Doctor Dolittle rehearsals have begun and it looks like it’s going to be a great time. The cast is headed by the wonderful Tom Hewitt as the doctor, with Nancy Anderson as Emma Fairfax and Tony Yazbeck as Matthew Mugg. The rest of the cast is terrific, too and an early peek at the animals confirmed Michael Curry at his usual, brilliant form.  Leslie Bricusse has written a new opening number and the score is being rearranged and reorchestrated.  David Chase is doing a wonderful job with the dance arrangements and Dave Pierce, the new orchestrations. The show will tech in Owensboro, KY (I know, huh? Where?) and will open in Pittsburgh on Aug 2. Producers are the Pittsburgh CLO and the Nederlander organization. The show is currently booked through November of 2006. Nick will serve as Keyboard 1 player until October when Don Chan leaves to conduct an Asian tour of West Side Story and Nick takes over as associate musical director.

The Ocean City Pops concert with Lorna Luft was a smashing success. The audience was packed and absolutely adored Lorna and the show and gave a sustained standing ovation at the end. Nick truly enjoyed conducting for Lorna once again and loved being reunited with some great old friends.

The songs are written for the McCoy/Rigby Darby O’Gill project. Nick teamed with Aaron Coleman on a two song submission. The verdict should be in soon, keep your fingers crossed. Aaron is the lyricist of Imelda, a joint ANMT and East/West Players production that ran in Los Angeles to critical acclaim and broke all the East/West Players box office records.

Scott Guy is currently working on a first draft of the NOP Cinderella musical; Nick will begin writing the songs in the very near future. Everyone is expecting another big success.