Category Archives: Theatre

Sketch: Anne Sofie von Otter

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Anne Sofie von OtterAward-winning Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter’s repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and rock and pop songs. Her busy concert career has brought her regularly to the major halls of Europe and North America.

At this year’s Grammy Awards, Anne won for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with Douce France on Nai’ve Classique. This was her second Grammy, having won in 2004 for Best Classical Vocal Performance. She ahas received numerous nominations.

In 1995 she was appointed Hovsangerska by the King of Sweden which is literally ‘Court Singer’ – a title awarded by the Swedish monarch to a singer who has contributed to the International standing of Swedish singing.

Last month Anne made an anticipated return to the Royal Opera House as Leokadja Begbick in John Fulljames’ new production of The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahogany under conducter Mark Wigglesworth.

“Anne Sofie von Otter sings and struts splendidly as the widow Begbik” wrote William Hartston in the Express. She sings, struts and signs splendidly, ‘graphing my sketch after her final performance last week.

Sketch: Frankie Boyle

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Frankie Boyle

Scottish comedian Francis Martin Patrick Boyle, known to all as Frankie, is one of the UK’s most popular and most controversial comics.

His genres are listed as one-liners, black comedy, blue comedy, surreal humour, improvisational comedy, insult comedy, pessimistic humour and political satire and he is exceptional at all of them, if not everyone’s cup of tea.

He once said he planned to quit stand up before he turned 40, but thankfully that age has passed and he’s still performing live. Frankie’s currently doing ‘work in progress’ shows around London. He did a short run at The Phoenix near Oxford Circus, where I caught up with him… with some trepidation, given his stage persona.

But I needn’t have worried, he was extremely pleasant as he arrived and headed to the basement performance area, in spite being interrupted by a ‘grapher wanting his pencil scribble signed at the precise moment his pen decided to slip through the hole in his jacket pock and lodge in the lining…

I quickly grabbed another pen from my bag and thanked Frankie for his patience and for his ‘graph and dedication. Sigh of comic relief… reminding myself of the first rule of autograph collecting, make sure you give them something to sign with!

Drawing: Philip Quast

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Phillip Quast

Australian actor and singer Philip Quast has won three Olivier Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. The powerful baritone’s impressive musical theatre career includes his career defining Inspector Javert for the original Australian production of Les Misérables, and later in London’s West End. In 1995 he was chosen for the 10th anniversary concert; Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which was beamed to a worldwinde audience and international recognition. He said he still gets mail about that performance. Colm Wilkinson played Jean Valjean and both are considered ‘definitives’ for the roles.

Playing Frenchmen seems to b a reoccurring pattern and an award winning one. Javert in Les Misérables, George Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George and Emile de Becque in South Pacific. Philip won Oliviers for the last two and in 1998 for his role as the crippled spin doctor in The Fix at London’s Donmar Warenouse.

Philip is currently playing the lecherous Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the London Coliseum with Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. He had previously performed the role in a concert presentation alongside Bryn in 2007 at London’s Royal Festival Hall. This production is a transfer from last year’s staging in New York at the Lincoln Centre’s Avery Fisher Hall.

When I met Philip at the Coliseum’s stage door on a very warm spring afternoon he was full of the joys. There is an uncanny physical and voice similarity to Russell Crowe, who played Javert in Tom Hooper’s 2012 version of Les Mis. He also has a double in the cast, which I practiced on by mistake. Although flattered he obviously did not sign my sketch, preferring to leave it to the real Philip, who arrived half an hour later. The joys of autograph hunting.

West End Sketch: Harvey

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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

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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.

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

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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

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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

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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.”

Sketch: Radiant Vermin, Soho Theatre

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Radiant Vermin

Radiant Vermin is Philip Ridley’s new play about homelessness is an allegorical satire about the housing crisis that TimeOut says, “unfolds like a modern day Grimm tale” where a young couple ware prepared to go to the extremes to obtain their dream home.

Matt Trueman (WhatsOnStage) calls it a, “Thatcherite fairytale… unquestionably the more sophisticated picture of our crocked property market.”

The young couple – Olllie and Jill – played by BBC Three Pramface‘s Sean Michael Verey and Game of Thrones Gemma Whelan, are helped by Miss Dee, a modern day fairy godmother (Amanda Daniels).

Henry Hitchings said of their performances, “Fierce energy… dazzling performances.”

“The most precise, intense and breathtaking piece of performance, masterfully directed,” said The Stage critic Natasha Tripney

Radiant Vermin continues at London’s Soho Theatre until 12 April 2015 where Gemma, Sean and Amanda signed my sketch.

Sketch: Susie Essman, Soho Theatre

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Susie Essman

The Bronx-born American stand up comedian, writer and television producer Susan ‘Susie’ Essman was back by popular demand at London’s Soho Theatre following her smash hit sell out run in 2013.

She is no shrinking violet and is liberal with the vernacular invectives on stage and screen. The LA Times said Susie is “The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television. She makes the entire cast of The Sopranos look like rank amateurs. It is really a gift.”

Susie is best known for her role as the Sassy Susie Green on the groundbreaking critically acclaimed HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm and the character’s hilarious bouts of withering sarcasm and uninhibited insults, including her catchphrase, “you fat f*ck!”

British critic Dominic Cavendish said Susie is “funny, frank and fearless”. She described Downton Abbey as “a piece of sh*t”.

It was great to meet Susie and her husband Jim after the first of her three night gigs at the Soho Theatre where she signed this sketch. I am pleased to say that in person she is the exact opposite of her TV namesake and stand up persona.