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

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

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: Emma Thompson as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Emma Thompson returned to musical theatre after a 30 year break to make her New York stage debut in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to critical acclaim alongside Bryn Terfel as the serial-killing shaver. She last appeared on the boards in London in 1989 in Look Back in Anger. With her then husband Kenneth Branagh and in the musical Me and My Girl with Robert Lindsay in 1985.

For five performances she played Mrs Lovett, London’s worst pie maker in the concert production of the Sondheim’s classic, seminal musical at the Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts in the Big Apple. Backed by the New York Philharmonic Emma wowed the critics last month, one saying she, “not only held her own against more experienced vocalists, but wound up running off with the show”.

I quickly drew this minimal line drawing when I found out she would be attending the Empire Awards at the end of March, where she was nominated for Saving Mr Banks. Like the trooper she is, Emma signed for everyone, including my sketch, “Oh Sweeney,” she smiled, “I hope you win,” I said. “So do I,” she replied – and she did.

Drawing: Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Emma Thompson has won two Academy Awards and apparently keeps both in her downstairs bathroom because she’s embarrassed to place them in a more prominent place.

She is the only person to have won an Oscar in the acting and writing categories. After winning the Best Actress in Howard’s End (1992) she won again for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Producer Lindsay Doran spent ten years looking for a suitable writer to adapt Jane Austen’s 1811 romance novel into a screenplay. After reading some of Emma’s earlier comedy skits, she hired her, stating that she had the right balance between satire and romance.

“It’s a story of love and money – some people need one more than the other,” Emma said. She spent four years writing it and continued to refine during actual production.

This was Emma’s first screenplay, and a risk for any studio. The selection of Taiwanese director Ang Lee to helm his first major film was also a surprise. Initially not considered for an acting role, Emma was convinced to join Kate Winslet to play the Dashwood sisters. Both received Oscar nominations for their performances. Any concerns proved unfounded as Sense and Sensibility went on to become a major commercial and critical success, cited as the best adaption of Austen’s work, garnering seven Oscar and twelve BAFTA nominations amongst a myriad of other awards.

An interesting anecdote occurred when Emma was a guest on the TV quiz show QI, hosted by her friend Stephen Fry. It was revealed that Stephen had saved her Sense and Sensibility script when her computer malfunctioned and turned her writing into hieroglyphics.

After 7 hours the script was restored. Fellow participant Alan Davis questioned Stephen’s technical skills and suggested he probably rewrote it. Emma candidly agreed to that possibility and said she would drop the Oscar around to his home.

Emma signed my sketch at her London office in 1996.