Tag Archives: Theatre Royal Haymarket

Drawing: Lizzie Roper in The Libertine

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lizzie-roper

Equally at home in stand-up, comedy and straight theatre on stage and screen for the past 25 years, the always popular Lizzie Roper is part of an impressive ensemble in the romping period piece, THE LIBERTINE at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.

When not appearing in sold out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, Lizzie has put in shifts on all the British small screen ‘biggies’, CORONATION STREET, WATERLOO RD, SHAMELESS, HOLBY CITY, THE BILL and being killed off in HOLLYOAKS, after playing Sam Lomax for over a year as well as appearing on London stages in plays such as ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST with Christian Slater at The Garrick in 2006 and THE ODD COUPLE in Edinburgh, opposite Alan Davies and Bill Bailey a year earlier.

In THE LIBERTINE Lizze plays four roles in this ‘delightful naughtiness’, including Big Dolly who is ‘enthusiastically rogered’ on a balcony by King Charles. For her solo show PICCADILLO CIRCUS, which she performed at the EdFringe, the Trafalgar Studios in London and as part of a National Tour, Lizzie researched and interviewed members of the public about their sex lives, which  may have come in handy for her participation in LIBERTINE.

It was great to meet Lizzie on Saturday at the stage door to get this drawing signed.

Drawing: Alice Bailey-Johnson in The Libertine

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alice-baily-johnson

THE LIBERTINE, which follows the debauched exploits of the 2nd Earl of Rochester opened this week at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London after a limited run at the Theatre Royal Bath. Dominic Cooper plays the lead, besotted by the young actress Elizabeth Barry (Ophelia Lovibond) who ultimately rejects him. Consoling himself with
much whoring and drinking, he returns to his long-suffering, rusticated wife Elizabeth Malet played by Alice Bailey Johnson and dies.

Alice was recently seen in Mike Leigh’s MR TURNER, the biopic of eccentric British painter J M W Turner, and the popular TV series GRANTCHESTER. Her stage credits include OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR opposite Caroline Quentin in 2014 at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and NOISES OFF at the Old Vic, which I was lucky enough to see and Alice signed my cast sketch. I caught up with her again before Saturday’s matinee of THE LIBERTINE and she signed this Elizabeth drawing for me.

Drawing: Ophelia Lovibond in The Libertine

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ophelia-lovibond

Ophelia Lovibond sounds a really posh name, but her background, growing up on a Shepherd’s Bush council estate in a single-parent family was anything but. In an interview with the Express this month she said, “It’s a mad name, but I think it was almost inevitable that I would end up in this profession and not become a librarian in Tunbridge Wells.”

She attended Saturday morning drama at 50p a session. Ophelia made her film debut as Bet in Roman Polanski’s OLIVER TWIST in 2005 and more recently played Carina in THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.  TV viewers will know her as Sherlock’s new apprentice Kathryn ‘Kitty’ Winters in ELEMENTARY. This week she made her West End debut as the intrepid heroine and 17th Century actress Elizabeth Barry in THE LIBERTINE at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. This is a  montage sketch of her in rehearsal and in the role, which she signed at the stage door before last Saturday’s matinee.

Drawing: Pixie Lott in Breakfast At Tiffany’s

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Pixie Lott

One of Britain’s best-loved pop performers, Pixie Lott has made her stage debut as Holly Golightly, the dizzy, enigmatic New York good-time girl in the theatrical adaption of Truman Capote’s classic novella BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S. After opening at The Curve Leicester Theatre in March and a brief tour, the production has settled into the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End. Pixie will play Holly, the role immortalised by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film version, for a limited 12 week run, ending in September.

The production is the latest stage version adapted by American playwright Richard Greenberg from Capote’s original rather than the film script. It was first performed on Broadway in 2013 with GAME OF THRONES star Emilia Clarke as Holly.

Pixie knows a thing or three about singing. Her Platinum-record selling pop career started with a bang. Her debut single ‘Mama Do’ went to Number 1 in June 2009 and things have continued on an upward trajectory since. She insists she’s not ditching singing, just developing a wider audience appeal with her acting.

In fact she gets to perform three songs in the play, including the classic Academy Award winning number ‘Moon River”. Pixie has been making a strong sartorial display arriving and leaving the theatre each day, keeping the tabloids busy, so the paps were positioned along with a handful of us graphers in equal numbers, outside the stage door on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The amiable Pixie arrived, (now for a rare moment of fashion commentary) in a stylish pastel pink tea dress, snakeskin ankle boots with a small silver handbag and matching winged sunglasses, adding a blue sharpie to the accessories and everyone got what they wanted.

Drawing: Tracy Ann Oberman

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Tracey Ann Oberman

I meet Tracy Ann Oberman one Saturday afternoon earlier this year when the sun sometimes shone, (well it wasn’t raining) and the air temperature was very pleasant, as was Tracy-Ann. She was on her way to the matinee of McQUEEN at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, where she was performing the role of Isabella Blow, who discovered the late visionary designer Alexander MCQueen, played by Stephen Wight.

I had drawn two sketches of the award-winning actress, playwright and writer – one was depicting her and Stephen in their respective roles, which Stephen had signed a few minutes earlier and the other was this portrait montage. The weather is important here because the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s uncovered stage door opens out onto a plush little cul-de-sac that can often create its own menacing climate, not condusive  to autograph collecting. On this very pleasant day, however the weather was behaving and everything was fine with the world.

Tracy-Ann liked and signed both drawings, but I think this was her favourite. Then she slipped into the theatre to play the fascinating but ultimately tragic character who appears as a ghost. Such a kind spirit.

Drawing: Mr Foote’s Other Leg

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Mr Foote's Other Leg

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.

Stephen Wight and Tracy-Ann Oberman in McQueen

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McQueen

John Caird’s stylish production McQueen about the late celebrated fashion designer Lee ‘Alexander’ McQueen, which premiered earlier this year to sell-out audiences at London’s St James Theatre, began its West End run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket last week.

Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the designer’s death, James Phillips study is not a ‘bio-play’ wrote Fiona Mountford in her Evening Standard review.” The trippy action unfolds over one long night of the soul somewhere very near the end of McQueen’s troubled, high-achieving life.” Considered one of the most innovative designers of his generation, the ‘tortured genius’ hung himself with his favourite brown belt in 2010. The Guardian’s Michael Billington described the production as “primarily an act of worship, a secular hymn to a famous iconoclast who tragically died young at the age of 40.” The critic also wrote, “An excellent lead performance by Stephen Wight…with good support from Tracy-Ann Oberman,” as McQueen’s mentor Isabella Bow, who bought his entire 1992 graduation collection and persuaded him to use his middle name Alexander for his own fashion label. She committed suicide in 2007.

Savage Beauty – a retrospective exhibition of McQueen’s work finished this month at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

I met both Stephen and Tracy-Ann going in for last Saturday’s matinee and they were more than happy to sign this sketch.

Drawing: The Elephant Man at Theatre Royal Haymarket

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the elephant man

The Tony-nominated Broadway production of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man with Bradley Cooper, Alessandro Nivola and Patricia Clarkson ended its three-month West End run at London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket on Saturday.

Based on the real life of the severely deformed Joseph Merrick (Bradley), it tells the story of renowned physician Frederick Treves ( Alessandro) who rescues him from a travelling freak show to live his short life in the safe and secure environs of a London hospital.  While there he becomes friends with the beautiful actress Mrs kendal (Patricia) who is deeply touched by his pure and genuine soul.

I had drawn individual sketches of all three leads, which they signed for me in the opening week. I also did this composite sketch of them, which I wasn’t going to bother getting signed…but at the last minute, well the final day, I thought, why not? There are essentially three chances to catch the cast on a Saturday-going in,coming out after the matinee, coming out after the evening performance. Technically four, if you count them returning from the matinee exit. Right, that sorted, I aimed for after the matinee. Only Alessandro appeared and, as usual was extremely charming and complimentary about the drawing and signed. I asked him what he was doing next, he said a film with Robert De Niro…”A bit of a come down then?,” I quipped…a questionable attempt at humour. He laughed! Such a polite man. The very efficient stage manager let the crowd know that Bradley and Patricia would not be coming out, so that saved waiting time. Since I had one, I was now obliged to get the other two to complete the task. When I returned after the final performance, the barriers were packed, six deep, which made that task a little more tricky. My many years of stalking experience..I stop short of calling it prowess..enabled me to eventually secure a spot three deep, amongst a number of gushing Bradleybabes, (sorry, I’m not familiar with what a collective of his adoring female public are called ) ready to get selfies…not siggys. The man himself  eventually appeared and as he had done for the entire run ,”did the line’. While the gazillion selfies were being taken he spotted my sketch which I was trying to hold in a strategic position and not get in the way of anyone’s photograph and reached over for it. I asked him to dedicate it ‘To Mark” and he said “got it…thanks”. After he left the throng subsided, so it was much easier to get Patricia, who said she had loved her time in London..oh and the drawing.

Drawing: Alessandro Nivola in The Elephant Man

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alessandro n

Following a highly acclaimed, record breaking run on Broadway, Scott Ellis’ production of Bernard Pomerance’s historical tale The Elephant Man transferred to London’s theatre Royal Haymarket for a 1 2 week season.

The US cast, led by Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola have all joined the West End run. The play is based on the short life of severely deformed Joseph Merrick in Victorian London.

Alessandro plays the celebrated surgeon Dr Frederick Treves who saves Merrick form living in freak shows and takes him to a private London hospital for ‘rehabilitation’.

“In this version it is Treves to whom we look for emotional complexity. And Nivola delivers it beautifully,” writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times.

Alessandro, Bradley and Patricia have all all been nominated for Tony Awards in next month’s ceremony. I met Alessandro as he was tanking a break from final rehearsal at the Theatre Royal.

He saw the sketch and said “heeeeeeyyyy… nice sketch”. I asked him if they were goring back to New York for the Tony Awards which are on Sunday 7 June and he said they we were.

West End Sketch: Harvey

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Harvey

The Birmingham Rep’s Lindsay Posner directed touring production of Harvey arrived at the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket last month for a two month residency until 2 May 2015.

This hilarious Pulitzer Prize winning comedy by Mary Chase, immortalised in the 1950 classic film starring Jimmy Stewart, was first produced on Broadway in 1944. It’s a whimsical fantasy about a wealthy a man and his constant companion Harvey – an invisible six foot 3 inch rabbit.

The play debuted in London after the war and since then Stewart himself made his West End debut in the 1975 revival and Gordon (Allo, Allo!) Kaye featured twenty years later at the Shaftesubry Theatre.

Another twenty years on James Dreyfus takes on the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd and Maureen Lipman is Veta, his socially ambitious and enjoyably deranged sister. What The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish calls “screwball magic”.

Maureen’s extensive theatre and screen work includes an Olivier Award in 1985 for See How They Run, The Sweeney, Smiley’s People, Coronation Street, Jonathan Creek, Holby City, Educating Rita and The Pianist.

French born James Dreyfus had his first television break in the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous and has created memorable comedy characters such as Constable Kevin Goody in Ben Elton’s sitcom The Thin Blue Line and Tom Farrell, the gay flatmate in Gimme Gimme Gimme. He won the Best Supporting Performance in a Musical Olivier Award for the Lady in the Dark at the National in 1998.

I caught up with Maureen and James at the stage door before an evening performance a couple of weeks ago and both thankfully liked the drawing. Maureen has signed a sketch for me before and we had a brief discussion about drawing styles and capturing a likeness.

She said her portrait painter said that she was difficult to capture. She did like this sketch. My response was that because she has a variety of expressions – obviously an actor’s bread and butter – sometimes catering an expression can contradict a likeness, so portraits aren’t always physically representational.

Maureen’s such a great comic actress, relying on expression (and timing) so in my opinion makes a perfect drawing subject using a ‘lively pencil’ with plenty of energy.