Category: Music

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REVIEW: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Parade, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow ***1/2

On trial: Dan Poppitt’s Leo Frank, front, with Jack James Fry’s defence lawyer Luther Rosser, left, Jack Hooper’s prosecution lawyer Hugh Dorsey and David Copley Martin’s Judge Roan

IN an age of programmes being plucked from the ether via QR codes or reduced to a piece of paper with a cast list and production team, Black Sheep Theatre Productions buck the cost-cutting trend by printing a superb, glossy-covered yet earnest old-school version in A4 size.

Written in the style of a newspaper article for The Atlanta Georgian, the highly detailed two-page synopsis is followed by lead actor Dan Poppitt’s fascinating essay The Truth Behind The Tale, exploring this controversial slice of American history from 1913.

Cast profiles are comprehensive too, revealing the wide range of theatre backgrounds and diverse experience, from Leeds performer and entertainer Reggie Challenger, best known for his Bob Marley and reggae tribute act, to University of York English Literature student Eloise Shneck and theatre, writing, directing and performance student Oskar Nuttall.

Molly Whitehouse’s Lucille Frank and Dan Poppitt’s Leo Frank in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Parade

Bringing it all together is company founder, director and musical director Matthew Peter Clare, whose programme note speaks of the York company being dedicated to “creating bold, emotionally resonant and artistically ambitious works”, born out of a shared desire to challenge expectations of what amateur theatre can achieve through its depth of storytelling.

Black Sheep are committed to telling “very human stories, interrogating identity, morality, relationships and the complexities of the human condition”, from Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens to Songs For The New World, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame to Clare’s own work Inner Selves, a study trauma, mental health and fractured bonds, in an exploration of “otherness, politics, prejudice and queer media”.

Parade fits that bill in its 1913 story of the persecution/prosecution of Leo Frank, a studious, eloquent Jewish factory manager from Brooklyn, who had taken up a superintendent’s post at a Marietta pencil factory, near Atlanta, Georgia, swapping New York for the Deep South somewhat cautiously  after his wife Lucille’s uncle invites him to join the company. Leo (Dan Poppitt) will end up being charged with the murder of 13-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan (Eloise Shneck).

Jonny Holbek’s zealot Tom Watson, reprising the role he first played in 2009 for Encore Theatre Productions, this time stepping in at three weeks’ notice

No spoiler alert is required here because Parade is based on a true story, one that ends with Leo’s lynching and clan hanging, but still shocks in its brutality, not least in the starkness applied by Clare, who likes his productions to “place emphasis on substance over spectacle”.

Despite this Tony Award-winning 1998 show being the work of Driving Miss Daisy’s Alfred Uhry and The Last 5 Years’ Jason Robert Brown,  the chances are that you may not be familiar with Parade or its Dixie, blues, gospel and R&B songs, given that your reviewer can find only one reference in The York Press files to a past production here.

Directed by Gilly Adam and Craig Kirby and produced by Jenny Scoullar, it formed  Encore Theatre Productions’ debut show in the Alan Ayckbourn Theatre at York College in its first and seemingly only York staging in October 2009. Whatever happened to Encore Theatre Productions, by the way?

Jack Hooper’s bent prosecution lawyer Hugh Dorsey holds the floor. In the courtroom shadows are Dan Poppitt’s defendant Leo Frank, left, Jack James Fry’s defence lawyer Luther Rosser and David Copley Martin’s Judge Roan

Parade is back on parade in York at a time of rising media coverage of anti-Semitism, chiming with Leo Frank’s own experience in 1913 when such sentiments were prevalent, against a backdrop of post-American Civil War poverty and prejudice.

Faced by bent prosecution lawyer Hugh Dorsey (Jack Hooper), the salacious reporting of Atlanta Constitution hack Britt Craig (Richard Bayton); the white supremacist poison of zealot politician Tom Watson (Jonny Holbek, reprising his scary 2009 role) and the unreliable testimony of chief prosecution witness Jim Conley (Reggie Challenger), the heavy-drinking factory janitor, how did Leo ever stand the chance of a fair trial?

Within that framework, a re-kindling of a love story plays out between the stern, strict, Hebrew-reciting Leo and his wife Lucille (Molly Whitehouse). She is described as “assimilated” for putting being Georgian first, compromising her Jewish faith in his eyes, only for her to find new strength in adversity when standing by her convicted husband in challenging the verdict by confronting Georgia’s principled  Governor, John Slaton (Mark Simmonds).

University of York students Oskar Nuttall and Eloise Shneck in the roles of Frankie Epps and Mary Phagan respectively

The original New York production ran for only 94 performances from 1998 to 1999, but its songs are better than that, all the more so for being placed wholly in the spotlight when the staging and lighting is minimalist (combining most effectively on the bare backdrop to evoke “the old Red Hills “ of Georgia). A raised platform with a hole for Mary Phagan’s coffin and boxes that double as seating suffice for set design.

The impact, therefore, is emotional rather than visual, albeit that physicality plays its part too. Poppitt gives a lead performance of serious, outspoken demeanour, his singing his best yet on the York stage; Whitehouse’s Molly grows ever more impressive in her resolve. Hooper’s Dorsey has plenty of the night about him; Simmonds cuts a lone, principled figure as Slaton; Nuttall and Shneck announce talents to watch.

The multi-role playing choreographer Charlie Clarke, Bayton’s duplicitous reporter Craig, Jack James Fry’s dual roles as defence lawyer and prison guard, Joycelyn Searles Duncan’s Minner McKnight, David Copley Martin’s Judge Roan and Georgina Burt’s lying Iola Stover make their mark too. Challenger’s That’s What He Said is the most characterful, soulful vocal of all.

Molly Whitehouse’s Lucille Frank in discussion with Richard Bayton’s court reporter Britt Craig

Clare leads his eight-piece band with typical conviction, driving its diversity of reeds, horns and strings, topped off by Jez Smith, on particularly striking form on drums and percussion.

Parade remains a brave, stark, challenging musical, delivered in that manner by a progressive York company unafraid to explore, to jolt, to ask questions and demand answers.   

Black Sheep Theatre Productions present Parade, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrwontreetheatre.co.uk.

Charlie Clarke: Parade assistant director and choreographer in her role as Mrs Phagan

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Where there’s a Will, there’s a way to survive in Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage at York Barbican

The cast poster for Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage. Picture: Richard Southgate

FOR the first time in history, favourite songs and actors from the CBBC TV series Horrible Histories will be appearing live – and dead! – on stage in a special concert production. York Barbican awaits on April 6 and 7.

Asked to create the greatest show in history by his boss Queen Elizabeth I, esteemed playwright William Shakespeare has no idea just how much trouble is on its way from such monstrous monarchs as King Henry VIII and Queen Victoria.

Life will hot up even more when Death appears – and now Boudica and Cleopatra want to take over. Can matters worsen still more? Of course they can!

Find out how and why when actors from the BAFTA award-winning television series sing songs from the show such as Stupid Deaths, Charles II, Dick Turpin and The Monarchs Song, to the accompaniment of a live band led by Horrible Histories song master Richie Webb, as the Bard seeks help to save him from execution.

Horrible Histories: The Concert director and Birmingham Stage Company actor/manager Neal Foster

“The trick about this show is the disaster is unfolding in front of you, so the audience are in on it,” says director Neal Foster. “No-one knows how it’s going to work or whether Shakespeare is going to get away with it or just how disastrous it’s going to because it’s really happening right there.”

On tour from January 23 to April 18, Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage is written by Ben Ward and Claire Wetton, with songs and music by Webb, and is directed by Birmingham Stage Company actor/manager Foster, designed by Jackie Trousdale and choreographed by Lucie Pankhurst.

Foster, the creative force behind all the Horrible Histories Live on Stage adaptations of Terry Deary’s stories since 2005, will be playing Charles II, York Gaol anti-hero Dick Turpin and a Viking.

“These Horrible Histories TV songs have been around for a long time and we feature 16 of the most popular songs in the show,” says Neal. “They’re so loved and no-one around the country’s ever had the chance to see them live on stage and to sing with the actors and join in.

Harrie Hayes’s Elizabeth I making her point to Richard David-Caines’s William Shakespeare in Horrible Histories: The Concert. Picture: Matt Crockett

“I’m singing my two favourite songs from the TV series, because I’m singing the King Of Bling as Charles II and Dick Turpin’s Highwayman.  As a Viking, I am singing Literally, literally!” 

Neal has brought together two worlds, television and stage, for the concert tour. “Part of the reason this production has happened is because in 2023 we got together with Lion Television [producers of the BBC series] to create ‘Orrible Opera for the BBC Proms,” he says. “We enjoyed working with each other so much, we really wanted to do something again. This seems to be as good as it gets. 

“It’s the biggest show we’ve ever done. There’s a cast of nine with a live band of five musicians and we’ve never had a live band in any of our shows before. It’s also got wonderful video effects, with the footage being filmed by Lion Television [producers of Horrible Histories on the BBC]. I think there are about 50 costumes, with wigs, hats, props, turning it into a really enormous show.”

Swapping TV for the live tour are long-serving Richard David-Caine, also known for Class Dismissed and CBeebies’ Swashbuckle; Harrie Hayes, who has embodied history’s most iconic royals, from Elizabeth I to Marie Antoinette; Inel Tomlinson, from Histories’ Rameses and Science’s Big Danny; company favourite Ethan Lawrence, also from Ricky Gervais’s After Life, and Verona Rose, Horrible Histories regular, Top Boy and Fully Blown writer-performer and host of ITV2’s Secret Crush.

Verona Rose and Ethan Lawrence’s Henry VIII in Horrible Histories: The Concert. Picture: Matt Crockett

Joining them are Neal and Alison Fitzjohn, his fellow stalwart from Horrible Histories Live on Stage, touring the world with Birmingham Stage Company.

Cast member Ethan Lawrence says: “It’s been a long time since I was last on stage – and I’ve only done one show before: a pantomime. Cinderella. I gave an absolutely stellar performance as Buttons. There were literally tens of people that said I was pretty good!

“Basically I take the jobs that are put in front of me. I’m not so vain that I don’t take on work. It just so happens that I deal with the cards that are presented to me – and now I get the chance to go on stage with Horrible Histories, where Shakespeare is in the process of writing a show starring all your favourite Horrible Histories characters

“Chaos ensues, high jinks prevail – and it’s very interactive as well, encouraging the audience to participate. I can imagine this show, because of its live nature, will be evolving as we do it. York Barbican is very deep into the run, so theatrically it’ll be the show at its best.”

Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage cast members, very much live on stage. Picture: Matt Crockett

Fellow cast member Verona Rose admits: “I’m not that good at history! For me, the easiest way to learn about these characters is by watching Horrible Histories.

“I have Cleopatra’s big number, Ra Ra Cleopatra [from Awful Egyptians] and I’ve learnt so much from doing rehearsals for that song.”

Ethan picks out his favourite role: “I’m a busy boy in the show, but the chief thing that’s exciting for me is the opportunity to play Henry VIII. One of the really gratifying things is singing one of the more modern songs from the TV shows, Ruinous Rivals, with Harrie Hayes.”

Verona concludes: “I’m excited to be doing this show, and the more we do the tour, the more shows we do, what the interaction will be will become clearer. From the first laugh, we’ll know what the audience will be like at each show.”

Come on York, make Monday and Tuesday the most Horrible shows yet.

Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage, York Barbican, April 6, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; April 7, 11am and 3pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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York Beethoven Project confirms last two symphony concert dates. What will follow?

York Beethoven Project performing at Selby Abbey under conductor John Atkin. The Grand Finale, Symphony No 9, will be held there next March

YORK Beethoven Project is entering its concluding year with plans for the last two symphonies to be played during the next 12 months.

Symphony No 8 at Millthorpe School, York, on Saturday, September 26 will be followed by Symphony No 9 at Selby Abbey on March 13 2027.

The project to play all of Ludwig van B’s symphonies was conceived in a conversation under the stage of Harrogate Theatre and was launched with Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 in September 2023.

“The first event at Acomb Methodist Church was a huge success,” recalls founder, organiser and conductor John Atkin, the York musical director and White Rose Theatre stalwart. “Fifty-six musicians put themselves forward to take part in the come-and-play workshop, so we closed registration in advance.

York Beethoven Project founder and conductor John Atkin

“Those players came from a variety of musical organisations in York, as well as further afield, which was the aim, and 54 attended on the day, hosted by York Light Orchestra. They rehearsed Symphony No 1 in C major Op. 2, and it was then performed to an audience, where there was standing room only.”

Since then, the orchestra has averaged 60 players in performing the first seven symphonies as one-day Come & Play sessions in such venues as the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall (University of York), Joseph Rowntree Theatre and Selby Abbey.

John says: “We cannot believe it’s nearly over but it’s not all over. What started as a personal target has snowballed into a regular biannual slot for many local musicians, who all share the same passion for orchestral music.  

“Since the first event, we have worked with more than 100 local – and some not so local – musicians aged between 17 and much more(!) in some lovely venues. Among the highlights for me must be the ‘Eroica’ (No 3) in Joseph Rowntree Theatre and the ‘Pastoral’ (No 6) in Selby Abbey, but they have all been great days, and to now complete the entire cycle will be a wonderful experience for all involved.”

Symphony No 9 next March at Selby Abbey will be the Grande Finalé in a full concert programme that will include Handel’s Zadok The Priest and the world premiere of Augury, commissioned from Cameron McArthur with the same orchestration as No 9. Cameron is a composer, performer, trumpet player, researcher and educator, who has completed his studies for a PhD in Music Composition at the University of York.

John adds: “We are recruiting a choir and soloists for No 9.  Working with local choirs, including Cantores, South Bank Singers and York Opera, we have 52 singers signed up so far but we expect to have around 100 in total by next year for this community event, open to all who can read music and sing in German.” 

The Selby Abbey concert will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death at the age of 56 in Vienna on March 26 1827.

“After No 9, the orchestra will continue to meet twice a year and play varied symphonic repertoire under the name of York Occasional Orchestra,” reveals John.

For more information or to take part in any of these events, please email yorkbeethovenproject@gmail.com.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 13, from Gazette & Herald

York artist Gerard Hobson installing one of 13 bird boxes for the Castle Howard Easter Family Trail. Picture: David Scott

FROM a bird box trail and Vanbrugh’s architecture at Castle Howard to Horrible Histories in concert and the magic of science, Charles Hutchinson embraces Easter’s extra spring in the step.

Birdlife event of the week: Castle Howard Easter Family Trail, Castle Howard Gardens & Arboretum, near York, until April 19

CASTLE Howard has collaborated with York artist and printmaker Gerard Hobson on a new interactive Easter trail, comprising 13 handmade wooden bird boxes installed for a springtime adventure across Castle Howard Gardens and the Arboretum.

The boxes house Hobson’s linocuts of birds, including swallow, magpie, woodpecker and wren, as part of a story designed for children as they all prepare for spring. “Young explorers will discover interesting facts about our feathered friends and learn more about their homes along the way,” he says. Admission is included in Castle Howard and Arboretum day tickets at castlehoward.co.uk/castlehowardarboretumtrust.org.

Architect Roz Barr: Designer and curator of Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard. Picture: Carole Poirot

Exhibition of the week: Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard, on show at Castle Howard, near York, until October 31.

STAGING The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard celebrates its creator, the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), on the 300th anniversary of his death.

Designed and curated by architect Roz Barr, the exhibition chronicles the story of the stately home’s creation, exploring Vanbrugh’s visionary use of scale, shadow and light and his creative relationship with the third Earl of Carlisle, as shown in letters by Vanbrugh on public display for the first time. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.

Pickering singer-songwriter David Swann

Folk gig of the week: David Swann, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm, doors 6.30pm

PICKERING folk singer and songwriter David Swann writes comic songs about the people, places and history of his native North Yorkshire, as well as songs of love lost and found. He accompanies himself on acoustic guitar and ukulele and always encourages audience participation.

Swann runs the Ryedale Songwriters Circle, encouraging and promoting songwriting through workshops and concerts, and has won BBC Radio York’s Song for Yorkshire competition, Bedale Acoustic Music Festival’s inaugural Songwriting Competition for the Harvey Blogg Cup and the anthem-writing competition for Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

James B Partridge. Hosting Primary School Bangers at York Barbican. Picture: Rebecca Johnson

“School” concert of the week: James B Partridge, Primary School Bangers, York Barbican, Saturday, doors 7pm

TEACHER James B Partridge brings his viral hit show Primary School Bangers to York for a night of massive singalongs, throwback mash-ups and tongue-in-cheek humour. What started in the classroom has become a nationwide phenomenon – from Glastonbury to sold-out theatres – as James leads audiences through the songs that defined school days.

“Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or just someone who remembers every word to He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, this one’s for you,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

Horrible Histories : Live – and Dead! – in concert at York Barbican

“The ultimate first concert for children”: Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage!, York Barbican, April 6, 2.30pm and 6.30pm

FOR the first time, favourite songs and actors from Horrible Histories’ BAFTA Award-winning CBBC TV series will be live – and dead! – on stage in York. When William Shakespeare is asked to create the greatest show on earth, he runs into trouble with monstrous monarchs King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria.

Once Death appears, Boudica and Cleopatra want to take over! Can things turn any worse? Of course they can! Cue songs such as Stupid Deaths, Charles II, Dick Turpin and The Monarchs Song, performed to a band led by Horrible Histories’ song master, Richie Webb. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jason Fox: Embracing the chaos at York Barbican

Advice of the week: Jason Fox, Embrace The Chaos, York Barbican, April 8, 7.30pm

SOME people are built to embrace the chaos. Adventurer, Royal Marine Commando and UK Special Forces soldier Jason Fox is one of them, having survived myriad hostile outposts as an elite operator, documentary maker and expedition leader.  

In his new show, Foxy shares stories of his close brushes with enemy gunmen, terrorist bomb makers and cartel leaders, while revealing his strategies for surviving and thriving in environments as life-threatening as the Arctic Circle and Afghan Badlands. Using principles from his military operations, he will help you to reboot your thinking, challenge your limits, change your habits, transform and rebalance your life – and he will answer audience questions too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Out Of The Box: Transforming everyday objects into extraordinary adventures at Helmsley Arts Centre

Family show of the week: Darryl J Carrington in Out Of The Box, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm

DARRYL J Carrington transforms everyday objects into extraordinary adventures in Out Of The Box, where a toothbrush stars in a balancing act, a string sparks a heist and a tea party lands on someone’s head in an hour of joyful chaos, jaw-dropping skill and irresistible fun.

Carrington brings five-star Edinburgh Fringe reviews, the Brighton Fringe’s Best Family Show prize and more than 20 years of circus and clowning experience to his silent comedy’s blend of juggling, inventive physical theatre and audience interaction. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Top Secret: Asking “Is it magic…or is it science?” in April 9’s interactive show, replete with mystery, suspense, experiments and mess, at Pocklington Arts Centre

Fun experiments of the week: Top Secret in The Magic Of Science, High Voltage, Pocklington Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm

JOIN Top Secret as they go on a high-voltage adventure, The Magic Of Science, to ask the question “Is it magic…or is it science?” in a fast-moving, colourful, interactive show filled with mystery, suspense, experiments and loads of mess.

Danny Hunt and Stephanie Clarke take on the guise of Professor Danny and his lab assistant Crazy Kazy as they fuse the mystery of magic with wondrous and miraculous feats of science. Box office:  01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Alison Moyet: Revisiting synth-pop songs from Yazoo’s two albums after more than 40 years at York Barbican. Picture: Naomi Davison

Gig announcement of the week: Alison Moyet, Songs Of Yazoo, the minutes and Other Tour, York Barbican, November 18

BASILDON soul, blues and pop singer-songwriter Alison Moyet will play York in one of ten new additions to her autumn tour, when she will focus on songs from Yazoo’s 1982-1983 catalogue, recorded with Vince Clarke, and a selection from her solo electronica albums, 2013’s the minutesand 2017’s Other, both co-written with producer Guy Sigsworth.

“Many years touring the same pool of songs and I am keen for a palate refresher,” says Moyet, 64. “Specifying which years I will be fishing from too, I think, is a grand way to serve pot luck for specific tastes. No bones.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Teacher James B Partridge holds York Barbican assembly for Primary School Bangers. Put it on Saturday’s timetable

James B Partridge: From viral videos on TikTok to concert halls with his Primary School Bangers. Picture: Rebecca Johnson

VIRAL sensation and “Britain’s favourite primary school teacher” James B Partridge turns York Barbican into a school hall assembly on Saturday in the only Yorkshire date of his Primary School Bangers spring term.

After notching more than 71 million views of his videos online  on YouTube and TikTok, James is bringing even more of the iconic songs that defined our childhoods to theatres and concert halls throughout April 2026.

Expect classic school-day singalongs of hymns and songs “we were forced to do in assembly” in a night of heart-on-sleeve nostalgia, delivered with James’s trademark infectious joy as he follows up his sold-out Big Christmas Assembly tour.

What started as a few playful videos of James performing songs for his pupils in the classroom has grown into a nationwide phenomenon, spreading from social-media fame to a field-closing Glastonbury set, featured on the BBC’s festival highlights, all while he continues to teach primary school children during the week.

“I’ve brought the show to York before,” James recalls. “I came to Theatre@41, Monkgate, twice in 2023, when I first started doing the early version of Primary School Bangers [or Primary School Assembly Bangers as it was first known], beginning in February that year.

Alan Park: Chair of the board at Theatre @41, Monkgate, where James B Partridge played twice in the first year of Primary School Bangers and Big Christmas Assembly in 2023

“I spent quite a while emailing arts centres and venues, including Alan Park at Theatre@41, when I presented what looked like this nerdy spread sheet! The initial pitch was: ‘Are you are up for a night of school assembly singalongs?’ – and lot of venues just pressed ‘Delete’.”

Not Alan Park, however. “If I can put in a shameless plug for Theatre@41, James’s pitch chimed with our policy of bringing new artists to York,” says chair of the board Alan. “We pride ourselves on looking at everything we’re sent, and we thought it was a great idea as he’d had such success online.

“I was bowled over when it sold out, and then the second show – his Christmas Assembly show – sold out as well, and I’m so pleased he’s now going to play York Barbican. I like how performers can start here, because we’re open to taking a gamble on them, and then they grow and go on to bigger things.”

 As James recalls: “At that first show I did in York in June 2023, there was a combination of  people who’d seen what I’d done online, plus some curious locals, with a general demographic of people in their late-30s to their 50s. A lot of them were in their 40s – and a lot of them were teachers.

“Luckily Theatre@41 invited me back in November 2023 for The Big Christmas Assembly, although that was a slightly misleading title as most of the venues had a capacity under 100 – but the only way is up!

“I just through they’d be fun videos for my family and friends to reminisce about, but they translated to all sorts of people that I’d never met,” says James

“I was playing a combination of studio theatres, cabaret venues and venues above pubs, but thankfully the concept has grown, when at first it was very much a case of seeing how it goes by posting videos online.”

Those videos had caught the eye and ear because James had chosen to go “left-field”. “I put my top five Easter hymns on there and then my Top Ten Primary School Bangers. I just through they’d be fun videos for my family and friends to reminisce about, but they translated to all sorts of people that I’d never met.

“Then, when we made it out of lockdown, I also resumed my function band, Truly Medley Deeply, playing songs from the Sixties to the present day – I still play with them occasionally – but I was raring to go with Primary School Bangers, and came up with idea of a immersive theatre show after the videos.”

James’s combination of harmony, humour and heart has gone on to strike a chord with audiences of every generation, as they recall childhood days of standing in school assemblies in the lunch hall/sports hall/exam hall, half-heartedly singing a bunch of songs, but now singing those same songs at the top of their voice along with everyone else in the room.

Alongside his live shows, James has performed with Gareth Malone’s Voices at the Royal Variety Show, provided vocals for Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Electric Light Orchestra and appeared on Chris Evans’ Virgin Radio Breakfast Show, BBC Breakfast, CBBC Newsround, ITV’s This Morning, BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show, BBC One’s The One Show and Songs of Praise: The Big School Assembly Singalong.

“I feel the perfect way to start the school day is through a bit of communal singing,” says James. Picture: Rebecca Johnson

James grew up in Poole, Dorset, where he could walk down the street where he lived to attend Stanley Green First School, and now teaches seven to 11-year-olds at Kensington Prep School, in South London, as a freelance.

“I used to teach at St Paul’s Junior School [in London], and I’ll be going back there to lead some singing workshops because even at a school like that, where they have I Vow To Thee My Country as their school hymn, they don’t do much singing,” he says.

“I feel the perfect way to start the school day is through a bit of communal singing. It could be a folk song; it could be a pop song; we could sing Bob Dylan or Peter Seeger’s song If I Had A Hammer; songs that are child-friendly to sing; songs about racial equality.”

Singing can benefit us all, believes James. “I do feel that when people come to Primary School Bangers, they feel uplifted,” he says. “That’s not exclusive to my show but it’s a product of being part of a group singing together and feeling the power of doing that.

“Looking at our phone usage, especially with the slightly ironically called ‘social media’, when it’s not social at all and can fuel anti-social thought, you can get siloed into a thought bubble where you can’t be friendly with someone with different political views, but singing together, you sing in harmony.

James B Partridge’s poster for Primary School Bangers: Put it on the weekend timetable

“Though that sounds idealistic, in reality, whether for physical or mental benefit, singing is the best thing to do – and it always has been, from sea-shanty singing onwards. It’s always been part of community, and it’s only now that it’s dwindled, but my dream would be to create a radio or TV programme on the BBC, like Gareth Malone did 20 years, to make that kind of impact.”

How would James define a “Primary School Banger”? Not The Wheels On The Bus, apparently! “I would argue that’s probably a pre-school banger, so that could be a whole new show,” he says.

“A  ‘Primary School Banger’ is a tune that lots of people enjoyed singing at school and loved singing along to, which includes hymns like All Things Bright And Beautiful and Morning Is Broken, but also new worship songs that were sung across the UK as part of school assembly.”

Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or just someone who remembers every word to He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, Primary School Bangers will be a class act this weekend. 

James B Partridge, Primary School Bangers, York Barbican, Saturday (4/4/2026), doors 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also playing two Yorkshire autumn dates: Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, September 21, and CAST, Doncaster, September 22. Box office: jamesbpartridge.com.

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Alexander Armstrong and Aled Jones to team up for The Big Christmas Sing-a-Long debut tour. York Barbican awaits on December 11. When do tickets go on sale?

Alexander Armstrong and Aled Jones

ALEXANDER Armstrong and Aled Jones will host The Big Christmas Sing-a-Long at York Barbican on December 11.

Tickets for the only Yorkshire venue on their 13-date debut tour will go on sale at 9.30am on Thursday (2/4/2026) at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/sing-a-long/.

Performers and presenters Armstrong and Jones will unite for a festive season of music, laughter and Christmas cheer in cathedrals, theatres and concert halls from November 24 to December 21, promising “some special surprises along the way”.

Armstrong was one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, teaming up for series on Channel 4 and BBC One with Ben Miller.

As well as hosting Classic FM’s flagship weekday mid-morning programme, he continues to be a regular on BBC One’s Have I Got News For You, having hosted more than 40 episodes, as well as helming BBC One quiz show Pointless.

After branching out into presenting travel shows, he will make his fifth series for Channel 5 in the United States of America this summer. He published his debut children’s novel, Evenfall: The Golden Linnet, in 2024 and the follow-up, Evenfall: The Tempest Stone in February this year. 

The poster for Alexander Armstrong & Aled Jones’s debut tour of The Big Christmas Sing-a-Long

Welsh television and radio personality and concert singer Jones, 55, will perform beloved songs, including his signature rendition of Walking In The Air, alongside classic carols synonymous with the festive season.

Joining him on stage will be Northumberland-born comedian, actor, Pointless presenter and singer Armstrong, 56, whose bass-baritone vocals and charm will bring humour, warmth and festive sparkle to York.

Audiences will be invited to pull on their favourite Christmas jumper and sing along to a joyful mix of traditional Christmas carols, modern festive favourites and timeless seasonal classics.

Original crossover star Jones has sung for the Pope and the Royal Family, received an MBE and released more than 40 albums, achieving ten million sales and more than 40 silver, gold and platinum discs.

Beginning his career at the age of 12, Jones was one of the world’s most successful boy sopranos, becoming the first classical artist to have two albums in the top five of the Official Album Charts.

He has built an extensive career as a TV and radio presenter, hosting his Classic FM show and BBC One’s Songs Of Praise, while continuing to record and tour. Last year, he released his third book, Aled’s Book Of Blessings for 2026, and he is now working on his next one.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on Carducci String Quartet, British Music Society of York, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, March 27

Carducci String Quartet

THE Carducci String Quartet opened their programme with a poised and assured account of Mozart’s String Quartet in C major, K. 465, the ‘Dissonance’.

Despite its nickname, the opening feels less discordant than unsettled, but its harmonic daring is still radical.

As Matthew Denton (first violin) pointed out, one more chromatic note and we would have the serial set: Haydn – Mozart – Schoenberg. Maybe.

Once the Allegro begins, however, the music resolves into clarity: the curtain lifted, the sun came out and Classical balance is restored. The ensemble interplay was lively and finely judged throughout.

The Menuetto – my favourite movement – retained its charm without underplaying the darker, less grounded A minor Trio. The Allegro molto last movement was again notable for the crisp exchanges, but it was the beautiful projection of song in the second movement Andante cantabile which really impressed.

The performance had a real operatic quality. Across the work, the Carduccis conveyed a strong sense of structural coherence.

After this Classical poise, Rebecca Clarke’s one-movement Poem opened up a more elusive, impressionistic sound world. The performance was highly persuasive. Echoes of Ravel and Debussy were clear, yet Clarke’s voice remained distinctive.

Themes seemed to emerge and dissolve rather than assert themselves, creating a continuous unfolding of mood and texture rather than a clearly defined architecture.

The Carducci Quartet clearly understood the music’s melancholic, unsettled character, shaping it with sensitivity and restraint. I admired the piece and the performance, but the impact was fleeting – the work didn’t stay with me, just a lovely impression of it.

From this impressionistic fluidity, the programme returned to firmer ground with Beethoven’s String Quartet in C major, Op. 59 No. 3, often regarded as the most immediately approachable of the Razumovsky quartets.

Its opening Andante shares something of Mozart’s harmonic uncertainty, unfolding with an almost improvisatory quality before the Allegro decisively asserts itself in a burst of C major energy and clarity.

This is a technically demanding movement, particularly for the first violin, and Matthew Denton was pushed to the limits in the frequent upper register passages of the development section. The rapid string crossings were dispatched with brilliance.

The second movement, Andante con moto, provided the emotional centre of the work: restrained, inward and quietly hypnotic, with an undercurrent of sadness that never became sentimental.

Maybe this hinted at the well-documented despair mapped out in the Heiligenstadt Testament? Probably not. What was fascinating was the recapitulation: here the themes are presented in reverse order, creating a quite radical sense of symmetry.

A charming, short Menuetto grazioso also functioned as a lead-in to the Allegro molto final movement. Suddenly, it was fasten-your-seatbelts time as the Quartet zipped through this relentless fugal tour de force. The articulation was razor-sharp and the rhythmic drive utterly relentless. It was an exhilarating conclusion, both to the work and to the programme as a whole.

The performance that stood out as being exceptional was their account of Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 3, Mishima.

Drawn from Glass’s score for Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, the work unfolds in a series of vividly characterised tableaux. The familiar elements of minimalism – repetition, looping motifs, pulsing rhythms – were all present, but the Carducci Quartet brought far more than surface precision.  What emerged was a performance of real depth and intensity, with a strong sense of dramatic continuity.

The technical demands are considerable: intonation must be exact, and the physical stamina required is significant. Both were met with complete assurance. More importantly, the Quartet revealed the work’s psychological dimension – its tension, its stillness, its underlying unease. Nothing felt routine; everything was shaped with insight and purpose.

I have heard this work many times, but this performance stood head and shoulders above any I have encountered.

Review by Steve Crowther

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as the clocks go forward and arts spring up. Hutch’s List No. 12, from The York Press

James Bye, left, Shvorne Marks, Natalie Casey and Grant Kilburn in Danny Robins’ 2:22 A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York

THE clock is ticking to see a ghostly thriller, a madcap murder mystery, a poetic book launch and an unjust trial as Charles Hutchinson sets his arts alarm.

Supernatural thriller of the week: 2:22 A Ghost Story, Grand Opera House, York, March 30 to April 4, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

“THERE’S something in our house. I hear it every night. At the same time,” says Jenny, who believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam is having none of it. Whereupon they argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben. Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening and is moving closer. Only by staying up until 2:22 will they know the answer.

James Bye, Shvorne Marks, Natalie Casey and Grant Kilburn perform Uncanny and The Battersea Poltergeist podcaster Danny Robins’s supernatural thriller, the Best New Play winner at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards, on its return to York. As secrets emerge and ghosts may or may not appear, dare you discover the truth? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

What We Could Have, by Sarah Williams, from the Other Viewpoints exhibition at Pyramid Gallery

Meet The Makers event of the week: Other Viewpoints, Lesley Williams, Sarah Williams, Peter Heaton and Adele Howitt, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today, 11.30am to 2.30pm

YORKSHIRE artists Lesley Williams, Sarah Williams and Peter Heaton and ceramicist Adele Howitt have teamed up for Other Viewpoints, on show until May 9. Today, they will be on hand to discuss their work.

Lesley, from York, makes semi-abstract oil paintings based on rural landscape and gardens; Sarah, also from York, employs colours, textural marks and shapes in blending abstract and figurative elements; Peter, from North Yorkshire, is exhibiting landscape fine art prints, and Hornsea maker Adele’s ceramics are marked by notions of the living landscape, abstraction, pollen grains and natural pattern.

Main Street Sound: In harmony with Harmonia at the NCEM

Choral concert of the week: Choirs In Harmony, Main Street Sound & Harmonia, National Centre for Early Music, York, today, 7.30pm

CHOIRS In Harmony brings together two Yorkshire vocal groups for an evening of rich, expressive choral music. York’s only ladies’ barbershop chorus, Main Street Sound, and Malton contemporary, folk, jazz, and musical theatre ladies’ choir Harmonia join forces to showcase a vibrant mix of contemporary arrangements, close harmony and uplifting ensemble singing. Expect moments of intimacy, bursts of energy and the joy of voices uniting in a space made for resonance. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Giddy up: Country queen Twinnie rides into The Crescent tonight

Recommended but sold out already: Twinnie, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm

BORN in York and now established as the UK’s leading country-pop trailblazer on the American circuit after her West End musical theatre days and TV soap career as Porsche McQueen in Hollyoaks and ruthless boxing promoter Jade Garrick in Emmerdale, Twinnie-Lee Moore returns home on her Dirt Road Disco Tour.

Noted for her fearless honesty and storytelling truths, she blends Nashville-inspired country roots with pop hooks and her own gypsy-influenced flair in songs of empowerment, vulnerability, and unapologetic individuality. She made her Grand Ole Opry debut in November 2023 as the first British Romani Traveller to perform in the circle and featured on Rob Brydon’s Honky Tonk Road Trip documentary series on BBC Two last year.

Lucy Kierl in rehearsal for the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s madcap musical mystery Murder For Two. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Whodunit of the week: Murder For Two, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, today to April 18, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

JOE Kinosian and Kellen Blair’s fast-paced musical whodunit is a madcap murder mystery with a twist, performed by two actors, Tom Babbage and Lucy Kierl, who play 13 characters between them, plus the piano, as they put the laughter into manslaughter.

When famous novelist Arthur Whitney is found dead at his birthday party, it is time to call in the detectives, but they are out of town. Enter Officer Marcus Moscowicz, a neighbourhood cop who dreams of climbing the ranks. Here is his chance to prove his super sleuthing skills and solve the crime before the real detective arrives. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Stu Freestone: Launching first poetry collection at The Crescent

Book launch of the week: York Literature Festival and Say Owt present Stu Freestone, The Lights That Blur Between, The Crescent, York, March 30, 7pm to 10pm

YORK performance poet, Say Owt gobby collective associate artist and Cheese Trader cheesemonger Stu Freestone launches his debut poetry collection, The Lights That Blur Between, with two sets, one comedic, the other accompanied by guitarist Simone Focarelli, accordionist Ben Crosthwaite and drummer Joe Douglas. In support will be Grantham singer-songwriter Adam Leeson and York political satirist and performance poet Sarah Armitage.

Freestone’s poems explore the nostalgia of adolescence, relationships, loss and processing, as well as humorous themes of condiment addiction, festival trips gone wrong, cheesemonger battle raps and the perils of “after-work’ drinking in his honest portrayal of life experiences. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Dan Poppitt, Charlie Clarke, front, and Georgina Burt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Parade

The other American musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Parade, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 1 to 4, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

PRESENTED by York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions under the direction of Matthew Peter Clare, Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s stirring Tony Award-winning musical explores love and hope against the odds, set against a backdrop of political injustice and rising racial tension. 

Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew, is put on trial for murder in Marietta, Georgia, but when the world seems against you, receiving a fair trial might prove impossible. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alison Moyet: Re-visiting Yazoo’s two synth-pop albums after more than 40 years at York Barbican. Picture: Naomi Davison

Gig announcement of the week: Alison Moyet, Songs Of Yazoo, the minutes and Other Tour, York Barbican, November 18

BASILDON soul, blues and pop singer-songwriter Alison Moyet will play York in one of ten new additions to her autumn tour, when she will focus on songs from Yazoo’s 1982-1983 catalogue, recorded with Vince Clarke, and a selection from her solo electronica albums, 2013’s the minutesand 2017’s Other, both co-written with producer Guy Sigsworth.

“Many years touring the same pool of songs and I am keen for a palate refresher,” says Moyet, 64. “Specifying which years I will be fishing from too, I think, is a grand way to serve pot luck for specific tastes. No bones.” Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Next To Normal, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until April 4 ***

Andrew Isherwood’s cast in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Next To Normal: back row, from left, Ryan Richardson’s Dr Madden/DrFine, Matthew Warry’s Gabe, Dale Vaughan’s Dan, Niamh Rose’s Natalie and Fergus Green’s Henry; front, Monica Frost’s Diana. Picture: Emil Marczuk

BRIAN Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s 2009 triple Tony Award-winning American musical carries a content warning on the Theatre@41 website and noticeboards.

“Please note, that Next To Normalincludes depictions of various mental health conditions and disorders, including bipolar disorder, anxiety, and grief,” it reads. “The production also includes depictions and discussion of drug use, self-harm, death, and medical trauma.”

At the heart of this intimate exploration of family and illness, loss and grief is electroconvulsive therapy, but audiences are in for shock treatment too. Pick Me Up Theatre’s show is loud, very loud, sometimes too loud, and while loathe to call it an aural assault, the combination of a score operatic in dramatic scale, propelled by rock guitars as much as keyboards, and vexatious singing, where voices rise and rise and overlap, can become too much, too big.

Your senses take one heck of a bashing, nothing by comparison with grief-riven suburban American wife and mother Diana’s 16 years of manic depression, granted, but you might want to let out a scream, if it were not so indelicate to do so.

Imagine a union of Alanis Morissette’s Thank U and Greek tragedy, as intense as clenched teeth, as restless as waiting for test results, in a musical stronger on malady than melody, as too many modern American shows are.

Director Andrew Isherwood, on an award-winning hot streak, seeks to find a chink of light in the shroud of darkness, drawing on the sporadic shards of humour, particularly in Act One, but they tend to sit awkwardly, as jagged as broken glass, under the weight of Kitt’s oppressive, largely depressive music.

Leading a merry dance: Ryan Richardson’s Dr Madden in a clasp with Monica Frost’s Diana. Picture: Joanna Hird

We meet the family in Robert Readman’s dark design of the kitchen, with a stairway to the bedrooms on the mezzanine level above. Between pillars can be seen musical director James Robert Ball’s band, Ball pretty much out of view but playing as beautifully as ever on the keyboard, complemented by Helen Warry’s violin and synths, Georgia Johnson’s bass, Joel Fergusson’s drums, Catherine Strachan’s cello and  Neil Morgan’s itchy guitar.

Pent-up dad Dan (Dale Vaughan) is an architect trying to hold the increasingly flimsy domestic structure in place. Mum  Diana is always in a rush but going nowhere fast, talking in front of the children of nipping upstairs for sex, making sandwiches for packed lunches, but she is cutting them on the floor.  

“Happy Easter,” she says, when teenage daughter Natalie points out that the wall calendar remains on April from the year before. Nothing she says makes sense, says Dan, confiding in the audience as he breaks down theatre’s fourth wall.

Natalie (a suitably prickly Niamh Rose) is bright, but agitated, her behaviour gradually mirroring her mother, distant, even sour, when fellow student Henry (Fergus Green) will not be put off by her cold shoulder. Eyes are said to be the window to the soul, but both Rose and Green have a curtain of hair, in the manner of Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke’s Kevin & Perry.

Brother Gabe (Matthew Warry) flits in and out, always in his mum’s corner and ear but often at odds with his dad. His story is central to her decline, but it would be wrong to give away the full details here, as the revelation needs to be gradual.

Frost looks younger than she is playing, Rose older, which is initially disorientating, but the characterisation and mannerisms soon emphasise the age difference.

Monica Frost’s Diana, Matthew Warry’s Gabe and Dale Vaughan’s Dan in the kitchen in Next To Normal. Picture: Joanna Hird

Your reviewer may not be alone in not connecting with any of the family members, in part because of so much self-pitying song content, while Green’s stoner Henry is something of a saint for persisting in caring for Natalie.

If laughter is the best medicine, then Ryan Richardson has his moments as a brace of doctors, Dr Madden and Dr Fine. Note the names: Madden and Fine, specialists in dealing with mental illness and trying to make you feel fine. Richardson has a disarming manner, something of the night about him, but more Dr Frank-N-Furter than Dr Frankenstein, putting the scare into care, yet always seeking to be reassuring despite all the shortfalls and pitfalls  in Diana’s ECT treatment.

Next To Normal is pretty much a sung-through musical, with only the briefest bursts of dialogue leading to the next outburst in song. More to-and-fro talk, fewer stand-and-deliver songs, would have been a better balance, rounding out the characterisation more fully too, a deficiency that undermined the show publicity’s promise of “presenting the family’s story with love, sympathy and heart”. Alas, your reviewer did not feel any of those emotions being stirred.

“Next to normal” is not only how the dysfunctional family eventually settles on living but sums up this musical too: it is indeed next to normal – if the likes of Six, Legally Blonde, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Buddy and Calendar Girls pass as normal – in being so discomforting, disquieting, musically unnerving, mentally exhausting, as unflinching as Spring Awakening.

The performances are better than the show, Ball’s band pulling out all the strings, and Isherwood’s cast equally committed to going hell for leather when in collective song, especially in the high-stakes sparring of Vaughan and Warry. Tenderness has its place too, and those songs are more rewarding, especially when Frost’s Diana is at her most emotionally damaged.

“There will be light, there will be light, there will be light, there will be light,” concludes the closing song Light, an assertion that feels wholly unconvincing, like the restoration of order at the end of Macbeth.

Pick Me Up Theatre, Next To Normal, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until April 4; 7.30pm nightly except Sunday; 2.30pm matinees, tomorrow, Sunday and next Saturday. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Black Sheep Theatre puts justice on trial in Parade at Joseph Rowntree Theatre amid religious intolerance and racial tension

Dan Poppitt, Charlie Clarke and Georgina Burt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ Parade

MURDER in myriad forms is making its way on to North Yorkshire’s stages this spring, whether Tigerslane Studios’ real-true-crime courtroom drama Murder Trial Tonight IV: Death Of A Landlord at York Barbican last Sunday or Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair’s madcap musical whodunit Murder For Two, “putting the laughter into manslaughter” at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, from Saturday.

Next comes York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ staging of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s stirring Tony Award-winning musical Parade, first performed in 1998 and now more topical than ever in its exploration of love and hope against the odds, set against a backdrop of religious intolerance, political injustice and rising racial tension.

The tragic true story of the trial and lynching of  a man wrongly accused of murder will be brought to life anew at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from April 1 to 4.

The setting is 1913, when Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew living in Georgia, is put on trial for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, his only defenders are a governor with a conscience and his assimilated Jewish wife, who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion when the world seems against you and receiving a fair trial might prove impossible.

Director/musical director  Matthew Peter Clare welcomes the chance to put Parade on parade. “It was due to be done in Leeds but that production got pulled because of Covid,” he says. “It’s not been done in York for at least a decade, and it’s fantastic for us to get hold of the rights, but it is an upsetting piece.

“It’s set in Marietta, near Atlanta, Georgia, post the race riots there, but pre the Great Depression and it’s based on a real-life trial of Leo Frank, who worked in middle management as a superintendent in a pencil factory.

“When one of the employees, Mary Phagan, is murdered, instead of doing a proper investigation, they arrest the nearest Jewish guy – whereas the the nearest black guy is let off because of the race riots, when politically it now wasn’t seen to be right to prosecute a black man.

“So they go with prosecuting Leo Frank, with all the prejudices  of the public heavily influencing the trial with the attitude of ‘he’s Jewish, so get rid.’”

Parade chimes with Black Sheep’s policy of presenting “theatre with a point  that encourages audience reflection”. “This is a show that, like our productions of Elegies For Angels, Punks And Raging Queens and Falsettos, is pushing the concept of ‘other’ to the front and shows the impact of moving against the ‘other’ at a time of racial prejudice,” says Matthew.

Playing the role of Leo Frank will be Black Sheep regular Dan Poppitt. “With regard to Leo, we said from very early on in rehearsals that he was not raised in Atlanta, unlike his wife Lucille, but from Brooklyn, and only moved there when offered a job by Lucille’s uncle, so Leo is seen as a Jewish man first, whereas Lucille is seen as Georgian first, Jewish second,” he says

“These are the nuances that we wanted to promote: the significance of his Jewish heritage and how that leads to prejudice.”

Dan has been particularly keen to be authentic in his portrayal. “Like having to learn Hebrew,” he says. “I’ve studied it phonetically to make sure that the dialogue is pronounced accurately.

Eloise Schneck rehearsing her role as Mary Phagan in Parade

“It’s a case of speaking it properly and with clear intention and how it should be delivered in society at that time.”

Molly Whitehouse is playing Leo’s wife Lucille, an assimilated Jewish woman, which means she “adopts the language, dress and secular cultural habits of the majority population”.

“I’m a northerner first and had a very secular upbringing,” she says. “That regional identity that you draw so much pride from, especially as a queer, working-class woman, can put you on the edge of the community.

“In Lucille’s case, she is already so close to the border of what’s acceptable in Georgia.”

Charlie Clarke has four roles in Parade, two on stage, as Mrs Phagan and Sally Slaton, and two off, as assistant director and choreographer. “I don’t do things by halves!” she says. “Luckily with Matthew directing and being the musical director too, I can spread what I do.

“As choreographer and assistant director, we’ve spoken about how each actor has to give each character their own identity, like Reggie Challenor playing two characters [Jim Conley and Newt Lee] who are the complete antithesis of each other.

“We’ve also discussed how, first of all, they’re all representing real people on stage and how they must make sure that’s pushed through in their performances – and the cast have been really receptive to that.

“We have to ensure we tell the story with truth because, before it’s a musical, it’s a true story.”

Dan rejoins: “I think, especially with a stage show, it’s very easy to forget they’re real characters, but every single person in the show was a real person with a life from before the show’s story began.”

The design will be “incredibly minimalist,” says Matthew. “The blocks we used in Falsettos will be used again, but in a different way, not to evoke houses but the red hills of Georgia. They’re being utilised either as part of the choreography or they’re serving as the landscape.”

Should you be wondering, Parade is so named because the story opens and closes on the day of the Marietta parade for the Confederates’ Memorial Day. “So that’s the framing device, celebrating Georgian identity, but unfortunately there’s a dark underside to that identity, where it prevails, being regardless of the truth in this trial,” says Matthew.

Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Parade, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 1 to 4, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

Who’s in the cast for Parade?

Dan Poppitt as Leo Frank; Molly Whitehouse, Lucille Frank; Reggie Challenor, Jim Conley/Newt Lee; Eloise Schneck, Mary Phagan; Oskar Nuttall, Frankie Epps/Young Soldier; Mark Simmonds, Governor Slaton/Old Slaton; Charlie Clarke, Mrs Phagan/Sally Slaton; Pauline Tomlin, Minnie McKnight; Jack Hooper, Hugh Dorsey; Richard Bayton, Britt Craig; Georgina Burt, Iola Stover;  David Copley Martin, Judge Roan; Jack James Fry, Luther Rosser/Officer Ivey; Sophia Razak, Essie, and Sarah Rudd, Monteen.

Who’s in the production team?

Director and musical director: Matthew Peter Clare; assistant director & choreographer: Charlie Clarke; assistant choreographer& welfare officer: Jack James Fry; costumier: Molly Whitehouse; sound designer: Ollie Nash; lighting designer: Adam Kirkwood; stage managers: Megan Bostock & Steve Hibbs.

Coming next from Black Sheep Theatre Productions

They did the monster match: Dan Poppitt’s Alan and Molly Whitehouse’s Minnie in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ poster for Love At First Bite

JOSH Woodgate will direct Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s seductive new work Love At First Bite at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from June 4 to 6.

“Dating can be hell, but what if one of them was a creature of the night?” ponder the co-writers.

What happens? Alan and Minnie meet at a speed-dating night. A spark flickers. Dates follow. Laughter lingers.

“Yet beneath the rhythms of a familiar rom-com, something waits in the dark,” say Poppitt and Whitehouse, who will play the lovers. “One of them is a vampire — but the secret shifts. Each night, the actors trade fangs, and the audience is left to wonder who is hunter, who is prey.”

Blending sharp-fanged wit with a brush of gothic shadow, Love At First Bite toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites audiences to consider what it means to love…and to hunger!

Woodgate’s production will mark Black Sheep’s return to Theatre@41, Monkgate, after last year’s staging of The Tempest and The Inner Selves. Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.