Terry Johnson’s musical stage adaption of the 2005 film MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS that featured Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, premiered at the Theatre Royal Bath last August and has transferred to London’s Noel Coward Theatre.

Olivier winner Tracie Bennett plays the eccentric 70 year-old widow Laura Henderson, who buys turns the London’s famous Windmill cinema into a live theatre, staging continuous variety revues at the beginning of the First World War. When her competition threatens to put her out of business, Mrs Henderson introduced female nudity, which was unprecedented in the UK at the time and based it on the Moulin Rouge in Paris. The Lord Chamberlain reluctantly agreed to the nudity under the condition that the performers remain immobile, thus becoming living works of art, similar to nude statues.

Olivier-nominated Emma Williams, along with Rhiannon Chesterman and Katrina Kleve are the show’s poster girls, perfect sketching subjects. I left this drawing at the theatre for them to sign which they kindly did.