Newly married

The problems with being being married and sharing a workplace are the fact that things can go downhill for one person, up for the other and that you never leave work behind you. You take it home, you take it to bed, you talk about it over breakfast and you live it until alcohol finally opens the door to slumber the next night. It can be fun, it can be hell on earth.

The bald fact of the matter was that things started going uphill for me very quickly at Phantom  and downhill for L, who was, nevertheless, a pillar of the production, rehearsing and singing the lead every day for a month as her colleagues recuperated from illness, an ever-present, ultra-reliable and good member of the production. The only thing was that the Creative Team didn't see her as a lead role 'chairholder', if you like; she was fine as a fill-in, even if this filling-in lasted for weeks on end and enabled the company to continue earning shedloads of cash by not having to cancel performances, but that is, I suppose, life. Eventually, when I was in the top conducting job, the Team came clean about why they didn't want my wife as N°1. It was the reason which would crush any woman, particularly one who earns her living on stage, and I couldn't tell her, at least not then. I told her years later, I think, when we were in the middle of our final, defining row, our tongues loosened by too much wine. Three years of confused bile was regurgitated and distributed randomly to anyone who cared to listen. A vile evening, in all respects. But that was 1995, and we were still newlyweds in 1992.

L was finally informed that there was no more contract for her at Phantom, but Cats were looking for a Jellylorum/Gumby cover, and would she be interested. It was an elegant exit and she went on to become a well-loved member of that show. Cats eventually reached its sell-by date, too; she felt no longer challenged and wanted to try her luck elsewhere. The situation between us was not rosy, so she decided to go back to the USA and try her luck on Broadway. Armed with two major credits, her chances couldn't be that bad. We'd been living in a huge flat in Blankenese, a wonderful Hamburg neighbourhood. The flat was expensive, so we moved to somewhere a little smaller and a lot cheaper when L moved to Cats. This enabled us to save a bit more, then she headed back across the pond. We'd done some cruise gigs together in the years leading up to her departure, so whe had a good money-making contact if Broadway didn't work out immediately. I'll get on to the cruises in my next post; the really were something special. In all senses...

I stayed in Hamburg with the two cats, Norman and Tara. Life was different, and soon became unrecognisable.