Category Archives: Musicals

Slummin’ it

So last week I had the pleasure of shooting Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell for Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse.  But with a twist.

The brief was to make it all look like bad 70s snaps.  Well, assuming your name’s not Juergen Teller, that’s quite a big ask.  The risk is that you don’t just end up with things that look deliberately like bad 70s snaps, you might actually end up with plain bad snaps.

So I got myself a headache, popped a couple of stomach ulcers, worked out what I was going to do, and prayed.

It turned out I didn’t need to.  A phenomenal location (Asylum in SE15), amazing wigs, hair and makeup from Diana Estrada, some equally amazing costume design by Jonathan Lipman, and, most of all, two amazing actresses who gamely did in seconds what most people can never do — namely, pull poses and make it look so spontaneous they don’t look like poses at all — did all the work for me.

An utterly brilliant shoot.

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Boulevard of Broken Dreams

So how do you shoot hip-hop choreography?  By drinking two litres of water the moment you get home, as it happens.

Shots from the London School of Musical Theatre’s phenomenal and utterly anarchic take on Green Day’s American Idiot at the Bridewell Theatre.

Note that if you’re intending to see it there’s only tonight and tomorrow night left of the run.

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Ello Princess

For a while, now, I’ve been searching for a chance to do some theatre advertising shots using a really, really classic look that doesn’t get seen much beyond magazine editorials these days because it’s a bit retro.

So when I was asked to shoot the publicity for Gilbert and Sullivan’s seldom-seen Princess Ida at the Finborough, and was told that all I had to work with was a headless and limbless torso and a big room, I jumped at the chance.

Simon Butteriss and Bridget Costello were my wonderfully in-character victims.

The show begins previews on 24 March.

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