Sketch: Jenna Russell, Samantha Spiro and Tamzin Outhwaite in Di and Viv and Rose at the Vaudeville Theatre

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Amelia Bullmore’s hilarious and heartwarming comedy about life’s impact on friendship Di and Viv and Rose finally makes its West End debut at the Vaudeville Theatre for a limited season. It premiered at Hampstead Downstairs in 2011 where it was a sell out success with an in-house transfer to Hampstead’s Main Stage in 2013, also enjoying a sell out run.

Original cast member Tamzin Outhwaite (Di) is joined by Samantha Spiro (Viv) and Jenna Russell (Rose) in this story of female friendship across 27 years, following them from initial bonding as University undergraduates in 1983, through life’s changes, crises and tragedies.

Receiving an average of four stars by the London critics, Di and Viv and Rose continues at the Vaudeville until 14 March.

Sketch: Emma Hatton, Natalie Andreou and Savannah Stevenson in Wicked

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Wicked, the musical phenomenon has been seen by more than 44 million people in 13 countries. It premiered in the West End at London’s Apollo Victoria on 27 September 2006 and has been running there ever since. It was the first full production outside the US.

My wife and I received prime stall tickets to review the show from Official Theatre and Seat Plan, which coincided with Emma Hatton’s elevation to the lead Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. She joined the cast from We Will Rock You in late 2013 as the standby Elphaba, but due to a back injury sustained by lead Willemijn Verkaik, Emma performed the role more frequently. She temporarily became the lead in July 2014, performing her 100th show at the Apollo on 3 September and this month her lead role was made permanent. It’s fair to say she was familiar with the part.

The other lead, Glinda The Good was played by the sensational Savannah Stevenson who’s been living in ‘the bubble’ since July 2013, replacing lead Gina Beck in November that year. As it turned out Emma wasn’t Elphaba the night we saw it. Having drawn her, I did think she looked a bit different, but to misquote a famous muppet amphibian, “it’s not easy recognising people when they’re green.” Which witch was which?

Natalie Andreou, the standby Elphaba, also joined the show this month from the the jukebox musical Rock of Ages. It was a memorable performance, Defying Gravity especially, the big number to end the first half, was impressive, but when she belted out No Good Deed in the second, the audience responded with thunderous applause.

We waited at the stage door and Savannah came out armed with her own sharpie. In the show she’s blonde, in real life she’s not, so waiting fans had to ask who she was. “I get that all the time,” she said. She happily signed my sketch and I said, “It must take Emma a lot longer to remove the green make up”. She concurred and then told me it was Natalie doing the part. I didn’t have a sketch of Natalie. So I left the sketch of Emma and Savannah at the theatre, went home and did one of Natalie as Sherrie in Rock, and her most recent role as Snow White at the Opera House in Mancherster over the festive season and posted it. Both came back signed…. so here they are…. I got to see Wicked for free and witches three!

Sketch: Nicole Scherzinger in Cats at the London Palladium

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valieute or Nicole Scherzinger for short, made her West End debut as Grizabella last December in the revival of the musical Cats at the London Pallidium. The former Pussycat Dolls lead singer received critical acclaim for her 12 week run which ended in early February.

A recording of her rendition of the aching ballad Memory (which is available online) premiered on BBC Radio 2 this week, where Andrew Lloyd Webber said it was, “the best recording of anything of my music ever done.” He also told listeners that they are taking the show to Broadway. “I just hope and pray that she will agree to do it there as I think she’d take America by storm.”

The extended West End run sees Kerry Ellis replace Nicole as the lonely, fading glamoupuss until 25 April 2015.

Sketch: Maxine Peake in Hamlet

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre’s gender-bending 2014 production of Hamlet featuring the impressive Maxine Peake in the title role will be hitting the big screen soon.

Filmed over three nights, the sell out radical re-imagining of the Bard’s number one work will hit an estimate 200 cinemas in the UK next month.

The demand for tickets was so great, that the season was extended and became the theatre’s fastest selling show in a decade with over 75.000 people seeing it. Maxine can also currently be seen in the award-winning Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.

“Peake’s gender ambiguous portrayal fascinatingly amplifies that element of the text,” The New Statesman’s Mark Lawson said.

Maxine is the Associate Artist at the Royal Exchange – a venue she has been with since her childhood and was a member of its Youth Theatre. Maxine is also a familiar face to small screen viewers. She was nominated for a BAFTA for her roles in the BBC One’s The Village and Handcock and Joan and also starred in the legal drama Silk, Shameless and as Myra Hindley in See No Evil.

I waited at the Royal Court Theatre stage door on a chilly Friday evening last week to meet Maxine in person, after a performance of How To Hold Your Breath. It was worth the wait. Maxine was a really nice person and kindly signed and dedicated my sketch. I asked her if she will be staging Hamlet in London. She said “nobody wants it. ” I’m sure that will change…

Sketch: James McAvoy in The Ruling Class at Trafalgar Studios

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

BAFTA wining actor James McAvoy returns to London’s Trafalgar Studios in the madcap revival of Peter Barne’s zany 1968 black comedy The Ruling Class, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It closes the second season of ‘Trafalgar Transformed’ at the Whitehall venue.

It’s an attack on the establishment in all its forms – aristocracy, public school, the church, the military. James plays Jack, the 14th Earl of Gurney and the dodgy offspring of a toff who inherits a peerage when his father topped himself while playing a sex-hanging game in a tutu.

Jack is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes he is Jesus Christ after an epiphany at a public urinal in East Acton.

“How do you know you are God?” he is asked.

“Simple” he replies. “When I pray to him, I find I am talking to myself.”

However, the mock messiah’s family scheme against him so he has to prove some sanity to keep the inheritance, fitting in with his peers to become the “right sort of mad”.

The Guardian’s Susannah Clapp describes James’ performance as “eel-like protean, with a mephistophelean charm” (note to readers, Mephistopheles was a demon in German folklore). “He’s just fascinating, brilliantly weird,” said Time Out.

The Ruling Class runs until 11 April 2015.

Sketch: Zrinka Cvitešić in Once

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Thirty five year old Croatian actress Zrinka Cvitešić made her West End debut at the Phoenix Theatre as ‘Girl’ in the hit musical Once, receiving rave reviews and winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

She has also won a handful of awards for her celluloid work and a regular at the National Theatre of her native Croatia. I managed to meet Zrinka at the Royal Opera House stage door as she emerged, all glommed up to walk the red carpet at last year’s Oliviers and sh was very happy to sign it – even before she won!

Drawing: Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

A superb revival of Alan Ayckbourne’s Absent Friends, a comedy about bereavement and the death of love was staged at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London during the spring of 2012. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the critically-acclaimed production had a stellar cast in alphabetical order, David Armand, Elizabeth Berrington, Katherine Parkinson, Steffan Rhodri, Reece Sheersmith and Kara Tointon – all of whom signed my sketch. Usually with larger casts it takes a few visits to the stage door to complete the set, but on this occasion the ‘graph god was smiling and as they all arrived for a saturday matinée on a sunny mid-april afternoon, one at a time in perfect procession, my mission was accomplished.

Drawing: Nicholas Rowe in King Charles III at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actor Nicholas Rowe is currently part of the brilliant cast appearing in Rupert Goold‘s popular production KING CHARLES III at London’s Wyndham Theatre.

Mike Bartlett’s play imagines what might happen if the Queen dies and the Prince of Wales becomes King, written mostly in blank verse.

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph describes it as the “most spectacular, gripping and wickedly entertaining piece of ‘lese-majeste’ that British theatre has ever seen.”

Nicholas plays the wily and deeply devious Leader of the Opposition who suggests to Charles that he refuse his Royal consent to a privacy law imposing restrictions on the media.

Since he came to prominence as a nineteen year old in Steven Spielberg’s production of YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES, Nicholas has carved out a versatile career on both stage and screen, including LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, DA VINCI’S DEMONS, MIDSOMER MURDERS, HOTEL BABYLON and HAMLET.

I was waiting at the Wyndham’s stage door which is located on a very busy alley-way, next to the Leicester Square tube station. It was the first saturday of the new year, approaching 2 pm, so the pre-matinée rush was on. However it was easy to pick Nicholas out from the crowd because of his height and distinctive looks and the fact he was casually strolling towards the stage door, albeit slowly as he stopped to chat to people. He was very friendly as we discussed all manner of things from politics to future projects as he happily signed my sketch before heading in to do his bit for the constitutional crisis.

Drawing: Katie Brayben and Margot Leicester in Charles III at Wyndham’s Theatre

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mike Bartlett’s audacious new play, King Charles III about the ascension of Prince Charles to the throne after Elizabeth II passes on, resulting in a constitutional crisis, royal family meltdown and ultimately a British coup. It is also a bold play, written as a Shakespearean piece in iambic pentameter. It made its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre, London in April 2014 before transferring to Wyndham’s in the West End until March this year.

Amongst the faultless cast assembled by director Rupert Goold are Olivier nominated Margot Leicester and singer/songwriter Katie Brayben.

Writing in The Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish stated, “the cast are uniformly excellent. There’s a 24 carat contribution from Margot Leicester as a funny, fawning but unmistakably feisty Camilla”. Katie plays the stalking, black veiled ghost of Princess Diana. She will soon be seen playing the legendary Carole King in the Broadway hit musical Beautiful at the Aldwych next month.

Both Katie and Margot signed their respective sketches at the stage door after a Saturday evening performance before Christmas.

Drawing: Liam Mower in Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Liam Mower was one of the three original ‘Billys’ rotating the role in the West End production of Billy Elliot The Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre. It’s the story of motherless Billy in the north of England during the coal miners’ strike who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes.

Along with cast mates James Lomas and George Maguire he won the 2006 Olivier for Best Actor in a Musical, the youngest recipient of Britain’s most prestigious theatre award.

Originally signed for six months, he became indispensable and Sir Elton John (who wrote the music) and Stephen Daldry, the director, renewed his contract three times. After being picked to play Billy on the show’s opening night in 2005 he remained 18 months in the role.

He made his final scheduled appearance as Billy on 30 September 2006 . It made local and international news, spelling the end of the original boys cast in the title role. On an emotional final night he was presented with a dog called ‘Billy’. Director Stephen Daldry said, “Rarely does one ever come across a performer with so many skills and talents, particularly when matched by Liam’s determination and good humour… one of the most celebrated child performers ever in the West End.”

He is now part of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures dance company and is currently sharing the lead role in Edward Scissorhands with Dominic North at Sadler’s Wells where he signed this drawing.