So first night last night. And having spent Sunday night cursing my half-witted cast for leaving various costume garments behind in the rehearsal rooms as they all darted off to the pub, I spectacularly managed to leave aforementioned garments at home last night when I set off for the venue. Good. Can't get the directors these days.

But my boys were philosophical about it and seemed remarkably unphased. Possibly because the first arrival, Anthony, despite my explicit instructions, had just been informed that all of the Evening News judges were coming that very night. I found him scrumpled up against a wall in one of the venue courtyards looking white and pale. And lured him to the dark side, entreating him to keep the terrible truth secret from the rest of the cast. Which, god bless him, he faithfully did. An honourable burden to bear. So I guess he had greater things to worry about than whether or not he had swimming shorts to discard onto the stage.

The performance went pretty swimmingly. Given that it was the first real-time run-through that we had in the venue. Iain did a cracking job with the SFX. I got most of the music playing at the right moments. But made a bit of a hash of the lights failing to light Madeleine in the glow of the street lamp at one point and completely failing to operate the UV cannon properly so my magical flourescent effects were lost. Lost. Which meant the 'finale' such as it ever was, was a bit of an anticlimax. But I guess I have five more nights to get it right. And hopefully the judges didn't notice!