Category Archives: Theatre

Drawing: Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet

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cumberbatch hamlet

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the fanatically awaited season of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the great Dane sold out. Well not quite..more likely the amount of time it took for me to two-finger type it. The sale of the 100,000 tickets for the 12-week run at London’s Barbican Theatre was the fastest in British theatrical history.Hysteria and madness surrounded the production, with fans travelling from the four corners to get a glimpse of the the man or if they were lucky, to actually see him on stage. Many camp out overnight to grab the 100 tickets that are held back each day for £10, and are twelve deep to catch him when he sometimes comes out after the show, after initially saying he wasn’t going to do so. Needless-to-say this was not conjusive to collecting his graph on my sketch. I have battled hysteria before and it’s not pretty.Theatre staff were instructed not to accept anything at the stage door for him, so that scuttled that plan.I decided to take a more saner route and get a wristband for the BFI London Film Festival’s Gala Screening of Black Mass at the Odeon in Leicester Square yesterday. Both Benedict and Johnny Depp were scheduled to appear and they duly did.  I even managed to get a good posse near the drop-off. So far so good. you may have noticed that ‘Benedict Cumbebatch’ is quite a lengthy moniker and he signs in full, which takes time. No ‘BC’ for Sherlock, although he did have a brief spell initializing his sig for Star Trek stuff. Therefore, and rightly so, it’s only one item per person. Here’s my dilemma. For four years I have carried around an A4 sized Tinker Tailor Solder Spy poster which had been signed by all the cast members, except Benedict. Try as I did through rain, hail and shine, I never managed to get it graphed. Do I try to get it signed this time or do I go with the drawing? I decided to go with the sketch, and it proved an excellent choice, because he was very pleased with the rendering and took time to, not only dedicate it, but write a nice message. I took the opportunity to ask, apologetically, if he wouldn’t mind also signing the poster, which he kindly did. Here’s the sketch. The poster and it’s tale is for another day.

Drawing: Kenneth Cranham and Claire Skinner in The Father

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Kenneth Cranham Claire Skinner The Father

‘The most acclaimed new play of the decade’, The Father has just transferred to London’s Wyndham’s Theatre for a limited 8-week run after it’s UK tour. Receiving an unprecedented nine 5-star reviews from all of the British major newspaper critics and winner of France’s highest theatrical honour, the 2014 Moliere Award for Best Play, this Theatre Royal Bath and Tricycle Theatre production is based on Christopher Hampton’s ‘crisp and witty’ adaption of French playwright Florian Zeller’s savagely honest study of dementia. Tony and Olivier Award nominees Kenneth Cranham as the titular character Andre and Claire Skinner as his daughter Anne lead the superb cast. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish wrote,”One of the most absorbing and distressing portraits of dementia I’ve ever seen.” The writer wants the audience to ‘get lost in a mental labyrinth’, not to simply be a witness of the effects of Alzheimer’s, but to actually feel the confusion and the devastating realisation and loss of what is slipping away. In many reviews it was reported that the final scene has most of the audience sobbing and some having to be helped from the auditorium.

The stage doors of both the Wyndham’s and Noel Coward Theatre’s open out onto a small shared alleyway. Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman is currently running at the later, attracting a large crowd for it’s A-list star, which means The Father cast can be a little difficult to find emerging at the same time, especially on a Saturday night. Howeve, I managed to locate both Kenneth and Claire to sign my sketch.

Drawing: Sylvia Milo in The Other Mozart

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Sylvia Milo

Wolfgang Armadeus Mozart had a sister who was equally brilliant-a prodigy keyboard virtuoso and composer named Maria Anna, called Marianne or by her nickname Nannerl. They would tour Europe together as the ‘wunderkinder’. However history seemed to forget her, until Polish award-winning actress,playwright and producer…oh,and violinist, non resident in New York, Sylvia Milo wrote and performed her solo play, The Other Mozart about the forgotten sibbling. the new york times described it as ‘strikingly beautiful.’ After a successful off-Broadway run, Sylvia bought it to the St James Theatre in London for a short season last month. “I am writing to you with an erection on my head and i am very much afraid of burning my hair,” she wrote to Wolfgang about her large ‘erected’ hairdo for the Mozart family portrait. Sylvia replecates the hairstyle and an even larger dress that covers the entire stage as she plays the lost genius.

Sylvia signed my sketch and was delivered through my mailbox with a large wet liquid patch on the envelope-like a seal that smelt of some berry juice. unfortunately it didn’t stop there and stained the sketch, so Sylvia’s won’t have to worry about burn in hair with a watermark absorbed into her forehead.

Drawing: Amber Topaz in Storm in a D Cup

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Amber Topaz

Christened Michelle Louise Andrew`-‘Sheli’ to family and friends, Amber Topaz is known by many labels such as the ‘Burlesque Supernova’ and the ‘Original Yorkshire Tease’. Blessed with a natural singing voice, she studied at the London Studio Centre before appearing in a number of West End musicals, including Les Miserables. But the inconsistency of work lead her to develop new opportunities with her songwriting and comedy skills.

While modelling, a photograper, who incidently gave her the stagename, suggested trying burlesque to utilize all her talents. She learnt by ‘osmosis’ she said and for a laugh auditioned for the Whoopee Club in front of a live audience at the infamous Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club in 2005. She was an instant hit and immediately signed up with their agents. GQ magazine described her as “an explosion of charisma and stage presence unmatched. Between music and songs. Comedy and seduction.” Recently she starred in Miss Nightengale – A Burlesque Musical, playing Maggie, a northern lass who becomes a burlesque dancer in war-torn 1940’s London.

Amber was at the Leicester Square Theatre last week, performing her show Storm In a D Cup so I popped along with the intention of leaving this sketch at the stagedoor for her to sign.  But as good fortune would have it she was doing a photo-shoot outside the theatre which is on a busy corridor between the Square and China Town – home of the good fortune cookie. Needless to say it attracted a… shall we say… person of the perverted persuasion, who lingered back and forth. Added to that I turn up with a drawing, stalking for it to be ‘graphed. This turned out to be a welcome relief for both Amber and her photographer who even took a pic of us together with the drawing.

Drawing: Sir Tom Courtenay in The Dresser

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Tom Courtenay

There’s maybe a dozen actors that I truly admire, some dead at the moment. But very much alive is Tom Courtenay…correction, Sir Tom Courtenay. He was knighted by the Queen in 2001. On a much earlier visit  to the Palace (1965 to be precise) at a reception for Doctor Zhivago in which a not-yet-knighted Tom played Pasha Antipov, Her Majesty apparently noticed his shyness and was said to have remarked,”Look at him…and to think he’s just lead a revolution.” My favourite film and play in which the shy-yet -to -be sir starred is Ray Harwood’s The Dresser. There’s a ‘Sir’ in it, but Tom didn’t play him. He played Norman, an ageing actor’s personal assistant who struggles to keep ‘Sir’s’ life together.  He  played Norman right from the start. The 1980 stage version transferred from Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre to the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End before moving to Broadway the following year and earning Tom a Tony Award nom. Two years later the film , directed by Peter Yates was released, earning five Academy Award nominations, including one for Tom and for Albert Finney as ‘Sir’. They were both also nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, with Tom picking up the later. Despite his cinematic accolades, Tom prefers his first passion-the stage, which he has excelled in equal measure.  One of his solo performances is in Pretending To Be Me, based on the letters and writing of poet Philip Larkin. I drew this sketch of the now-Sir Tom and was planning to ask him to sign it at the British Film Institute earlier this month. He was doing a Q&A after the screening of his latest film 45 Years with Charlotte Rampling in which both won acting Silver Bears at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. I didn’t however, so I posted it to him and he kindly sent it back adding a compliment.

David Bedella, Ben Forster and Haley Flaherty inThe Rocky Horror Show

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Rocky Horror

“Let’s do the Time Warp again!”

The legendary Rocky Horror Show returned to the West End for a short season at the Playhouse Theatre which ends today, ahead of a UK Tour. Creator Richard O’Brien also returned, this time as the Narrator. A firm favourite with theatre-goers, the Christopher Luscombe directed production was extended by an extra week due to demand. Included in the run was a one-off  charity performance with special guests, including Stephen Fry and Emma Brunton in aid of Amnesty International,broadcast live throughout the UK and Europe. Olivier Award winner David Bedella also returned as the lead Frank’n’ Furter after performing in various Rocky productions between 2006 to 2010. He is joined by Ben Forster as Brad, who played the role in the 40th Anniversary UK Tour and Haley Flaherty completes the many happy returns as Janet, after playing her in Singapore, NZ and the UK Tours. All three will not be part of the upcoming British tour.

The show does attract a loyal and dedicated fan-base, who usually gather at the stage door in a variety of cross-dressing guises and nominal drapery in homage to the production. I spent a little bit of time amongst them over the fortnight, securing graphs on my sketches.  At times, more conservative attire made me the oddball and the only one with drawings to sign, even odder. But that’s what the show’s all about-accepting people’s differences and it certainly makes a difference to your day when you harvest a full set of signed sketches.

Drawing: Naomie Harris in Frankenstein at the National Theatre

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naomie harris

Naomie Harris will soon be seen on the big screen reprising her role as Eve Moneypenny in the latest Bond film Spectre. London-born with West Indian parents, she was the first black actress to play Moneypenny and the first to get a first name in the previous and 23rd production of the 007 franchise, Skyfall. It was, however, on the biggest stage at the National Theatre in the spring of 2011,  that Naomie made her theatrical debut in the world premiere of Danny Boyle’s staging of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the Olivier Theatre. “I’m very grateful to Danny Boyle.” she said in an interview. “He’s the reason really that I have the career that i have because he took at risk on me and gave me Selena in 28 Days Later.” In Nick Dear’s adaption of the classic novel, Naomie played Victor Frankenstein’s fiancee Elizabeth Lavenza. The title character and the creature were played by Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch who alternated the roles each night. Benedict played the creature when I saw it so I have included him in this sketch. While i did get her autograph on my programme and have a few things signed at premieres, this is my first sketch graphed by her. Nothing intriguing about the signing  provenance. I simply sent it to her London agency. i was very pleased with the result, because due to to circumstances of stage doors and screenings, signatures tend to be done at speed and can become some what of a scribble. This is a clear exemplar of Naomie’s handwriting.

Drawing: Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theat

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kinky boots

“There’s no business like shoe business,” was the pun that a few reviewers couldn’t resist using after   Jerry Mitchell’s runaway Broadway hit musical Kinky Boots danced into the Aldephi Theatre in London’s West End this month. Adapted by Harvey Fierstein with songs by veteran pop star and activist Cyndi Lauper, it received 13 Tony nominations, winning six, including Best Musical and Best Score.  Based on the British film of 2005 starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and inspired by true events documented in the BBC’s Trouble at the Top:The Kinky Boot Factory, it tells the tale of  Charlie Price, (Killian Donnelly) the reluctant heir to a struggling Northampton shoe factory.  As he starts laying off some of the staff, one of them, the passionate and quirky Lauren (Amy Lennox) tells him that the only way to survive is to enter an ‘underserved niche market.’ A chance meeting with drag queen Lola (Matt Henry) confirms this and convinces Charlie that there is a future in flashy, thigh-length boots or as she salaciously describes  “two-and-a-half-feet of irresistible tubular sex.”

On the first Saturday after a successful press night I strolled to the stage door in my affordable 4B-pencil grey canvas sneakers-I’m such a slave to fashion-and waited with a sizeable group in a variety of footwear for the cast to emerge after the matinee. I did this sketch of Killian, Matt and Amy and hoped to get it graphed. A number of Lola’s Angels came out still wearing the remnents of stage make-up, so it started to resemble a Pride Parade, as did Matt who was very gracious about the drawing. Killian followed. He had signed a sketch for me before from his Olivier-nominated role in Memphis.Two done,one to go. I don’t think Amy was intending to come down, but Matt told her about my drawing. The security person, in a shiny pair of black boots beckoned me to the door and Amy, who had also previously signed one of my renderings was waiting for me.

Drawing: Kristian Lavercombe in The Rocky Horror Show

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kristian L

“It is incredibly daunting. For me he is the ultimate Riff Raff. When everyone thinks of Riff Raff they think of Richard O’Brien,” said Kristian Lavercombe who reprises the role in the limited run of The Rocky Horror Show at London’s Playhouse Theatre before it’s UK tour. Joining him in the cult classic is none other than the man himself. Richard not only created the phenomenon, but was the original stage and screen Riff Raff. He plays the Narrator during the London run. It’s Kristian’s West End ‘bucket list’ debut, but he’s no stranger to the show. Having appeared in the UK 40th Anniversary.the Australian,Korean, Singapore and New Zealand tours, the ‘professional Riff Raff’ has notched up over 900 performances and will soon become the person who has played in Rocky Horror the most times in it’s 42 year history after the UK Tour finishes in 2017. Playing Frank’n Furter’s sidekick isn’t the only role the versatile New Zealander has performed. Called a ‘vocal genius’ by British critic William I.Connolly, Kristian has covered the full gambit from the Son of God in Jesus Christ Superstar to the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, which I incorporated in my montage.

To quote a line from Riff Raff’s signature tune Time Warp, “Madness takes its toll,’ sometimes best describes the autograph collecting circus. Amongst a large group, mostly waiting for Richard at the stage door, I was able to meet the ‘unknown’ Kristian without having to partake in the ritual scrum. He has been involved in productions in my home town in New Zealand for the Invercargill Musical Theatre Company, including Rocky Horror (not as Riff Raff), so we had some common ground for a brief chat as he signed for me Then ‘with a jump to the left and a step to the right’ he went to prepare for the late matinee.

Drawing: Fern Brady

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Fern Brady

The Rugby World Cup has just started in the UK and my team, the New Zealand All Blacks are the defending champions. They wear the famous silver fern. So what better way to start the week than with a Fern. In this case it’s the enchanting Scottish comedian Fern Brady. A tenous connection I know, but writers have to look for interesting ‘hooks’ in our intros.   In fact Fern is a writer. She is a columnist in The Guardian and used to be a comedy reviewer. It was in this capacity that she switched sides when asked by her magazine to ‘fake it’ and write an article from the stand-up point of view. She liked it on stage, and everyone liked her on stage,so she stayed. The second most famous person to come out of West Lothian since Susan Boyle, Fern has appeared on the telly in numerous shows, including  8 Out Of 10 Cats. She finished joint third in the finals of So You Think You’re Funny? at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe and was a finalist in the Piccadilly Comedy Club’s New Act Competition the following year. Fresh from a sell-out season at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, Fern returned to London with her show for two nights at the Museum of Comedy. This quaint, 100-seat performance space is situated in the vaults of St George’s Church in Bloomsbury Way, where I waited to have this drawing signed. With the title of her act, People Are Idiots, and described in ThreeWeeks as “Obnoxious, rude and utterly brilliant,’ who teaches you that the only way to true happiness is to lower your expectations, it was with some trepidation that I waited. When I greeted her underground with the request an expletive or two escaped from her lips….but this was, I think more a astonishment for the artwork and “I thought you were the guy organising the gig” she explained as she signed it and took a photo. Undoubtedly the experience confirmed the title of her show.