This is taken from a 45 minute showcase version of the full musical produced by Perfect Pitch Musicals and performed as a rehearsed reading at the Trafalgar Studios in the West end. It was written by Craig Adams and me, Ian Watson. It was directed by Pip Minnithorpe and the Md was Torquil Munro. Here we see our hero, the busker, and the people who will inhabit his lift today. He sees them every day and has invented stories and lives for them all. He secretly loves the lady he's decided is a secretary but he's never spoken to her. There's also (in his mind) her boss who he's called BYT (bright young thing), and other regulars as well as two American tourists.

2: Diversion Ends

This is the song of Angel. A gay ballet dancer who is confused about his sexuality. He's been chatting online to BYT but as a woman, initially getting his kicks from turning on a straight guy but, in the process, uncovering his own confusion. His friend, Amy, another ballet dancer who also dances in a lap-dancing club to pay her way, secretly loves him. We see how Angel is represented on line by his avatar (SARAH) who talks to BYT via his online persona, TDH.

We see BYT ( a business man) and Angel ( a gay male ballet dancer) chatting on-line. What they write is said in the chatroom by their on-line personas- in BYT's case it's TDH (Tall Dark and Handsome) and in Angel's case it's Sarah because he's getting his kicks turning on a straight guy by pretending to be female. BYT is there because he's lonely and thinks he just wants some uncomplicated female company. He's lonely because his ex left him a year ago for someone he employs "Stephenson" and now he's stuck because he needs to sack Stephenson but fears it will look bad to his ex who he still loves.

The secretary remembers a day, a year ago, when her boss was deserted by his ex and she was there to pick up the pieces. He recalls things differently- he was lonely and she was there to talk to and now it never gets spoken of, but the secretary holds on to that year-old memory.

This shows the Secretary, her boss (BYT) and the Busker. The busker secretly loves the secretary who, in turn secretly loves her boss who is oblivious to her feelings and still yearns for the woman who left him a year ago. The busker's love for the Secretary is brought about because his own relationship with his wife, a classical cellist, has been wrong for some time now .

BYT is back on line and talking to Sarah (really the male dancer Angel) via his avatar TDH. While he's opening up on line he's talking on his bluetooth headset to a colleague from the office. His macho bravado on the phone is in contrast to how he chats as TDH to Sarah. Everything TDH says to Sarah is being written by BYT in the chatroom and, even though we don't see him in this scene, it's important to remember that everything Sarah says is being written by Angel.

7: Lost in translations of

LIFT. This is the song started by the French teacher. The woman she loves has left her for Paris and hopes she will follow but she can't, she's just not brave or impulsive enough. She has her responsibilities and her work and her life in London, The song is later reprised by the whole cast as they're all lost in one way or another and can all share the same sense of needing to reach out for the thing they crave but the constraints of life stop them.

This is the song af AMY. Angel's best friend. She knows he's gay but something happened a year ago that gave her hope that they might, one day, get together and she clings on to that memory. Amy has been giving Angel driving lessons in return for cocaine that she uses to get her through her evenings as a pole dancer. This scene is actually occuring in the memory of Angel as he chats to BYT on the internet via their avatars.

Here we see an imaginary meeting between our poor busker and his secret love. He breaks the hatch of the lift ceiling with his guitar and they escape and sing together in his imagination.

Finally we get to see the REAL minute- spent in silence as all lift journeys are. We see how nobody speaks and how some tiny, incidental events (triggers) that would normally pass unnoticed have created the stories that preceeded this 'real time' 54 seconds in a lift. We see them all leave the lift and their stories continue beyond this steel box. The Busker, in love with the secretary but still having done nothing about it, hears her name for the first time and is satisfied that at least he now has a name for his secret love, his 'final lyric' to add to future stories where the strangers he sees every day play their parts.