Tag Archives: West End

Sketch: American Buffalo

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American Buffalo

A top drawer cast of Damian Lewis, Tom Sturridge and, making his West End debut, John Goodman, star in the revival of David Mamet’s 1975 breakthrough play American Buffalo, which had its opening last night at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.

It was last seen in the West End more than 30 years ago when Al Pacino lead the cast at the Duke of York’s Theatre.

At the centre of this modern masterpiece is an old American five-cent nickel, a “buffalo”, which John’s character; Don, the owner of a Chicago junk store where the action is set; has undersold. Convinced he has been ripped off, Don plans to track down the customer  and plans a heist to get it back, with his less than useless ‘associates’ – mouthy no hoper “Teach” (Damian) and nervy young gopher Bob (Tom).

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish had a nice line in his review, “an expletive-laden law and music unto itself, the loose-change of inarticulate conversation spun into glinting gems of urban poetry – the true, harsh sound of American capitalism”.

The Guardian gave it four stars, with Michael Billington saying, “Daniel Evans’ production is meticulous in its psychological and physical detail and there are fine performances from Damian Lewis, John Goodman and Tom Sturridge”.

I managed to get all three to sign my drawing after the first preview performance a couple of weeks ago. Tom has now shaven his head, but I couldn’t find my eraser to do the ‘shave’ on the the sketch, so I’ll just have to draw another one.

Drawing: Lara Pulver in Gypsy

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Lara Pulver

Last autumn English actress Lara Pulver played Gypsy Rose Lee in the acclaimed Chichester Festival Theatre production of Gypsy which has now transferred to the Savoy Theatre in Londoon. Basd on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee with a score by Jule Styne and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy is considered by many to be the greatest of the Broadway musicals.

In 2008 she was nominated for a Olivier Award for her performance as Lucille Frank in Parade at London’s Donmar Warehouse. This is her first appearance on the London stage since then.

In the first act Lara plays the stage shy teenager Louise, but transforms into the famous seductive stripper as her showbiz mother from hell; the legendary Momma Rose, played by Imelda Staunton; pushes her two daughters into a series of cheesy shows in the dying days of Vaudeville.

Paul Taylor, in his five star review, said that Lara was, “stunning both as the love starved tomboy and the sleek seductress.”

Lara stopped to sign a few graphs, including my sketch, at the Savoy’s stage door on Thursday evening after the production received unanimous rave reviews at its opening the night before.

Sunny Afternoon Sketch

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Sunny afternoon

It turned into a great night for Sunny Afternoon at last week’s Olivier Awards, when the musical based on the early life of English rock musician Ray Davies and the formation of the band The Kinks stole the show with four gongs including Best New Musical.

Formed in Muswell Hill, London by brothers Dave and Ray Davies with Pete Quaife in 1963 The Kinks rose to fame during the mid-60s and were part of the British Invasion of the US. They are considered one of the most important and influential rock groups of that era. Throughout its 32 year run, The Kinks songs occupied top positions on the UK charts with hits including Lola, You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset and Sunny Afternoon.

Written by Joe Penhall with music and lyrics by Ray, Sunny Afternoon, The Musical’s title is based on the 1966 UK singles chart number one of the same name. It made its world premiere in 2014 at the Hampstead Theatre where it enjoyed critical and commercial success with a sell out limited run before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End.

At the Oliviers Ray won the Outstanding Achievement in Music Award along with John Dagleish (as Ray) for Best Actor in a Musical and George Maguire (as Dave) for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, which was deserved but not expected.

I met both John and George on a somewhat chilly overcast afternoon yesterday, but they brightened the day singing my sketch and some very complementary comments – two of the nicest guys I’ve met in all the time I’ve stalked stage doors, I congratulated both on the their Olivier success and George said, “it was great… I guess the underdog won.”

Drawing: Philip Quast

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Phillip Quast

Australian actor and singer Philip Quast has won three Olivier Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. The powerful baritone’s impressive musical theatre career includes his career defining Inspector Javert for the original Australian production of Les Misérables, and later in London’s West End. In 1995 he was chosen for the 10th anniversary concert; Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which was beamed to a worldwinde audience and international recognition. He said he still gets mail about that performance. Colm Wilkinson played Jean Valjean and both are considered ‘definitives’ for the roles.

Playing Frenchmen seems to b a reoccurring pattern and an award winning one. Javert in Les Misérables, George Seurat in Sunday in the Park with George and Emile de Becque in South Pacific. Philip won Oliviers for the last two and in 1998 for his role as the crippled spin doctor in The Fix at London’s Donmar Warenouse.

Philip is currently playing the lecherous Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the London Coliseum with Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. He had previously performed the role in a concert presentation alongside Bryn in 2007 at London’s Royal Festival Hall. This production is a transfer from last year’s staging in New York at the Lincoln Centre’s Avery Fisher Hall.

When I met Philip at the Coliseum’s stage door on a very warm spring afternoon he was full of the joys. There is an uncanny physical and voice similarity to Russell Crowe, who played Javert in Tom Hooper’s 2012 version of Les Mis. He also has a double in the cast, which I practiced on by mistake. Although flattered he obviously did not sign my sketch, preferring to leave it to the real Philip, who arrived half an hour later. The joys of autograph hunting.

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.

‘Teeny Todd’ – Sweeney Todd by Tooting Arts Club, sketch

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Sweeney Todd Tooting Arts Club

In the winter of 2014 the Tooting Arts Club staged Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece Sweeney Todd in Harrington’s, London’s Oldest Pie and Mash Shop. The intimate staging of the production in the 106 year old establishment in a Tooting side street had phenomenal success. “Site specific theatre at its very best,” wrote Henry Hutchings in the Evening Standard. Punters congregated at Anton’s Barber Shop before being shown through to Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop for a pie and the performance.

One of those punters happened to be Mr Sondheim himself, who was bowled over by the intensity of the production that he contacted his friend, a certain Sir Cameron Mackintosh, no less, who allowed the TAC to create the West End’s first pop up theatre in a disused nightclub space sandwiched between his more illustrious Gielgud and Queen’s theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue for its revival run until the end of May 2015.

Unlike the epic, star-studded concert version across town at the London Coliseum, the Tooting Arts Club’s tiny 36 seater show prompted Matt Wolf form The Art’s Desk to nickname it “Teeny Todd,” saying it was, “downsized to dazzling effect”.

The Stage’s Mark Stenton simply aid “the smallest and most viscerally intense.” Reviewing Bill Buckhurst’s razor sharp production in the Guardian, Lyn Garnder said of the leads, “Jeremy Secomb’s superbly brooding and cadaver-like Sweeney may give you a very close shave. Siobhan McCarthy is a real treat as Mrs Lovett, self-deceiving and sad as well as comically monstrous”.

Duncan Smith, Ian Mowat, Kiara Jay, Nadim Naaman, Joseph Taylor and Zoe Doano make up the cast on which Hutchings commented, “Theres’ great work throughout the cast of eight… the quality of performances – and especially the voices – is remarkably high.”

I caught up with Jeremy and Siobhan after Saturday’s performance where they signed this sketch.

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

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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: David Calder, The Nether

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David Calder

Nominated for four Olivier Awards, including Best New Play, Jennifer Haley’s haunting sci-fi drama about the darker side of the internet The Nether transferred to the West End last month from its sell out run at The Royal Court.

One of the other nominations in Jeremy Herrin’s immaculate production is David Calder for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He plays Doyle, a frail science professor and family man whose alter ego is a prim young nine year old girl called Iris, who hangs out with male visitors and lets them chop her head off as often as they like. Just your average fun night out at the theatre, then.

David’s extensive stage and screen credits include King Lear, Macbeth, Titanic, Hustle, Midsummer Murders and the Bond film The World is Not Enough. “This is mind bending, it’s ingenious and it’s ethically challenging…. superbly cast and stunningly designed.”

After The Nether, which finishes on the 25 April at The Duke of York’s Theatre, David slips back in time, playing Winston Churchill in The Audience at The Apollo.

Signed Drawing: Beverley Knight, Memphis

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Beverley Knight

Multi-award winning British soul queen Beverley Knight has been nominated for Best Actress in a Musical at this year’s Olivier Awards for her leading performance as the aspiring Felicia Farr in Memphis, at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

It’s set in the underground nightclubs of segregated Tennessee and focuses on Huey Calhoun, a white DJ played by Killian Donnelly who introduces the ‘devil’s music’ rhythm and blues to the white folks in the early 50s and 60s.

The production, which opened in October last year, has garnered an incredible nine nominations, including Best New Musical. It won a Tony Award four years ago and won the 2015 WhatsOnStage Best New Musical Award.

Beverley made her West End debut playing Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard in September 2013, with a WhatsOnStage Award nomination. In 2007 Beverley was awarded an MBE by the Queen for her services to British music and charity work. She was made an honorary Doctor of Music two years earlier from the University of Wolverhampton.

In his four star review, The Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote “Beverley Knight… is one of the best soul singers around and she duly combines charisma and power.”

Sketch: Susie Essman, Soho Theatre

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Susie Essman

The Bronx-born American stand up comedian, writer and television producer Susan ‘Susie’ Essman was back by popular demand at London’s Soho Theatre following her smash hit sell out run in 2013.

She is no shrinking violet and is liberal with the vernacular invectives on stage and screen. The LA Times said Susie is “The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television. She makes the entire cast of The Sopranos look like rank amateurs. It is really a gift.”

Susie is best known for her role as the Sassy Susie Green on the groundbreaking critically acclaimed HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm and the character’s hilarious bouts of withering sarcasm and uninhibited insults, including her catchphrase, “you fat f*ck!”

British critic Dominic Cavendish said Susie is “funny, frank and fearless”. She described Downton Abbey as “a piece of sh*t”.

It was great to meet Susie and her husband Jim after the first of her three night gigs at the Soho Theatre where she signed this sketch. I am pleased to say that in person she is the exact opposite of her TV namesake and stand up persona.