Hamlet, Harry Potter, Thor, Planet of the Apes, Brave, Bridget Jones and Nanny McPhee.. but this Citz where it all started
Hollywood music star returns for fundraiser
Composer Patrick Doyle’s career-long partnership with Sir Kenneth Branagh has yielded plaudits galore, including an Oscar nomination.
If the theatrical knight receives most of the public recognition, however, he’ll always be envious of Patrick for one reason – the Citizens Theatre.
While Patrick, of Uddingston, near Glasgow, was a part of the renowned theatre’s set-up in the 1970s, Branagh couldn’t get in. The 65-year- old said: “When I first met Ken, he said, ‘ You worked there – wow.’ He was a great fan of the work and, of course, everyone wanted to work there but only a certain amount of people can. He auditioned for the ‘Citz’ in London and didn’t get in.”
Patrick has come along way from the Gorbals in the intervening years.
His stellar career includes Oscarnominated scores for Hamlet and Sense and Sensibility, as well as the award-winning Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Pixar’s classic Brave.
The les sons he learned at the Citz, however, have stayed with him throughout his working life and it is why he will return to the theatre tomorrow to present a live evening of music and conversation at a special fundraising event to support its redevelopment campaign.
Patrick, who earned his first Equity card working for Citz’s outreach and community arm Theatre About Glasgow (TAG), said: “I have a very strong connection to the Citizens. It’s been part of the foundation of my career, instrumental if you like.
“I spent four years there on and off. TAG was my first Equity ca rd and I was musical director. I performed as well and we were out in schools, communities, senior citizens’ concerts and hospitals. “It was an incredibly enjoyable experience. At one point, I was assistant musical director in the main theatre for the pantomime and ended up performing in a couple of them. “I really have tremendously fond memories of it . I learned a lot about the whole dramatic set-up of music and drama. “It was like going to theatre university. I have seen many productions elsewhere and thought, ‘ Well, they’ve used that from the Citz.’ I call it Hollywood in Glasgow.”
He has spent enough time in both places to make the comparison.
Patrick’s other film work includes Bridget Jones’s Diary, Nanny McPhee and Calendar Girls, while his work with Branagh has involved big- screen adapt at ions of Shakespeare’s plays, including Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet.
Most recently, he worked with him on Walt Disney’s live- action Cinderella and last year’s all- star version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which saw him team up with Michelle Pfeiffer.
A last-minute decision to turn a theme from the score into a song saw him make a dash to meet and
record with the actress at her home in San Francisco.
He said: “Suddenly I was on a plane to San Francisco and on my way to her house. You are saying to yourself, ‘This is unbelievable.’
“I was a bit nervous and so was she. When you are first together in a situation like that and you’ve just met and got to make art, it’s hard.
“But she had really done her homework and knew the song inside out and was such a professional, charming person. Very relaxed, not grand in the slightest and thrilled to be doing the song.
“She had just lost a friend and got very emotional about it at the time. It was very hard for her but she just got her act together and came up with the goods. The reaction to the song has been wonderful.”
He’s written many songs for his scores and they feature in Sense and Sensibility, Gosford Park and Hamlet, which saw him write an aria for Placido Domingo.
He said: “A tenor’s voice is pinging by the end of the day so he liked to record at the end of the night and we went to Hamburg and recorded it at two in the morning sitting on a bar stool.”
That was perhaps not so far removed from his chi ldhood, growing up in Lanarkshire as one of 13 children.
His parents were musicians and his siblings and extended family could all sing. He said: “Every day was a show.” He joined the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama to study piano and singing, intending to be a teacher, but the stage called.
He was spotted by his now friend, artist and playwright John Byrne, and offered a part in the original stage production of The Slab Boys. But his focus was always music.
He received an Ivor Novello Award for Henry V, which also earned him one of two Academy Award nominations. He’s also won two Golden Globes, two Césars and a Bafta.
But he has had setbacks too, not least when he was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1997. He successfully fought the disease but it taught him to say no. He added: “I was very ill 20 years ago and I learned after
to be more selective. If I turturn something down, it’s not always because the project is not of a standard, it’s maybe that I don’t want to be a part of it because it is going to be a difficult production.
“I can sense personalities who are going to be too demanding. The whole vibe has to be that it is going to be fun.
“There were a couple of f ilms before that which were very stressful because people weren’t steering the ship properly.”
It has worked out. He once turned down a big project because he felt he needed a break. He was wondering if he had done the right thing two weeks later when Robert Altman called and offered him Gosford Park. He said: “My mother always said if I fell in the Clyde, I would come out with a fish in my pocket.”
If luck, talent and hard work have all played a part in his career, the benchmark has always been the Citz.
Patrick, who is working on a Disney adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books, his latest project with Branagh, said: “It informs everything I do. The standard was so high that you thought, ‘If it’s not as good as that, don’t do it.’
“I was recently offered a picture with a big star in it and I thought, ‘I can’t do that – it’s going to be awful’ and the film was shelved. You can smell if it’s not the right standard.” In Conversation With… Patrick Doyle is at the Citizens Theatre tomorrow.
Mum always said if I fell in the Clyde, I’d come out with a fish in my pocket