StephenWeller^.com

The tour visited No.1 venues across the UK from January to December 2007.

I was quite excited today to see the "official" details as to who is doing Roger DeBris whilst we're in Cardiff later in the year.

The Welsh Millenium Centre website says:

Cast Announcement: Peter Kay will perform at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, in the new Mel Brooks musical, The Producers. He will share the role of Roger Debris with Stephen Weller. Stephen Weller will play the role from Tuesday 27 November - Saturday 1 December whilst Peter Kay will play the role from Monday 3 - Saturday 8 December.

It's nice to see it in writing! :-) Click here to read the press release.

So now comes the hard part... I have to try and pursuade a reasonable number of people to come during the week I am on - otherwise everyone comes when Peter is back in the show, and my week has no audience!! Aaargh....

... at last!

Very excited that we've heard today the tour will be continuing. PHEW!

Sadly we won't be visiting Bristol now, but other than that, we will continue as planned - with Southampton, Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Cardiff, closing on the 8th Dec. What a relief :-)

I've been putting off writing much on my website, for fear of jinxing the decisions that the producers have been making. Perhaps it was a wise choice?!?

We had a bit of bad news today - unfortunately the tour will not be making it's call to Edinburgh as had been planned at the end of the year.

The producers (of "The Producers" - pardon the pun!) let us know today that we will be finishing the tour in Cardiff on the 8th Dec 2007. It'll be really sad to miss spending time in Edinburgh, but that is the way of things.

We have just a week left in Woking and then off "up north" again to settle into Sunderland for a few weeks - Ahhh, bit of sea air!

Phew. Kinda glad that show is over with. It's fairly safe to say that I don't think there has ever been a Courtroom scene in The Producers quite like that one!

As it was the last matinee (traditionally a time when small, subtle tricks are played amongst the cast during the show) Peter - not wanting to be left out - decided to join in the Courtroom as one of Max Bialystock's "Little Old Ladies" - complete with dress, wig, and thick glass-bottle-bottom glasses... quite a sight!!!

As the curtain revealed the scene, after Cory (Max Bialystock) had finished the number "Betrayed", he looked a little puzzled as to why the audience were laughing quite so much. It wasn't long - once he had time to look down the line of little old ladies - before he realised that we had an "extra" in the room. He kept his composure very well, and handed over the baton to a surprised John Gordon Sinclair (Leo) when he entered the room.

"Your honor - may I address the court? ... is there any point??!?" he asked...

Peter doesn't do things by half, so fulfilled his role completely, even joining in with the singing during the song "Till Him" ... slightly less poignant than in a normal show, it has to be said.

To round the afternoon off, Gordie hushed the audience during the Curtain Call, and told them that it was his & Peter's last night in the show, and also that it was Peter's birthday (it's not!) and encouraged the audience to join in with a round of Happy Birthday - particularly funny when you know that Peter has played this trick on John a number of times during the run.

Ahh Peter Kay - his version of The Producers will be sorely missed! :-)

We're coming to the end of our stint in Manchester, and have only just over a week to go. Rehearsals with the new cast members have started, and I think the whole cast is looking forward to really getting the show "on the road".

It's been a great venue to play (the Palace Theatre) especially as the audiences have been brilliant - not only supporting the show, but of course to some and see their own 'lad', Peter Kay.

I think it is fair to say that for those of us who had been in the West End production, the 3 months here has shown us rather a different side to the show than we were used to in town; Peter is a comedian by trade, and uses that to his advantage, finding every last scrap of humour in the piece... and bunging a few bits of his own in for good measure!

Russ Abbott (who is replacing Peter) and Joe Pasquale (who is taking over from John Gordon Sinclair) have a tough act to follow, but having seen them both now in rehearsals I feel excited to get down to Woking and get the tour rolling with the two new boys, who are going to be brilliant.