Drawing: Bette Midler in I’ll Eat You Last

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Bette Midler

Showbiz icon Bette Midler returned to Broadway in 2013 to play her late friend, the legendary super-agent who ruled Hollywood during the 1970’s Sue Mengers, in John Logan’s I’LL EAT YOU LAST at the Booth Theatre.

I drew this drawing of Bette in the role and managed to get it to ‘The Divine Miss M’ when she toured the UK last July. Nothing came back, so I assumed it was assigned to the round file or left unopened along with zillions of other fan mail. When it arrived through the post last month I was very happy… for a brief moment, until I realised it was probably a ‘secretarial’.

This is a term used in the ‘graph business for signatures by authorised personnel but not the authentic autograph of the celebrity. It’s one of the disappointing aspects of collecting, one which I have experienced on a few occasions. All the more reason to try and get a graph in person. Bette does sign in person and did so at the stage door, but through the mail is a different matter. Bette’s original graph is more ‘energetic’ and her ‘M’ is more divine, without a loop as it darts across from crossing the ‘t’s’. I checked exemplars of her authentic graph and the secretarial versions and this one, sadly, looks like the latter. I’ll just have to catch her in person next year when she takes the lead role in the Broadway revival of HELLO DOLLY or pops back to Britain.

Drawing: Alina Cojocaru

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Alina Cojocaru

At the age of fifteen, Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru won a scholarship at the prestigious Prix de Lausanne ballet competition to train at the Royal Ballet in London. She decided to become a Principal at the Kiev Ballet instead, but in 1999 she returned to the Covent Garden, becoming a soloist a year later then Principal in 2001. Her partnership with Dane Johan Kobborg is considered to be one of the greatest in the history of ballet. In 2012 she became the only ballerina to receive the Prix Benoisnde la Danse twice after her performance in John Neumeier’s LILI at the Hamburg Ballet.

The New York Times wrote “Alina Cojocaru’s line, her beautiful extension and airy jumps, her wraithlike weightless quality are all gorgeous. This is technique rendered invisible by artistry.”

In 2013 she left the Royal Ballet and became a Principle at the English National Ballet.

Alina signed this sketch I sent to her at the ENB and returned it along with a card thanking me for my letter and the drawing.

Drawing: Laurretta Summerscales

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Laurretta Summerscales

Multi award-winning English National Ballet star Laurretta Summerscales began dancing at the age of two and fifteen years later joined the company, moving up the ranks to First Soloist in 2013. This year she was promoted to Principal. It was announced on stage after performing the role of Medora in LE CORSAIRE at the London Coliseum by the ENB’s Artistic Director and Prima Ballerina Tamara Rojo.

“Laurretta is such a special dancer, her classical technique, her musicality and her emotional theatrical instinct, makes her a stage animal! And I have no doubt that she will be a Principal dancer with an International reputation,” she said.

I left this sketch to Laurretta at the ENB’s home near the Royal Albert Hall and she kindly signed and returned to me.

Drawing: Ron Cook in Trelawny of the Wells

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Ron Cook

Patrick Marber’s adaption of Pinero’s ‘ love letter to theatre,’ TRELAWNY OF THE WELLS, directed by Joe Wright in the early Spring of 2013, at the Donmar Warehouse in London’s Covent Garden. Included in the outstanding cast was the impressive and very busy Ron Cook – so busy he played two roles in this production. Opening the 1898 comic play he appears in drag as the ‘theatrical landlady’ described by Charles Spencer in The Telegraph as a “brilliant comic coup” before settling into his role as the “superb” crusty old judge Sir William Gower.

Ron is always very friendly and obliging at the stage door. He signed this drawing for me at the Trafalgar Studios earlier this year when he was appearing in THE HOMECOMING. He returns to the Donmar in June in FAITH HEALER.

Drawing: Amanda Drew

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Amanda Drew

Florian Zeller’s five-star play THE FATHER returned to the West End for a four-week run at the Duke of York’s last month. Joining Olivier winner Kenneth Cranham was Amanda Drew who replaced Claire Skinner as his daughter Anne.

Amanda has previously signed a few of my drawings so this gave me another opportunity to catch up with her to get my latest sketch signed-a montage of her versatile and varied stage career over the past seventeen years, incorporating PARLOUR SONG (2009), ENRON (2010), THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (1999), MADAME BOVARY (2003), OTHERWISE ENGAGED (2005) and her current role.

THE FATHER is currently on a short tour,which concludes at the Royal Brighton Theatre at the end of the month.

Drawing: Sophie Rose in Quiet Violence

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Sophie Rose

“I’m kissing you because it’s easier than explaining why I don’t want to.”

A line from QUIET VIOLENCE, the debut solo show written and performed by Sophie Rose who was part of the Soho Theatre’s Young Company (SYC). It’s a humorous and poignant look at our self-destructive patterns, a spoken word comedy show about the small things that we do to make life harder for ourselves and gets us into situations we don’t like. It’s a “Fast, physical and full of anarchic poetry, shards of life collide in this powerful story of punishment and rescue.” And it’s all set on a inflatable sofa, “so it’s quite fun,” Sophie said.

After touring the show, including the Edinburgh Fringe, Sophie returned to the Soho with QUIET VIOLENCE last month as part of the Soho Rising series, and signed my sketch of her on the inflatable sofa, which was quite fun.

Drawing: Tessa Peake-Jones

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Tessa Peake-Jones

If you think that Tessa Peake-Jones’ face is familiar, that’s because the popular English actress has appeared in every major TV show over the past twenty years, including
DR WHO, CASULTY, MIDSOMER MURDERS, THE BILL, HOLBY CITY, POPPY SHAKESPEARE and HEATBEAT. However, her most notable role was the bubbly Rachel Turner, Del Boy’s longtime ‘significant other’ in ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES from 1988 until it ended in 2003. At it’s peak the iconic sitcom attracted 24 million viewers. She is currently on the small screen as the crotchety housekeeper with a heart of gold, Mrs Maguire in ITV’s GRANTCHESTER.

Tessa’s equally impressive stage career has seen her in a variety of plays in London and beyond. She has just finished playing Julie who operates an ice-cream van near Beachy Head in the World Premiere of Tabitha Mortibiy’s BEACONS at the Park Theatre in North London. She described it as a “It’s a sweet story about loneliness”.

I drew this sketch of Tessa from two London productions, HOME at the Arcola Theatre in 2013 and PARK AVENUE CAT at the Arts Theatre in 2011, which she signed with a lovely dedication for me during her run at the Park.

Drawing: Timothy Spall, Daniel Mays and George MacKay in The Caretaker

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Caretaker

When it premiered in 1960, Harold Pinter’s first big hit, THE CARETAKER changed the face of modern theatre. The psychological study of the confluence of power, allegiance, innocence and corruption among two brothers, Aston and Mick and the homeless hobo Davis. The Old Vic’s latest revival, directed by Matthew Warchus stars Timothy Spall, who specialises in characters outside the social norms He plays Davis, the classic Pinter outsider,disruptive, insistent, menacing yet pathetic. Daniel Mays is the kindly Aston and George MacKay portrays the brutal brother Mick, who exposes Davis as an ‘Artful Dodger.’

I caught up with Daniel and George during a passing shower, under the protection of a cheap umbrella at the stage door and Timothy a week later in drier conditions. All three were happy to sign this sketch.

Drawing: Kit Harington in Doctor Faustus

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Kit Harington

Successful Elizabethan playwright and Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe is buried in an unmarked grave not far from where I reside, in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Deptford. It was on May 18, 1593 that Marlowe was arrested for blasphemy. Ten days later his mysterious early death was reported after being knifed in a local tavern. He was only 29.

One of his most renowned plays was ‘The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus’, commonly referred to simply DOCTOR FAUSTUS, based on the German ‘Faustbuch’. The story of an embittered academic, frustrated with the futility of religion and desperate for a deeper understanding of the universe, he risks everything to conjure up a meeting with the demon Mephistophilis, asking him to make a deal with the devil and selling his soul in return for the ability to perform absolutely anything including the power to perform black magic. References to ‘The Devil’s Pact’ go back as far as the 4th Century, but Marlowe’s hero differs in that his protagonist is unable to repent in order to have the pact annulled.

Playing the title role in Jamie Lloyd’s latest revival at the Duke of York’s theatre is another 29 year-old Christopher… Christopher Catesby Harington, commonly known as Kit, making his first return to the London boards since playing Albert in the National Theatre’s WAR HORSE. As the new series of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES is about to screen, he confirmed that his character, Jon Snow, was killed off and dies in the snow at the hands of his own men in the series 5 finale. “I do appear in the new series, but as a corpse,” he revealed to the NY Daily News. “It’s my best work”, he joked.

The show’s massive fan base has descended upon the theatre in droves. I joined the frenzied gathering at the end of the stage door alleyway on Saturday night, held out this quick drawing of Kit as Faustus and he managed to sign it for me, before barriers were installed and some decorum prevailed… and Kit left.

Drawing: Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Twenty years on, Glen Close reprises her Tony Award-winning role as the deluded screen star Norma Desmond and makes her much-anticipated West End debut in Lonny Price’s ‘semi-staged’ production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SUNSET BOULEVARD for it’s five week run at the London Coliseum. Based on the classic Academy Award-winning 1950 noir film, stylised on screen as SUNSET BLVD., written and directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gloria Swanson, the black comedy is cited as one of the greats of American cinema.

Lloyd Webber’s musical version with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton premiered at London’s Aldephi Theatre in 1993 with Patti Lupone in the lead role before making it’s Broadway debut a year later with Glenn Close playing the fading star of the silent era living in the past in her decaying mansion on the fabled Los Angeles street.

Norma Desmond’s immortal line at the end “And now, Mr DeMille I am ready for my close-up,” has that little bit more significance with Ms Close delivering it.

Fans packed the stage door barriers on Saturday evening and surrounded the car, waiting for her exit. I managed to squeeze into a spot over the bonnet and after she had signed for the barrier areas, stood on the vehicle’s runner board and graphed some items on the roof of the car, including my sketch, which I slide across, strategically stopping in front of the star’s skedaddling sharpie. It’s a bit scrawly but it’s Glenn’s and it’s in person and it captures the moment perfectly.