BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Gemma all set to master the mistress Nell

By BAZ BAMIGBOYE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Published: | Updated:

Gemma Arterton said she’s going to ‘let her hair down’ when she portrays actress and royal mistress Nell Gwynn, in swirling skirts and bloomers, on the West End stage.

Renowned as much for her wit as for her beauty, Gwynn is often referred to as the favourite of Charles II’s many lovers.

Gemma, born in Gravesend, Kent, told me that the play, Nell Gwynn, by Jessica Swale, ‘speaks to me in that “working-class girl finding her voice and breaking through class barriers” kind of way’.

Gemma Arterton is going to 'let her hair down' as Nell Gwynn (Arterton pictured as Gwynn) on the West End

Gemma Arterton is going to 'let her hair down' as Nell Gwynn (Arterton pictured as Gwynn) on the West End

She hadn’t been expecting to return to the stage so soon after starring in the musical Made In Dagenham (one of my recent favourites), for which she received the Evening Standard’s musical newcomer award during a ceremony at the Old Vic last Sunday.

But she couldn’t resist Nell and her bawdy ditties. ‘There’s singing! And dancing! Gwynn’s very lively,’ said Gemma of the play which originally starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw when it started life at Shakespeare’s Globe for a recent short run.

Gemma said she likes the scenes where Nell engages with the audience about popular topics, including how women are treated. ‘It’s nice to know that we’ve had to fight through this before,’ Gemma observed, wryly.

After Dagenham closed, she shot four films back to back, all of which will be released next year. One is the wartime-set Our Finest Hour And A Half, in which she’ll appear alongside leading man Sam Claflin, for director Lone Scherfig, who also directed An Education.

Future projects include a film version of Eileen Atkins’s play Vita And Virginia, about the intimate friendship between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, with Gemma as West.

Gemma (pictured at last week's Evening Standard Awards, with Jeremy Irvine and Gemma Chan) said she likes the scenes where Nell engages with the audience about popular topics, including how women are treated 

Gemma (pictured at last week's Evening Standard Awards, with Jeremy Irvine and Gemma Chan) said she likes the scenes where Nell engages with the audience about popular topics, including how women are treated 

Gemma and Atkins got to know each other when both were performing at Shakespeare’s Globe — Gemma in The Duchess Of Malfi, and Atkins in an Ellen Terry monologue.

Ms Arterton and the Globe go back a long way. Dominic Dromgoole, outgoing artistic director, cast her as Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost, her first professional part after leaving RADA.

‘Dominic and the Globe seeded Gemma,’ said Nica Burns, Nell Gwynn’s key producer, who co-runs Nimax — the company that controls the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, where Nell Gwynn will begin preview performances on February 4.

 

When Funny things happen

The first preview of Funny Girl, with Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice, went off with a hitch or two — but no one cared.

Director Michael Mayer went on stage at the Menier Chocolate Factory and told the first preview audience that they’d had no time to run the show ‘without stopping’.

The first preview of Funny Girl, with Sheridan Smith (pictured) as Fanny Brice, went off with a hitch or two — but no one cared

Mayer was seated on one side of the auditorium, making notes; while across the aisle choreographer Lynne Page was doing the same. On both lists, I suspect, was a travelator with a mind of its own.

Could we sit through Funny Girl without thinking about Barbra Streisand, who originated Fanny on stage and screen? Yes. Absolutely, yes! Smith did the show on her own terms, and her comic timing, song delivery and performance were luminous.

It was one of those rare nights in the theatre.

Gemma Arterton

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