Lift: The Original Concept Album (A New Musical by Craig Adams & Ian Watson) [Explicit]

SYNOPSIS Ok. Where to start? LIFT is about people and connections. The connections we have without knowing about them, the connections we lose sight of and the connections we don’t mean to have. Eight people get in a LIFT at Covent Garden tube station on an ordinary morning and what follows is an exploration into their thoughts. Through seeing everything they think and revealing their innermost secrets, we realise that in some way they are all connected and if they reached out to one another they might change their lives forever. The journey of the LIFT takes one minute (or there abouts) but the journey of the show takes us through a minute within everyone’s imagination, allowing us to say and see things that might not be possible in real life. Will the characters do something about it today or will they choose to carry on being anonymous, walking off into the rush and lose themselves once more in the city… BY COMPOSER/LYRICIST CRAIG ADAMS LIFT started its life in 1999 as a very early idea at Mountview Theatre School where I was training to be an actor. I have always been fascinated by the anonymity a City, like London, can give you and how large groups of strangers are drawn together and congregate in confined spaces, sharing moments, however long or short they might be, and then burst free, going their separate ways, without a word or smile. After leaving drama school I worked at the Savoy Theatre for a while and my local tube station became Covent Garden and getting in the lift everyday became a slight obsession. I would look out for similar people going to work at the same time as me. I would notice tourists going one stop from Holborn to Covent Garden and wanted to let them know that they were missing out on seeing so much above ground. But how do we break the unspoken rule of talking to strangers? So LIFT, as an idea, lived with me. And I found myself constantly thinking about the concept of a group of strangers held together for a length of time, without choice and this made me question, what if we did have a choice? What if one of LIFT’s characters chooses to be in that LIFT on that day? My quest for characters had started. First of all I hunted for random people, making up stories and inventing connections. But after various bits of writing – spotting odd characters and imagining where they might be going/what they might be in search of - I settled on one character idea – the Busker. Our hero. The guy who decides to be there! (An obvious choice really, considering this is a musical!) Then once he was in place, everything else followed from there. (SHE MEETS HIM/ONE MINUTE IN A LIFT) With the strike of a single chord, BUSKER introduces us to the people he shares the LIFT with everyday, including the woman that has captivated his imagination for a year… (LINK/DIVERSION) The first snap shot of the links that invisibly tie these characters together, and how, without knowing, they all follow similar patterns and are searching for something that they already have the answers to. (DIVERSION ENDS) We are thrust into BALLET DANCER’S thoughts as he shares some intimate moments with us… (THAT RAINY DAY) As BRIGHT YOUNG THING dictates another letter, SECRETARY relives a day they spent together. A day that still haunts and confuses her. (ALL ABOUT HER) What begins as BRIGHT YOUNG THING’s ramblings about the woman he loved leaving him a year ago, morphs into BUSKER’S own thoughts on the two women that stand at opposite ends of his life. (PROLOGUE/ALL ABOUT HER) We flip back to the very start of the show and characters in the LIFT start to ask BUSKER questions that have been asked of him many times before. (LOST IN TRANSLATIONS) FRENCH TEACHER opens up to LAP DANCER in a rare moment of honesty. She declares her confusion and love for the woman who has rocked her world. (IT’S BEEN A YEAR) LAP DANCER inspired by the honesty of FRENCH TEACHER decides it’s time to open her heart too. (IT’S BEEN A YEAR- REPRISE) Our characters start to realise that they have so much in common as their thoughts and feelings start to overlap… (OCTET) In BUSKER’s imagination all of our characters turn to face him and offer him the chance to talk to SECRETARY for the first time and convince him to finish the song. (TOP OF THE CITY) An imaginary opportunity for BUSKER to open his heart to the woman he has been secretly obsessed with for a year. (CODA) BUSKER learns one more thing today… her name. Kate. BIOGRAPHY Craig Adams originally trained as an Actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and has performed in many West End shows including ‘Mamma Mia!’, ‘Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ and ‘Zorro’. Whilst at Mountview he devised and co-wrote, ‘Let Him Have Justice’ which was subsequently produced by the Covent Garden Festival and later recorded at the world famous Abbey Road Studios. He started writing and arranging full time in 2007. Writing to date includes: ‘The Watchers’ and ‘Ghosts of the Past’ both musicals for Youth Music Theatre; ‘Battlements’ a modern re-working of Hamlet for RADA; ‘Ballet People’ as part of the dance festival ‘Resolution’; ‘Soho Story’ (A Ballet);‘Alice In Wonderland’, ‘The Frog Prince’ and ‘Spell’, all with Forbidden Theatre Company. Craig won the Tim Williams award for Best song in the ‘New Music/Old Lyric’ category in 2010 for ‘Live Hence By Truth’. With Perfect Pitch Craig and Ian Watson showcased ‘Lift’ as a 45 minute presentation at Trafalgar Studios in 2008. His most recent musical ‘Defect’ (book by Clare Prenton) is currently being developed as part of the Perfect Pitch Development Network. As a member of Mercury Musical Developments he has composed songs for their song cycles “Beyond The Gate” and “A Song Cycle for Soho” and workshopped his musical “Thérèse Raquin” at Drury Lane Theatre. As part of their Composer In Residence programme, supported by Cameron Mackintosh he is currently writing for the Finborough Theatre. Craig works extensively as a Musical Arranger/ Director. Highlights include ‘Kerry Ellis – The Great British Songbook’, ‘An Audience with Kerry Ellis’, Julie Atherton’s Album ‘No Space For Air’, The Frank’s album ‘Love, Drunk, Soul’ and Louise Dearman’s cabaret ‘Up-Close’.