The Times Magazine: A luvvie? Moi?

A celebration of British theatre

Keeley Hawes poses with Hermione Norris and James Purefoy who are starring in Blithe Spirit and Flare Path respectively.

Finally, Zoe Reynolds and Ros Myers meet!

Also see the gif of this which I’ve posted on Tumblr.

Can’t get scans myself as The Times has gone subscription-only. >:(

The West End stage is proving irresistible for A-list stars. The class of 2011 tell us why

On a murky Sunday morning, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller have hauled themselves up three flights of stairs to the photographer’s studio and are looking distinctly worse for wear.

The two of them have been previewing Danny Boyle’s epic production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, and today is their first day off from a gruelling production. Last night was a bit of a heavy one. They alternate the leads, and whoever is playing the creature must spend 20 minutes in a membrane as the audience take their seats, and the next quarter of an hour or so writhing around naked covered in blood and gore, the sole focus of attention for virtually the entire time.

“You come off stage with a cut on your lip, your wrists are bruised and you’ve just shed 5lb,” is how Cumberbatch describes it.

No surprise, then, that the pair of them wanted to numb their pain at a birthday party last night, and no surprise either that they’re a bit hungover today. There is only one answer, and The Times Magazine’s deputy fashion editor, Jane Taylor-Hayhurst, has it. Get someone round to the pub and order a couple of large bloody marys. Now.

The two actors have turned up to support this special shoot celebrating the current boom in London theatre. From Flare Path with Sienna Miller and James Purefoy, to Cumberbatch and Lee Miller in Frankenstein to David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing, West End theatre is on a roll. Last year, according to the Society of London Theatre, attendances totalled more than 14 million for only the second time (25 years ago it was 10 million), and box-office revenues hit £512 million.

Quite why, in this digital age, theatre should be on such a high is hard to pin down. Is it because someone as high-profile as Kevin Spacey heads up the Old Vic, or did he arrive because of the potency of London theatre in the first place? Are the likes of Elisabeth Moss coming over from America and working for a fraction of their screen salaries every night because it increases their credibility, or are they attracted by the directing talent of Michael Grandage (the man behind the Jude Law Hamlet at the Donmar) and Ian Rickson, formerly of the Royal Court, who’s now directing Moss in The Children’s Hour?

“West End theatre is very respected and for me, as an American actor, doing a play in the West End is a respected thing to do,” says Moss. “I’m interested in my craft and improving, and there’s no better way to do it than having to perform eight times a week. Theatre is the hardest thing to do. It’s a marathon emotionally, physically and mentally, but the rewards are just like nothing else.

“And it’s this play, too, and the most brilliant director… It’s one of those things I got the offer for and it’s sort of a no-brainer: ‘Yes, absolutely I’ll be doing that. Thank you!’?”

For Jonny Lee Miller, too, the specific play that was on offer drew him to the London stage. “It’s a project, it’s being asked,” he says. “It’s reading an extraordinary play by Nick Dear, then Danny being involved and it being the National Theatre. The technical capabilities of the Olivier stage and its ambience are unmatched anywhere in the world. It’s not really me saying, ‘Oh, I must go on stage,’ it’s the project coming to me, and I can’t get out of the way of it.”

We watch so much television and Hollywood is so influential that when we think of actors, we assume their aspiration is always to be in front of a camera. But for many, the stage is where their roots are, and where they feel they need to be. “He says his default state is being in a play,” says Catherine Tate of David Tennant. “And I started off doing what I did as a kid because you go to youth theatre. From day one at drama school, you learn a part and get on with a play. For me the whole community and ritual of the theatre are great. There’s such a tradition about it. Like when you get your call over the Tannoy. It sounds really stupid, but what draws me to the theatre is that it’s so theatrical.”

The actors who’ve been invited to our shoot can certainly do theatrical. With the women sashaying about in Erdem, Nina Ricci and Roland Mouret and the men in the likes of Rake and Thom Sweeney, this is a group of people in their element. Acting is about dressing up, after all. (James Purefoy arrives already in the spirit of things in his own Kilgour suit.) It’s also about mucking around in front of the camera, arranging little mise-en-scènes: Purefoy looking just a tad James Bond with a vampish Hermione Norris and Keeley Hawes all over him; Gina McKee and Ruth Wilson gleefully chucking their shoes in the air; Tate having no truck with the advances of Tennant.

And this is what attracts so many of them to the stage. The camaraderie that Tate talks about, the interaction of an audience, and the fact that every night, the actors are performing to real people.

“I think being on stage is the ultimate test,” says Lesley Manville, who practically lived at the Royal Court in the Eighties and will appear later this year in a new Mike Leigh play at the National. “On film you can make a bad actor look good, but if you’re a bad actor it’s going to be spotted on stage. What I love about being on stage is that it’s my responsibility. Nobody’s going to stop me.”

Tomorrow, most of our cast will be in their finest for the Olivier Awards, British theatre’s big night out at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London. They will be dressed up for real this time, the flashbulbs will be out, and everyone will be congratulating themselves on theatre’s bumper year; and, you suspect, it will be (whisper it) a bit more fun than the Oscars. Because for all the cash and cachet of Hollywood, theatre is, well, a bit more theatrical.

SHOT 1
Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch are currently sharing the roles of scientist and creature in the Danny Boyle-directed Frankenstein at the National Theatre

Jonny Lee Miller wears suit jacket, £353, Rake (rakestyle.com); shirt, £190, and tie, £65, both Thom Sweeney (thomsweeney.co.uk). Benedict Cumberbatch wears three-piece suit, £1,720, shirt, £190, and tie, £65, all Thom Sweeney

SHOT 2
Catherine Tate and David Tennant star in the eagerly anticipated production of Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndham’s Theatre from May 16

Catherine Tate wears dress, £1,200, Michael Kors at Harvey Nichols (020-7235 5000). David Tennant wears cord jacket, £845, Thom Sweeney; shirt, £265, and tie, £118, both E Tautz (etautz.com)

SHOT 3
Keeley Hawes is appearing in Clifford Odets’s Rocket to the Moon at the National. James Purefoy stars in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path, directed by Trevor Nunn, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Hermione Norris is in the current revival of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit at the Apollo Theatre

Keeley Hawes wears dress, £1,800, Jason Wu at Harrods (020-7730 1234); nude fishnet tights, £19, Wolford (020-7529 3000). James Purefoy wears his own clothes. Hermione Norris wears dress, £1,120, Roland Mouret (net-a-porter.com); bracelet, £420, Monica Vinader (monicavinader.com)

SHOT 4
Ruth Wilson will be starring alongside Jude Law in Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse from August 4. Gina McKee was Olivier Award-nominated for her role in the Donmar’s King Lear

Ruth Wilson wears dress, £2,490, Victoria Beckham (boutique1.com); satin pumps (being thrown), £159, Pretty Ballerinas (020-7493 3957). Gina McKee wears dress, £1,090, Nina Ricci at Harvey Nichols; shoes (being thrown), £150, Kurt Geiger (kurt geiger.com); tights, £11, Falke (020-7493 8442)

SHOT 5
Anne-Marie Duff is playing femme fatale Alma Rattenbury in Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic from March 17. Lesley Manville will be starring in longtime collaborator Mike Leigh’s new play (improvised, naturally) at the National in the autumn

Anne-Marie Duff wears dress, £540, Erdem at Harvey Nichols. Lesley Manville wears dress, £1,020, Moschino (020-7318 0555)

SHOT 6
Mark Gatiss, best known for The League of Gentlemen, is now starring in Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings at the National. Olivia Williams is playing opposite Lost star Matthew Fox in the new Neil LaBute thriller, In a Forest, Dark and Deep, at the Vaudeville Theatre

Mark Gatiss wears jacket, £985, and trousers, £375, Rake; shirt, £190, Thom Sweeney; shoes, Mark’s own; tie, £69, Paul Smith (paulsmith.co.uk). Olivia Williams wears dress, £488, Diane von Furstenburg (020-7499 0886); tights, £18, Wolford; suede courts, £150, Kurt Geiger

SHOT 7
Elisabeth Moss – from Mad Men to The Children’s Hour (alongside Keira Knightley) at the Comedy Theatre

Elisabeth Moss wears dress, £1,220, Yves Saint Laurent at Matches (matchesfashion.com)

Hair: Kenna at Terrie Tanaka using ghd Gold series

Hair: Gow Tanaka at Punishment LTD using Paul Mitchell (Ruth Wilson, Gina McKee, Anne-Marie Duff and Lesley Manville)

Make-up: Justine Jenkins and Kerry September using Givenchy and Zelens Skin Science

Stylist’s assistants: Charlie Lambros and Emma Akbareian

By Simon Hill for The Times.

(Source: LJs tennant_love and cumberbatchfans)