Last month Irish singer and former Boyzone front man Ronan Keating took over the role of ‘Guy’ from David Hunter in the Olivier and Tony award winning musical Once at the Phoenix Theatre in London.
He is the fourth ‘Guy’ in the West End production and is scheduled to perform the role until March next year when the show will close.
Based on the much loved Oscar winning film, Once tells the story of an Irish busker and a young Czech mother who meet through a shared love of music.
One of the greats of tennis, Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slams, including a record twenty Wimbledon titles. She was world number one for five years and was responsible for establishing the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) forty years ago. She defeated all the greats – Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Margaret Court. However, it was the victory over a 55 year old man that she will be remembered for the most, furthering the cause of women’s struggle for equality in the 1970s.
The ‘Battle of the Sexes’ captured the imagination of the world, not just tennis enthusiasts. On 20 September 1973 in Houston, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs, the 1939 Wimbledon Champion 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
“I thought it would set women back 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” she said.
It was for Billie Jean’s crusading that LIFE Magazine in 1990 named her one of the ‘100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century’. She was the only female athlete on the list.
With her long-time friend, rock legend Elton John, her World Team Tennis Smash Hits event was staged at London’s Royal Albert Hall at the conclusion of the Statoil Masters’ Tennis Tournament last weekend. It raised $1million for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. I was lucky enough to meet the very personable Billie Jean as she left the event, and she signed my sketch.
The latest comedy to hit London’s West End is Neville’s Island, featuring the excellent comedy quartet of Neil Morrissey, Adrian Edmondson, Robert Webb and Miles Jupp. Tim Firth’s play follows four middle aged middle managers who get stranded during a team building exercise.
Neil described the set – a rain soaked island in the Lakes District – as the most uncomfortable he has ever worked on. “It’s all shale and rocks and real trees… everyone gets nicks and cuts.” All four actors have to immerse themselves in water before the play begins. Real insects even buzz around the stage and audience members in the font row are given plastic macs to protect themselves. Adrian added, “It’s Lord of the Flies meets The Office“.
The play was first staged in 1992 and this production directed by Angus Jackson ran at the Chichester Festival last year before transferring to The Duke of York’s Theatre until 3 January 2015.
British actress Kate Fleetwood will be well known to cinema audiences from her roles in films such as Harry Potter, Les Misérables and Philomena, but it’s her stage work that has won her the most plaudits.
She made her Broadway debut opposite Patrick Stewart in the critically lauded Chichester Festival Theatre production of Macbeth in 2008. Her ferocious and much younger ‘trophy wife’ portrayal of Lady Macbeth won wide acclaim and a Tony Award nomination. In 2012 Kate was also nominated for the Olivier for her performance as Julie in the musical London Road at the National Theatre in London.
Earlier this year she played the power hungry eldest daughter in Sam Mendes’ production of King Lear also at the National. Lloyd Evans in The Spectator described her, “outstanding performance” as a,”slinky, ice cold Goneril glides around like Wallis Simpson looking for a playboy to chew up and spit out”.
This montage sketch, kindly signed and dedicated, captures Kate in both roles.
Martin Crowe is considered one of New Zealand’s best batsmen, and by many to be the finest. He played for the Black Caps from 1982 – 1995 captaining both the test and one day sides in the early nineties. He was Wisden’s Cricketer of the year in 1985.
In 77 test matches for New Zealand he averaged 45.65, including 17 centuries. Martin also played 143 One Day Internationals, averaging 38.55 with four centuries!
In 1991 he shared a 467 run against Sri Lanka partnership with Andrew Jones, the highest at the time. Martin was agonisingly close to a triple century, being dismissed on 299. Until this year, when the current Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum scored 302 against India, it was the highest test score by a New Zealander.
Martin was considered to be an imaginative leader, known for many innovations, opening with spin, bowlers and using pinch hitting batsmen in the limited form of the game, and a variation called ‘Cricket Max’.
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West Indies cricket legend Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, popularly known as ‘Viv’ is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. Nicknamed the ‘Master Blaster’, he was voted on of the five cricketers of the century by a 100 member panel in 2000, along with Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Shane Warne.
Wisden chose Sir Viv as the greatest One Day International (ODI) batsman of all time and the third greatest test batsman, afar ‘the Don’ and Sachin Tendulkar.
Considered by many to be the best every batsman against genuine fast bowling, he played his entire 17 year career without a helmet. In 121 Test matches he scored 8,540 runs at an average of 50.23 with 24 centuries and a top score of 29.1 against England at The Oval in 1976,
Sir Viv gave “swagger” new meaning in cricket, he was the most destructive batsman of his era. Apart from having the privilege to see the Master Blaster apply his trade live on a few occasions and signing my sketch, my only other connection with the great man is that I taught his niece at a London school a couple of years ago.
Tehran-born, British comedian Shappi Khorsandi was brought up in London after her family was forced to flee Iran after the Islamic Revolution, following the publication of a satirical poem composed by her satirist father, criticising the Ayatollah.
The star of Live At The Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Have I Got News For You and QI completed a sell out run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Entitled Because I’m Shappi, she performed a season let month at the Soho Theatre, where she signed my sketch after her final performance.
American actor and director Richard Schiff has just completed a limited run in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow in the West End. Best known for his Emmy award-winning role as the White House communications director Toby Ziegler in the cult television series The West Wing.
In 2006 he returned to the stage to perform Underneath the Lintel a one act, single character existential comedy by Glen Berger at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It’s about a librarian who embarks on a quest to find out who anonymously returned a book that is 113 years overdue. It’s in the form of a 90 minute lecture to the audience. The following year he appeared in the West End production at the Duchess Theatre. Richard also performed a radio version for the BBC which aired in January 2008.
Richard kindly signed this sketch of him as ‘the librarian’ between shows on the final day of Speed the Plow at the London Playhouse Theatre on Saturday (29.11.14).
One of the nicest guys in world tennis is the 6ft 5 inch Czech Tomas Berdych. Currently ranked at number seven, Tomas is known for having one of the cleanest and hardest hitting games on the ATP Tour. He has the ability to generate great pace with his serve and groundstrokes. He reached his first and only Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 2010 after beating defending champion Roger Federer in the quarters and Novak Djokovic in the semifinal. He lost to Rafael Nadal in the final. He has reached the semifinals of all the remaining slams – Australia (2014), French (2010) and US Open (2012).
On every occasion I have met Tomas, he has always been friendly and happy to sign. At the ATP World Tour Finals at London’s O2 earlier this month was no exception and he happily signed and dedicated this sketch.
Rising tennis star and world number eight Milos Raonic was born in Yugoslavia (now Montenegro) but grew up in Ontario, Canada.
The 23 year old has one of the strongest serves in the world. From his 6foot 5 inch height he served more aces per match and won a higher percentage of service games than any other player in 2012. His fastest serve has been clocked at 249.9 km/h (155.3mph) at the Roger’s Cup – which is the fifth fastest serve ever recorded. Novak Djokovic commented that Milos’ serve was, “very powerful, very precise”.
Unfortunately, Milos retired with a thigh injury from the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London earlier this month before his final round-robin match with Kei Nishikori. Luckily he signed my drawing before that!
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