Robin and I had just met to work together on Godspell in late 2003, and discovered a shared love of writing for the theatre.

I recorded a song for the demo of an original show he had written called 'House of Dolls' and we came around to discussing projects we might like to do together.

The subject of 'Jack the Ripper' came up and we began working on some songs. By the time of its premiere in 2007, 'Jack' had moved in quite an operatic direction, both musically and dramatically.

We never really got to sit down and work on revisions after that first run. Robin was like a brother to me through those years and I was heartbroken when he passed from cancer in 2018. He was always superfit and showed no symptoms until things were quite advanced.

The piece itself drew on the historic side of the Whitechapel murders of 1888, but also some of the popular theories about the identity of the killer. We presented a number of options, but left the solution ambiguous. For me the real story was about the society in which women were such easy and worthless prey. We didn't quite go as far as 'society dunnit' but the social and economic conditions of the time made life cheap and the lives of the poor cheaper still.