Danielle Hope won the BBC talent quest Over the Rainbow and with it the part of Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of The Wizard of Oz, which began at the London Palladium in February 2011.
She was still at school and beat 9000 other hopefuls to star alongside theatre legend Michael Crawford in the title role. She continued as Dorothy until 5 February 2012, before joining the cast of Les Misérables as Eponine till June 2013
I first met George Clooney on the Warner Bros lot sometime in the mid 1990s, I was heading to the set of ER… and so was he, on a bicycle. He reminded me of Paul Newman in the famous scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, although George took a more direct route without Katherine Ross on his handlebars and being chased by an angry bull.
Since then I have met George over numerous occasions at various events on the natural cycle of life and he has always been the same – charming, funny, friendly and accommodating. I recall interviewing him at ShoWest in Las Vegas while he was promoting Three Kings. I was the last in a lengthy line up. He was due on stage and the organisers were urging him to move… but he stayed and chatted. “I’d love to work in New Zealand,” he said. “I’ll play the drunk in the corner.”
Our paths briefly crossed again at the UK premiere of his latest film The Monument Men at the Odeon in Leicester Square last night, in which he does everything – act, direct, produce, write.
He was in good form – not just charming, friendly and accommodating, but quick too as he rapidly ‘did the entire line’. He saw my sketch and said, “oh, nice!” and signed his distinctive ‘GCy’ moniker.
Joe Orton’s farce What the Butler Saw premiered at the Queen’s Theatre in London on 5 March 1969 – his last play before he was bludgeoned to death by his partner Kenneth Halliwell in August 1967 at the age of 34. In a short, but prolific, career he became known for scandalous black comedies often referred to as “Ortonesque” characterised by dark yet farcical cynicism.
In 2012 a revival was staged at the Vaudeville Theatre, featuring Omid Djalili, Tim McInnerny, Samantha Bond, Georgina Moffett, Jason Thorpe and Mick Hendry who all signed my sketch in July.
Thirty one year old Australian actress Abbie Cornish was in London this week for the World Premiere of the RoboCop remake.
In 2009 she starred opposite Ben Whishaw in Jane Campion’s Bright Star. Abbie played Frances (Fanny) Brawne who was betrothed to the English poet John Keats from 1818 until his death in 1821, a time in which he spawned some of his most productive work.
I sent Abbie this sketch in July 2009 and she signed and returned it a year later.
Aptly named, Samantha Bond featured in four 007 films as Miss Moneypenny during the Pierce Brosnan era between 1995 and 2002. The popular British actress has been a regular on the West End boards over the past five years. In an interview for WhatsOnStage, Samantha said, “I try and do a play a year. It’s my favourite place, nothing compares to live theatre… where I feel most at home, but it does scare the shit out of me.”
Following the revival of Tom Stoppard’s classic comedy of ideas Arcadia at the Duke of York’s in 2009, she did two shifts at the Vaudeville Theatre, with Oscar Wilde’s The Ideal Husband (with her husband Alexander Hanson) and What the Butler Saw before returning to the Duke of York’s for Passion Play in May 2013.
Her next appearance will be the comedy musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy next month. So, plenty of opportunities to get Samantha to sign a sketch…. In this case she ‘graphed it at the Vaudeville during What The Butler Saw in July 2012.
Ken Stott, the Scot, better known to cinema goers as the dwarf Balin in the current Hobbit trilogy, is an accomplished theatre thespian. His most recent West End appearance was the lead in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Theatre critic Tim Walker, writing in The Telegraph said, “Good for Lindsay Posner, the director of this pitch perfect production for not choosing a big star name to play the title role but a proper, solid stage actor in Ken Stott”.
I sketched Ken as the tragic protagonist Eddie when he starred in the revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Duke of York’s in early 2009. He played an Italian-American longshoreman on the New York docks. The production drew media attention when Ken halted a performance to demand a group of rowdy school children be removed from the audience, who supported him by shouting, “out, out, out.” After a 15 minute stand-off the offending juveniles were removed…
Three Days in May is Ben Brown’s gripping and fascinating portrayal of the three most pivotal days in British history when giving in to Hitler was considered. In the late spring of 1940 when the new PM, Winston Churchill was wrestling with a divided war cabinet in which Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain seemed to favour negotiated peace – “jaw-jaw instead of war-war” as Churchill put it.
After a national tour, it arrived at London’s Trafalgar Studios in the spring of 2012. The three principals – Warren Clarke (Churchill), Jeremy Clyde (Halifax) and Robert Demeger (Chamberlain) signed my sketch instead of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany…
Italian-born Australian actress, Greta Scacchi is fluent in English, French, Italian and German which has been the foundation for a versatile career on both screen and stage. She won an Emmy in 1996 for her portrayal of the Russian Princess Alexandra in RASPUTIN: DARK SERVANT OF DESTINY. In May 2011 Greta appeared with Anita Dobson in the play BETTE AND JOAN at the Arts Theatre in London. She signed this sketch on Opening Night.
English actress Felicity Jones’ latest role is the heroine in THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, the biopic of Charles Dickens. Directed by Ralph Fiennes,who also plays the renowned English writer, the film follows his relationship with 18 year old actress Nelly Ternan, while still married with nine children. Felicity’s acting career is far from invisible, dividing her time equally between stage and screen with equal aplomb. Her last performance on the boards was in Mike Poulton’s new version of Friedrich Schiller’s LUISE MILLER at the Donmar, which critics referred to as ‘the Felicity Jones phenomenon.’ After delivering the final ‘unbearable’ moments, she was still able to sign my sketch as she left the theatre in July 2011.
Oscar winner Estelle Parsons made her West End debut at the age of 82, playing the comical Dutch psychic Helga ten Dorp in the revival of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap at the Noël Coward Theatre in August 2010, following two years in Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County on Broadway and a US tour.
Estelle had worked on the London stage almost thirty years before when she bought her acclaimed off-Broadway Miss Margarida’s Way to the Hampstead Theatre in North London. She has received four Tony nominations, including one for her one woman show Margaridas.
Estelle signed both my biro line sketches – one as Miss Margarida – at the Music Box Theatre in New York in August 2008 during Osage County’s run.
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