set the movement to the actual song.

Rose and George then worked on the dance number Sexual Happenings. Lucy stressed the importance to the actors of singing and dancing the number full out every time they did it in rehearsal to help build their stamina, which I thought was a really useful note to give. Finally before lunch, Rachel and Lejaun sang through Scars of Love with Ben and Livi, where Rachel and Ben had a really interesting and considered conversation about the swell and dynamics of the song and how to get the emotional and musical peaks to overlap.

After lunch, the cast warmed up with a very entertaining improvised dance circle before singing through one of the big Act 1 numbers, John Collier, then moving on to staging it. The whole cast are on stage for the number as husband and wife pairs, each with a domestic task to be doing, which involves a huge number of set and props including a bed, a kitchen unit, an ironing board and a table, all of which needed to be brought on and set up in a very short amount of time. The afternoon was a mammoth collaborative task between the whole company, particularly the cast, Lucy and stage management to work out the highly complicated jigsaw of constantly moving cast and furniture. It was a lot of trial and error, making small tweaks and running again until it finally came right and watching it taught me a lot about the power of open communication in successful collaboration. To end the day, we all went downstairs to the module and the cast tried out climbing ladders and how high they felt comfortable safely going as there are going to be several large ladders in John Collier – I can’t wait to see them!

Week 4

The fourth week heralded the arrival of a really exciting new company member – Ben’s dog Lexi, who caused huge excitement in the rehearsal room and meant that for the rest of the day, anyone with a spare moment was spending time with Lexi! The morning’s agenda was to stage the big number at the beginning of Act 2, The Miner’s Arms. Like with John Collier, this featured the full cast and lots of props so again Lucy orchestrated a movement workshop to bring the staging together. They wanted to open with the concept of the townsfolk being like a community choir, which meant there was some workshopping of deliberately basic and cheesy choir choreography, which was seriously funny. There was also lots of experimenting with slow motion, tempo changes and how best to (safely!) climb onto a very high bar. I was also keeping an eye out for Josh throughout the staging workshop and seeing how he would float from conversation to conversation, checking in with actors, with Lucy and the wider team to oversee cohesion and the smooth developing of the scene. At lunch, we noticed that carpet had been laid in the module as the beginnings of the set, which suddenly made the show feel much nearer! After lunch, the company solidified the work that had been done on The Miner’s Arms and ran it a few times, making tweaks and improvements each time.

The final task was to work with the giant, light up car pieces in the number Big American Car looking at how best to work with them and whether they should be attached to the double bed for a more fixed ‘car’ or whether it could be more freehand. The cast quickly worked out the more effective and graceful way to move with them so I’m intrigued to see how the number actually turns out!

Week 5

We were moving rehearsals into the module! Even more excitingly, the first part of the day involved rehearsing Rose’s flying on the champagne bottle. Jacqui the Production Manager led a safety briefing with Rose and Abi who was in charge of fastening Rose’s harness to the bottle and they came up with bits of choreography to signal to each other and the technical team that everything was safe and ready to fly. Jacqui really emphasised that if anything felt unsafe or not right that they should use the no-fly signal and stressed that both of them should feel empowered to make that call.

The full cast joined and it was time to see the John Collier ladders for the first time. Lucy then ran a quick workshop with cast to work out the staging capabilities of the ladders while also prioritising safety and keeping three points of contact at all times. After that, we ran through lots of little moments that hadn’t been fully blocked yet and working out where to place them in the space, like a moment with lots of umbrellas to ensure they weren’t blocking the view from the galleries. In running songs for the first time, there was a huge difference in the acoustics compared to the rehearsal room and Ben encouraged the cast to really sing out and learn how the songs would resonate in the new space. One really poignant moment was while rehearsing and tightening up the ensemble harmonies for the epilogue Ben had the cast stand around the piano and hold hands to sing so that they could really listen and blend together and you could really hear the difference once they connected.

I had a great chat with Josh about his rehearsal priorities for the rest of the day and get an insight into his thoughts at this point in the process.

To end the day, they ran the show from the beginning in preparation for the Act 1 run through the next day. Seeing the numbers on the stage for the first time suddenly really brought the show to life and a note was given that bits of choreography and physicality that had felt too over the top in the rehearsal room actually could be pushed even further to live up to the grandeur of the set and the space.

This week I was very kindly allowed to come in on the Tuesday afternoon and observe the full run of Act 1. It was seriously impressive to see the actors adapt to such a complicated space so quickly, learning their way around the theatre’s eight doors and the demands of the new mirrored floor. I couldn’t stop smiling by the time they got to Spend Spend Spend, it was my first time seeing all of the choreography and that combined with the band made for such a spectacular, high-energy number.

I also attended the Friday evening Sitzprobe, which is where the cast do a full sing through with the complete band for the first time. There were lots of Royal Exchange staff from different departments there and the atmosphere was hugely buzzy and exciting. The cast had just been rehearsing with a piano up until this point and the music suddenly came so much more alive with its full orchestrations. The band were hugely impressive considering they’d had less than a week’s rehearsal, especially the “blowers” (as Ben and Livi call them!) who play both brass and woodwind and are constantly swapping between two or three instruments each. There were a few moments of music rehearsal throughout for the band and the cast to get used to each other’s timings but mostly we just got to sit back and appreciate the music – Nickie, Elizabeth and I were dancing in our seats!

Week 6

Tech week! There was suddenly double the amount of people in the module which was hugely exciting. The cast were in their full costume, makeup and wigs for the first time and seeing the characters right there made the show feel very tangible, particularly seeing Rose and Rachel in their Viv wigs for the first time, especially Rose who suddenly looked so different! The day started with a huge introductory circle of all the cast, creative team and crew which took up the entire module and made you appreciate the sheer scale of the production and the amount of people it takes to put the show together. Scott, the Company Manager, read out the Equity Safe Spaces statement which really emphasised the care and consideration among the company. Then the tech session started! I realised that there are always about five different conversations happening at once all around the module between lighting, sound, automation, the DSM, the music team and all the creative team and cast, all expertly managed by Linda the Stage Manager, who had a microphone and would be keeping everyone updated through the speakers to communicate what was being done and what was needed.

We started with the prologue, meaning that we got to see the giant cheque being set on fire for the first time and it made such a dramatic noise that Rose screamed, which made us all laugh! From there, it was just a case of working through the show slowly, typically running a number in full before stopping and making changes and repeating a scene until all the technical puzzle pieces were working together. A particular feature of this production is the huge number of quick costume changes, which often took several goes to get right. Rose has a particularly difficult change onstage hiding under a bedsheet and she kept emerging from the bed with her gloves on wrong, which was a hysterical process! Other entertaining mishaps included Rachel M’s fake ponytail flying off in the middle of a dance number and Bex accidentally hitting Joe in the face with a ration book, giving it all an air of organised chaos. At the end of the day we ran four numbers together which felt like a huge and impressive undertaking and everyone cheered!

During this week I also worked as a VEA on the doors for the technical rehearsal so I got to see even more of the tech process and I’m now eagerly anticipating the opening of the show!

Week 7

On my final week of observing, I went to watch the afternoon of technical rehearsal before seeing the second preview that evening. There were lots of small tweaks being made, all being things that they had learnt weren’t working as they would like in the first preview on Saturday night. This included some new spacing and clarifying character motivations in numbers like Salon Mystique, as well as some new blocking and an expositional line change in the prologue to help tell the audience about the time period the prologue was set in.

The technical teams rehearsed setting fire to the giant cheque, as well as a few moments with the car parts in Big American Car. As the whole creative team watches every preview, new things get picked up on that weren’t noticed in rehearsals or played out differently in front of an audience and it was fascinating to watch the team adapt to the new considerations.

Before the show I observed the big cast physical and vocal warmup, noting how supportive and enthusiastic they are with one another and the little last minute checks like a note from Elizabeth or some encouragement from Ben. Then it was show time! The show is so fantastic and I was grinning the whole time while restraining myself from dancing in my seat, the songs are that fun. I notice new things every time I watch a number so I don’t think I could ever get bored of it.

Afterwards, I sat in on the creative and technical team notes while they debriefed tweaks that would need to be made before the next preview. I had never realised what an intricate process scheduling the next day’s rehearsals would be and there was a long conversation about how to jigsaw all the different department priorities into one short day of tech rehearsal and I was taking notes on how efficiently Jacqui organised the whole thing.

I can’t believe how quickly these seven weeks have flown by and I feel incredibly lucky to have my Front of House job so I don’t have to give up seeing the show and this wonderful company just yet!

I have learnt something new from every single person in this process and I want to thank everyone for having me. I want to say a particular thank you to Elizabeth and Nickie for being so welcoming, inclusive and generous with their time and knowledge and for making me feel a part of the company.

Get yourself down to the Royal Exchange to see Spend Spend Spend, it’s been a total privilege to be a tiny part of and is such a brilliant show – don’t miss it!