Leisure was treated to behind-the-scenes access to early rehearsals for David Essex's new musical, All the Fun of the Fair. David, other principal cast members and director Nikolai Foster assembled at The Churchill, Bromley, to run through the brand new script from writer Jon Conway, based on the ideas and songs of David Essex.

It was fascinating to see the detail which goes into perfecting every scene (such as making marks on the floor to show where props will be) and every line and how minor changes such as pauses and the timing of glances can improve and develop a scene.

Despite only meeting earlier that week it was clear to see the cast had bonded and Nikolai Foster gave the cast lots of encouragement.

In August Leisure is going to be running an All the Fun of the Fair diary to see how rehearsals are going and for interviews with the crew.

All the Fun of the Fair, Sep 12 to Sep 20.