the play what I wrote

 

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez filming American model Jerry Hall for Vogue magazine, 1975

[excerpt from Jerry Hall:  my life in pictures.  Quadrille Publishing.  2010.]

Theatre

In the last few years I've done quite a bit of theatre... My next play was another comedy, The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Branagh.  It was so much fun to do.  Over-the-top Morecambe and Wise humour, and Kenneth is so handsome and a wonderfully relaxed director.  The stars of the play were Toby Jones and Hamish McColl, and they were brilliant.  We toured England and went to Belfast, too.

        After that I did a tour of England playing in Picasso's Women, a 52-minute monologue directed by Andy Jordan.  It was a wonderfully moving play, all about the naughty, dark side of Pablo Picasso, but it was stressful having so many lines to remember.  My next play, at the New End Theatre in Hampstead, was Benchmark, directed by Michael Rudman.  Michael had written it with Bud Shrake, who is also from Texas. ...

        I also entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2004 for performing in six West End plays in one night; Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Fame, Blood Brothers, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Anything Goes.  

Theatre in London really suffered after 9/11, so this was a publicity stunt designed to encourage tourists back into the West End.  

        I was thrilled to do it but it took a huge amount of planning and preparing.  I had to travel from theatre to theatre on the back of a motorcycle, wear clothes under clothes and rush onto stage on cue each time.  My children were really proud of that, and my record still hasn't been broken.

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