Martyn Smith - Dreaming the Dream
Putting a show together as complex as Come Fly With Me takes many talented people all striving to produce their absolute best work. The team ethic is paramount, as all it takes is for one element to fail or to be not quite right and the whole production is compromised.
It could be argued however that much of this work is part of the process of production and given the right circumstances, the right budget, the right people in key roles, you will have more than a sporting chance of delivering a great show to an appreciative audience. But how do you start, what sparks the whole concept?
That usually is down to one person, a man or woman who creates in their own imagination from a germ of an idea that they develop and test in their own mind. Martyn Smith the Show Director of Pirates Adventure and now Creative Director of Come Fly With Me is such a man. Smith has always loved the music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole and other similar post-war crooners. As Smith is barely in his thirties his knowledge of this particular musical genre is quite remarkable, he understands its style, its rhythms, its phrasing. He also recognises the ability of great music to fire the imagination, and take you back to a time and place more than any other art form.
As part of his Show Director role at Pirates Adventure Smith visits among other places Las Vegas on a yearly basis, taking in shows watching new trends, observing what works and what doesn't work and filing his thoughts away to be dusted off and brought forward if they should be needed.
Perhaps it should be no surprise then that Smith has been turning over in his mind for at least the past five years an idea of linking his beloved swing sound to a major show here in Mallorca. The second hook for him was New York City, not many people who visit the "Big Apple" are unimpressed by the experience and Smith is no exception to that rule.
It was five years ago that he first put together these elements in his mind and within days he had it, he had the concept, the show, the lot playing on a loop in his mind's eye. It was to be about a day in the lives of a group of New Yorkers; from stockbrokers to barman and bums, and other bits and pieces in between.
The key to making his dream come true was to get the atmosphere, the ambience, the right feel. Production standards would have to be the very best, the audience need to feel that they were in New York, they would need to experience the vitality the edgy nature of the place, its iconic skyscrapers, street steam, screeching taxi's and frantic pace. Night time in this 24 hour a day city would need to add shade to the light of daytime, and all of this packaged, produced and delivered to a modern demanding multi-cultural audience in Mallorca. But where to do it?
The Casino in Mallorca had a performance space that Smith had coveted for a number of years, it was big, seating 1500 people, and had a huge stage that could carry a show of Broadway standards. When the Pirates Adventure holding company Globo Balear leased the Paladium theatre space he knew his dream could and would become a reality. Everything that he had stored so carefully both in his imagination and on reams of note paper would be poured out in a stream of theatrical consciousness onto "story boards" and the business of making it all happen could begin.
Come Fly With Me was born, but Smith wants the best, the very best for his brain-child. A whole production had to be built from scratch, top class artistes and performers secured for the show, the look of the show that he had carried around in his imagination for years had to be replicated on a real stage, to be presented to real people, it was time to deliver. No pressure then Martyn.
