BLOG EXCLUSIVE: 5 Questions With Tony Hadley

Former frontman of Spandau Ballet, Tony Hadley, has just made his West End debut in a limited eight-week season at the Cambridge Theatre in “Chicago” from 29th January to 24th March as superslick lawyer Billy Flynn. This is a role he’s taken over from Ian Kelsey, and stars alongside reality-stars Aoife Mulholland and Brenda Edwards as well as Annette McLaughlin and Julian Sims.

1) How did you get the part of Billy Flynn in “Chicago”?

The Producers contacted my manager to ask if I would be interested. As I had just released my new album, which was a Swing / Jazz album (which I also followed up with a big band UK and European Tour), I just felt like it was a continuation of the same theme and style – so I jumped at the chance.

2) What did you look forward to/dread the most about the first night?

I opened on Monday, and I had a mixture of nerves and excitement. I didn’t really dread anything. I am used to appearing in front of an audience – and I knew my words and moves! It all went well, and the crowd was terrific.

3) What was it like for you to come into an already established cast?

It was slightly weird to be rehearsing with the people I had just seen playing the roles a few nights previously. But it was fine – everyone is really nice and supportive. The Resident Director, Nigel, and the Dance Captain, Dean, have both been really terrific.

4) How did it compare to stand on a stage doing a musical to standing on a stage doing a concert?

I am used to performing in front of people, but of course with theatre, I can’t make up what I say as I go along – every word has to be exactly as written!! And whilst Billy Flynn doesn’t really dance, he has to “move”… so that has been a challenge!

5) What have you got lined up after you’ve finished your run in “Chicago” by the end of March?

I am off on an acoustic tour of South America, Australia and Norway.

Did "The Seagull" Fly?

Anton Chekhov decided to write a play about writing. Anyone that’s ever tried to write anything knows the frustrations and fulfilments of putting words on a page. Starring – amongst others – Kristin Scott Thomas Gosford Park, Keeping Mum), Mackenzie Crook (The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots, Four Brothers), it certainly has a mixture of different types of actors. But does it add to the pleasure or take away from it?

WHAT DID THE CRITICS THINK?

“What a blaze of desperate intensity he brings to his hopeless wooing of Mulligan’s ardent, vulnerable Nina. Eyes fixed in a distant stare, shimmering with passion, the desolate, bearded Konstantin promises early on to kill himself and the threat for once sounds like an assured prophecy. I have never seen the last Nina-Konstantin encounter better done. Mulligan piles on the pathos as an eerily mature, sexually obsessed Nina.”
- Evening Standard -

“In a role that’s a far cry from the ghastly Gareth in The Office, Mackenzie Crook gives a touchingly truthful performance as Konstantin – his lanky body and injured eyes conveying the love-starved neediness of a youth who is mortified to lose both his neglectful mother and his starry-eyed girlfriend to an older, experienced and successful writer, Trigorin.”
- Independent –

“This is a drama which touches on the perils of celebrity – through its famous author, his successful actress lover, a struggling young playwright and a doomed young actress – and yet, as in any good Chekhov production, the celebrities don’t run away with the show: the focus of attention constantly shifts from character to character; Chekhov is the most democratic of playwrights.”
- Guardian -

“The acting is, without exception, outstanding. Kristin Scott Thomas makes a quite ghastly Arkadina, which I mean as the highest compliment: a monster mother, the surface all icy, smiling egomania and brittle self-regard, but with desperation and sorrow coursing just beneath the porcelain skin. That harrowing, mutually manipulative-destructive scene between mother and son, when she begins by tending his head wound and ends by screaming “Parasite!” and, “ Mediocrity!” at him, reaches heights of intensity painful to watch.”
- Times –

“Carey Mulligan’s Nina, a wannabe actress dazzled by the glamour of the theatre and the notoriety of Arkadina’s writer boyfriend Trigorin, comes across as naive as any Pop Idol contestant. Her description of playing the winter season in Yelets is a sage reminder of the realities of artistic drudgery. But she also delivers the play’s most fortifying message, following her convincing conversion from innocent to broken woman – that it’s the ability to endure that counts in art as in life.”
- The Stage -

Endings and Beginnings 29 January – 4 February

NEW THIS WEEK:

• Ballet Black, Royal Opera House (31st January – 3rd February)
• Boeing – Boeing, Comedy Theatre (3rd February)
• The Dumb Waiter, Trafalgar Studios (2nd February)
• The Glass Menagerie, Apollo (31st January)
• Gone Too Far, Royal Court (2nd February)
• Macbeth, The Pit – Barbican Centre (31st January)
• Swan Lake, Royal Opera House (3rd February)

LAST CHANCE:

• Bash, Trafalgar Studios (3rd February)
• Carmen, Royal Opera House (3rd February)
• Emio GReco/Pieter C. Scholten, Barbican Centre (1st February)
• Frost/Nixon, Gielgud (3rd February)
• La Fille Du Regiment, Royal Opera House (1st February)

The Elephant Man Hits The West End

I remember being very young – maybe 7 or 8 years old – and watching “The Elephant Man” about the life of John Merrick. I recall having undying sympathy for this disfigured – yet terribly intelligent – man, as he struggled through his life, taunted by crowds of cruel individuals, probably afraid of what they didn’t know. He was picked up by a showman that made him some money from shows, but they got away from each other and eventually John met Dr Treves that decided to take care of him.

The movie shows him building a cathedral with – I seem to recall – cardstock. It looked flawless. He always carried a picture of his mother around with him, showing everyone how beautiful she was. The doctor decided to start taking him out in public, and in a very memorable scene in the movie they were at the theatre and the actress (a friend of the doctor, I believe) blew him a kiss from where he was sitting on the balcony. He was all dressed up in a stylish suit, and ended up standing to his feet and getting a standing ovation.

He was only 32 when he died in his sleep. In the movie he has a picture of a girl on his wall that’s sleeping. His condition required that he had a whole horde of pillows to keep him breathing through the night, but having looked at this picture long and hard he threw away all his pillows, left one and lay down. To die.

This 1980 movie starred Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft and John Gielgud. The theatre production will open 4th April for previews, and will run through to 5th May at Trafalgar Studios. It first received critical acclamations for the 1979 Broadway production, winning all major drama awards including three Tonys, three Obies, the Drama Desk Award and the New York Drama Critics award. If you’re up for a strong experience, don’t miss it.

Endings and Beginnings 22 – 28 January

NEW THIS WEEK

• Mime Festival schedule
• Young Writers Festival schedule

LAST CHANCE

• All Wear Bowlers, Barbican Centre (28th January)
• Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Haymarket – Theatre Royal (27th January)
• The New Statesman, Trafalgar Studios (27th January)
• The Rocky Horror Show, Comedy Theatre (27th January)

Twelfth Night, Old Vic – Review

THE PLAY
OK, so I took myself down to the Old Vic theatre yesterday to watch the Propeller all-male company perform Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. As I’ve mentioned before, understanding Shakespeare – to me, as a foreigner – is about as easy as understanding Chinese at the best of times. I did get, however, that this was a comedy based on mistaken identity. Not unlike many of Shakespeare’s plays.

The most confusing part was obviously that the woman pretending to be a man was played by a man – so not that easy to spot unless you know the story. Or understand English as it was spoken in the 1600s. So in short, the woman pretending to be a man acts as a confidante to her new boss, a Duke, that has a crush on a Lady – but instead of making these two a happy couple, the Lady falls in love with the messenger (yes, still a woman), while the pretend-male falls in love with the Duke. It all sounds like an episode of East Enders, really. With slighlty better language.

I actually found the other story quite funny; a bunch of people fooling one of the Lady’s staff into thinking she wants to marry him – causing him to end up on the stage in yellow fishnet stockings and a g-string, grinning like mad.

My biggest problem is that I never thought Shakespeare was particularly funny. I guess it has to do with when you don’t understand half of what’s said, it’s very easy to miss the point completely. As previously mentioned, English is not my first language. Hence, I’ve got a little trouble getting the subtle jokes. I like Shakespeare’s tragic dramas and unhappy endings better. Though I had a good laugh at times – usually at the fool in tights – I did leave the theatre thinking I’d missed half the point. Which isn’t the performers’ fault. In fact, the performers themselves do extremely well.

I’m sure that the critics will embrace it, as they tend to do with Shakespeare.

BEFORE/AFTER:
I had dinner in the theatre’s restaurant before the play. A couple of glasses of wine a couple of hours before going into the performance is usually not a problem, as I don’t get tipsy that easily, but I don’t have much of a party bladder. So for this reason I made my way to the bathroom, came back and stopped abruptly in front of a man I – for a moment – thought I knew. I was about to go “Heeeeeeeeey!” when I realised… this is Kevin Spacey… he doesn’t know you… you don’t know him… move it along before you make an arse of yourself. Now.

Even though I just lingered for a second, the poor guy stopped his conversation mid-sentence when I halted – even though it was literally for two seconds – looked up at me and seemed like he expected me to say something. I moved away, the words “damage control” going through my head, and out of his sight.

To my dismay, I had to go again less than half an hour later, and I found myself lingering around the corner, peaking out to see if Kevin was still there, but I couldn’t see him. Good, no way of repeating myself, right? I got to the bathroom, got back out, and as I came out of the little hall I found myself looking at Kevin looking at me from the house piano. I quickly made my way back to my table. Where I stayed put for the next hour. Damage control…

Afterwards, I had big plans to go up to a few people and get their view on the play we’d just seen. I tried walking up to a group of three at first, asking the youngest member of the group if he would like to participate. He looked confused, then kinda agreed, then changed his mind. I noticed that one of the three – a middleaged lady – was looking at us in the corner of my eye, sort of confused as well. After it became clear I wasn’t going to get anything out of them, I went over to my company and he said, “Well done, you just ignored Vivienne Westwood.”

I’m good at landing myself in it, at least.

Watch “Twelfth Night”

Well, you can’t actually watch the play itself, but on Last Minute Living, you can watch the week one, two and three of rehearsals of the Propeller Company’s production of “Twelfth Night” and eventually also “The Taming of the Shrew”.

At the moment you can enjoy video Six to Eight – with a new coming up on Monday. I’m off to see “Twelfth Night” this evening and will report back on this blog tomorrow, Saturday.

Spacey Snubbed Again

I must say that I’m rather shocked that Artistic Director/actor Kevin Spacey was once again snubbed at the Laurence Olivier Awards. Last year he’d been in three plays; “National Anthems”, “The Philadelphia Story” and “Richard II”. Nothing. Then this year, it’s almost like a piss-take. Eve Best was nominated for Best Actress, Colm Meaney was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and “A Moon For The Misbegotten” was nominated for Best Play Revival. So is it personal?

For those that don’t know anything about Kevin Spacey’s background, I guess it’s likely they think The Old Vic is a project he sees as some kind of summer job or something he can fiddle around with between doing movies, picking up his Oscars and basically setting himself up for one helluva vacuous ego wank. However, if you look closer, you’ll see that Kevin did plays long before he started appearing in movies, and hasn’t stopped – even after he’s picked up his two Oscars.

Spacey has done this since High School, he did his time of living in New York with no money, collected cans to get a few bucks to feed his dog, got into regional theatre in Williamstown or Seattle and came back to New York and didn’t have an apartment anymore. He worked damn hard to get his break, and I can guarantee you that he doesn’t view the Old Vic as something to fiddle around with in his spare time.

His first performance at the Old Vic was “The Iceman Cometh” in 1998 where he picked up no less than four awards for his performance: The Barclays TMA Regional Theatre Award for Best Actor, The Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor, The Critic Circle Award for Best Actor and The Olivier Award for Best Actor. Since being appointed artistic director he’s starred in “National Anthems”, “The Philadephia Story” and “Richard II” – that won him a Critics Choice Award and last year’s recipient of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Will Award – and “A Moon For The Misbegotten”.

To be fair, it probably doesn’t matter that much to him to get a hard time by a dozen people on Fleet Street that seem to have a problem with him – because they don’t matter in the big picture. It’s when you’re not recognised by the industry itself that it starts to hurt. In this case, getting ridiculous. Specially when they nominate the play in every other category it just seems odd to ignore him.

Kevin Spacey has now been critically acclaimed twice in a row (since he started his term as Artistic Director in 2003) – for “Richard” and “Moon” – and has got numerous nominations recognising his talent. I still wonder, though – what’s the problem in the Laurence Olivier Award’s committee?

Laurence Olivier Award Nominees

Best Actress
Eve Best for A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN at The Old Vic
Sinead Cusack for ROCK ‘N’ ROLL at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court and the Duke of York’s
Tamsin Greig for MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at the Novello
Kathleen Turner for WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? at the Apollo

Best Actor
Iain Glen for THE CRUCIBLE at the Gielgud
David Haig for DONKEYS’ YEARS at the Comedy
Frank Langella for FROST/NIXON at the Donmar Warehouse and the Gielgud
Rufus Sewell for ROCK ‘N’ ROLL at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court and the Duke of York’s
Michael Sheen for FROST/NIXON at the Donmar Warehouse and the Gielgud

Best Performance In A Supporting Role
Samantha Bond for DONKEYS’ YEARS at the Comedy
Deborah Findlay for THE CUT at the Donmar Warehouse
Mark Hadfield for THÉRÈSE RAQUIN at the Lyttelton
Colm Meaney for A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN at The Old Vic
Jim Norton for THE SEAFARER at the Cottesloe

Young Talent Showcase

It’s now time for the annual Young Writers Festival at the Royal Court Theatre, that I mentioned in December.

The Young Writers Programme prides itself on bridging the gap between high art and community arts by providing an esential link that enables young people to make the journey from the locality right through to the stage of the world famous Royal Court Theatre…

…it says on the Royal Court website. They allow young people between 13 and 25 to parttake in courses based at the theatre as well as in schools, youth centres, colleges, the workplace – and the list goes on. In fact, they offer anyone that’s written a play – between the above ages – to send it to this world famous theatre and get feedback. If they like it, they’ll put it on.

These are the lucky winners in this year’s Festival:

• Alaska: 17th January, 7pm.
• Neither Have I Wings To Fly: 18th January, 7pm.
• Beyond The Neck: 19th January, 7:45pm.
• Blossom: 22nd January, 7pm.
• Concrete Fairgrounds: 23rd January, 7pm.
• Can’t Stand Me Now: 24th January, 7pm.
• Early Bird: Thursday 25th Janaury, 7:45pm.
• Satellite: 26th January, 7pm.