Once Mark arrived in Boston, he spent the day with Neil and Samuel spent time speaking with various magazines about the show
'It was a complete distraction to what I was writing at the time,' says Mark. 'The gay element of the story if you can call it that, is about transformation, about growing up and realizing what you want to be. That’s a very musical subject.'
Neil offers another view.
'I didn’t want to compete with the big theatre stuff. What we have is a small venue, just a plain black box, no gilt, no cherubs. The original plan was to stage the show in a nontheatrical venue. That was my manifesto, a musical workshop with contemporary pop music in a non-theatrical venue. But if we’d waited for the perfect place to come along, we’d never have got it off the ground.'
Natalie who plays Desha joins us.
'I appear at one point on a huge sofa in the shape of a pair of lips. Then there’s my solo number with all the dancers in tiny heaven and hell costumes doing a tap dance.'
'What I like about musicals,' says Samuel, 'is that you get high emotion, why else would people burst into song? And you get spectacle. I’m learning fast that people don’t go to a musical to hear the words. They go for the music and the visual excitement of it. I was hooked on musicals from a very early age: when I was five years old I was up in my bedroom dancing to My Fair Lady while my brother was playing football down the street. There wasn’t much hope for me, was there? My mother used to tear her hair out.'
Mark cites similar formative experiences.
'One of the first films I ever saw was The Sound of Music, ' says Mark, in a rare burst of articulacy. 'I just remember that magnificent crescendo at the beginning, before she launches into, 'The hills are alive. '
'My little brother saw that and he was so terrified he ran out of the cinema and never came back,' mentions Neil.
Natalie has flung herself into the role 'too far', perhaps. 'I’ve started going out every night with the dancers, and I’ve become a mother figure to them. They fix my eyelashes for me and they tell me about all the music that I’ve never even heard of. I was completely intimidated by them at first, the boys are incredibly handsome with washboard stomachs, the girls are all beautiful and sexy. I felt old and wrinkled, and I’ve been going to the gym three times a day just so that I don’t look grotesque standing next to
them. Now we’re like a little family. They tell me all their secrets. I’m learning a lot, fast.'
'Divine is a much more traditional show. It’s a love story, and it’s about show business. We’ve set it in a world that we know and love, and that will come across,' says Neil.
'You’ll come out of the show smiling and singing,' says Samuel.
'It’s definitely a feel good evening. It’s feel good with a touch of feel bad, it is how it should be,' says Mark.
Later.
'It sounds like you're in a church hall up north,' says Johnny. 'Are you going to come up and tap the mic: 'Refreshments will be served in the interval, tea, coffee and Cornish pasties. And if you would make a donation to church funds...'
Mark works some more on his text
'You may have just done the lyrics, but this is your night,' says Johnny. They pick at their food.
'I've never been this tense about something in my entire life,' says Mark. 'You have so many highs and lows. You have unbelievable lows.'
Mark chooses this moment to reflect on the song lyrics he has written for the show. 'Sam and Neil said there's three types of song. There should always be big numbers and set pieces.'
Johnny sips some white wine. 'We should have a pot of tea with fish and chips,' he observes. 'The second half is so draining,' says Mark glancing through the whole script. 'What do you think of the line, which I really hate, 'you've given the best a woman could give'? I find it a bit misogynistic.'
'Isn't the whole play a bit misogynistic?' provokes Johnny.
'I hope it's not,' says Mark earnestly.
'I don't think it is,' says Johnny.
They walk back over to the theatre.
'We're not even the performers,' laughs Mark.
'Thank God for that,' says Johnny. He smiles. 'It's a big day in your life, this. 'What are you doing tonight?' Oh I’m just opening our first theatre workshop.'
'Oh God,' says Mark. 'Oh dear.'
Mark tries to sneak in without anyone noticing. It's difficult, the stage door is right by the entrance. 'Why can't it be round the back like any other theatre?' Mark complains.
Backstage, you can hear the cast warming up their voices. Mark looks at an interview about him which is stuck to the wall. 'Well into his forties,' he reads out, laughing. One actor wanders about, his shirt off.
'Why are you not doing warm-ups?' Mark asks him.
'I've got choreography notes,' he says.
'Is there not an empty dressing-room?' Mark asks no one in particular. He well knows that there isn't. 'I could at least do with a chair,' he mutters. 'There must be somewhere to sit.'
We cram ourselves into the small production office. 'You know,' says Mark, 'it's very like the back office of Heaven.' Heaven was one of London's most popular nightclubs. Johnny puts some champagne he has brought into the little fridge by the door. 'Very Jeffrey Archer,' he says. Mark smiles at the sound of the singers' continuing vocal warm-ups. 'It's great when they go up a key.' Then he sighs. 'Bloody hell, I'm knackered.' He plays with some scissors on the desk, then looks at them. 'Even the scissors are from IKEA,' he says. He fiddles some more. 'I feel quite nervous, funnily enough,' he repeats. 'I wouldn't feel quite as nervous if I had a sofa to lie on.' He gets a good luck text message from Ram on his telephone. 'I wonder if I'll have a panic attack,' he says. 'I was sick last time, during the workshop, when it was all falling apart. We think it was a panic attack. I've never had one before.' He sits back. 'It's funny, isn't it?' he laughs. But doesn't say what he thinks is funny. He then goes to the toilet.
'I thought I was going to be sick,' he says.
'Maybe you should have a chill pill,' says Johnny, half-quoting a line from the show.
'My heart's beating,' says Mark.
'Is it beating like a drum?' Johnny asks. 'Going boom boom boom?'
'I don't know that it is,' replies Mark.
Johnny worries that Samuel and Neil have made an etiquette blunder. They haven't got anything for the cast.
'Aren't they meant to get them something?' Mark asks Johnny.
'They wrote the book, they are supposed to,' says Johnny.
'They'll probably give them some merchandise,' Mark suggests.
Mark studies his notes, and scribbles.
'Are you still refining your speech?' Johnny asks. 'You could still bottle out.'
'I'm not going to bottle out,' Mark says.
'You could always read a Shakespeare sonnet, that's what you'd normally do,' Johnny
suggests.
Mark practises his speech some more.
'Are you having a spotlight?' I ask.
'No,' he says, 'I'll be too sweaty.' He considers this. 'I need some perfume,' he says. 'I feel sweaty. I need some cologne. I'm going to go to the men's room, see what they have.' Soon he is back. 'I'm wearing Armani, by the way.' He reads the theatre programme, in which he insisted on the briefest and simplest biography. He is amused to note that the lead actress who plays Agatha has an ever shorter one. 'She has out-cooled me,' he acknowledges. 'What time are we starting?'
'8.15,' says Johnny.
Someone shouts that it is now 8.05.
'Oh crikey,' says Mark
'Oh deary me,' says Johnny.
Neil and Samuel appear and after a few hugs and kisses start to flick through the programme. 'Order the CD now,' Neil reads. He laughs. It hasn’t been made yet. The clock ticks on.
'Maybe I should go to the toilet,' says Sam.
'What a good idea,' says Neil before adding, 'wash your hands now!'
'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten these little hands,' comes the reply.
'Auf Wierdensen ' sings Mark.
'I hope they get through that first number,' says Neil. "It's a bloody big number.'
They sit there, waiting. Samuel, Neil and Mark move into the hallway, in preparation. 'Can you come down?' a woman shouts.
They make their his way towards the stage as the crowd applauds. Neil starts.
'I just wanted to welcome you all to the Arts Theatre tonight. It's a very exciting night for us, because it's the first performance of Simply Divine. Tonight is the first preview. Samuel and I have been working with Mark on this for, on and off, for a while now and over the last year with the Shock Fun Group, with the director, designer, choreography, technical people, cast, so it's a giant collaboration. Tonight the collaboration includes you, because you're the first audience to see this and we want to feel your energy.' After which there is a big whoop and more applause.
'The last rehearsal finished about two hours ago,' Neil continues, 'so...' He breaks to say something else, because since he has been speaking, he has been doing so under a steady barrage of flash bulbs. 'Could people not take photographs during the show, please? If there are any technical hitches, will you please bear with us, and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you very much.'
Applause.
A wave from Mark to the audience. His speech was not needed. In fact he was never introduced. The lights go down. Stephen appears, framed by the bulbs of a backstage makeup mirror in a nightclub, and the first performance of the show begins.
The show kicks off with a rousing introduction (Tonight The Night/Fame) to its London nightclub setting and main characters. Prominent among them is Desha, a fading silent film star of the 1920s who now serves the dual function of main attraction and mother figure for the club's habitués as they party on despite the gathering of the storm clouds of war. One of the main patrons of the club is Agatha (Agatha). And then there's the central character of the story, Stephen, a young man just finished school and someone who's determined to make something of himself (20th Century Blues). He soon meets Agatha and they enjoy an immediate mutual attraction (Hello Goodbye Miss Divine) in the first of several renditions of the show's title song). Desha sings (The Trumpets Call) and we get to meet her acquaintance, Billie.
In the midst of several numbers (Instrumentals/Little Black Dress) that accentuate the hedonistic (and ultimately self-destructive) atmosphere in which these characters live, work, and play (Tiger Rag, Storm Clouds, Sing-Sing, Hedonism), Desha lets her carefree façade down long enough to reveal her own insecurities, both alone (The Party's Over Now) and together with Billie (Alone), whose use of alcohol and drugs is getting out of control, causing a breakdown in their relationship. As for Stephen, he now finds himself falling in love with a handsome young man, who responds hesitantly but positively (Hello Goodbye Miss Divine).
Needless to say, when Agatha finds out she's rather upset as she feels for him too (Excuse Me While I Leave). Events take a tragic turn as war is declared signalling the end of the party Stephen mistakenly comes to believe that Bob doesn't love him after all, leading to a death and a journey (The Reunion/Wiedersehen). Desha is devastated (I’m Hopeless When It Comes Down To You), but she gathers her strength and is determined to press on (Too Close For Fame),
realizing that death and war is possibly not the end.
Afterwards, backstage, the mood is jubilant. Some of the performers mutter about mistakes made, but these were not the kind of mistakes the audience could notice, and the audience quite obviously loved it. 'It goes from tragedy to triumph very quickly,' notes Mark. 'It's very moral. When there's been a really sad scene, you don't know whether to clap.' Everyone looks happy, and very relieved. Mark takes a few bottles of champagne into the dressing rooms, and a little celebrating begins. Later.
With arms raised sky-high towards the deluxe ceilings of the club, Mark is cavorting with the dancers and swirling their hips around repeatedly while spluttering enthusiastically about the gig they attended the night before.
'We had lasers!' Mark had earlier rhapsodised. 'I love lasers. I thought, 'Why don’t we see more lasers?' Every club used to have them! Just standing in the lasers! Ah, so great, aren’t they? And so that was when I thought, 'This is what I like in life.' I like the hedonism, I love the music, and it all came together…'
It’s fair to say Mark is deliriously happy.
Book Signing.
Mark arrived here at 10.30, with everyone else half an hour later. He has to sign over five hundred books in advance. When I arrive, he is swinging round in his chair between a set of keyboards clapping widely, while Bates, a shop employee, is singing along to a Donna Summer backing track. It’s all totally surreal. Suddenly Bates stops singing and says, 'Mark, I have to have a break, union rules.'
'I love all this union stuff,' says Mark. 'Bring back the unions, that's what I say.'
Johnny wanders over and says that he heard his performance on The Island yesterday, recorded yesterday, in a tone of voice which confirms that it was fine without saying so.
'You know I'm missing football to be here,' says Johnny.
'You've made the ultimate sacrifice,' says Mark, perhaps without the necessary sincerity. 'I have made the ultimate sacrifice,' says Johnny.
Donna Summer music is resumed.
Mark, meanwhile, sits at the keyboard reading a celebrity gossip magazine. He studies the
free gifts that various merchants have sent to him proclaiming most of it bizarre, though he is somewhat taken by the boxer shorts, one pair reads It Only Takes A Minute Lunchtime is finally announced. It is 1.21.
'I've finished early,' says Mark. The books are all signed. The session is for this afternoon. In order to get lunch quickly, Mark has been advised to race for the front of the queue at a nearby cafeteria so that they're not caught behind shop staff, so this he does. There's still a short wait, during which Mark sings to himself a song about chilli con carne. Over lunch Mark and Johnny discuss some practical matters to do with a publishing dinner tomorrow night. Who is actually paying for it, do presents need to be purchased and who is making a speech.
'I imagine the head of marketing will be scrutinising any present,' predicts Mark. As they eat, another writer also signing at the bookshop this afternoon, Frances arrives and waves.
'I'm so frightened,' she says, in a way which manages to seem both sincere and rather actressy. 'But what a wonderful thing for you and for me to do.'
'I’m not scared,' Mark says, 'but it's not that scary here.'
She mentions that she recently did an interview for the local news channel, and that after half an hour, during which she felt she was delivering what was needed rather well, they told her there was something wrong with the camera and they wanted her to start again.
Mark nods, and says that he has a long had a rule about that kind of thing. 'I quite often say,' he says, 'I only say things once.'
I notice Johnny raise his eyes and smile.
A man who was sitting near the entrance when we came in walks over to say hello. He turns out to be another novelist and scriptwriter Harold and the man he has left at his table, Michael, who is also a writer, soon comes over and offers his hand. The two of them are working together on a joint book in one of the nearby studios.
'We've never met,' he says to Mark, and starts talking to Mark about his work with a fellow author which has yet to be published. Mark struggles to remember the details. When he goes, Frances says how justifiably annoyed she was that she wasn't even introduced. Mark asks Frances about the spoken version of one of her books.
She nods, looking relieved. 'Speaking I can do,' she says.
Frances waves again and repeats what she said earlier. 'I'm so frightened.' Mark ignores her.
'What are you wearing?' Mark asks Johnny.
'Just a tailcoat.'
'Just a tailcoat,' repeats Mark, laughing.
'I'm rehearsing my autumn look,' he explains.
Mark mentions seeing some pop star on a Seattle political programme. 'It was all totally bizarre, like they know all about local politics when they live in Brighton.'
Mark was actually asked to do a political programme, but according to Johnny laughed before declining the offer. Frances can be heard singing in the adjourning dressing room.
'Great,' sighs Mark, 'it fucking sings.'
At just before three in the afternoon, the shop manager arrives.
'Hello, sweetie,' he says, as he enters, in Mark’s general direction. 'Have you everything you need?'
'Yes,' says Mark. 'Are you ready?'
'Well, perhaps in five,' he sighs.
Mark studies the shops press release which has been printed out for him and notices a mistake. Her sharp perception, has been typed, when it should read his sharp suggestion. He draws the shops manager attention to the error, and corrects it himself by hand. 'I'm not promising a perfect signing session,' says the manager whose name we later find out was Larry, 'I have to take care of Frances as well and no one is here for her.' Throughout the silence we hear the warbling sounds of Frances singing and we all laugh.
'Can Mark please come to the shop floor, please?' asks Philip, the man who makes the announcements, over the intercom.
'I'm going to miss his announcements,' Mark says. 'I think I'm going to get him to do the message for my answer machine.'
During the signing session, new laser blue editions of the book are delivered and immediately put on sale. It is the first time Mark sees this version. (The European versions have a red/orange cover.) Mark laughs at how blue the cover is. 'Why has no one else thought of doing this?' he says. He studies it some more, the picture, the sleeve, the inner sleeve. 'I love my book. It's over-packaged.' He continues. 'It's the eighties again, it’s literally a
waste of paper.'
Johnny gets a publishing book score update as Mark signs. Beautiful Deconstruction has charted at #167 on the national American book chart. Local store charts all differ. Ten minutes later he gets another update. Incredibly, its #67 not #167, and Johnny quietly celebrates.