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Mrs Henderson Presents
Production Notes
Pathé
A Heyman Hoskins Production
Pathé Picture and BBC Films present
In association with Future Films Limited, Micro-Fusion, and The Weinstein
Company
and
UK Film Council
A Heyman Hoskins Production
Judi Dench
Bob Hoskins
A Stephen Frears Film
MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS
Will Young
Christopher Guest
Kelly Reilly
Thelma Barlow
Anna Brewster
Rosalind Halstead
Sarah Solemani
Natalia Tena
Directed by Stephen Frears
Produced by Norma Heyman
Written by Martin Sherman
Executive Producer
Bob Hoskins
Executive Producer
David Aukin
Director of Photography
Andrew Dunn BSC
Editor
Lucia Zucchetti
Production Designer
Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Music by George Fenton
Make-up and Hair Design
Jenny Shircore
Costume Designer
Sandy Powell
Sound Recordist
Peter Lindsay
Casting Director
Leo Davis
Choreography
Eleanor Fazan
Debbie Astell
Executive Producers for BBC Films
David M Thompson
Tracey Scoffield
Executive Producers for Pathé
Francois Ivernel
Cameron McCracken
Line Producer
Laurence Borg
Line Producer
Kevan Van Thompson
Associate Producers
David and Kathy Rose
Inspired by true events…
MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS
One-line synopsis
The extraordinary story of the Windmill Theatre, its owner, Laura Henderson, and
her manager, Vivian Van Damm, who together put naked girls onstage in a non-stop
revue, making British history and bringing joy to wartime England.
Short synopsis
London, 1937. Mrs Laura Henderson, a woman of wealth and connections, has
just buried her beloved husband. And now she's bored. At 69, she is far too energetic
and vital to fade into gentle widowhood. What she needs, says her friend Lady Conway,
is a hobby. Collecting diamonds, perhaps? Or doing charitable works? But, to the shock
of her friends she instead buys a theatre - the Windmill Theatre in the heart of Soho.
She knows nothing about running it, so she hires a manager: enter Vivian Van
Damm. A showbiz pro, he is shocked too by Mrs Henderson: she is outrageous,
provocative and eccentric. And rather rude. Van Damm bans her from rehearsals owing
to her endless interference, so she dresses up as a Chinese matron, then a polar bear,
to spy on him. Their love-hate relationship sparks fireworks - and historic innovations in
British theatre.
Van Damm's idea for Revuedeville, or non-stop entertainment, is a first, and the
Windmill is packed - until other theatres copy it. Then it's Laura's turn to devise another
first - put naked girls on stage!
Giving in to her persuasive powers, the Lord Chamberlain, the censor, grants
them a licence, on the condition the naked girls don't move, thus imitating art. The
Windmill's tableaux, or naked girls in themed settings, are a sensational hit with British
families and the troops, many of whom are off to fight in the war.
But as the bombing of London begins, the government threatens to close the
theatre. Mrs Henderson's fighting spirit is revealed - and so is the secret that drew her to
buy the Windmill in the first place.
MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS
Long synopsis
The year is 1937. At a cemetery in the country, a funeral is taking place. Laura
Henderson (Judi Dench) is burying her dear departed husband Robert, a leading light of
upper-class English society.
The mourners leave for a gathering at the Hendersons' London home, but before
joining them, Mrs Henderson tells her driver, Ambrose (Richard Syms) to take her to the
river. There, as she has done every morning, she climbs into a small boat, and rows.
But this time, alone on the water, she lets out a cathartic howl of grief.
At the funeral party at her elegant house in Rutland Gate, Laura's close friend,
Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow), knows just the thing to relieve the boredom and
loneliness of widowhood: a hobby. Laura tries needlepoint and even joins a charity
committee to aid unmarried mothers, but she is too restless for such ordinary doings;
nothing seems to engage her.
On an impulse, she travels to France to visit a familiar field of war graves. There,
she tends to a stone that reads: Alec Henderson, 1894-1915, and stays until sunset.
Back in London, Alec drives Laura in the Rolls Royce to Great Windmill Street in
Soho, where before her trip she had noticed a small, disused cinema for sale. She
decides to buy the property and start her own, most extraordinary plan of action. It
seems the hobby has found Mrs Henderson.
Lady Conway is aghast at Laura's decision to buy and relaunch a Soho theatre.
But Laura has always admired American vaudeville. "I intend to bring legs back to
London, I imagine…" she says uncertainly.
She hasn't a clue how to run a theatre, but her lawyer friend Leslie Pearkes
(Ralph Nossek) knows just the man to help her: Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), a
charismatic, seasoned pro who once ran the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square and is
now in the socks business. Laura Henderson summons Van Damm and offers him a
job, but her audacious remarks about his Jewish heritage prompts him to refuse. She
quickly charms him into staying, though, thus beginning their famously explosive
love-hate relationship.
With his secretary Maggie (Doraly Rosen) in place, Van Damm begins rebuilding
the theatre. He agrees to stay only if he can have artistic control, and has an idea: why
not offer non-stop vaudeville? Not just two shows a day, but a show that runs all day
long? It has never been done in England before. Van Damm's warning that she could
lose £10,000 in the attempt only piques her taste for a gamble, and in a miraculous
moment of agreement, the two partners decide to offer audiences a revolutionary
programme combining musical revue and vaudeville theatre in four two-hour shows
daily. They dub it "Revuedeville."
At the auditions, Van Damm and Laura disagree over what to call the Windmill's
dancing girls, who are put in their paces by Van Damm's trusted assistant Bertie (Will
Young). Laura finds Van Damm's suggestion of "The Millerettes," awful. Van Damm
bans her from future auditions.
The Windmill Theatre's opening night is a glamorous occasion. Jane (Camille
O'Sullivan) and Bertie lead the Millerettes in a dramatic musical revue number featuring
sunshine, storm clouds, the dancer Roy Lawson (Matthew Hart) and the juggler Victor
Thornton (Tony De la Fou), along with a duo of Egyptian sand dancers. Revuedeville is
such a huge hit that the Windmill's rivals, the Piccadilly and the Pavilion theatres, also
decide to run a continuous revue. Inevitably, the Windmill's sales slow, and Van Damm
is terrified Mrs Henderson is losing a fortune.
Now it's Laura turn to have an inspired idea - lose the clothes! Have the girls
naked, just as they do in Paris at the Moulin Rouge. She could make her money back,
and Vann Damm could happily be "surrounded, as it were, by countless breasts." And
they would save on costumes. But Van Damm says they will never get her idea past
London's official censor, Lord Cromer the Lord Chamberlain, who is notoriously prudish.
But Laura is an old friend of Lord Cromer ("little Tommy Baring," as she calls him) and
promises to sort it out, but not before scolding her manager for his lack of nerve.
"Safety, Mr Van Damm! You must avoid it!"
Throwing himself into the Windmill auditions, Van Damm requires his girls to
have personality, youth and beauty, right down to their "British nipples." And permission
from their parents to dance naked. It's up to him and Bertie to find these "perfect English
roses" for their budding theatrical venture.
As the two men are driving down a country road, a girl on a bicycle swerves in
front of them and falls into the river. When Bertie pulls her out and revives her, the two
discover a beautiful woman with a flawless figure - a perfect English rose. Her name is
Maureen (Kelly Reilly), and she is their first new recruit to the Windmill's tableaux girls.
Laura visits the censor, Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest), using all of her powers
- and a catered lunch - to persuade him to allow her girls to perform naked. Her fantastic
nude tableaux will be like living art, resembling gorgeous paintings - a concept that
finally seduces Lord Cromer to give his grudging approval, but only if the girls don't
move a muscle on stage. His final concern is about revealing the girls' "foliage beneath,"
but Laura assures him that this will be dealt with by subtle lighting - and the use of a
barber.
Meanwhile, rehearsals prove difficult for the young girls. Posing as muses in a
tableaux called "Inspiration," Maureen, Peggy (Natalia Tena), Frances (Rosalind
Halstead), Vera (Sarah Soleman) and Doris (Anna Brewster) find their legs get stiff, and
the glass dancing floor plays havoc with their feet. Ever eager to help, Laura recalls
seeing fakirs in India holding poses for hours and advises the girls to "think yourself
onto a higher plane." Her interference this time causes Van Damm to banish her from
rehearsals.
When the time comes to strip, Doris breaks down and runs off stage. Being
naked in public is humiliating, and the other girls follow. Van Damm reassures them that
the shows are really about art - they are the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa - and they
reluctantly proceed. In the spirit of comradeship, Bertie strips off and tells the
stagehands Harry (Lloyd Hutchinson), Ken (Christopher Logan) and Gordon (Toby
Jones) to do the same. Van Damm also strips, under pressure from Maureen.
The tableaux girls are a sensation, and even Lord Cromer is happy. Devoted to
her girls, Laura goes to see them backstage, where Van Damm introduces her to his
wife. Shocked to discover he is married, Laura snubs the lady, which angers Van
Damm. When he threatens to quit, Laura counters that she'll quit too, but is consoled to
stay by Lady Conway, who thinks her friend may have fallen a little in love.
As the Windmill's tableaux become a national sensation - some of the favourites
include the Fountain of Youth, Lalique O'Lady, The Slaves and Legend of the Pearl audiences respond to them in surprising ways. During a Hiawatha tableau with naked
Maureen as Pocahontas and the rest of the girls as Indian maidens (Jane is Annie
Oakley, and Bertie is Buffalo Bill), the guards remove a pervert in the front row. During
The Harp tableau, Peggy and Vera get pepper shot at them by students with
peashooters; it's agony as they can't move.
Banned from the theatre, Laura concocts a variety of disguises to sneak past
Van Damm and check up on her girls. One day it's a purdah and hood. Another day she
comes dressed as a pigtailed Chinese matron, but Van Damm smells a rat and he pulls
off her wig, starting another blazing row which Laura thoroughly enjoys. Then, at the
audition for specialty acts, a dancing polar bear almost makes the cut, but following a
tip-off Van Damm rushes outside to see the bear getting into Mrs Henderson's Rolls
Royce. He follows the car to the river and confronts Laura from the shore as she rows
her boat. She's made him a laughing stock, he says, and he's ready to quit again, for
good. Insisting she just wanted to make sure auditions were conducted properly, Laura
climbs into a nearby biplane and, with her pilot at the controls and Van Damm still
arguing with her from the receding ground, she flies off to France once again to visit her
son's grave.
War is declared and the blitz has begun, but the bombs and gunfire outside the
theatre don't distract Eric Woodburn (Sir Thomas Allen) as he performs an act based on
the French Revolution. At a garden party in Mayfair, Lord Cromer warns Laura the
theatre is seen as a frivolous distraction. That's precisely what the soldiers need, she
replies. He says the Luftwaffe will bomb London and people milling around the theatre
will be in danger. She says her theatre is beneath street level and safe.
As the girls perform a tableau of the Acropolis, a huge explosion shakes the
theatre. Debris cascades from the flies as the girls continue to hold their poses despite
the bombing all around. Maureen breaks from her position and gives the Luftwaffe the
celebrated Churchill Victory, to whistles and cheers from the audience.
Van Damm tells the company the theatre must go onto a war footing. "But we will
never stop performing, we will never close." He advises some of them to move into the
safety of the underground theatre.
On the Windmill set of a burned out building, The Deering Sisters (Dinah O'Brien,
Rebecca O'Brien and Maria Rohsean O'Brien) sing a the wartime song, "The Babies of
the Blitz," dressed as munitions workers. Frances wears a tin hat and nothing else. The
servicemen in the audience eagerly approve.
After the show, the girls go off on dates with some of the servicemen who nightly
wait for them at the stage door. But Maureen never does go out, she tells Laura,
because she has been hurt too many times in the past by falling in love. She prefers to
be a "naked spinster."
That night, the girls are performing a fan dance when Mrs Henderson notices a
young serviceman, Paul (Samuel Barnett), whose eyes are glued on Maureen behind
the fans. After the show, Laura watches from her Rolls Royce as Paul waits at the stage
door with a rose in his hand. Who is it for, she asks him? "The girl in the fan, but she
never comes out." Laura has a plan.
After the next night's performance, a bouquet arrives backstage for Maureen,
from Paul. Laura brings Paul to Maureen, who is upset with Mrs Henderson for
interfering, but Laura reasons that the soldier is just 21 and in five days will be sent to
the front. Maureen softens and goes off into the night with Paul.
Van Damm rushes into the theatre, panic-stricken. He has a letter from Maureen,
who says she is resigning. She is pregnant, and the baby's father, Paul, is going back to
his girlfriend. Van Damm tries to persuade her to stay, but as he and Laura have an
argument, Maureen rushes from the theatre, upset. Laura tries to follow her but Bertie
warns her that the air-raid sirens have gone off. Van Damm and Bertie rush toward the
exit to search for Maureen, just as an ear-splitting explosion rocks the theatre.
Great Windmill Street is in chaos. Audience, cast and crew are in the street and
the girls are crying. The café across the road is a bombed-out mess of smouldering
rubble. As the police and firemen work to retrieve bodies, Van Damm emerge from the
café, Bertie behind him, carrying Maureen. He puts her body on the ground, and they
weep.
Van Damm knew Laura was selfish, rude, eccentric, but this was unforgivable.
Furious, he blames her for Maureen's tragedy. Laura is in shock.
A closure notice has been served on the Windmill. Soldiers, prostitutes,
shop-girls and businessmen protest against it., but Van Damm announced to the crowd
that Lord Cromer has arrived to enforce it. Pushing her way through the crowd, Mrs
Henderson stands atop a small box and begins a passionate speech. Before this war
there was another one, in which she lost her only son, Alec, who died in France. He was
21. Among his possessions, she had found a photo of a naked woman; Alex had
probably died never having seen a real naked woman. This, she tells the people, is why
she bought the theatre and launched a nude revue - so that soldiers like her son would
not suffer the same fate. "If we ask our youth to surrender their lives, we must not ask
them to surrender joy - or the possibility of joy - as well." As air raid sirens sound,
Cromer concedes defeat: the Windmill will stay open. The crowd cheers.
Jane and Bertie with the full company are back on stage. The song is 'The Sails
of the Windmill'. Laura leaves the box.
She walks out onto the roof of the Windmill, to a sky lit up with flames and
searchlights. Van Damm appears. 'Now you know my secrets and I know none of
yours', says Mrs Henderson. 'Oh, I think you do,' he replies. The enigma of their stormy,
unspoken relationship reaches a climax as they face each other on the roof, and Van
Damm leads Laura in a dance. It is one of the rare time she does not resist him.
They hold each other in a sublime moment - inevitably short-lived - of
unconditional love and understanding.
Laura Henderson died in 1944, a year before the war ended. She left the
Windmill Theatre to Vivian Van Damm, her dear friend and sparring partner.
The History Of The Windmill Theatre
The site in Great Windmill Street in London's Soho where Laura Henderson was
to create her world-famous theatre has had a long and varied past. The street took its
name from a real windmill that stood there from the reign of Charles II until the late 18th
century. In 1910 a cinema, the Palais de Luxe, was opened on the site. It stood on the
corner of a block of buildings that included the Apollo and Lyric theatres, where Archer
Street joins Great Windmill Street, just off Shaftsbury Avenue. The cinema was one of
the first places where early films were shown, but as larger cinemas were opened in the
West End, business slowed and it was forced to close.
In 1931, Laura Henderson bought the disused building and hired the architect,
Howard Jones, to remodel the interior as a tiny, one-tier theatre. Named The Windmill, it
opened on June 22, 1931, with a new play by Michael Barrington called Inquest. But it
was only a minor success as a theatre and returned to screening films, such as The
Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich.
Soon after Mrs Henderson's new manager, Vivian Van Damm, hit upon the idea
of producing a non-stop musical revue at The Windmill, work began on putting on the
shows with singers, dancers, showgirls and specialty numbers. Revuedeville opened on
February 3, 1932, featuring 18 unknown acts, but in the first few years the theatre lost
£20,000, a fortune at that time. Eventually it became a commercial success, so much so
that nearby Piccadilly and Pavilion theatres copied it and ran non-stop shows too, which
took its toll on the Windmill's ticket sales.
But when Mrs Henderson and Mr Van Damm decided to copy the hugely
successful Moulin Rouge in Paris and put naked girls on stage, business picked up.
Skirting London's draconian censors by having the girls pose completely motionless on
stage, like artwork, Van Damm concocted a series sumptuous nude tableaux vivants
based around such themes as Mermaids, Red Indians, Annie Oakley and Britannia.
The Windmill was the only theatre in London which stayed open throughout the
War (except for 12 compulsory days from 4-16 September 1939), hence earning its
legendary slogan, "We Never Closed." During some of the worst air attacks of the Blitz,
from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, the showgirls and some of its acts moved into
the safety of the theatres two underground floors.
Many of the Windmill's customers were families and troops as well as celebrities,
who came as Mrs Henderson's guests and included Princesses Helena Victoria and
Marie Louise (the daughter and granddaughter of Queen Victoria). There would be the
occasional problem with male customers, but security were always on the lookout for
improper behaviour. More comical was the spectacle of the "Windmill Steeplechase",
where at the end of a show, customers from the back rows would make a mad dash
over the top of the seats to nab the front rows.
Though Laura Henderson's relationship with Van Damm was a stormy one - he
had her banned several times from the theatre, only to find her sneaking in disguised as
a Chinese mandarin and a polar bear - they bore much affection for each other. When
she died in 1944, at age 82, she left the Windmill to Van Damm, who continued their
work.
After Laura Henderson's time, a host of great British comedians began their
careers at the Windmill. Among them were Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Michael
Bentine, Tony Hancock, Bruce Forsyth and Kenneth More, who did his first Windmill gig
in the early 30's and became the UK's top box-office star of the 1950s.
Van Damm continued with the theatre until his own death in December 1960,
when he left the venue to his daughter, Sheila. She struggled to keep it going but by this
time, Soho had become a far seedier place, more akin to its image today. Mrs
Henderson's Soho of the 1930s and 1940s was a respectable neighbourhood of shops
and family restaurants, part of a by-gone era. Unable to compete with the strip joints
and massage parlours, The Windmill closed on 31 October 1964.
In the mid 1960s, The Windmill was reconstructed as a cinema and casino, and
in 1973 a campaign was started to revive "The Old Windmill Days" and reclaim the
theatre. But in February 1974, the venue was bought by the nightclub entrepreneur Paul
Raymond. He made it a home for nude shows "a la Revuedeville but without the comic
element," although for a period in the 80's he re-introduced burlesque when he renamed
the Windmill 'La Vie en Rose'.
Today, a lap-dancing club has taken over the building that once was the Windmill
Theatre.
About The Production
Films have been made before about the Windmill Theatre and its manager,
Vivian Van Damm; among them is Tonight and Every Night, shot in Hollywood in 1945
and starring Rita Hayworth as a Windmill girl. But none until now have told the story of
the real lynchpin behind the theatre, Laura Henderson, the formidable lady who defied
London's censorship laws to show nudity on the British stage and create a musical
institution.
Mrs Henderson Presents brings together some of Britain's most remarkable and
accomplished talent, including Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, and two rising stars, the
pop singer Will Young and actress Kelly Reilly. It is directed by Stephen Frears,
produced by Norma Heyman, executive produced by Bob Hoskins and David Aukin with
musical direction by director George Fenton, costumes by Sandy Powell and make-up
and hair design by Jenny Shircore. The award winning team further includes director of
photography Andrew Dunn BSC and production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.
Flaunting convention: The Heyman-Hoskins Team
What also so attracted me, apart from this gripping story, was this period of British
history: England at war. Also, this story of the Windmill had such an innocence. It
represents the end of an era of innocence. - Norma Heyman, Producer
The story behind the making of the film began when Bob Hoskins was
approached by the producers David and Kathy Rose with their idea for a project on
Laura Henderson. "They had found the story of Mrs Henderson, rediscovered her in a
way, and done a lot of ground work. But they'd never managed to get the project off the
ground," says Bob, who is executive producer of the film as well as its leading man. "So
I took it to Norma (Heyman), and we thought about it and realised what enormous
potential it had."
Bob had first worked with Norma Heyman in 1982, when he starred in Norma's
first film as a producer The Honorary Consul. They remained close friends and in 1996
they formed a joint production company, Heyman Hoskins, to make a screen adaptation
of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, directed by Christopher Hampton, and which
Hoskins starred in.
"Bob brought me the idea of this movie, along with mountains of research his
friends the Roses had compiled over 13 years. They'd wanted it to make a TV series out
of it but it was turned down by some of the great and the good," says Norma. "But it
haunted me, the idea of this elderly lady who seems to flaunt every convention of her
time. British society was I suppose incredibly right wing at that time in the 1930s, and
here comes this rich lady from an imperialist society who, on a whim, buys a theatre and
does something her class would never think of or condone: she puts nude girls on
stage. She even helped start up homes for unmarried mothers!"
So Heyman suggested that she and Hoskins set up the project as a film. From
the start, there was only one actress that Bob and Norma saw in the role of Mrs
Henderson: Judi Dench.
"It was what Judi could give us: something magical," said Heyman. "The real
Judi behind the part she normally plays - the mischievous, naughty, very sexy Judi, the
practical joker, the charmer."
Says Hoskins: "Mrs Henderson is three things: she's charming, cheeky and an
absolute cow. Only Judi could really get away with that."
Heyman saw another quality in Dench's persona that made her so right for the
role, and which compliments the character's extraordinary energy: "Judi is able to find
that stillness, which is a quality of the great screen artists, such as Garbo. Her emotions
are so close to the surface, you can't take your eyes off her. She's very, very special."
Moving forward, Norma and Bob asked David Aukin, former head of Channel 4
Film on Four and a personal friend of Norma's, to join them as executive producer.
The next stage was to secure Stephen Frears, their first choice for director.
Norma and Stephen first worked together on the movie Dangerous Liaisons, released in
1988 and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, and in
1996 collaborated on "Mary Reilly" with Julia Roberts and John Malkovich.
"There is some theme of class that runs through the films Stephen and I have
done together, and Mrs Henderson is no exception," notes Heyman. "She and Van
Damm came from completely different worlds. She was definitely of the aristocracy and
he wasn't. She was the most terrible snob and typical of that class of the 1930s, when
classism was rife.
"The thing we never had, we working class, were the connections and the
networking," continues Heyman. "You pick up the phone and you speak to the Lord
Chamberlain, the censor, as Mrs Henderson did and you get your show on. Her
networking changed history."
David Aukin, Executive Producer on the film, agrees that the theme of social
connections makes "Henderson" a "very, very typical" English tale. "England hasn't
changed, it's all about who you know still. And (the film has) this very embarrassed
attitude to sex, which is somehow also quite English."
Mr Frears Presents
Mrs Henderson is the most appalling right-wing woman, an absolute shocker. But I
respect defending the indefensible. - Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears was the right man for the job for many reasons, says Heyman.
"We chose Stephen because of how he works with the material. He never likes to
appear to be in control but he's always in control. And he likes actors; he grew up with
them. He has great compassion and the ability to make everyone feel comfortable, and
do what he wants them to. Judi rowed up and down the river 30 times on our first day
shooting in England and didn't complain once, and she told me she'd do it again. He is
just an extraordinary director."
Frears came to Mrs Henderson Presents after directing the internationally
acclaimed 2003 film Dirty Pretty Things and winning a BAFTA award for his TV drama
The Deal. At first, he was mystified by the story. "Bob and Norma kept talking about this
woman, Mrs Henderson; I didn't have a clue what they were on about. I could see that
the idea of making a film about the Windmill and about the naked girls would be very
funny, but all I kept saying to people was, is there a story? And then I was so amazed
by the script. Films are so difficult to make. But when somebody gives you something as
good as this - you feel trapped. You simply have to make it."
Frears was thrilled to be working with Dench again, having directed her in two
television dramas in the 1980s, "Going Gently" and "Saigon Year of the Cat." "Judi was
so right because she's wonderful being mischievous," he says. "She is herself the most
mischievous woman in the world. That head-girl stuff is nonsense. Judi was made for
the role. She's incredibly well equipped."
For Judi Dench, the admiration was mutual: "The clincher for me (in taking the
role) was Stephen," she says. "I love working with him; he never gives up until he's
satisfied. He nags you, in a nice way, and he pretends he doesn't but he does all the
time. He also pretends he doesn't know quite what's happening or what he's doing, but
he's not mystified at all. He's got a beguiling way of working. I just trust him."
She was always interested in the young men. No wonder she was banned from the
theatre! - Judi Dench
Judi Dench had never heard of Laura Henderson, which only added to her
interest. "I discovered this woman who was fierce, impossible, she had a wonderful love
of life," she says. "She could have sat back after her husband died but she bought a
theatre, something she knew nothing about. She and Van Damm irritate the hell out of
each other. She must have been impossible - and nobody except Van Damm could
have put up with her."
Dench was also intrigued by Laura Henderson's peculiar behaviour. "She was
very stubborn, and got in the way a lot. She got dressed up as a man once and got in
just to make sure everybody was being treated properly - not just the girls but the
audience too. That was fantastic. So I love all that. She needs to be around today."
In small ways, she identified with Mrs Henderson. "I know I'm absent-minded and
sometimes quite eccentric now, I think, so I suppose I share a bit of that kind of
eccentricity with her."
On the did-they-didn't they question of the real relationship between Van Damm
and Mrs Henderson, Judi will only say: "I think Laura was in love with him, but I'm not
sure. That's for someone else to figure out."
Very often Stephen would tell me, 'No, no, no! You're playing him far too nice! I've
never been as nice as that!' - Bob Hoskins
At first, Bob Hoskins didn't at first even consider himself for the role of Van
Damm. "I was busy being a producer. I suppose I just wanted to get this fantastic story
made. But Norma kept saying things like, 'You've got to have a very, very good wig,'
and it seemed to have been decided. But as soon as Judi was on board, that was it. I
was sold."
Until filming began, Hoskins says he kept an open mind on how to play Van
Damm. "When I got on the set I thought, I haven't the faintest idea what to do with this
part or who to be. And then Stephen said, 'You've got no problems; all you've got to do
is play me'. So I played this grumpy old sod who was a pain in the bum. It was the best
script note I ever had."
Locking in Van Damm's way of talking was a challenge, too. "Van Damm's not
cockney, he's a bit of a phoney," says Hoskins. "Back then, intelligence was judged by
accent. I'd never heard him speak, but apparently I've done the business. That was
down to Stephen and Penny Dyer the voice coach."
Indeed, when Van Damm's granddaughters, Susan Angel and Jane Kerner, saw
Hoskins on set, they noted he looked and spoke just like their granddad.
Hoskins looked upon Van Damm as "an absolute gent" - though with a likely
fondness for a few of the young Windmill ladies. "If you talk to the original Windmill girls,
they all loved Van Damm," says Hoskins. "He was an absolute gent. I'll bet he slept with
a few of them, but he did look after them. He was a bit of a rogue but innocent as well.
And he was very naïve. Anybody else wouldn't have been able to put up with Laura
Henderson."
On the set, the chemistry between Hoskins and his co-star was almost
immediate. Says Dench: "I'd never worked with Bob before, but within a day of working
together - a day! - we had a shorthand between us. You don't have that with everyone.
He's so easy to work with. And it's very nice to have someone I literally don't have to
look up to!"
Hoskins certainly looked up to Dench, in a different way. "What's great with Judi
is she's so fearless, she's terrifying," he says. "If you just throw her a little curve ball like
- 'Oh I'll just see what she does with this!' - she just wraps you up in pure velvet and
throws it back to you again. And then you sort of take it to the edge, and she will take it
a little bit further. She's joy. Acting with Judi is something I should have done at the
beginning of my career."
I thought of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn - between a strong woman and
a strong man. - Martin Sherman, Screenwriter
The writer Martin Sherman had first worked with Norma Heyman in 1992 on the
BAFTA-nominated TV film Clothes in the Wardrobe (released theatrically in the US by
Goldwyn as The Summer House), which she produced and he adapted from an Alice
Thomas Ellis novel. Sherman enjoyed wide acclaim for his stage play Bent, which was
made into a film in 1997 starring Clive Owen, and last year his book for the hit
Broadway musical The Boy from Oz was nominated for a Tony award.
When approached to write Mrs Henderson, Sherman had only one response:
"Yes, yes, of course yes!" Along with working with Frears, Sherman was attracted to the
project for another reason. "I knew from the beginning I was writing this for Judi. I had
seen her on stage so many times. It's the first time I've ever written anything directly for
somebody."
Once he committed, though, Sherman, like Frears, worried about finding the core
story for the film. But from the start, two things hooked him: Mrs Henderson's behaviour,
and a secret Van Damm never openly revealed.
"He wrote his entire autobiography and never, ever mentioned that he was
Jewish, though I thought he must be," says Sherman. "I think that's because he had this
great need for himself and his enterprise to be considered proper and middle class,
which has something to do with the way British society sees Jewishness. But the fact he
didn't admit to it gave me a great clue, a great way into his character and a way into the
story."
Indeed, notes Hoskins, "There were a lot of Jewish management in the theatre
then - Lou Grade and others. They all went to the same synagogue. A lot of Jews
changed their names to European ones - Van Damm must have thought his wasn't quite
proper and middle class enough."
Once he had found his keys to the story, Sherman soon realised it was the kind
of tale he had always wanted to tell. "It was my version of a Hollywood screwball
comedy of the 1930s and 40s, with Hepburn or Carole Lombard playing characters who
were very rich or wanted to be - the kind of characters I dearly love. Laura Henderson
was a major eccentric, and the upper classes of that day tolerated, even encouraged
eccentrics. Think of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford."
In retelling the story, Sherman blended fiction with fact. "The idea of Mrs
Henderson falling for Van Damm and that gentle pursuit, we can't be sure about. But
from what I read, Laura did have a son who died. A bomb did fall on the café across
from the Windmill, and one of the girls was injured, not killed. As for the idea of naked
showgirls, that came from the Moulin Rouge in Paris and she and Van Damm picked up
on it."
Sherman produced a first draft in just eight months. "It was a wonderful script,
from the first draft," says Bob. "I thought this project would take years to get off the
ground, but it was bang, bang, bang and we're on set, and we're fine."
SOHO IN THE 30s
There was this wild mixture of respectability and seediness. - Bob Hoskins
Recreating an accurate picture of Soho was vital for Mrs Henderson Presents. In
the 1930s, it was still a respectable family area - with a little titillation thrown in for good
measure. That combination, Sherman believes, is something contemporary audiences
can relate to. "In a funny way it's not that different from today. Families look at page
three of the Sun over the breakfast table, and back then families went to the Windmill.
So perhaps it's a tradition that has been carried on in England in a peculiar way."
What was very clear, Sherman found, was that the Windmill was not in any way
exploitative. "The dancers, the showgirls, the tableaux girls - they were nice girls, good
girls. The Windmill wasn't a burlesque house, it wasn't seedy. In America there were
burlesque houses and strippers, but that kind of thing didn't exist in England. The onus
of being nude didn't exist here."
Bob Hoskins has very early and personal memories of Windmill and Soho during
the time, after Mrs Henderson's death, that Van Damm still owned it. "My mum and dad
took me to the Windmill when I was five, after the war. Families would go with their kids,
and take picnics and just watch these shows. The tableaux were most beautiful things
I'd ever seen in my life. Then you had comics and acts in between them. It was
innocent. Soho was a sort of village and the Windmill was right in the middle of it."
Filming in Soho was almost impossible to set up, although some scenes of the
exterior of the Windmill were shot in Archer Street in Soho. Most of the film was shot at
Shepperton Studios, where a full-scale reproduction of the Windmill theatre was built.
A MUSICAL MOVIE
It's not Singin' in the Rain. - Stephen Frears
As film genres go, Mrs Henderson Presents is written not as a traditional musical,
but a dramatic comedy with music. "This is a musical and it isn't at the same time," says
Stephen. "I mean, it's not Singin' in the Rain where the characters sing to each other.
It's a film and a musical."
"There's no attempt to be like Chicago here," says Heyman. "Martin trawled the
archives at the Musical Museum in Hammersmith and read every script the Windmill
did."
Many of the Windmill's song lyrics from the 1930s perfectly captured the tenor of
the times. One was a song called Babies of the Blitz. "As a lyric it's so revealing of
people's attitudes then, of their humour, defiance, spunkiness and again, a kind of
innocence," remarks Sherman. "It's as revealing as anything I've read about the Blitz."
Another song that Martin would seize on was Goody Goody by Benny Goodman,
from 1936, which he used to cut across various scenes in the film to show events
happening and time passing at the Windmill.
Sherman worked about 14 numbers into the final script, all linked directly to the
action. For Frears, the film's musical content presented one of the greatest challenges
for him, as he had never worked with so much music.
"Songs and music are tyrannical: once you start a phrase of music you have to
complete it. So I found all that very, very tricky," he says. "But by a sort of miracle I had
lunch with the director Alan Parker, who said, 'you can wing a film but you can't wing a
musical.' So I read a book about Arthur Freed, who was at MGM and made musicals
such as The Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain. It told me how he got all these
people into the same room together at the same moment and make them cohere. And
you have to start doing this early on."
Frears also credits much of his ability to pull off his first musical to George
Fenton, the accomplished composer and musical director. Now with 100 productions
under his belt, from which he has earned BAFTA, Ivor Novello and Emmy Awards as
well as five Academy Award® nominations, Fenton first worked with Frears in 1979 on
the TV drama Bloody Kids. He has since written music for a diverse range of films such
as Gandhi, Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, Groundhog Day, Fight Club and the recent
BBC TV series The Blue Planet (for which he won a BAFTA award). Working closely
with Sherman, Fenton composed and scored all of the original Windmill songs to
accompany the lyrics that Sherman had discovered.
"Most of the musical numbers are quintessentially English and of the period,"
says Heyman. "Martin comes from America and his background is musical theatre. It's
his passion, and so this was a great adventure for him. He found these enchanting little
numbers that he thought came from an alien world."
THE WAR
It started out as a story about a theatre - then it wound up, without trying, to be one
of the most potent anti-war films I've ever seen. - Bob Hoskins
Another challenge for Frears was presenting the atmosphere of the war in a new
way for contemporary audiences. "The first night of the Blitz, something like 800
squadrons came over to bomb London," says Heyman. "We believe Stephen has
captured that feeling of supreme danger remarkably well, though it would be wrong to
tell you how he's done it."
Adds Dench: "I think we've been as truthful to the period of the wartime as we
can possibly be. It feels fantastically right. I would hate that one dramatizes the War in a
way that is sentimental beyond what it was really."
Hoskins, who was born in 1942, doesn't remember the War - "I spent the first
three years of my life under the kitchen table during the blitz," he reports. But Dench
does remember; during the war, she was a child growing up in York.
"I knew about the Windmill, everybody did. How they did go on throughout the
war, how they'd go out on the streets helping people, too. A lot of those girls must have
got into trouble, and some of them had children, and were in a bad way but
nevertheless there was an extraordinary, courageous innocence about the era."
Heyman believes that the film's war background resonates with the strife-filled
world of today. "That's something Stephen was very interested in before he accepted to
do this film. It was just very important to him."
THE AUDITIONS
Sometimes I look at Will and think he was born to be in 1940s musicals. - Stephen
Frears
Auditioning actors to play the Windmill's singers, dancers and tableaux girls was
one of the most exciting and difficult tasks. "Because it's a period film about two older
main characters, it was important we cast really attractive and talented young people,"
says producer David Aukin. "It was clearly a story that had the potential to appeal to all
ages."
Among those seen for the role of Bertie, the lead singer at the Windmill, was Will
Young, who shot to fame in Pop Idol and has since had huge success in his singing
career.
"Will walks on and the talent just flows out of him," says Bob. "When he recorded
All The Things You Are, which is a complicated, difficult song, George Fenton said he
did it in one take. Just came on, sung it, bang, that was it." Notes Heyman: "Will was
made for the role of Bertie. He comes across like a genuine 1930s juvenile lead."
Easy as Young makes it all look, he worked extremely hard on his role. "Stephen
didn't cast him immediately," adds Heyman. "He and Bob auditioned him. He would be
there every day, rehearsing, dancing, movement, acting. And that was before he got the
role."
Other spot-on castings followed: Christopher Guest, renowned as an actor in
films such as Spinal Tap, and the director of Best in Show, was given the part of Lord
Cromer; Thelma Barlow, loved as Mavis in Coronation Street, nabbed her very first film
role, as Lady Conway; and Kelly Reilly, a young rising star whose films include The
Libertine with Johnny Depp, and who was nominated for an Olivier Award in After Miss
Julie, landed the role of Maureen, the leading Tableaux girl.
The other Tableaux girls - Rosalind Halstead, Natalia Tena, Sarah Solemani and
Anna Brewster - were cast for their outstanding personalities, beauty and screen
presence. The demanding role of Jane, the lead female singer at the Windmill, was
proving impossible to cast; at the eleventh hour, Stephen discovered Camille O'Sullivan,
who had her own show singing Berlin cabaret-style songs at the Edinburgh Festival.
For the Tableaux girls and the Millerettes, Frears and his team wanted girls with
shapes authentic to the period - i.e., fuller and more curvaceous - and faces to suit.
Height was another factor: average dancers in the 1930s were between about 5ft 2in
and 5ft 5in.
Casting the dancers was the job of Artistic and Theatre Consultant Eleanor "Fiz"
Fazan and Debbie Astell, the Associate Choreographer. Fazan and Astell co-ordinated
all the dance numbers - about 11 in all, not including the tableaux. Says Fazan "I met
Norma and I asked: is this going to be a 2004 version of the Windmill or a step back into
the past? Straight away she said the latter. That gave us our directive."
They held open auditions and 600 applied. "Every school, from Berg College to
Italia Conti and Arts Educational, helped us to find the young dancers," says Fazan.
"Debbie did a tap routine for them and a musical comedy. They had to get an A in both.
We wanted them young and with personalities, based on what Van Damm would go for.
They also had to be visually right for the era."
With the Millerettes chosen, rehearsals began. The tableaux girls were not
allowed to tan or diet, and going to the gym was banned because the showgirls weren't
toned back then.
"We stopped all the dancers from exercising in the gym, because it was very
important we wanted them to have this period look," says Heyman. "Those girls looked
so different from the ones today - they had chubby legs. The men didn't have muscles.
Will Young's muscles were toned down when he started filming; he looked wonderfully
lithe and lanky, as did our chorus boys. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find
dancers who weren't incredibly muscular."
The dance routines were designed to be as authentic as possible. This included
ensuring all the nuances of movement, such as the alignment of arms, were in keeping
with the 1930s. Fazan and Astell were also aware the girls had to gel as a group. "The
original Windmill girls were like a family, they lived, breathed, ate, and slept it," Astell
notes. "And I think we have recreated that family here."
NUDITY
There was a time in my teens in the 1950s when you couldn't see pictures of naked
women except in a magazine called Health and Efficiency. - Stephen Frears
With his cast in place, Stephen, meanwhile, was considering his approach to the
story's issues of public nudity. "I find the nudity issue quite titillating - though we've been
clear all the way through about how unsmutty the Windmill was in the period we're
featuring."
Handling the nude scenes brought with it certain concerns, says Norma. "So
many of the cast had never before been on a film set, including Will Young. We had
young girls who took off their clothes for Stephen. They had to trust in him and the film
and what he was trying to say. Not one photograph leaked out from the set during the
shoot; no one betrayed the trust of these girls. We really became one huge family."
Frears found himself identifying with Van Damm, in an odd way. "I just noticed
that there was him getting a lot of girls to take their clothes off, and there was me doing
the same thing. I said to Bob: I've got these girls to take their clothes off, so Van Damm
must in some way be like me."
Hoskins himself has his own brief nude scene, where Van Damm, Bertie and the
male stage hands all strip during rehearsals when Maureen insists it is not fair only the
tableaux girls should go naked: "Is there a problem with my full-frontal nudity in the film?
Of course! All these young gorgeous creatures and there's Old Wrinkly in the back! I
didn't feel too comfortable about it, but everybody else had to do it."
To recall the shock value of nudity on stage in the 1930s, Heyman refers to the
mores of English society, even in later decades. "Before the 1960s England lived in a
straitjacket of Victorian mores. DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover was still
unpublished. In 1939, the theatre director Joan Littlewood was arrested because a man
in one of her Stratford East productions walked across the stage carrying a plank in a
suggestive manner," she says.
"It must have been unbelievably shocking at the time," says Dench. "At the same
time it was probably quite artistic, and for the young men coming home from the front
and going to the Windmill, it must have been fantastic."
THE ORIGINAL WINDMILL GIRLS
He was a very persuasive gentleman. He said it was going to be beautiful, like art,
not suggestive. - Doris Barry, Windmill girl
The film serves up a compelling slice of social history. Mrs Henderson was a
philanthropist, involved in influential social and artistic institutions. "We touch on this
briefly, in the scene where Mrs Henderson joins a committee meeting to help unmarried
mothers, but she was one of the benefactors of Marie Stopes," [crusading feminist,
women's rights activist and birth control-campaigner] says Heyman. And once Van
Damm had inherited the Windmill, he paid for the formation of a ballet company by
Anton Dolan and Alicia Markova, who was the sister of one of the Windmill girls, Doris
Barry, and later became a Dame. "So Mrs Henderson paid for what began as the
Festival Ballet and what we have today as the English National Ballet."
Providing invaluable first-hand information and insight into the era were some of
the original Windmill girls, who were invited to meet the cast and crew. Most are now in
their 70s and 80s, and among them were Linda Carroll, Charmian Innes and Doris
Barry, who is now 92. Doris was at the Windmill from 1940-42.
"Mrs Henderson was a remarkable lady, very motherly to all of us girls," Barry
says. "It was a very good revue show and we were known for being the nursery of the
stars. There were no nudes when I was first there. They came later."
Barry remembers Van Damm calling a meeting to announce they were going to
have nudity on stage. "He was a very persuasive gentleman. He said it was going to be
beautiful, like art, not suggestive, and that you could go to the National Gallery and see
beautiful paintings like these tableaux, and it meant the ordinary man in the street could
enjoy beauty too. And all the nudes were beautiful. I used to sing a song with a 'living
picture' behind me. You got used to it, you never thought about them being nude."
Dench admits to being "a little star-struck" upon first meeting some of the original
Windmill girls, from whom she learned a good deal about the character of Mrs
Henderson. "They were very well looked after. One of them told me that she got married
and Mrs Henderson bought her wedding dress for her, as it was a time of rations and
coupons. An extraordinary tale."
Frears says of meeting the original Windmill girls: "I went around asking: 'Why
did you agree to take your clothes off?' One woman who'd been a dancer said, 'When
nudity was introduced, after half a day we were all bored out of our minds and we just
did it.' I instinctively said: weren't you exploited? But there was no sense of that. It
seems they were treated very well. I've always found women to be extremely sensible in
these matters."
"I think Van Damm taught them not to gossip," says Norma. "However, if there
was anything salacious going on, the girls didn't know about it. It was a home for girls of
every class: upper class, cockney girls. It was one the best jobs in London."
THE CREW
Production Design
We wanted to capture the devil-may-care attitude, of being optimistic in the face of
adversity. - Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski, Production Designer
Recreating the Windmill Theatre was the job of the production designer Hugo
Luczyc-Wyhowski. As the period and the theatre itself were well documented, there
were a lot of photographs, programmes and cuttings to aid the research. "We originally
looked at various theatres in the West End but realised the most practical thing to do
was to build a theatre," says Luczyc-Wyhowski. By a stroke of luck, Luczyc-Wyhowski
found the original plans for the restructuring of theatre commissioned by Mrs Henderson
in the early 1930s. "That was a big help in understanding just how small the place was."
The real Windmill had seven floors with two sub-ground levels, where the
dressing rooms were located. "I've made a big composite set like a rabbit warren; girls
running up and down steel spiral staircases to get up to stage level," says
Luczyc-Wyhowski. "It has verticality. You will be aware of the layering of it."
Hugo kept the auditorium the same size but made the stage larger particularly in
its depth and on either side of it. "We wanted to make it very real so you see pipes and
ashtrays and all the paraphernalia of ropes hanging up, carpenter's tool boxes that
you'd normally find in a theatre."
Sixteen stage sets were built for the tableaux. "Some of them we copied and
others we designed in the spirit of the Windmill," says Hugo. In keeping with the story,
they created a glass floor for the girls to dance on, and used coloured lighting and
footlights. "We used a mixture of locations and a set where you kind of drive through the
streets of Soho and turn into Great Windmill Street, and I put a kink in the road and put
the street in a piazza, so it seems more like a little Soho Square."
The scene when Laura takes Lord Cromer to lunch in a tent she has had erected,
to persuade him to allow the Windmill to show nudity on stage, was shot in front of
Buckingham Palace. "It's slightly tongue-in-cheek, kind of fun. The film looks rich and
visually textured. Very colourful. We copied little windmills for inside the theatre, lots of
details in keeping with the spirit of the theatre. The general look of the theatre is warm,
rather mustardy, a place where the performers were quite cosy, in contrast to the rather
gloomy look it had before it's revamped. There is a transition from when Van Damm
takes on the theatre and as they get more professional, the sets get more adventurous
and decorative. Our version's probably a little brighter than the real Windmill was."
The innocence of this period was key to the design, too. "The Windmill didn't
become seedy until the 1950s," says Hugo. "There was nothing vulgar about the period
we're portraying. There's a naivety, the sets have got to wobble slightly, not be very well
built, not very well painted. It was such a small theatre the relationship between the
audience and the performers was very intimate, quite unique, squashed up and it's
central to the film. People could get within feet of these naked girls and that's why it was
so popular and what made it charming."
Costume Design
Stephen more or less left it up to me, as that is the way he likes to work. Norma just
said, 'Darling, I want it to be fabulous.' - Sandy Powell, Costume Designer
For Sandy Powell, the Academy Award®-winning costume designer, this was the
first time she had worked with Stephen Frears. "I don't really have ideas when I read a
script. I wait until I meet the director and see what his take is on it," says Powell. But she
understood her brief 'to create authenticity'. "The challenge for me was creating these
two worlds: one realistic - the world of wartime London outside the theatre - and then
another kind of fantasy world on stage as well.
"The whole job was really like doing three jobs all in one go. As a designer, I was
designing a film, but then on top of that we design five, six, seven stage shows. I was
also designing costumes for the dancers. On top of this there were hundreds of extras
on set each day. We rented all of these clothes, with all of our extras wearing clothes
from the thirties and forties, mostly brown and black, colours worn by everyday people,
which contrast so vividly with the bright, glamorous clothes being worn inside the
theatre."
The faithful recreation of the wartime period of the film meant paying attention to
some important details: "During the war years obviously there were restrictions on the
amount of fabric that you could use. If you were having a suit made or a dress, because
the fabric was rationed you would have to use less fabric. So, for instance, a pair of
trousers made in the war would not have a turn up. A skirt or dress made would have
been shorter than if it had been made ten years earlier in the 30s. I only cheated when it
came to the big finale, when I put all the girls in huge romantic gowns. Technically, they
wouldn't have had access to that much fabric during the war - unless they had a stash
of it hidden away."
Of designing for Laura Henderson, she says: "She lived in India and travelled, so
we've gone a bit ethnic in places, eclectic, as if she's gathered pieces from round the
world. I hope I haven't made her look too mad. But she doesn't look like your average
69-year-old lady from the period!"
Says Dench: "I loved my costumes, because I remember the clothes of that
period very well. Funnily enough, I wear a Chinese jacket in one of the scenes and at
home I opened a chest of drawers that belonged to my Ma and found the absolute copy
of the jacket that I wore in the film, and I remember Ma wearing that, so I had it all
redone."
Sandy also designed the polar-bear costume that Mrs Henderson infamously
wears to infiltrate auditions at the Windmill. "I'm amazed that Dame Judi wore it herself.
I thought a stunt person would have done it, but she wanted to do the scene herself."
She created a fairly formal look for Bob Hoskins's character: "Bob's not physically
very like Van Damm, who was much taller. We put him in businessman suits, the kind
that look good on Bob."
For Will Young's character, Bertie, the look was "a nice young man working in the
theatre. I don't want to say I made him look gay - a little theatrical maybe, but not over
the top."
To create the outfits for the Millerettes and Tableaux girls, Powell studied vintage
theatre programmes from the era for her research, and met some of the Windmill girls
who had performed from 1935 to 1945. She also worked closely with artistic and theatre
consultant Eleanor Fazan and choreographer Debbie Astell, who were working with the
music and coming up with themes for the numbers, which Powell also used to inspire
her design. Among those theme are a 1920s swimming scene, Hiawatha, Busby
Berkeley and the Rockettes. The stage costumes are showy and glam, involving the
application of thousands of sequins and hundreds of flowers.
The Tableaux are, by their very nature, mostly naked. "If they wear anything, it's
diaphanous," Powell said. "Little suggestions of things."
Hair and Make-Up Design
Red lipstick was frowned upon on older women. But Mrs Henderson wears red lips
all the time; she was known for being vain and presenting herself in full make-up. - Jenny
Shircore, Make-up and Hair Designer
Academy Award®-winning make-up and hair designer Jenny Shircore wanted
Mrs Henderson's hair to undergo an interesting change during the film. In the early part,
she is given a long hair look tied back in a bun, which is how Mrs Henderson actually
wore it. The look is shorter and bobbed when the war has started, as if, in Dench's own
words, "when she looked at the young tableaux girls with shorter hair, she decided to
copy them."
Jenny first worked with Bob Hoskins on the British TV series Pennies from
Heaven, 25 years ago. "Watching him dancing on the roof to a 1940s number brought it
all flooding back," she smiles. "We've copied Van Damm's hair for Bob and it's worked
brilliantly."
For Bertie, Will Young was simply given a short back and sides and a
moustache, and had his hair slicked back with Brylcreem.
As for the dancing girls, Shircore reports that in the 1930s they sported "a shorter
hair length and a finger-waved style, waves all through the head. The 1940s were
longer, with victory rolls, straighter hair and more roll."
Kelly Reilly, who plays Maureen, underwent a radical change. "Kelly had her own
long, red hair and we changed her to a platinum blonde. Because we go through the
1930s and 1940s, we haven't done a slow transition on them all, just one big jump to
say we're now in the 1940s, which worked better in this film."
Shircore says that when designing the make-up, "it was difficult to decide how
theatrical or how real it should be. But when we saw what Stephen was doing with the
tableaux and how beautiful and elegant and real they were, we kept away from the
theatrical, though there are a few scenes demanding it - when the girls are mermaids in
white wigs and mermaidy make-up, for example, and the Pocahontas tableau."
There were subtle changes moving from the 1930s to the 1940s, in the
eyebrows, for example, changing from a thin line to a fuller line in the war period.
"Make-up colours were much brighter, they didn't have the subtlety of colour we have
now or the sophisticated make-up. So we've done the bright blue eye shadow and the
red, red lips."
In a production with so much flesh on display, skin tone and condition was a
consideration: "We used body make up and sprayed them to be beautifully smooth and
unblemished. I found one reference in the archives where one artist used crushed glass
with gold powder as body make-up. But there was no health and safety then."
The tableaux girls had to be smooth-skinned and hairless: "They've been
wonderful. They have shaved and plucked and waxed and had electrolysis. Very brave
they were too."
GETTING INTO CHARACTER: The Supporting Cast
I've never tried to hide my sexuality - I definitely identified with that in Bertie. Will Young
Will Young plays Bertie, the leading male performer and assistant producer at the
Windmill. This is the first film role for Will, who came to fame through Pop Idol to
become a singing sensation. "It was George Fenton who suggested me for the part," he
says. "Then I met Stephen, not knowing who he was, and we got on very well. I thought
he was quite eccentric, and he thought I was, and we were quite eccentric together. I
didn't realise then that it was probably quite a serious interview."
Despite being "petrified" during auditions and having to "stand by a piano and
hide my hands behind my back because they were shaking so much" he was thrilled to
be offered the part. "I don't often show true happiness, I can be quite introverted, but I
was so happy when Stephen rung me. The part of Bertie just seemed perfect for me. It's
a period I love."
As for his character, Bertie, he says: "I think he doesn't miss a trick. He sees the
naked girls as an opportunity to stay in business, so he assists Van Damm in doing it,
even though he's not interested in traipsing around the country looking at naked girls,
whereas Van Damm probably is."
Will enjoyed the variety of roles Bertie has in the theatre. "One day I'm a Red
Indian, then an archaeologist, next in a stupid bathing suit, it's hysterical."
One of the first scenes Will shot is Bertie rescuing Maureen from the river. "I think
it was the best way for me to start because I was very nervous and it was an action
scene; if you have to get someone out of the water you just run down and do it."
Young admired Bertie's frankness about his sexuality. "He is openly gay, and
even though it's in the comfort of the theatre, it's still a brave thing to be in the 1930s.
It's his second line, to say I'm gay, which is great and kind of appealed to me."
He was also drawn by the prospect of working with Frears. "Stephen and I just
got on so well, he's just like my dad. He's not a conformist. He's a bit of an anarchist.
People don't see that in me because of my job but I try to be an individual and true to
myself, and I have tried to not conform to any other roles - be it pop star or middle-class
public schoolboy or gay 25-year old. I think Stephen's like that, and I love it."
Will sings several numbers, including All The Things You Are, "That is a
gorgeous ballad, it stops everyone in its tracks," and The Girl in the Little Green Hat. He
had to adapt his style for the film and worked with voice coach Penny Dyer. "I had to
change my singing and breathing style. It's a different place in the voice. It's lighter but
you use your diaphragm more. It's more classical and the diction's different. But as for
his accent, "I'm lucky in that I'm reasonably well spoken, and I just needed to heighten
that."
Will was able to draw anecdotes from his grandmother, who saw some of the
original Windmill shows. "She said the tableaux weren't sleazy but there were some
sleazy characters watching them. The mackintoshes in the front row."
No problem with the nudity. - Kelly Reilly
Kelly Reilly plays Maureen, the leading tableau girl of the five. "She's a bit older
than the other girls, she has knowingness. She and Vivian have this mutual respect and
understanding. She doesn't idolise him as much as the other girls but she knows his
heart's in the right place most of the time."
She adds, "My character was in the best way underwritten by Martin. What
attracted me was I could use my imagination. Maureen's a bit in her own world." To help
them better imagine their roles, Kelly and the other tableaux girls talked to the original
Windmill girls or heard tapes of them talking about the shows.
Kelly says she didn't have a problem with the nudity: "It's complete nudity but
there's something very moving and pure in the way that Stephen's shot it. We are like
sculptures really; we don't move, you can't touch, there's something very ethereal about
us. Bombs going off outside and they are embracing the spirit to get these lads in who
were just about to go off to their deaths. They gave them escapism, something
nourishing and very female, but not too serious - it was wholesome and beautiful, and
that's what I loved about it. The naked girls were just the cherry on top."
Christopher Guest plays Lord Cromer, the Lord Chamberlain whose job it was to
censor stage productions until the 1960s. "Lord Cromer is a humourless man, a
pompous man, I'd say," says Guest. "A man who probably goes home, looks at pictures
of women, but then during the day tells people they shouldn't look at pictures of women.
Lord Cromer is not a very straight role. It has some very funny moments because he
takes himself very seriously. And I think people who take themselves very seriously are
in for a fall."
The attraction for Guest, after reading Martin Sherman's script, was working with
Dench, Hoskins and Frears. "Very good actors are very accommodating, and when you
are in a scene they want to help you. It's lovely to be able to work with someone that is
talented and giving - and I only wish I were the same way," he jokes. "The dynamic
between my character and Judi's was wonderful because she really puts me in my
place every chance she gets, and that's a funny position to be in."
Guest has a first-rate insight into the mind of the aristocracy: he is the Fifth Baron
Haden-Guest of Saling. "I am an actual Lord, it's an inherited title. I did sit for two years
in the House of Lords, which was interesting, before they kicked out hereditary peers. I
don't think the caricature of that place is accurate. I met a lot of very nice people."
Thelma Barlow plays Lady Conway, a close friend of Laura Henderson. After 50
years as an actress, with some 30 of those playing the national treasure Mavis in
Coronation Street, this is Thelma's first feature film. "I met Stephen and he said: Can
you play posh? I'd played a lot of posh in the theatre but I don't think I had on telly. So it
was a great insight that Stephen imagined I could do it."
Thelma learnt about the Windmill when she came to London in 1954 from the
north, determined to act. "It was a naughty place as far as I was concerned. In the mid
1950s it was starting to slip a bit. But before that, though it was very shocking, it was
also very proper. I never thought of going in, but now I wish I had."
Doraly Rosen plays Maggie, Van Damm's right-hand woman. "Maggie is the
secretary but she wants to dance, she's a secret yearner. I think she's a little kooky. She
wears crazy colours and she doesn't say a lot but she spends a lot of time pulling
faces." As preparation, Rosen looked at the work of Katharine Hepburn and Carole
Lombard in screwball comedies such as His Girl Friday and Philadelphia Story.
Maggie was a refreshing change for Rosen, who normally plays "heavy drama".
"I'm always playing hookers," she notes. "This has been learning to bring lightness and
comedy to a part." She loved working with the actors, especially with Hoskins. "After my
first take with just me and Bob he said, 'Why so fast? It's screen time, darling. Take your
time, slow it down.' He's been lovely."
Rosalind Halstead plays Francis, one of the tableaux girls. "She's slightly
stronger than the other girls. She sticks up for them and has a bit of a tougher skin on
her. A bit of a mother figure," she says.
Going nude for the film was, she feels an experience akin to that which the
Windmill girls must have gone through. "At first you think: what have I got myself into.
But it is liberating and refreshing. These girls hit it lucky big time, they were paid really
well, had all their healthcare paid for. Van Damm would fly them on private jets around
the world. They were real celebrities."
Natalia Tena plays Peggy. "My character is from London's East End. I think
Peggy is the idiot of them all. She screams at mice, messes things up a bit. She says
certain things that a good girl wouldn't such as, 'Not even my boyfriend's seen me
naked.'"
Natalia says she didn't have any problem with the nudity. "I went to Bedales [the
Hampshire school well know for its liberal attitudes and commitment to arts and
performance] where there's a lot of art. My friends did plaster casts of me naked. Also,
my family is Spanish and in Spain when it's hot everyone's naked. We don't have
inhibitions in my family."
Like many of the actresses, Natalia loved doing the tableaux. "My favourite was
the first one, Sweet Inspiration, because my bum was really visible - though the funniest
was being a mermaid in a massive blonde wig with a fishy tail."
Sarah Solemani plays Vera. She had never acted or danced in a film before. "I
was studying politics at Cambridge when my agent told me about the film. I met
Stephen and he had pictures of the original Windmill girls. I'm a size 12 and I said,
'That's my body, that's me.'" she says.
"My character Vera finds herself through the tableaux. She's a bit uptight at first,
and slowly relaxes. It's been the same for me. I've never been a
get-my-tits-out-for-the-lads sort of girl. I like to think of myself as a private exhibitionist."
She adds: "We were taking our clothes off so much, four or five times a day, it
becomes quite natural. We're all very different body shapes, most of us aren't models
and personally it's been incredible. I've felt really liberated."
At 18, Anna Brewster is the youngest tableaux girl, Doris. When she met
Stephen Frears, she told him: "I'm not a size 8, I'm not a model, and Stephen said that
wasn't what they were looking for anyway," she says. "As for doing the nudity, at first I
wasn't sure. I'm still young and growing into my body, but as I've done it, I've become
very comfortable with it. It's the same for Doris. When we get naked for the first time in
front of an audience, it's just as they did.' She adds, "We've been wondering how it's
going to be perceived. We've talked to the crew and they say they didn't find it sexual,
it's just beautiful."
Camille O'Sullivan plays Jane, the leading female singer. She had been
performing at the Edinburgh festival when Stephen Frears and the casting director Leo
Davis were tipped off about her. "It was 12th September last year when I met them, and
filming was starting a day or two later," she says. "I had a little dress and shoes from the
period and later make-up said that really helped them to see the character of Jane."
Camille had been singing for 10 years, doing jazzy 1930s and 40s music by Jacques
Brel and Kurt Weill. "I lived in Berlin, I understand that mannered way of singing. I know
how to take a song and sell it as a story."
Sisters Dinah, Becky and Maria Rohsean O'Brien play the Deering Sisters, a
three-part harmony act in the style of the Andrew Sisters. Becky and Dinah went to the
open auditions. "I saw hundreds of tall girls, so I didn't think we stood a chance, as
we're five foot nothing," says Becky. Then they heard a lady talking about Judi Dench. "I
asked her if she was looking for singers and she said yes, do you sing with anyone
else? And I said I did and I grabbed Dinah. I said in fact we had another sister and we
all sang together. [In fact, there are seven O'Brien sisters in all] The lady seemed
interested, and it was at that point we found out she was the producer, Norma Heyman."
They got called back for a second audition the next day, with their sister Maria.
"We put a medley together, had a half-hour rehearsal in the toilet and then just went for
it. They said that without knowing it, we hit the nail on the head."
Maria's mother actually performed at the Windmill as a dancer and equilibrist, or
balancing act. "Our primary number is Babies of the Blitz, which I think we've made our
own. It's very exciting. And it's been a lot of laughs."
Matthew Hart plays Frank, a dancer at the Windmill who becomes the
choreographer. Hart had been dancing for 15 years, with the Royal Ballet and the
Rambert Dance Company. "It's been great seeing the different styles, singers, dancers,
actors, coming together. It's been like a working in a dance company, becoming like a
family." Frank gets called up for active duty but returns to the theatre at the end of the
film. "I'm on leave, watching from the audience, and Bertie calls me on stage. It's quite
nice because, though Mrs Henderson has lost her son in one war, it gives a feeling of
hope for the guys who survived."
Richard Syms plays Ambrose, Laura Henderson's trusted and faithful driver. He
first met Stephen Frears when they worked on a stage version of Expresso Bongo, 30
years ago. "Ambrose is devoted to Mrs Henderson, and apparently in real life she left
him £10,000, which in 1944 must have been a hell of a lot of money. So he obviously
was really someone important in the family," says Syms. "Martin has written some
beautiful stage directions, such as; 'Ambrose is watching her, protecting her with his
eyes'."
Richard loved his scenes with Dench. "It was very easy for me to pretend that
Ambrose has been in love with her for 30 years because I saw Judi play Ophelia when I
was 15. When I told Judi that she said 'I suppose you were a boy in short trousers?' And
I said no, I was 16 or 17, and she said 'Oh, you should have come round!'"
ABOUT THE CAST
Judi Dench (Laura Henderson)
Dame Judi is one of the world's best-loved and most accomplished actresses.
Born in York, she is renowned for her outstanding performances in both classical and
contemporary roles. She has worked consistently across the arenas of theatre, film and
television, winning critical and popular acclaim, and a burgeoning rack of awards including 9 BAFTA awards. Judi received the OBE in 1970 and became a Dame of the
British Empire in 1988. In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List, she was made a
Companion of Honour.
Her feature films include Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini, Mrs Brown (for
which she won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar® nomination), A Room With A
View (for which she won a BAFTA), Wetherby, 84 Charing Cross Road and A Handful
of Dust (another BAFTA-award-winning performance). She did two films for Kenneth
Branagh, Henry V and Hamlet. In 2001, her moving portrayal of Iris Murdoch in the
biopic Iris won her a BAFTA and an Academy Award® nomination. The same year she
filmed The Shipping News, directed by Lasse Hallström.
Dame Judi won an Academy Award®, a BAFTA award and was named Best
Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics for her performance as Queen
Elizabeth in the hit romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love. She was nominated for a
Golden Globe and an Oscar® for Lasse Hallström's Chocolat. Her first appearance as
M, the head of MI6 and 007's boss came in GoldenEye in 1995, and continues to the
latest Bond, Casino Royale.
Dame Judi's Lady Macbeth and Mistress Quickly in Henry V, filmed for TV, have
gone down in performance history; her Cleopatra on stage won her an Olivier Award in
1987. She continues to work on the London stage; she starred in David Hare's Amy's
View (her Broadway performance in the play won a Tony award), Peter Hall's The Royal
Family and All's Well That Ends Well for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford,
then the West End. Her TV work has included the much-loved 1981 series A Fine
Romance, in which she starred opposite her late husband, Michael Williams, the hit
series As Time Goes By, with Geoffrey Palmer, which ran for 10 years, and The Last of
the Blonde Bombshells, which won her a Golden Globe. Dame Judi's recent film credits
include David Twohy's The Chronicles of Riddick and the Charles Dance-directed
Ladies in Lavender.
Bob Hoskins (Vivian Van Damm, and Executive Producer)
Bob Hoskins won the hearts of the British public (as well as a BAFTA award)
playing the doomed salesman Arthur Parker in the drama series Pennies From Heaven,
scripted by Dennis Potter in 1978 for television. Since this breakthrough role, Bob has
worked in theatre, for the National and the RSC; winning awards for his performances in
Guys and Dolls and Sam Shepard's True West.
In a long and illustrious film career, Bob has balanced big-budget Hollywood with
innovative independent. In 1981 he played the mob boss Harold Shand in John
Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday, a performance that was BAFTA nominated and
won him the Best Actor award in the Evening Standard Film Awards. The film was
recently voted 'favourite film of all time' by London cinema goers. In The Honorary
Consul, also directed by Mackenzie, he co-starred alongside Michael Caine and
Richard Gere. It was the first film produced by Norma Heyman, and was the start of Bob
and Norma's long friendship and production collaboration. It also earned him a BAFTA
nomination. He followed these with The Cotton Club and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. In Neil
Jordan's Mona Lisa, his storming performance as the mobster George won him a brace
of awards: a Golden Globe, a New York Critics award, Best Actor at the Cannes Film
Festival and an Oscar nomination. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne and A Prayer
for the Dying came next, and in Who Framed Roger Rabbit for Walt Disney, Bob acted
with animated characters, including a tall, sexy Jessica Rabbit. These were followed by
two films with the independent director Shane Meadows: A Room for Romeo Brass, and
Twentyfour Seven.
Hoskins has played a series of prominent political figures and wartime leaders: J
Edgar Hoover in Nixon; Churchill and Mussolini (in TV dramas) and Khrushchev in
Enemy at the Gates. He played Mr Micawber in David Copperfield for television, and Sir
Pitt Crawley in Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. He teamed up again with
Michael Caine for Last Orders, which also starred Tom Courtenay, Helen Mirren and
Ray Winstone. Bob's directing credits include The Raggedy Rawney, which he also
wrote and starred in, as well as segments of the HBO classic series Tales from the
Crypt, Rainbow and Tube Tales.
He was executive producer of The Secret Agent, from Joseph Conrad's novel,
the first production to be made with Norma Heyman through their Heyman Hoskins
production company. Bob has recently completed Stay with Ewan McGregor and Naomi
Watts and is currently filming Truth, Justice and the American Way with Adrien Brody
and Ben Affleck.
Will Young (Bertie)
Mrs Henderson Presents sees the multi-platinum artist and multiple Brit Award
winner Will Young make his feature-film debut. Many, including the director Stephen
Frears believe he couldn't have chosen a better part for his first role. "Will is a natural,"
says Stephen Frears, "He took to the role so easily, as if it was made for him." Over the
past few years Will's singing career has gone from strength to strength: he broke
records with his debut UK single, selling over 1.1 million copies in its first week, won two
Brit Awards, recently performed for the second time with James Brown - performing
together at Murrayfield, Scotland for Live 8 - and has gone on to sell over 1.5 million
copies of his critically acclaimed second album, Friday's Child. Will, who has a degree in
politics, would like to combine his singing with an acting career. Between takes playing
Bertie, Will spent much of his time rehearsing at Shepperton Studios in preparation for
his first solo Arena tour last Christmas. Will is currently working on his third studio
album.
Kelly Reilly (Maureen)
One of Britain's finest and most exciting young actresses, Kelly Reilly has already
distinguished herself with her performance in the title role in After Miss Julie at the
Donmar Warehouse, for which she was nominated for an Olivier award for best actress
in 2004. Kelly's other theatre credits include Sexual Perversity in Chicago, A Prayer for
Owen Meaney at the Royal National Theatre, and Blasted at the Royal Court. She
played Elaine Robinson in the West End production of The Graduate. Kelly's television
credits include Prime Suspect, Simsola, Poldark, Rebecca, Sex 'n' Death, Tom Jones;
Poirot, The Safe House. Her film credits include Last Orders, Dead Bodies, The
Libertine with Johnny Depp and Maybe Baby, directed by Ben Elton. She appeared in
the romantic comedy L'Auberge Espagnole directed by Cédric Klapisch. Her
performance in the follow-up to this hit, Les Poupées Russes (the Russian Dolls) also
directed by Klapisch, won her the 'Chopard' award for Most Promising Newcomer at
Cannes. Kelly can soon be seen playing Caroline Bingley in Joe Wright's Pride and
Prejudice.
Thelma Barlow (Lady Conway)
Thelma Barlow is best-loved and distinguished for her lifetime contribution to one
of our most popular, longest-running British television soaps: for 26 years she embodied
the character of Mavis Wilton (nee Riley) in Granada's Coronation Street. Thelma began
her dramatic career on the stage; one of her first engagements was with the legendary
Joan Littlewood Theatre group, with whom she played seasons all over England, before
joining Bristol Old Vic, Glasgow Citizens and the Edinburgh Lyceum. Now having left
Coronation Street, Thelma has been able to return to the stage she so loved and in
recent years she has acted in productions such as The Cherry Orchard, Smoking with
Lulu, Blithe Spirit and Arsenic and Old Lace, at theatres ranging from West Yorkshire
Playhouse to Soho Theatre and the Strand Theatre. Thelma's other TV credits include
Doctors, Sweet Charity, Stig of the Dump, Fat Friends, Dinner Ladies and David
Copperfield. Mrs Henderson presents is Thelma's first feature film, and this year she
celebrates 50 years in show business.
Christopher Guest (Lord Cromer)
Christopher Guest has acted, written and composed for theatre, radio, television
and film. From the late 1960s to the mid 70s he worked as a stage actor in New York. In
1970 he began working for the National Lampoon magazine. While at the Lampoon, he
co-wrote and performed on the Lampoon Radio Hour, Lemmings, a live show, as well
as recording five record albums. After co-writing and starring in This Is Spinal Tap, Mr
Guest became a member of the cast of Saturday Night live. Mr Guest has directed The
Big Picture starring Kevin Bacon, Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman starring Daryl Hannah,
Waiting for Guffman, Almost Heroes, Best in Show, and most recently A Mighty Wind.
Mr Guest has won an Emmy for writing the Lily Tomlin show, An American Film Institute
Award for Best in Show, and a Grammy award for A Mighty Wind. Mr Guest has been
married to the spectacular Jamie Lee Curtis for twenty years and is the proud father of
Annie and Thomas.
Camille O'Sullivan (Jane)
An award-winning architect and painter, Camille O'Sullivan left her job to pursue
a career as a singer and actress. In 10 years on the circuit, she has won critical and
popular acclaim for her interpretations of the music of Jacques Brel, Kurt Weill, Tom
Waits and Nick Cave. She performs in English, French and German, mixing old love
songs with the contemporary. She has appeared in Cork Opera House's Man of La
Mancha and Finola Cronin's critical Tanztheatre hit Murder Ballads. Her film credits
include November Afternoon, On the Edge and L'Etranger. In the past year she has
appeared with Damien Rice and Shane McGowan, and released a debut album, A Little
Yearning. Her tour of The Dark Angel and Brel Show was a sell-out at festivals in Dublin
and Brighton. It was her highly acclaimed one-woman show at the Edinburgh festival
that brought her to the attention of the director Stephen Frears and the casting director
Leo Davis. Camille was cast in the coveted role of Jane, the leading female singer at
the Windmill, just a few days before shooting began.
Rosalind Halstead (Frances)
Rosalind's performance career began at the North London Performing Arts
Centre at the tender age of eight and she has worked on many productions with them
since. Her film credits include Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason and Parting Shots. On
stage she has acted in Opposites Attract at the Edinburgh Festival and Annie and
Maggie May. She has appeared in Sons and Lovers on television. Rosalind is an
excellent dancer; she trained for five years at the Central School of Ballet, and has
danced at Sadler's Wells, Earl's Court and Her Majesty's Theatre.
Natalia Tena (Peggy)
Natalia attended Bedales, the same school attended by Minnie Driver and Daniel
Day-Lewis. She credits the school's liberal approach with helping her to appear nude in
Mrs Henderson Presents. Natalia's film credits include The Grooming, directed by John
Irvin, and About A Boy starring Hugh Grant, adapted from the Nick Hornby novel. Her
television credits include Doctors and Murder Room, both for the BBC. She made her
stage debut in Gone to Earth directed by Nancy Meckler for Shared Experience, a
performance that drew the critique: "She is phenomenal. Fierce, graceful, apparently
guileless."
Sarah Solemani (Vera)
Sarah trained at the National Youth Theatre. Her film credits include The Train
Game, directed by Juliano Ribeiro. For television, she has appeared in Red Cap. Her
theatre credits include Elaine Robinson in Terry Johnson's The Graduate in the West
End, Getting There and Age Sex Loc@tion, both directed by Paul Roseby at the
National Youth Theatre, and Sanctuary directed by Hettie McDonald at the Royal
National Theatre.
Anna Brewster (Doris)
Anna was born in Birmingham and was selected for her debut film role after
attending an open audition at her local comprehensive school. She was chosen to play
Anita in Meera Syal's semi-autobiographical film, Anita and Me. Anna went back to
school for two years to finish her A-levels, and is now returning to acting with the role of
Doris, the youngest of the Windmill Theatre's Tableaux girls, in Mrs Henderson
Presents.
Doraly Rosen (Maggie)
Doraly Rosen's career began in the theatre, and she has appeared at the Royal
Court, Bristol Old Vic, Donmar Warehouse and Soho Theatre in productions including
Urban Afro Saxons, Frame 312, The Coming World, Other People, Navy Pier and A
Respectable and Macbeth. She has worked with theatre directors including Abigail
Morris, Dominic Cooke and Phillipa Gregory. Doraly's film credits include playing a
journalist in Richard Curtis's Love Actually, Lickety Split in Sara Sugarman's Graves
End, and appearing in the films The Truth about Men and Women, Angel, Hidden Lives
and Maestro. Her television credits include Kavanagh QC, The Alchemist and Casualty.
Doraly has co-written a film screenplay, There For Me, which will star Paul Bettany and
Saffron Burrows.
The O'Brien Sisters (the Deering Sisters)
Becky, Dinah and Maria are three of a family of seven sisters. They come from a
showbiz background; their parents were in the variety business from the 1950s to the
1980s. Maria's mum, June, was a dancer and an equilibrist in The Trio Sylvanos; she
toured England and Europe, and appeared at the Windmill Theatre for a season. Becky
and Dinah's mum, also called June, was a dancer and a choreographer, and went on to
become a theatrical agent. As June Miller, she appeared with The Miller Girls. Their
father, Pascal Joseph O'Brien appeared at the London Palladium and Royal Variety
Show, and starred in the Last Windmill Revue in Sydney, Australia. He was part of the
international comedy duo Dailey and Wayne, who appeared on the Hollywood Palace
TV show with Bing Crosby, Janet Leigh and Liberace. Maria O'Brien appears in cabaret
and loves to sing. Dinah has appeared with her sisters at the Palladium and does
cabaret with Becky, as well as being an accomplished dancer and musician. Becky has
just returned from two very successful seasons in Broadway Melodies in the United
States. She is a great fan of Judy Garland and is working on presenting her one-woman
tribute to Garland.
Richard Syms (Ambrose)
Richard Syms has been an actor and director for over 30 years. He has played
leading roles in many regional theatres and on tour, including productions of Educating
Rita, Equus, Doctor Faustus and Skylight, and he spent a year with the National
Theatre. Richard first worked with Stephen Frears in the mid 1970s, on a stage
production of Expresso Bongo. He appeared in A Woman of No Importance in the West
End and toured in Yasmina Reza's play The Unexpected Man. He has made over 100
TV appearances, including those in Rumpole of the Bailey, London's Burning, Lovejoy
and Goodnight Sweetheart. His feature credits include Truly Madly Deeply, Secrets and
Lies, Stella Does Tricks, Gangs of New York and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.
He has directed over 80 productions as a freelance director. Richard has a second
career outside acting: he has spent 10 years as a full-time clergyman, is still licensed as
a priest and has published books on contemporary Christianity.
Matthew Hart (Roy Lawson)
Matthew trained at Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet school. He
joined the Royal Ballet in 1991, where he became a soloist in 1995 .His repertory
includes roles in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping
Beauty, and ballets by Bronislava Nijinksa, De Valois, Balanchine, Ashton, Twyla Tharp
and William Forsythe. In 1998 he won the Cosmopolitan/C&A Dance Award, and in
1991, he won the Ursula Moreton Choreographic Award, followed by the Frederick
Ashton award in 1994 and the Jerwood Foundation award for choreographers in 1996.
He has choreographed ballets for National Youth Dance, the Royal Ballet school, The
Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and the London City Ballet, among others. He left
the Royal Ballet in 1996 to work as a freelance in contemporary dance. He made a film
of Peter and the Wolf for the BBC, and joined the Rambert Dance Company, dancing in
works by Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Per Johnson. In November 1999 he was
nominated for the Barclay Theatre awards' Outstanding Achievement in Dance. Since
2000, Matthew has been a freelance dancer and choreographer.
ABOUT THE FILM-MAKERS
Stephen Frears - Director
Of director Stephen Frears, with whom she has now collaborated on three films,
including the Oscar-winning Dangerous Liaisons, producer Norma Heyman says: "I do
believe one has to test him frequently. Constantly. He loves being tested and
questioned and provoked." Frears has himself never shied away from challenges nor
the fear of provoking. One of our most political directors, his work has tackled the
policies of the Thatcher years (My Beautiful Laundrette), the contradictions of the
modern Labour party (The Deal) and illegal immigration and the grisly trade in human
organs (Dirty Pretty Things).
Stephen Frears began his distinguished film career assisting Lindsay Anderson,
Karel Reisz and Albert Finney. In the 1970s, he directed television dramas for the BBC,
including adaptations of plays by Alan Bennett, Tom Stoppard, Peter Prince and Neville
Smith.
He first worked with Dame Judi Dench on the TV drama Going Gently. It won 4
BAFTA; one for Stephen, one for Judi and one for the musical director George Fenton.
Stephen and Judi worked together again, on Saigon - Year of the Cat. Mrs Henderson
Presents is their third collaboration.
Stephen's early films include Gumshoe starring Albert Finney, Bloody Kids
written by Stephen Poliakoff and The Hit, starring John Hurt, Terence Stamp and
Jeremy Irons. My Beautiful Laundrette starring Daniel Day Lewis and Gordon Warnecke
and produced by Working Title was a box-office and critical hit. Prick Up Your Ears,
starring Gary Oldman and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid followed.
Then in 1988 came Dangerous Liaisons, starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich,
Michelle Pfeiffer and a 17-year-old Uma Thurman, and produced by Norma Heyman. It
was another smash hit; nominated for seven Oscars, it won three. Stephen then
directed Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening in The Grifters, which
earned him an Oscar nomination. Hero, starring Dustin Hoffman, and two Roddy Doyle
adaptations, The Snapper and The Van, followed. Sandwiched between these was
Mary Reilly; starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich, and produced by Norma
Heyman. Stephen helmed Hi Lo Country, starring Patricia Arquette and Woody
Harrelson, then he directed Cusack again, in High Fidelity, and Ian Hart in Liam.
In 2002, he made Dirty Pretty Things, starring Audrey Tatou, Chiwetel Ejiofor,
and Sophie Okonedo, about illegal immigrants in the UK and the grisly trade in human
organs. Since its debut at the Venice Film Festival where it was in competition and
where he collected the Sergio Trassatti Award for his work on the film, Dirty Pretty
Things has won nine international awards including Best Film at the South Bank
Awards, the Evening Standard Awards, and the British Independent Film Awards, along
with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Stephen's TV film The Deal,
starring David Morrissey, won a BAFTA award for Best Single Drama. From the
idiosyncratic Mrs Henderson, Frears has gone on to a film based on another of Britain's
most individualistic women. He is presently working on The Queen, a film for television
which looks at the relationship between our ruling monarch Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, which stars Helen Mirren and
Michael Sheen.
Norma Heyman - Producer
Born in Liverpool, Norma Heyman began her career as an actress. She became
an independent producer in 1984 with the Honorary Consul, which received two BAFTA
nominations, and with which she became the first woman producer in Britain to have
completed her own solo production. She went on to produce the films Burning Secret
and Buster (which received an Oscar nomination).
In 1988, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Dangerous
Liaisons. A critical and popular hit, it starred Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer and John
Malkovich, and was directed by Stephen Frears, from a Christopher Hampton
screenplay. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, it won three and two BAFTA and a
French Cesar for best foreign film.
In 1992, Norma produced Clothes in the Wardrobe made as a film for UK
television, which received theatrical release in the US through the Samuel Goldwyn
Company under the title The Summer House. It was her first collaboration with the
writer Martin Sherman, who received a Writers Guild award for the film. Her further
production credits include The Innocent, directed by John Schlesinger from a
screenplay by Ian McKewan and Sister, My Sister, directed my Nancy Meckler.
Norma collaborated with Stephen Frears again in 1995, on Mary Reilly, which
starred Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. Working again with Bob Hoskins, they
together produced The Secret Agent in 1996. In 1999 came one of Norma's boldest
films, Gangster No 1; starring a then-unknown Paul Bettany, it was directed by Paul
McGuigan, and won an American Film Institute award and two London Film Critics
Circle nominations, including Best British Producer for Norma. At the same time as
making Gangster No.1, she also executive produced a Sky TV film, Kiss Kiss (Bang
Bang), starring Paul Bettany and Stellan Skarsgård, directed and scripted by Stewart
Sugg.
Norma was one of the founders of Women in Film & Television UK and is a
member of the BAFTA film committee. She is also a member of the American Academy,
the European Film Academy and is on the board of the European Producers Club. She
has two production companies: NFH Films Ltd and Heyman Hoskins, with Bob Hoskins.
In 2004 she was awarded the special jury prize at the British Independent Film awards,
and earlier this year, she received a special Lifetime Achievement award to mark the
25th anniversary of the London Film Critics Circle, the first woman producer to be
honoured at these annual British film critics' awards.
Martin Sherman - Writer
Martin Sherman was born in Philadelphia and educated at Boston University. He
lives in London. An award winning author, his plays have been produced in more than
45 countries. Bent, presented at the Royal Court in London, with Ian McKellen,
transferred to the West End; it went to Broadway, starring Richard Gere, and won a
Tony nomination for best play. It was revived at the National Theatre with Ian McKellen
again in the lead, and it was made into a film in 1998 starring Clive Owen, Lothaire
Blutheau and Mick Jagger. Martin's other West End plays include Messiah, starring
Maureen Lipman; When She Danced, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Frances de la
Tour; A Madhouse in Goa, also starring Vanessa Redgrave and a new version of a
Pirandello, Absolutely! (perhaps) starring Joan Plowright. His play Rose premiered at
the National Theatre, with Olympia Dukakis, and transferred to Broadway. Martin's book
for the hit musical, The Boy from Oz, which opened on Broadway in 2003 starring Hugh
Jackman, earned him his second Tony nomination. That same year, his screenplay
adapted from the Tennessee Williams novella, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, was
filmed starring Helen Mirren, Olivier Martinez and Anne Bancroft.
Martin initially worked with Norma Heyman in 1992 when she commissioned his
first screenplay, for The Clothes in the Wardrobe, which he adapted from a novel by
Alice Thomas Ellis and which starred Jeanne Moreau. Released theatrically in the USA
by Goldwyn under the title The Summer House, it brought Martin nominations from both
BAFTA and The Writer's Guild. His other screenwriting credits include Callas Forever
with the director Franco Zeffirelli, starring Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons, and Alive
and Kicking, starring Jason Flemyng, Antony Sher and Dorothy Tutin. His recent
adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India earned him rave notices when it played
at London's Riverside Theatre and New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music. He also
directed Ruby Wax Live, Ruby Wax's stage show, which toured the UK, Australia and
New Zealand. He is currently writing an adaptation of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard"
which will premiere this winter in Los Angeles with Annette Bening and Alfred Molina in
the leads.
David Aukin - Executive Producer
Aukin has long been in the business of spotting and developing talent: one of his
first jobs was as the director of the new-writing venue, the Hampstead Theatre in
London. Many of his productions were picked up by the West End or TV, including
Abigail's Party and the Elephant Man. He ran the big regional theatre the Leicester
Haymarket, from which a number of shows transferred to London and Broadway,
including Peter Nicholl's Passion Play and the award-winning musical Me and My Girl.
Then in 1986 he became Executive Director of the Royal National Theatre, London,
where he worked first with Peter Hall and then Richard Eyre. In 1990 he joined Channel
4 Television to run its film division, Film on Four. In his eight years there he
commissioned over 100 films, including The Madness of King George, Secrets and
Lies, Trainspotting, The Crying Game, Welcome to Sarajevo, Brassed Off, Raining
Stones, Shallow Grave and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Since 2003 Aukin has been
working with Mentorn, developing dramas based on factual events, The Hamburg Cell,
about 9/11, The Government Inspector, about David Kelly and the war in Iraq, and,
most recently A Very Social Secretary, about David Blunkett. In 1998 he formed Hal
films with Miramax, with whom he produced Mansfield Park. He has also produced on
the London West End stage, most recently a production of Dance of Death starring Sir
Ian McKellen and Frances de la Tour. He continues to develop feature films.
George Fenton - Musical Director
Fenton began writing scores in 1974 after a brief career performing and
songwriting. He now works exclusively in theatre, TV and film. Among George's first
jobs for TV were Bloody Kids, Going Gently and Saigon - Year of the Cat, all directed by
Stephen Frears. Also, The Jewell in the Crown, The Monocled Mutineer and The
History Man. He has written music for many of Alan Bennett's plays, and popular
signature tunes including Shoestring and Bergerac. He has composed music for
documentary series such as The Trials of Life, Beyond the Clouds, Shanghai Vice and
The Blue Planet. He has written over 50 scores for cinema: The Company of Wolves,
Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons, The Fisher King, Groundhog Day, The
Madness of King George, You've Got Mail, Shadowlands, and the Ken Loach films Land
and Freedom, My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen and Ae Fond Kiss. For his film and TV
work he has won BAFTA, Ivor Novello and Emmy awards and received five Oscar
nominations and three Grammy nominations. George has won a BAFTA for The Blue
Planet, The Monocled Mutineer, the History Man and Going Gently. He has been Oscar
nominated for Best Original Score for the Fisher King, Dangerous Liaisons, Cry
Freedom and Gandhi.
David and Kathy Rose - Associate Producers
For David and Kathy Rose, Mrs Henderson Presents in the result of 10 years'
worth of "detective work" piecing together the previously untold story of this
extraordinary woman. The Roses launched their own production company in 1981,
working in the then-new pop promo industry. They directed over 250 pop videos and
several live concerts, working with top acts in the 1980s in the UK and Europe. David
worked on the launch of Nickelodeon in the UK, and then became Creative Director of
Walt Disney Television International. Kathy set up a casting and management company.
In 2000 the Roses launched their own TV channel together - whereits.at - and are
working on a children's fantasy film Day Trip to Heaven, based on an original story by
their nine-year-old daughter, Ellie.
Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski - Production Designer
One of Hugo's first films was My Beautiful Launderette, for the director Stephen
Frears. After working on Terry Jones's Personal Services, he was back working with
Stephen again on Prick Up Your Ears, starring Gary Oldman, and Sammie and Rosie
Get Laid. His credits thereafter included the TV drama A Woman at War, Waterland
starring Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack, The Music of Chance starring James Spader,
Uncovered, one of Kate Beckinsale's early films and Black Easter for the BBC. Hugo
designed sets for the football movie When Saturday Comes, starring Sean Bean, Emily
Lloyd and Pete Postlethwaite, and the second world war TV drama The Affair. The stark
realism of Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth came next, followed by the lush historical
comedy drama Cousin Bette, starring Jessica Lange. Hugo worked on Mojo, directed by
Jez Butterworth from his own play, and another Butterworth project, Birthday Girl,
starring Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin. Guy Ritchie's Snatch, starring Brad Pitt, and
Jonathan Demme's The Truth About Charlie, a remake of the 1963 classic thriller
Charade, preceded Dirty Pretty Things, which saw Hugo reunited with Stephen Frears
once again.
Andrew Dunn - Director of Photography
Andrew Dunn's career in cinematography began in the 1980s, working on
distinguished BBC TV drama series including Tumbledown, starring Colin Firth, Edge of
Darkness, starring Bob Peck and Joanne Whalley, and Threads, which each won him a
BAFTA award. His other television credits have included After Pilkington, the Monocled
Mutineer, Across the Lake with Anthony Hopkins, and Dennis Potter's Black Eyes;
Richard Eyre's Suddenly Last Summer starring Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson,
The Absence of War starring John Thaw, and Better Days starring Sinead Cusack. His
feature film credits include The Madness of King George, which won him a British
Society of Cinematographers award, an Evening Standard award for Best
Technical/Artistic Achievement and a BAFTA nomination, The Crucible, with Daniel
Day-Lewis, Addicted to Love with Meg Ryan, Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and
Angelica Huston, Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, and Liam,
which was directed by Stephen Frears. Andrew worked on The Count of Monte Cristo
and Robert Altman's Gosford Park, Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon,
and The Company starring Malcolm McDowell. In recent years he has worked on
Complete Female Stage Beauty starring Billy Crudup and directed by Richard Eyre,
Piccadilly Jim starring Sam Rockwell and Tom Wilkinson and First Last Kiss, starring
Will Smith.
Jenny Shircore - Make-up and Hair Designer
In a career that has spanned almost 30 years, Jenny Shircore has designed
make-up and hair for an amazing array of directors, such as Stephen Frears, Neil
Jordan, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, Mike Figgis and David Leland. She has worked with
stars such as Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins
(whom she first worked with on the BBC drama series Pennies from Heaven). Her
credits include Wish You Were Here, Personal Services starring Julie Walters, and A
Month in the Country. Jenny was make-up artist on Sister My Sister, again starring Julie
Walters, which was produced by Norma Heyman. Norma enlisted her as chief make-up
artist and hair stylist on her productions of The Secret Agent and Mary Reilly. Jenny
was hair and make-up designer on Cousin Bette and The Land Girls. For her
exceptional work as make-up and hair designer on Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett,
she won an Oscar® and a BAFTA. Jenny followed this with work on Notting Hill,
Gangster No 1, Enigma and Dirty Pretty Things, directed by Stephen Frears. Her work
for Girl With A Pearl Earring was BAFTA-nominated. Jenny's most recent film work has
included Vanity Fair, Phantom of the Opera for Joel Schumacher and Ask the Dust with
Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.
Sandy Powell - Costume Designer
Sandy Powell studied theatre design at Central School of Art. She created
costumes for the director Derek Jarman for Caravaggio, and Sally Potter for Orlando,
starring Tilda Swinton; both films were noted for the exceptional, opulent costumes
Sandy created. Her other film credits include The Last of England, For Queen and
Country, The Miracle, The Pope Must Die, The Crying Game, Being Human, and
Wittgenstein. Next came Neil Jordan's Interview With The Vampire, starring Tom Cruise
and Brad Pitt, and Rob Roy and Michael Collins, both starring Liam Neeson. Following
this was The Butcher Boy, The Wings of the Dove and Hilary and Jackie. Sandy won a
BAFTA for Velvet Goldmine in 1998. Sandy's next film was Shakespeare in Love,
starring Judi Dench and Gwyneth Paltrow; her costumes for the Elizabeth era won her
first Academy Award®. This was followed by Felicia's Journey, Miss Julie and the 1940s
drama The End of the Affair, starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore. In 2002 she
designed the costumes for Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and The Aviator, both
films starring Leonardo DiCaprio; the latter won Sandy her second Oscar®. She
designed costumes once again for Paltrow in Sylvia, the biopic of the poet Sylvia Plath,
and she is currently working again with Scorsese and DiCaprio on The Departed.
Eleanor Fazan - Choreography/Creator Musical Numbers
Eleanor Fazan has enjoyed an illustrious and extensive career in the world of
dance. Born in Kenya, Eleanor - affectionately known as Fiz - began her dancing life at
Sadler's Wells Ballet School before attending the Royal Academy of Dancing and the
Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. Her early performances included dancing in
West End shows and cabaret, on TV and film before she moved over, in the mid-1950s,
to choreography and direction. Films she has choreographed include Oh, What a lovely
War!, Oh Lucky Man!, Yanks, Heaven's Gate, Mountains of the Moon, Willow, Cold
Comfort Farm and Onegin. In theatre, Fiz has worked on plays and musicals such as
those directed by Laurence Olivier, Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson, Lionel Bart
and Jonathan Miller. In opera, her expertise is broad and international: for the Royal
Opera, her choreographic work has included Ring Cycle, The Rake's Progress,
Macbeth, Salome, Tavener, Electra, Semele and Otello; Peter Grimes for La Scala,
Milan and Rio de Janeiro; Electra for Vienna; Carmen for New Israeli Opera; Samson,
for the Metropolitan, New York; and Bartered Bride for Düsseldorf Opera. In 1993, Fiz
was awarded the Career in the Industry award from the BFI.
Debbie Astell - Choreographer
Debbie Astell trained as a dancer with Arlene Philips in the late 1970s and later
appeared in many West End musicals, including Underneath the Arches and Pal Joey,
in TV light entertainment specials for Stanley Baxter and Morecambe and Wise, and in
the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After a long, successful career as a
dancer, she became a freelance choreographer. Her diverse choreographing career
includes GoldenEye, The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, personal coach in tap to Jane
Seymour for Lassiter, Heaven's Gate, working for children's TV, such as the Krankies
and Keith Harris and Orville. For companies such as Fila, Benetton, Peugeot. Shows
starring Pavarotti and a British forces spectacular.
Memories of THE WINDMILL
Nudity? Let's strike…- Doris Barry (Windmill Girl, 1932)
When Doris Barry was chosen as a Windmill Girl from a chorus line of girls, she
envisaged staying for just one month. She stayed on for eight years until the Blitz in
1940. Van Damm called her 'his sixth pony' - the small dancers were the ponies and the
rest were the showgirls. She quickly became a 'soubrette' a young lead whose acts
included dancing, comic sketches and drama parts.
Doris remembers Mrs Henderson as being "a remarkable lady who gave all her
time to the theatre, Van Damm and us. She was like a mother to us all. She was always
round the dressing rooms looking after our welfare and had a good relationship with the
cast. Van Damm was equally as caring and took a great deal of interest in his dancers
and provided strict chaperons."
Doris was one of the dancers who went on strike the moment the naked tableaux
became introduced. Van Damm persuaded them that they would look as artistic as the
paintings in the National Gallery - and they did!
Doris left to manage her sister, the renowned Dame Alicia Markova, at The Ballet
Russe across the United States. Her particular flair for talent finding led to her coveted
present position as Director of the London Studio Centre where she has discovered
many well-known actors and celebrities.
Linda Carroll (Windmill Girl, 1942)
Linda Carroll appeared in revues and sketches at the Palace Theatre before
joining the Windmill Girls in the spring of 1942. Within a few months she was offered the
principal role of Cinderella alongside Fay Compton at the Stoll Theatre. Throughout her
time in the pantomime, Van Damm paid a retainer fee for her to come back in a
celebrity spot. She finally left the Windmill Girls to get married and Mrs Henderson
bought her wedding dress.
Linda explains that "the whole cast were in awe of Mrs Henderson" and
describes Van Damm as "a wonderful man to work for who was very caring and kind to
the cast and artists. It was the best training I have ever had and a memorable
experience."
Maureen Clayton (Windmill Girl)
Maureen auditioned as a Windmill Girl at the age of 17. Her parents considered
her too young and she re-auditioned at 22 years. She stayed for five years and dearly
regretted not joining on the first occasion.
She recalls her time at the Windmill as a very happy time and good experience.
She was deeply impressed how Van Damm would vet everyone that walked through the
Stage Door. Her parents attended every Dress Rehearsal and she would wave at them
from the stage. "Don't look at your parents!" Van Damm would shout. She also
remembers occasions when she wanted a salary rise. Van Damm would question, "Do
you think you are worth it?" She was successful if she came back immediately with a
positive answer.
When Maureen left to get married, Van Damm bought her wedding dress. She
gave up her career to start a family.
Charmian Innes (Windmill Girl, 1931)
Charmian Innes was chosen as a Windmill Girl in 1931 at the tender age of 15.
She lasted one edition and was sacked by Van Damm for being overweight. Van Damm
retorted that she "did not quite fit the line". A much slimmer Charmian auditioned again
in 1939; Van Damm employed her once again, and she remained at the Windmill until
1942. After appearing in various touring shows across the UK, she once again returned
for two years in 1943.
It was Charmian who recalled Mrs Henderson's nursed secret. Van Damm
himself explained it to her. "He said: 'She had a tragic secret. She lost her own son in
the 1914 war and would never talk about it. I think she saw an image of her boy in every
other young man'."
Charmian went on to work in broadcasting and theatre and appeared in Cole
Porter's 'Let's Face It' at London's Hippodrome Theatre.
Jean Kent (Windmill Chorus Girl, 1934)
Jean Kent became one of the ten Windmill chorus girls back in 1934 aged 15.
Van Damm sacked her after 15 months to accommodate his girlfriend. The 'clothed'
chorus girls sang and danced four numbers for five shows a day, six days a week, for
the wage of precisely £2 per week.
Jean remembers Mrs Henderson as having "immaculate hair, probably a wig,
who used to bring along a teddy bear which she danced on the box ledge whilst
watching the show".
After leaving the Windmill, Jean appeared in cabaret and revues in London's
West End and across the regions.
Margaret Law (Windmill Girl, 1948)
Margaret Law joined the Windmill Girls in 1948 where she remained for 10 years.
Her husband, John, dancer and choreographer for the company, also stayed for 10
years.
Margaret's specialty was being a can-can dancer; she "wobbled too much to be a
muse!" She was also one of the fan dance girls. Amongst her fond memories of Mrs
Henderson was that "everyday Mrs Henderson came in to see the boys armed with
sweeties. She made us all feel like a family. Her generosity was overwhelming and she
left £10 to everyone still at the theatre when she died."
When Margaret left the Windmill Theatre to start a family, Sheila Van Damm
asked her husband to run the theatre but he moved on to start his own business.
Margaret is now 'Head Girl' who still organises get-togethers with all the ex
Windmill Girls.
Paulette Lester (Windmill Girl, 1930)
Now at the grand age of 92 years, Paulette still holds fond memories of Laura
Henderson and Van Damm. Back in 1930, aged 16 years, she joined the Windmill
Theatre as the leading lady with eight chorus girls.
Her strongest memory is the hard work. In 1930 the Windmill was open as a
cabaret floor and cinema. During the day, five shows were slotted between the
screenings with six shows on a Sunday. Rehearsals for new productions took place
every fortnight.
Mrs Henderson treated her like a 'lovely aunt' who frequently sneaked into the
theatre incognito to check up on her staff and watch the show from a box. She
remembers how thrilled she became when Mrs Henderson gave her a handbag to mark
their friendship.
Paulette only stayed at the Windmill for a year and joined other productions
touring the UK and Holland. She returned two years later to see Van Damm. She
remembers how upset he was when the non-stop revue was introducing nude - though
static - girls and told Paulette: 'I don't like it!"
Peggy Martin (Windmill Girl, 1944)
Peggy Martin tired of touring the UK with various repertory companies. Whilst
appearing at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford, she became lured by London and sent
her photo to the Windmill. After her audition Van Damm suggested she saw the show
before deciding to join. Peggy joined in 1944 until 1948 and returned again in 1952 for a
further three years.
Some of her most vivid memories of her time at the Windmill included sleeping in
the dressing room after a bad war raid followed by brunch at the famous Lyons Corner
House. Also she recalls how difficult it was to stay still tableaux at the time the nearby
Regent Palace was bombed! None of the dancers were given the chance to celebrate
on VJ Night as Van Damm protectively booked them into the Grosvenor Hotel in Victoria
straight after the show.
She remembers Mrs Henderson being very well known in society and the night
she brought Queen Wilemina of Holland to the performance. She describes Mrs
Henderson as being a diminutive woman, always impeccably dressed who would
always be accompanied by her dog, Gilpin.
Jobyna Millhouse (Windmill Girl, 1950)
Jobyna trained as a dancer at the Wessex School of Dancing in Boscombe. She
was chosen as a Windmill Girl in 1950.
She was an energetic dancer whose roles included tambourine, tap and point
work. One year Van Damm presented her with the silver cup, a trophy given to the
hardest working dancer. Jobyna remembers Van Damm as being 'quite frightening at
the beginning'. He was a very good entrepreneur who knew how to pick the right
dancers. He was a very well educated man who watched over his dancers and would
sort out any and all problems.
Jobyna met her dancer husband, Peter Ricardo, at the Windmill Theatre. When
they left in 1955, they formed a double act 'Ricardo and Jobyna', appearing at Ciro's
Nightclub and other sophisticated London clubs.
Moira Murphy (Windmill Girl, 1949)
Moira Murphy was barely 15 years old when she auditioned to join the Windmill
Girls in 1949. Van Damm insisted that she should see the show first for approval. Moira
was a very skinny can-can, muse and fan dance girl who earned £8 per week.
She recalls Van Damm always walking straight into their dressing rooms without
warning. One could never hear his step but the girls could always smell his cigar. Moira
has very happy memories of her time when they all had lots of fans and admirers and
she regularly dined at the Ritz, aged 15.
Van Damm would fly the dancers on holiday from Gatwick to France in his plane
named 'Windmill Girl'. Moira remembers how he insisted that the girls bring their own
sandwiches to his house in Amering, Sussex, for photo shoots in swimwear on the
freezing beach once a year. This, of course, could only fall on a Sunday, their day off.
Moira left in 1952 to work at the Lido, Paris, and went on to teach modern dance
and tap in the United States.
Angela Osborne (Windmill Girl, 1951)
Angela Osborne trained as a ballet dancer at the Elmhurst Ballet School before
joining the Windmill Theatre in 1951. She never knew Mrs Henderson but has fond
memories of Van Damm. "He was a wonderful man with a dry sense of humour. He
always had a twinkle in his eye and ran the establishment like a girl's finishing school."
Angela was too small to be naked tableaux and concentrated on her modern,
ballet and tap dancing. Van Damm sent her off for Spanish dancing lessons and she
regularly appeared in the fan dance.
In 1959, Angela joined the Benny Hill Show. For the last 25 years she had been
vision mixer for the top comedy BBC shows.
Susan Angel (Granddaughter, Vivian Van Damm)
Susan remembers the parties for the Windmill Girls at her grandfather, Van
Damm's home, named 'Zealandia' in Amering, Sussex. Van Damm would also hold a
party for her and her sister, Jane, every year at the Windmill when they would be
entertained by the then unknown puppeteer, Harry H. Corbett, and his beloved Sooty.
When Van Damm died in 1960 his daughter, Sheila Van Damm, managed the
Windmill Theatre. She did not steer the classic revue house in the same direction but
she certainly spent most of her life in the driving seat.
Jane Kerner (Granddaughter Vivian Van Damm)
Susan's sister, Jane Kerner, also remembers the wonderful parties held at the
Amering residence. She also recalls meeting Van Damm off the train every Friday and
hiding from all the billowing steam.
When Jane won 10 gold fish at the local fair, her grandfather bought a fish tank.
Van Damm would arrange for the tank to be cleaned at the same time as his office tank.
She remembers creeping up the worn stone back stairs with no banisters to his office,
being too young to enter the front of the theatre.
Van Damm had three daughters, all of whom adored him but, Jane recalls, "He
treated all his Windmill Girls with huge affection as if they were his own children".
Jane and sister Susan have both followed in the footsteps of their grandfather:
each of them runs their own talent agency.
Delores Barron
Delores Barron's father, Sid Brandon, started work in the office at the Windmill
Theatre when it opened in 1934. One of his proudest moments was to introduce Percy
Thrower, the dog imitator, to the show. He left to join a theatrical agency but returned in
1936 as Stage Manager. He left again in the Blitz in 1941 and returned after the war in
1950.
One of Sid's duties was to disrobe the Windmill Girls just before curtain up and
cover them after each act. Delores remembers when she was just 9 years old sitting in
the small corner in the stage wings most Friday nights changing the numbers of the acts
on the board. Every month there was a new show and Delores relished in watching the
Sunday night Dress Rehearsals. She even slept one night under the stage before being
evacuated to her grandmother's home in the Lake District.
Sid was "quite a character with a terrific personality, especially with women! He
was a comic and kept everyone laughing."
When Sid finally left the Windmill Theatre, he toured the UK with "Soldiers In
Skirts" for several years. His wife went along … to keep an eye on him.
Lynne Brenner
Lynne Brenner is the niece of Anne Mittel who became General Director of the
Windmill Theatre.
Anne Mittel started as the astute Van Damm's Secretary in 1932. She showed
such an aptitude for production that she was quickly promoted to his assistant. Her
duties were endless. She dealt with all the applications for the auditions, selected new
material, instructed script and lyric writers, composers, costume and scenic designers,
dress and millinery makers, arranged running order of the show, photo calls, dress
rehearsals, printing of programmes right through to preparing scripts - and a different
one for the visits by the Lord Chamberlain! Anne was extremely professional and would
sit in Van Damm's large office working hand in hand. Van Damm wrote a handwritten
note to Anne: 'To Anne, with all my gratitude and thanks for your grand and loyal service
over 20 years'.
Anne's brother was Len, the Stage Door Manager, a natural born comedian. Len
would provide a much-needed injection of mirth and humanity between the acts after
the rather antiseptic displays of female flesh.
Lynne remembers Van Damm, when she was the very young age of 5 years, as
a gruff character who never minded her watching the show regularly from the wings.
She attended the local Soho Parish School (now known as St. James' & Peters School)
and would run across to the theatre in her lunch hours. She still remembers the girls
covered in sparkling coloured sequins and Van Damm's huge affection towards his
Windmill girls.
Jean Thaxton (Van Damm's Niece)
Vivian Van Damm was Jean Thaxton's uncle. She describes Van Damm as a
nice person, attractive, well spoken and very special. Vivian was a middle boy of eight
children: five girls and three boys and was christened Vivian 'Talbot' Van Damm.
When Van Damm discovered Jean was pregnant with her first child, he treated
her and her husband to a two-week holiday in the South of France - travel courtesy of
his plane, 'The Windmill Girl'. She remembers the mischievous Van Damm sending her
a telegram. "What fun if your child was born in my office!"
The legendary Kenneth More began his career at the Windmill as an electrician.
Jean recalls Kenneth More screwing down the seats at the end of every show after
members of the audience had jumped across the seats to get to the front!
Jean sang once at the Windmill Theatre - in rehearsal. Being a very petite girl,
Van Damm wanted her to join his dancers but she graduated to be a Doctor. Her
daughter now teaches at the Royal Ballet School.