Drawing: Venera Gimadieva

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Venera Gimadieva

Hailed as the star of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, young Russian opera singer Venera Gimadieva is one of the most sought after sopranos in Europe.

This sketch is based on Venera in the role of Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata at Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex, England in July 2014. It followed her UK debut at the 2013 BBC Proms.

Guardian critic Andrew Clements wrote, “She is a soprano of huge presence, compelling to watch with a voice of thrilling security and a special quality to her quieter singing that makes you hang on every note.”

Venera joined conductor Guerassim Voronkov and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra for a celebration of recent works by composers from Tatarstan alongside masterpieces by Tatar descent Sergey Rachmaninoff at the Royal Festival Hall last week, where she took time to sign the drawing.

West End Sketch: Harvey

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Harvey

The Birmingham Rep’s Lindsay Posner directed touring production of Harvey arrived at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket last month for a two month residency until 2 May 2015.

This hilarious Pulitzer Prize winning comedy by Mary Chase, immortalised in the 1950 classic film starring Jimmy Stewart, was first produced on Broadway in 1944. It’s a whimsical fantasy about a wealthy a man and his constant companion Harvey – an invisible six foot 3 inch rabbit.

The play debuted in London after the war and since then Stewart himself made his West End debut in the 1975 revival and Gordon (Allo, Allo!) Kaye featured twenty years later at the Shaftesubry Theatre.

Another twenty years on James Dreyfus takes on the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd and Maureen Lipman is Veta, his socially ambitious and enjoyably deranged sister. What The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish calls “screwball magic”.

Maureen’s extensive theatre and screen work includes an Olivier Award in 1985 for See How They Run, The Sweeney, Smiley’s People, Coronation Street, Jonathan Creek, Holby City, Educating Rita and The Pianist.

French born James Dreyfus had his first television break in the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous and has created memorable comedy characters such as Constable Kevin Goody in Ben Elton’s sitcom The Thin Blue Line and Tom Farrell, the gay flatmate in Gimme Gimme Gimme. He won the Best Supporting Performance in a Musical Olivier Award for the Lady in the Dark at the National in 1998.

I caught up with Maureen and James at the stage door before an evening performance a couple of weeks ago and both thankfully liked the drawing. Maureen has signed a sketch for me before and we had a brief discussion about drawing styles and capturing a likeness.

She said her portrait painter said that she was difficult to capture. She did like this sketch. My response was that because she has a variety of expressions – obviously an actor’s bread and butter – sometimes catering an expression can contradict a likeness, so portraits aren’t always physically representational.

Maureen’s such a great comic actress, relying on expression (and timing) so in my opinion makes a perfect drawing subject using a ‘lively pencil’ with plenty of energy.

‘Teeny Todd’ – Sweeney Todd by Tooting Arts Club, sketch

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sweeney Todd Tooting Arts Club

In the winter of 2014 the Tooting Arts Club staged Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd in Harrington’s, London’s Oldest Pie and Mash Shop. The intimate staging of the production in the 106 year old establishment in a Tooting side street had phenomenal success. “Site specific theatre at its very best,” wrote Henry Hutchings in the Evening Standard. Punters congregated at Anton’s Barber Shop before being shown through to Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop for a pie and the performance.

One of those punters happened to be Mr Sondheim himself, who was bowled over by the intensity of the production that he contacted his friend, a certain Sir Cameron Mackintosh, no less, who allowed the TAC to create the West End’s first pop up theatre in a disused nightclub space sandwiched between his more illustrious Gielgud and Queen’s theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue for its revival run until the end of May 2015.

Unlike the epic, star-studded concert version across town at the London Coliseum, the Tooting Arts Club’s tiny 36 seater show prompted Matt Wolf form The Art’s Desk to nickname it “Teeny Todd,” saying it was, “downsized to dazzling effect”.

The Stage’s Mark Stenton simply aid “the smallest and most viscerally intense.” Reviewing Bill Buckhurst’s razor sharp production in the Guardian, Lyn Garnder said of the leads, “Jeremy Secomb’s superbly brooding and cadaver-like Sweeney may give you a very close shave. Siobhan McCarthy is a real treat as Mrs Lovett, self-deceiving and sad as well as comically monstrous”.

Duncan Smith, Ian Mowat, Kiara Jay, Nadim Naaman, Joseph Taylor and Zoe Doano make up the cast on which Hutchings commented, “Theres’ great work throughout the cast of eight… the quality of performances – and especially the voices – is remarkably high.”

I caught up with Jeremy and Siobhan after Saturday’s performance where they signed this sketch.

Signed sketches: Khatia Buniatishvili

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Khatia B 2

Paris-based Georgian virtuoso pianist Khatia Buniatishvili has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame in the music world and is considered one of the great and certainly popular concert performers of our time, with her electrifying stage presence.

The 27 year old has introduced to the piano at an early age by her mother and her extraordinary talent was soon recognised. She gave her debut performance as a soloist with a chamber orchestra at the age of 6 in her hometown of Tbilisi, although she did not regard herself as child prodigy.

Winner of the bronze medal at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in 2008, Khatia was also recognised as the Best Performer of a Chopin piece and the Audience Favourite.

Critics emphasise that her playing style, which is influenced by Georgian Folk music, has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy. Khatia sees this as a positive attribute. “The piano is the blackest instrument… a symbol of minimal solitude,” she said.

In his five star review in the Evening Standard of Khatia’s recent London recital, Barry Millington, under the headline “heart-melting, hair-raising and utterly intoxicating, ” said, “there are performers who exploit extremes of dynamic and tempo, but musically fail to convince. The Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is emphatically not one of those. She demonstrated keyboard magic of exceptional sensitivity… and jaw-dropping virtuoso technique.”

After that performance at Wigmore Hall last Wednesday evening I met the charismatic and charming Khatia at the artist’s entrance. We managed to find some shelter from the persistent drizzle under the doorway where she signed a couple of sketches with her distinctive flowing ribbon signature and kind comments for me.

khatia b

Here is the tale (and sketch) of Sweeney Todd…. with Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sweeney Todd Emma Thompson Bryn Terfel

Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel are two of the best entertainers in the business and quite simply two of the nicest. Both had signed separate sketches as the leads in last years semi-staged version of Stephen Sondheim’s most gruesome musical SWEENEY TODD:THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at New York’s Lincoln Center. A reprisal of that production for a two-week run at the London Coliseum this month gave me an opportunity to draw them together and get both to sign it.

It was Emma’s return to the West End after a 26 year absence and officially billed as ‘concert staging’ with a full orchestra as the centre piece, but director Lonny Price serves up a few surprises. Both productions received rave reviews.

The Telegraph’s Rupert Christiansen summed up the sentiments. ‘Terfel’s Demon Barber …continues to command the role with a laconic intensity which makes Todd’s monomania all the more mesmerising …singing with steely restraint and a welcome lack of rasp or rant he plays a Byronic wanderer with a tormented inner life. An even bigger pleasure is provided by Emma Thompson…she makes a terrific Mrs Lovett, hitting just the right balance between endearing naiveté and ruthless amorality, as well as singing meticulously.”

As you can imagine having such stellar cast members attracts a lot of interest as the large numbers of fans gathering at the stage door testified. I decided to wander around to the front and try my luck and struct the jackpot. Emma, Bryn,Lonny and the cast were heading up St Martin’s Lane for a well-deserved supper. With some trepidation, I interrupted their progress with my graph request. Playing two of the nastiest stage characters had not tarnished their ‘nicest people in show business ‘ tag and they happily signed.

Drawing: David Calder, The Nether

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

David Calder

Nominated for four Olivier Awards, including Best New Play, Jennifer Haley’s haunting sci-fi drama about the darker side of the internet The Nether transferred to the West End last month from its sell out run at The Royal Court.

One of the other nominations in Jeremy Herrin’s immaculate production is David Calder for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He plays Doyle, a frail science professor and family man whose alter ego is a prim young nine year old girl called Iris, who hangs out with male visitors and lets them chop her head off as often as they like. Just your average fun night out at the theatre, then.

David’s extensive stage and screen credits include King Lear, Macbeth, Titanic, Hustle, Midsummer Murders and the Bond film The World is Not Enough. “This is mind bending, it’s ingenious and it’s ethically challenging…. superbly cast and stunningly designed.”

After The Nether, which finishes on the 25 April at The Duke of York’s Theatre, David slips back in time, playing Winston Churchill in The Audience at The Apollo.

Signed Drawing: Beverley Knight, Memphis

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Beverley Knight

Multi-award winning British soul queen Beverley Knight has been nominated for Best Actress in a Musical at this year’s Olivier Awards for her leading performance as the aspiring Felicia Farr in Memphis, at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

It’s set in the underground nightclubs of segregated Tennessee and focuses on Huey Calhoun, a white DJ played by Killian Donnelly who introduces the ‘devil’s music’ rhythm and blues to the white folks in the early 50s and 60s.

The production, which opened in October last year, has garnered an incredible nine nominations, including Best New Musical. It won a Tony Award four years ago and won the 2015 WhatsOnStage Best New Musical Award.

Beverley made her West End debut playing Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard in September 2013, with a WhatsOnStage Award nomination. In 2007 Beverley was awarded an MBE by the Queen for her services to British music and charity work. She was made an honorary Doctor of Music two years earlier from the University of Wolverhampton.

In his four star review, The Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote “Beverley Knight… is one of the best soul singers around and she duly combines charisma and power.”