The first public performance of Sebastian Faulk’s BIRDSONG was on the 18 September 2010 at London’s Comedy Theatre. Directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, the WWI love story featured Ben Barnes and Genevieve O’Reilly, who I drew on the day and meet at the stage door where they graphed it, commemorating the World Premiere.
Nish Kumar is one of the funniest guys around. Even the Guardian… I think it was the Guardian, said he has sealed his place at the top table of UK comedy. His show LONG WORD …LONG WORD… BLAH BLAH BLAH … I’M SO CLEVER (yes that is the actual title) was the hottest ticket at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and was nominated for the Best Show Award.
This month he’s taken up residency at London’s Soho Theatre. The publicity blurb describes the performance as “This is a stand-up comedy show for people who like stand-up comedy by a man that does stand-up comedy.” Succinct. It goes on to say the “depending on your opinion, the man is either ‘a comedian on the up (The Times), ‘a comedian I’ve never heard of’ (Audience Member) or ‘a very clever boy’ (Nish Kumar).
After last night’s show he was perched in the packed bar signing copies of his DVD and I was perched anywhere near him but was slowly wading through the throng and held my sharpie up indicating I was heading his way. When I showed him the sketch he probably thought ‘missed sale’ but politely said, “You’ve made me too handsome”. I apologised and he signed it.
So (Ho Ho Ho) if you’re in need of some festive cheer, pop along and catch Nish… oh and buy his DVD. Say Mark sent you.
TOP HAT danced its way through 2012 at London’s Aldwych Theatre, winning 3 Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. Based on one of the greatest dance musicals of all time, the 1935 classic with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Hollywood’s golden age of glamour and glorious tap-dancing! Wearing the tap-dancing shoes for this London revival were Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen, who both did a little sharpie shuffle at the stage door and signed my drawing for me.
The cult cabaret trio, The Tiger Lillies performed their latest stage piece, LULU – A MURDER BALLAD at the Royal Opera House this month. With their trademark demon / clown face paint; composer, singer and accordionist Martyn Jacques, bass player Adrian Stout and percussionist Jonas Gollard presented the ‘brilliantly twisted’ song cycle distillation of Frank Wedekind’s dangerous, unpredictable and tragic heroine, Lulu played by Laura Caldow. Described as part grand guignol, part seedy vaudeville and part grunge cabaret the trio are part of a centuries-long tradition of art that challenges social and cultural conventions.
In his four-star review for The Stage, Neil Norman wrote, “Martyn Jacques’ trio are jaunty, post-punk night crawlers, renegade musicians who cleave to the after-dark melodrama of sex,death and the macabre”.
I left this sketch of Martyn and Laura at the ROH last week and they kindly signed and returned it for me.
Winter is starting to bite here in the UK so why not post a little bit of Summer with a quick sketch of one of the immensely talented Strallen sisters. Summer was headlining with Tom Chambers in TOP HAT at London’s Aldwych Theatre in the summer of 2012 when I did this ‘lineal shorthand’ sketch of her, which some would say was a visual metaphor for our British summers – bright but quick!
It’s not my birthday, but it is nearly Christmas…. faint reason to post this today, but I liked it and the lovely Kara Tointon. Vaguely interestingly enough this is the only drawing signed on my actual birthday, which is in April. Kara was appearing in Alan Ayckbourne’s ABSENT FRIENDS at the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2012 and I was getting a cast sketch signed at the same time.
One of the other collectors happened to mention it was their birthday that day and were given tickets to see the play. Heaven knows why I piped up and said it was mine as well and I only have this sketch. But I did. She was signing it at the time and wrote this message on it.
As you may have realised drawing sketches and then getting them signed takes time. Hanging around stage doors in all weather conditions is part of the package. There are a variety of things one can do to pass the time, not all of them worthwhile. Sometimes I get out my little A5 Ryman’s sketch pad and start employing my trusty 4B clutch pencil.
On one such occasion on a balmy summer’s evening, while waiting for Kristin Scott Thomas, Lia Williams and Rufus Sewell to emerge after a performance of BETRAYAL at the Comedy Theatre to sign a cast drawing, I drew this quick portrait of Kristin… manners, Dame Kristin, although she wasn’t a Dame then in 2011. She kindly signed and dedicated both renderings for me.
“The instant I saw the photograph my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race.”
This is the second drawing I did of Nicole Kidman as scientist Rosalind Franklin who cracked the DNA code in Anna Ziegler’s PHOTOGRAPH 51, which has just completed its run at London’s Noel Coward Theatre. Her much anticipated return to the West End won her the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress at this week’s award ceremony.
As you can imagine large crowds gathered after each evening performance for Nicole so it was a bit of a mission to get near let alone get anything signed. She was very accommodating but her signature was mostly the quick abbreviated version which is better than nothing at all.
The wonderful Jenny Galloway is currently playing Mrs G in the West End transfer of MR FOOTE’S OTHER LEG at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The double Lawrence Olivier Award winner’s character, Mrs Garner was described by The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish as a ‘fibbertigibbet’… a word that had not registered in my vocabulary bank until now. It is a Middle English word for a ‘flighty or whimsical person’ or in more contemporary times, slang for ‘gossipy or over-talkative’.
Jenny’s long and distinguished stage career includes the role of Madame Thenardier in LES MISERABLES on both the West End and Broadway boards and the 10th and 25th Anniversary performances. She can also be heard on the cast recording of the show as well as OLIVER!, MAMMA MIA! and MARY POPPINS.
Jenny’s versatility came to the fore at the Haymarket stage door in the pouring rain a few nights ago when I asked her to sign this sketch. I held the drawing and she worked the sharpie pen while holding my umbrella… a real trooper, as they say in show business and not a drop of H2O on the paper.
Thanks to the kindness of our friends Richard and Graham, Frankie and I enjoyed an excellent evening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket a couple of weeks ago to see one of the best plays in the West End at the moment, MR FOOTE’S OTHER LEG.
With the brilliant Simon Russell Beale in the lead role as the trailblazing Georgian actor,playwright, theatre manager, cross-dressing comic and ‘consummate wag’ Samuel Foote, supported by an equally brilliant cast including Dervla Kirwan, Joseph Milson and Micah Balfour the entertainment of the highest order was assured.
Ian Kelly’s play, based on the biography of the same name premiered at the Hampstead Theatre earlier this year under the direction of Richard Eyre, before transferring, appropriately to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the very venue that Foote owned, securing the Royal patent. Described as the ‘Oscar Wilde of the 18th Century’, Samuel Foote lost a leg to a riding accident, but didn’t lose his desire to stay on stage. “The show must hop on!” His name fitted (oh the irony!) his fate.
He became more reckless and his entrepreneur career abruptly ended with accusations of sodomy. This sketch featuring Simon, Dervla, Joseph and Micah was baptized with London’s autumnal rains as I managed to get all four to sign it after two attempts at the uncovered stagedoor. Obviously Mr Foote didn’t think of us graphemes back in his day.
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