Blog: A World Premiere

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I entered the back garden of The Lamb on Tuesday night to find a small MOB of people, all eager to see the World Premiere of Dinosaur Planet: THE MUSICAL, and one slightly nervous Mr S Hewitt. Looking at HIM made ME feel nervous as I suddenly realised we'd never DONE this in front of people before, and we'd ESPECIALLY not done so with the COSTUMES. EEK!

I calmed down a little as various people arrived, especially when Mr Ben Moor came, and soon we were all upstairs and ready to go. Almost TOO soon, in fact - at 7.20pm we had an almost full house, looking expectantly at me to start. Usually we end up starting LATE, this time we were on the verge of EARLY!

Only on the verge, however, for it was a few seconds after 7.30pm where I took to the stage and did a short introductory set, as follows:

The Gay Train

Rather Spooky

Easily Impressed

This was, in order, a song asked for by Steve, a song asked for by ME and a song asked for by Ben. It seemed to go OK, and then I gave the introduction for Ben himself to take the stage, with some READINGS.

I must admit I was a bit NERVOUS about this. We've always had MUSIC, and often BELLOWED MUSIC, before, and I wasn't sure how something a bit more, well, POSH would go down with everyone. I needn't have worried, however, as he was AMAZING. Ben's stuff is always beautiful and enthralling on the page, but spoken out loud it was just GORGEOUS. Everyone sat AGOG, captivated by it all and also LARFING (i thought The Punchline In My Gag, for instance, was going to HURT herself chuckling at the Hadron Liner The Size Of A Bicycle Tyre bit) and generally LOVING it. For the first time ever there was a QUEUE afterwards for The Merchandising Table (or "where Ben was sitting", to give it its proper name), THAT is how much everyone loved it: A LOT. Best of all, he did an entirely NEW bit for a show he's just started writing. Thus I can legitimately claim to have PREMIERED [a bit of] IT in years to come! And it will be GRATE!

After all that excitement and a short break it was finally time for Steve and I to don our matching Dinosaur T-shirts and do THIS:

Theme From Dinosaur Planet

Don't, Darren, Don't

Theme From Dinosaur Planet

A Little Bit

Here Come The Dinosaurs

The Theory Of A Dinosaur Planet

My Grandad Is Nuts

The Battle Of Peterborough

My Theory Of A Dinosaur Planet

We Are The Giant Robots

Dinosaurs Talk Like Pirates

We Are The Dinosaurs

Literature Search

Strangely Attractive

Please Don't Eat Us

For The Fate Of The Earth

A Little Bit More

Literature Search

Dinosaurs Talk Like Pirates

Theme From Dinosaur Planet

It was GOOD! We were VERY nervous, especially near the start, and there were a couple of lines missed and slightly more "adapted for the live arena", and one verse of a song missed, but I think we probably more aware of that than anyone else. INDEED the general reaction afterwards was VERY favourable - I was quite surprised by how MUCH, in fact! It felt weird after all this thought and practicing to be having to WAIT because of LARFS, and also to find new bits to DO when there are people there, but it also felt GOOD. There's work still to do, but I think we have got ourselves a SHOW!

Afterwards there was plenty of time for chat with the many and various lovely people who had come down to see and, in one case, FILM it - maybe for a trailer, we shall have to see! - so it was a very happy Hibbett who once again staggered back to the tube, clutching (and, all right, occasionally hugging) the BEST PROP EVER as he walked. I think it's all going to be all right!

posted 27/5/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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