Category: Theatre

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REVIEW: York Stage, The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, baking until Saturday ****

Oops! Nik Briggs’s big Ben sees his Big Ben showstopper topple over in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography

NIK Briggs’s York premiere of Jake Brunger & Pippa Cleary’s musical spoof could not be better timed, opening the night after the final to series 16 of Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, most notable for the winner’s Showstopper being the largest cake in the show’s history.

It measured 1.2 metres in length, should you be wondering. Nothing is baked on quite that scale beneath York Stage’s tented stage decked in bunting and banter, but more than 50 models of cakes have been made in foam and Polystyrene for Technical Challenges and Showstoppers alike.

‘Bake Off’ is the first musical where the Showstopper meets the show-stopper, drawing the increasingly trim producer-director Briggs back to the boards for his first principal role since Shrek – his 2020 pantomime cow doesn’t count! – to sing two of the peachiest numbers, My Dad (with Eady Mensah’s Lily, his chaperoned daughter) and The Perfect Petit Fours (with Harriet Yorke’s outstanding Gemma).

Bake Off contestants for starters: Stu Hutchinson’s Russell, left, Harriet Yorke’s Gemma, Joanne Theaker’s Babs, Grant McIntyre’s Dezza, Alana Blacker’s Francesca, Nik Briggs’s Ben and Fredo’s Hassan

Briggs’s widowed Bristol police detective Ben – “the cooking copper” – and Yorke’s Blackpool carer Gemma are two of the eight contestants, each with a back story and motive for competing to be revealed in song, like cutting through a multi-layered cake.

Joanne Theaker’s Babs, thrice married and looking for a fourth, is a lemon-sharp East London school dinner lady prone to euphemisms and giving back as good as she gets from Chris Wilson’s droll, Knock Knock joke-telling Phil Hollinghurst (the Paul Hollywood caricature).

Grant McIntyre’s powerfully voiced Dezza is the forceful vegan hipster environmentalist with a No Butter policy; Alana Blacker’s Francesca is a thirtysomething primary-school teacher, from Bognor via Bologna, bringing her Nonna’s traditional Italian recipes with her.

Joanne Theaker’s Babs on top form in Babs’ Lament, a show-stopper of the musical kind in The Great British Bake Off Musical

In his musical theatre debut, York busker Fredo (Sudeep Pandey) is Syrian-born  Wembley teenager Hassan, with his lucky T-shirt and happy-go-lucky demeanour. In scene-stealing mode, York Stage regular Stu Hutchinson’s Russell is an aeronautical engineer, married to Mario, as camp as a tent and determined to apply science and spreadsheets to his experimental bakes.

Amy Barrett’s Izzy, the 21-year-old Cambridge student of Home Counties stock, is posh and pushy, taking the biscuit for being so ruthlessly determined to win, dreaming of books deals, TV series.

Introducing proceedings, teasing and goading as the heat rises, are Sam Roberts’s Jim and Mary Clare’s Kim (“Mel and Sue, who?”, they say), while Tracey Rae’s bespectacled grand dame Pam Lee fills the Prue Leith slot with polished glitter and nudge-nudge-wink-wink banter.

Having her cake and eating too much of it: Amy Barrett’s win-at-all-costs Izzy, front and centre, where else, in The Great British Bake Off Musical

Brunger and Cleary bring affection, rather more than tension, to the tent, sending up Hollywood’s motorbike riding, Leith’s myriad business deals and love of a tipple in a recipe, and the baking-hot baking conditions that always befall one episode per series.

All the while, the elimination fun and games must be played out, concertinaed largely into one song, Don’t Send Me Home, with ever reducing numbers and ever-changing harmony demands for the diminishing contestants.

Everyone has their solo moment to parade their singing chops, Theaker’s Babs excelling in the pathos of Babs’ Lament and Yorke’s Gemma rising to the occasion in Rise. Wilson’s Hollinghurst and Rae’s Dame Pam have a rather sweet moment in I’d Never Be Me Without You.

Harriet Yorke’s Gemma: Rising to the occasion in Rise

Bubbling away throughout – as the tables disappear one by one, cakes crumble and contestants tumble – is the growing bond of Briggs’s Ben and Yorke’s Gemma, both in slow recovery from loss, to provide the obligatory love interest of the piece. Eady Mensah’s Lily (in a role to be shared with Abigail Hodgson, Ella Laister and Megan Pickard ) is a delightful conduit between them.

In style, Bake Off echoes most closely the humour and musical diversity of Victoria Wood’s patter songs and Tim Firth & Gary Barlow’s Calendar Girls. The underscore music of the TV series filters cleverly through the songs, ranging from big bluesy ballads to Chicago and Cabaret pastiches.

Songs have a tendency to go on too long, to overegg the moment, to be layered on a bit too thick – you get the picture – but the humorous dialogue is well timed under Briggs’s joyous direction and Danielle Mullan Hill’s musical staging is whisked into pleasing shapes. Likewise, Stephen Hackshaw’s band is on egg-cracking good form throughout, revelling in Jessica Viner’s arrangements.

And then there were seven: York Stage’s Bake Off contestants in the firing line for elimination: Joanne Theaker’s Babs, far left, Fredo’s Hassan, Nik Briggs’s Ben, Stu Hutchinson’s Russell, Harriet Yorke’s Gemma, Amy Barrett’s Izzy and Alana Blacker’s Francesca

We know that Edinburgh-born medical student Jasmine Mitchell won the Bake Off glass cake stand on Tuesday, but who triumphs in York Stage’s Great British Bake Off? Not telling, except to say that you’re the winner if you buy a ticket. Hollyhurst/Hollywood handshakes all round for a recipe delivered so creamily.

Iced buns being handed out on the forecourt before the show was the icing on the cake.

York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Well judged performances by Tracey Rea’s Pam Lee and Chris Wilson’s Phil Hollinghurst in The Great British Bake Off Musical

Introducing Fredo, playing Hassan in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical

YORK busker Fredo is making his first venture into musical theatre in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off as Syrian-born Hassan, a 17-year-old student now living in Wembley, London.

Originally from Nepal, Fredo (real name Sudeep Pandey) came to York to study. He took up director-producer Nik Briggs’s invitation to step into the breach when the original actor, from elsewhere in Yorkshire, had to pull out on the first day or rehearsals.

“York Stage has always been committed to authentic casting, but within York’s acting community there are not a lot of Asian male actors,” says Nik. “I’d seen Fredo busking in York with his fantastic voice, so I looked up his details, contacted him and said ‘would you be interested in playing Hassan?’.

“He said ‘yeah’, and came down straightaway that night to start, with only five weeks of rehearsals to go. It’s his first time in a musical, his first time without his guitar on the street. He said, ‘five weeks ago, I didn’t even know what a musical was’!

Fredo: York busker making musical theatre debut in The Great British Bake Off Musical this week

“It’s been great to support him through his first stage show. He’s just so loveable. He has the biggest heart.”

 Fredo’s programme note states: “Fredo has built a reputation for his soulful vocals, intricate guitar work and dynamic live performances across Yorkshire’s vibrant music scene.

“Drawing inspiration from both Nepali roots and British contemporary sounds, his music blends cultures and genres with authenticity and heart.”

Catch Fredo busking, playing gigs or doing open-mic nights around York. When not performing, he continues to write, record and share his original music with audiences both locally and online.

Recipe for success: Brew & Brownie baker Mary Clare in rehearsal for her role as hostess Kim in York Stage’s Great British Bake Off Musical

Did you know?

JESSICA Viner and Stephen Hackshaw are sharing musical director duties for York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical. “Jess has been with us for all the rehearsals and was set to be the MD for all the shows, but then she was offered the chance to do Singin’ In The Rain in China for three months – having just done the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang UK tour for a year,” says director Nik Briggs.

“Stephen was with us for the first week and will lead the band and conduct us through the shows, having worked with the band last week.”

Did you know too?

YORK Stage cast member Mary Clare (playing Bake Off hostess Kim) is a professional baker, baking for Brew & Brownie, in Museum Street, York. “It’s been hilarious in rehearsals, when there’s been lots of slow-motion ‘baking’ going on, and Mary will say, ‘oh, no, that’s not how you use that implement’, ‘oh, no, that’s not how you sieve’!” says director Nik Briggs. “She’s been our ad-hoc baking expert in the rehearsal room.”

Bake Off hosts Jim (Sam Roberts) and Kim (Mary Clare) mucking around in York Stage’s York premiere

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Why The Kinks are even better than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, says Sunny Afternoon musical star Danny Horn

Danny Horn, left, Oliver Hoare, Zakarie Stokes and Harry Curley in The Kinks’ musical Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan

WHEN first encountering Sunny Afternoon at the Grand Opera House in February 2017, the Mother Shipton of reviewers envisaged The Kinks’ musical would be returning again and again, in the manner of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.

More than eight years later, that prediction finally comes true and not before time as Joe Penhall and Ray Davies’s Olivier Award-garlanded confluence of sunny afternoons and dark days will be here all day and all of the night from November 11 to 15.

“In these times of political uncertainties, it is a relief to know that Sunny Afternoon is on the horizon to lift our spirits,” says Kinks’ frontman and principal songwriter Ray Davies, now 81, who provides the show’s music, lyrics and original story.

Charting the highs and lows of The Kinks against the backdrop of the rebellious British Sixties, Sunny Afternoon celebrates the raw energy and the fevered life, the anarchic attitude and the controversies, the mendacious, manipulative management and the brotherly spats of the Muswell Hill firebrands that hold a place in pop history as the first British band to be banned from the United States, as re-told in Penhall’s witty and moving dialogue.

Playing Ray Davies on the Sonia Friedman Productions and ATG Productions tour is Danny Horn, who starred in the role for more than a year in the West End from 2015, then reprised it in the North American premiere at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater from January to May this year.

“I’d just finished it in London when I had a choice to jump from the West End version to the tour, but we’d been in the West End for 15 months, and I just needed a break, but I would have loved to have done the UK tour, and I always had this little part of me that was gutted not to  have done it then,” he says.

“So this time round, I’ve jumped at the chance to play this great role and tell this amazing g story all around the country.”

Danny was speaking “deep in the belly of rehearsals at the London Irish Centre in Camden, a somewhat eccentric place with lots of Irish dancing sessions going on next door and Strictly Come Dancing rehearsals too”.

“It’s been a strange year because I didn’t know if I’d ever return to the role, but I’ve now rehearsed it with two different companies, all within one year.  The experience  in Chicago was fantastic and we had a brilliant company. Audiences over there absolutely loved it.

“But what I will say about this piece is that it is quintessentially English. We kind of take the mickey out of America a little bit, and it was interesting to see how they’d receive that over there, but something about the current political climate…at the moment, theatre audiences in America are actually very, very happy to make fun of themselves. And put their hands in the air and go, ‘yeah, give us your best shot’. They were really cool about it!”

“The Kinks were always mythologised in my household, growing up as this local band,” says Danny Horn

Danny and Oliver Hoare revisited their West End roles as Ray and Dave Davies in Chicago. “And he’s with me again now for the UK tour,” says Danny. “We come as a set!” You probably get on better than Ray and Dave did, Danny? “Yeah, that’s not too difficult.”

Danny was in his mid-20s when he first played Ray. “I was very, very aware of The Kinks’ music when I was young, partly because my father grew up in Muswell Hill in the 1960s, only a few doors down, and so The Kinks were always mythologised in my household, growing up as this local band.

“So I had a connection with them way before I even came to play Ray Davies, so when the opportunity came up, it felt like destiny appearing in front of me. It feels a particular honour to get to step into the shoes of this incredible singer-songwriter, whose music was playing so much in my house when I was growing up.”

Just as, if the Nineties’question is Blur or Oasis, the answer is Pulp, so, if the Sixties’ question is The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, the answer  is The Kinks at their Waterloo Sunset peak. “Obviously Lennon & McCartney’s impact is almighty, and no-one can really compare, but I think Ray Davies is our all-time greatest singer-songwriter singularly. There’s no-one like him.

“Lennon & McCartney needed each other, but Ray was an absolute force to be reckoned with. Also, he wrote in a way that no-one else wrote. He was writing pop songs in 1967 which start with ‘From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar’ [Autumn Almanac]. Who, in their right mind, would start a lyric like that other than Ray Davies?

“He has three separate songs about drinking tea, yet he was one of the most dangerous, difficult pop stars of the 1960s, at the height of the artform.”

Sunny Afternoon charts the first four-five years of The Kinks’ career. “They were this unlikely bunch of working-class lads who basically against all odds managed to succeed. They were at each other’s throats half the time; they were managed by a bunch of very well meaning, upper-class twits who didn’t know the first thing about the music industry, and somehow their talent won out against everything.

“It’s the most turbulent story. It’s amazing that the story’s not better known, because everyone seems to know the story of the Stones and The Beatles, but this is an extraordinary tale about lads who, especially the two brothers, didn’t like each but they loved each other. They needed each other, loved each other, but couldn’t really stand to be in the same room, let alone on the same stage with each other.

“It’s a brilliant, gripping tale, fundamentally about family, the class system and about mental health of a young man who was fragile and thrown into this world completely beyond his control – with pressure to come up with so much original music, which he did.”

Sunny Afternoon, Grand Opera House, York, November 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees. Age guidance: 12 plus. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

‘It’s a story about resilience, really, about keeping your head when the world’s spinning too fast,’ says Ray Davies

The Kinks’ Ray Davies. Picture: Phil Tragen

HERE The Kinks’ songwriter discusses taking the Muswell Hill band’s story to the stage, their legacy and the next generation of fans.

How does it feel to see your songs and story come to life on stage in Sunny Afternoon, Ray?

“Daunting at first. I was working on the storyline on and off for three years, but in many ways the story is contained within the songs. The songs were written in such specific moments of my life and now they’ve been reinterpreted, given new context.

“It’s humbling, and sometimes a bit surreal, to see the audience connect to those moments as if they’re happening now. It’s proof that the music still has a pulse.”

You were closely involved in shaping the show. How did you approach revisiting your past and turning The Kinks’ history into a musical?

“With caution at the beginning so I pretended it was about somebody else. I didn’t want it to be just another jukebox musical. I wanted Sunny Afternoon to have heart, to show what it really felt like to live through that madness.

“We approached it as a piece of storytelling, not nostalgia. I went back to the songs and the memories behind them and tried to weave them into something honest. It wasn’t about polishing the past, it was about exploring it with the rawness that inspired the songs in the first place.”

Did collaborating with director Edward Hall and writer Joe Penhall challenge your version of events in any way?

“When you’ve lived something, you think you know the story inside out, but Edward (Hall) and Joe (Penhall) held up a mirror to it. They’d ask questions I hadn’t thought about in years and that made me reassess a lot of things. They didn’t rewrite my version, but they did expand it.”

Ray Davies poses by a billboard for Sunny Afternoon

The show captures both the highs and the struggles of The Kinks’ journey. What memories stand out most vividly for you when you look back on that era?

“The contrast, I think. One day we were scraping by in Muswell Hill, the next we were banned from America. There were moments of absolute chao, and others of beautiful clarity.

“Although we didn’t appreciate it at the time, the band celebrated being at the height of British culture, everything felt bright and exciting after coming out of the darkness of the SecondWorld War.”

Many of the themes in Sunny Afternoon – youthful ambition, creative freedom, the turbulence of the 1960s  – still feel very timely today. Why do you think this story continues to resonate with new generations?

“Every generation goes through its own version of rebellion. For us it was a turbulent time of change, the class system was still there, but it began to feel that working class kids could also start to move up the social ladder. The Sixties were our revolution, but the spirit of that time – questioning authority, chasing authenticity – that never really disappears.

“I think people see themselves in that struggle, whether they’re forming a band or just trying to figure out who they are. That’s timeless.”

What has it meant to you to showcase your back catalogue all in one place?

“It’s been a gift. Songs like Lola or Days have their own lives, but when you hear them alongside Dead End Street or Sunny Afternoon you see the full picture. The musical gave me the chance to connect those dots for people, to show how the songs talk to each other. And it reminded me too, why I wrote them in the first place.”

What do you hope people will take away from the experience this time around on the new tour?

“The hope is that audiences will be able to see a glimpse of our history while enjoying a great night out. If people walk out humming the songs, that’s lovely. I hope they leave with a sense of joy, but also reflection. It’s a story about resilience, really, about keeping your head when the world’s spinning too fast.”

‘As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsiders – punk before punk,’ says Sunny Afternoon writer Joe Penhall

Joe Penhall: Book writer for Sunny Afternoon

Sunny Afternoon is heading back on tour. How does it feel to have the production returning to stages across the UK, Joe?

“It’s incredibly exciting to be doing it again. All of us involved feel we really need it in our lives. It’s got a medicinal quality that always makes everyone feel better about life.

“Since we started, over ten years ago, various cast and creatives have gone off and had babies, got married – sometimes to each other – become stars, played festivals and put out albums.

“We’re like a family that never grows old, somehow able to magically renew every time we regroup with new cast members…which is entirely appropriate since the musical is partly about family.”

What stands out the most when recalling premiering Sunny Afternoon more than a decade ago?

“The very first workshop was just Ray Davies and I with a piano and a handful of actors with guitars and tambourines. Ray would take them away for 20 minutes and teach them a pitch-perfect arrangement of Waterloo Sunset, exactly like the record. It was like a magic trick.

“Or I’d go off with Ray and he’d explain a particularly intense episode of his life to me in a perfect, poetic monologue and I’d build a scene from it. During previews at the Hampstead Theatre, Sir Tom Stoppard turned up and spent a couple of days feeding me notes and advice.

“When it opened, Dave Gilmour, Paul Weller and Noel and Liam Gallagher came, all big Kinks fans, all very approving. Geniuses as far as the eye could see!”

How  involved was Ray Davies in the development, and what was it like to collaborate with him?

“Ray was across everything and in the early days was musical director. To work out the story, I’d go to Ray’s house every Friday and we’d drink tea and he’d tell me stories or show me clips, play me old bits of songs or suggest bits of films to watch.

“Sometimes I’d see or read something that inspired me and would show it to him and we’d figure out how it related to what we were doing. Sometimes we disagreed and wanted to go in different directions but there was always a kind of subliminal umbilical cord connecting us, because I’d been listening to his music since I was a child and he’d admired some of my work. (Davies watches Mindhunter!)

“It’s rare to have the luxury of developing a show that way, in each other’s pockets – a real labour of love.”

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies leading The Kinks in Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan

What makes Sunny Afternoon stand apart from “jukebox’ musicals”?

“Ray’s very theatre-literate and film-literate and knows everything there is to know about music. So we talked a lot about our favourite music, plays and films as we discovered the tone and atmosphere of the show.

“It’s rare for a musical artist to get so involved in the theatre, much less a giant of the rock world like Ray and that’s one of the secrets of our success.

“We didn’t just take the songs and cook up some filler to cash in. We both felt that the show had to be every bit as good as a great Kinks record – the same power to move, the same sophistication, emotion and wit – or else we’d have failed. And I think we achieved that.”

Why does The Kinks’ story and songbook continue to resonate with audiences today?

“The songs are both simple and extremely complex at the same time, but they speak to people on a profound level. As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsiders – punk before punk – and as they said themselves, ‘misfits’.

“If the 20th century taught us anything, it taught as that it’s OK to be a misfit, to be different, to be unlucky or unloved or broke or lost – you still have power. It can lead to great success.

“The Kinks possessed immense humanity and a unique life force which is all there in the songs. People come to the show and feel euphoric and consoled and gripped all at once because they can see vestiges of their own lives in it – but they always end up on their feet dancing — and that’s the way we like it. It makes us feel alive.”

The new tour means new audiences, as well as returning fans. Have you made any tweaks or changes to the production since its original run?

“Unusually we haven’t changed a thing. If anything, the show is more powerful and resonant since Covid.

“In the scene where the band celebrates England winning the World Cup in 1966, it doesn’t feel like ancient history. It feels like the here and now — only these days it’s women winning the World Cup — and we feel the same euphoria now as people must have back then. The fractious scenes in America also feel incredibly current. In Chicago the audiences found it quite cathartic.”

A scene from Sunny Afternoon. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Your career spans theatre, film and television. How does writing the book for a musical compare with those other outlets?

“It’s way more fun. It’s a little less technical and more intuitive, which is nice. With music you suddenly have this magic power at your disposal. It’s such a great tool for creating atmosphere, moving people, exciting them and stirring them up. It’s like being a painter and discovering a whole new colour spectrum.

“Even when I’m working on film or TV, I make sure to keep an eye on the music and really enjoy collaborating with composers. I collaborated with Nick Cave on the film The Road — it’s about the end of the world and a million miles away from this in every conceivable way — but also a joyous experience. I’m lucky to be asked to do such different things, but basically I’m flying by the seat of my pants.”

From the award-winning play Blue/Orange to the Netflix hit Mindhunter, how do you approach each different project. Is there a common thread?

“Believe it or not, there’s a thread between Blue/Orange, Sunny Afternoon and Mindhunter. They’re all pretty psychologically intense. They’re all about unique individuals challenging thestatus quo.

“In general, I treat my work as ‘found art’. If I find a story or characters or a situation or issue that stirs me up and intrigues me, I figure out how best to use it. Depending on its formal aesthetics, I’ll decide if it’s a play or a screenplay.

“Some things demand the wide screen of a film or TV, with camera moves and changing focus and atmospheric sound and music. Some just demand to be yelled out at night in a room full of people — dialogue to create a dialogue. But I could never just do one of them; I like to express myself in all sorts of different ways.”

Looking back on your career so far, is there a moment that fills you with pride the most?

“I try not to take too much notice of awards but the night Sunny Afternoon won four Olivier awards, one after the other, was my proudest. I was just so delighted for my friends – to see them winning best actor awards (original cast John Dagleish and George McGuire)— then to cap it all Ray and I won for the book and music.

“It’s almost impossible to make a show as individual and unique as Sunny Afternoon, but to have mainstream success with it was frankly a miracle.”

Finally, what excites you most about the future, both for Sunny Afternoon and your own upcoming work?

“I’m excited to take the tour as far as we can take it. I’d love to tour Europe and Australia with it. Or Japan! A lot of my plays go there and it’s also different and special. I love connecting with audiences from very different places and seeing how they react within their culture.

“I don’t know what’s in store in terms of upcoming work. I’m developing a couple of films, so I’d love them to happen. I’ve written a new play, which is hot off the press. And I have a couple of TV ideas too.

“You never know what’s going to come to fruition and what’s going to fall apart but the trick is, as Ray’s dad says in Sunny Afternoon, ‘Never give up, never back down — and never, ever forget who you are’.”

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Griffonage Theatre takes over the House of Trembling Madness cellar in Lendal for three nights of Kafka By Candlelight

Be ready to be spooked: Griffonage Theatre cast members in masks for Kafka By Candlelight in the House Of Trembling Madness cellar, in Lendal, York

GRIFFONAGE Theatre, York’s theatrical confluence of the madcap and the madcap, proudly presents Kafka By Candelight as part of the Aesthetica Fringe 2025 from tonight to Friday.

“This collection of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories will be disturbingly told in the darkness, in the bowels of The House of Trembling Madness, Lendal. Dare to join us down below?” teases director Katie Leckey.

In Poseidon, the God of The Sea is overwhelmed with the bureaucracy of managing the oceans; in The Penal Colony, an elaborate torture/execution device carves the crimes of criminals onto their skin as they slowly perish.

What next? In The Bucket, a woman is freezing to death, prompting her to seek out a coal dealer as she pleads for help. However, she is not understood.

In The Burrow, a badger-like creature holes himself up in his home, afraid of enemies outside…but soon strange noises begin to threaten his existence from within.

And lastly? In The Vulture, a vulture pecks mercilessly at the soles of a young person’s feet. A stranger tries to help, inadvertently making things wholly worse.

“This production is a work-in-progress piece, with sections that are script-in-hand,” says Katie. “We’re  also experimenting with audience members adding to the atmosphere by optionally wearing [theatrical] masks…

“Griffonage are hoping to develop some of the selected stories into a longer show in the future. To this end, we would value any and all audience feedback after the performances. Please email katieleckey@griffonage.uk with feedback or questions!”

Pay What You Can tickets are available to reserve for each fright night’s 6.30pm and 8.30pm performances at eventbrite.com/e/kafka-by-candlelight-tickets-1815618316259.

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In Focus: Introducing Constance Peel, Service Please, Aesthetica Fringe, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, November 7, 8.30pm; Micklegate Social, York, November 9, 2pm and 8pm

Constance Peel: Writer, director, performer…and waitress, serving up Service Please at inaugural Aesthetica Fringe

CONSTANCE (Connie) Peel, York-born director, producer, writer and performer, will present her debut one-woman show Service Please as part of the inaugural Aesthetica Fringe.

“I’ve been working as an assistant director and performer in theatre professionally for the past two years, since graduating from the University of York,” says Connie, 24. “This show explores the reality of working in hospitality, including the harassment and sexism you can face as a young woman.”

Service Please is billed as “a relatable and comedic monologue that follows Lara, a creative writing graduate, who hopes to write the next best-selling fantasy romance novel. There’s only one thing standing in her way, her casual waitressing job that keeps the money coming in.”

“We’ve all been there, but Lara wasn’t ready for the stressful and chaotic reality of working in the service industry,” says Connie, introducing her monodrama. “Can Lara keep her sanity and get her big writing break or will she crumble under the pressure of understaffed shifts, creepy comments and customers who say their only food allergies are ‘women’?”

Constance Peel’s poster for this week’s performances of Service Please at Rise@Bluebird Bakery and Micklegate Social

Hospitality is the fastest-growing economic sector, worth £93 billion to the UK economy. “But it’s under severe pressure with more than 100,000 job losses predicted by the time of this month’s Budget, due to National Insurance rises (according to UK Hospitality),” says Connie.

“It’s evident working in the sector that to continue profits and keep up with the cost of living, food prices and discounts both need to increase while labour hours decrease. Being a server has never been more stressful and unpredictable and this experience (as other working-class experiences) is so often overlooked by theatre.” 

Sexual harassment is an epidemic in the hospitality industry too, says Connie. “As many as 47 per cent of workers having experienced it – and 69 per cent witnessed it in 2021 (Culture Shift).

“These statistics, though informative, mask the personal cost to the individuals harassed and abused. My play presents interpretations of my own personal experiences, including those with harassment, and they’re an unfortunate part of the job when working as a waitress.

“I wanted to show the emotional toll of struggling as an artist, especially as in the past five years there has been one third fewer arts jobs,” says Connie

“They shouldn’t be, and awareness of this experience even in Fringe-scale theatre is always beneficial to the cause.” 

Lastly, says Connie, Service Please tells the story of an artist with no clear way into her industry. “This is the most personally accurate part of my script. I wrote and performed the 50-minute monologue while producing and marketing it alone for its six-day debut run at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe, where it won plaudits from critics and top reviews.

“Though this is hopeful for creatives, both in the execution of the play and my own story behind it, I wanted to show the emotional toll of struggling as an artist, especially as in the past five years there has been one third fewer arts jobs (directly impacting my career).

“It was important that I brought this show back to where my career started, in York where I graduated from the University of York and where I’ve been working for the past three years between York and Leeds. I hope this production and my story makes people see the importance of a small-scale play like this in today’s society.” 

For tickets, go to: ticketsource.co.uk.

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York Opera & York Railway Institute Band to honour Clive Marshall RIP with fundraising concert at The Citadel on Saturday

Clive Marshall RIP: Trombone player, character actor, director, chairman, designer, set builder, English and drama teacher, hockey player and club president

YORK Railway Institute Band and York Opera members will come together for one night only on Saturday (8/11/2025) for a charity musical tribute to much-loved colleague Clive Marshall (October 12 1936-March 11 2025).

Expect soaring choruses, heartfelt arias and the very best of operatic overtures in this 7.30pm concert of popular classics at The Citadel, Gillygate, York, all in aid of St Leonard’s Hospice, where Clive spent the final days of his life in March this year.

Clive, who trained as a teacher at St John’s Teacher Training College in York, was chairman of the York Railway Institute Band, leading the trombone section for many years, and first performed for York Opera – or City Opera Group, as it was then called – in 1968, going on to play multiple character roles and stage direct myriad productions too.  He was president of City of York Hockey Club to boot, playing into his 70s.

As an English and drama teacher, he taught at Derwent and Knavesmire Secondary Modern schools before becoming head of drama at Hemsworth High School in West Yorkshire. After early retirement from Hemsworth, he took on part-time teaching at Northfield School in Acomb and as a drama teacher at Bootham School until the age of 70.

York Opera chairman Ian Thomson-Smith says: “Clive was the heart and soul of York Opera for more than 50 years, as a director, performer, designer and set builder. So many of us who shared a stage with him will be forever grateful for his guidance, good humour and encouragement. This concert is a small way of recognising how much he has meant to us.”

York Railway Institute Band manager Martyn Groves-Williams adds: “Clive was a truly remarkable, talented and generous man, who thankfully lived a long and joyous life. His memory will be cherished by all of us who were lucky enough to be part of his banding life, and we shall all miss him dearly.”

Helen Lay, community and events fundraiser at St Leonard’s Hospice, says: “We’re incredibly grateful to the York Railway Institute Band and York Opera for teaming up for this special event in Clive’s memory.

“As a charity, we rely on brilliant events like this to raise much-needed funds, so we can continue providing our expert care and support to so many across our area. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone involved.”

Tickets cost £15, concessions £10 for students and under-16s, at https://tickets.yorkopera.co.uk/events/yorkopera/1793750 or on the door.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 48, from Gazette & Herald

Mark Kermode Taking part in Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s Beyond the Frame strand at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Julie Edwards Visuals

THE 15th Aesthetica Short Film Festival tops the bill in a week when hauntings and musical buns rise to the occasion, as Charles Hutchinson highlights.

Festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, all over York, today to Sunday

NOT so much a film festival as a “screen and media event”, in its 15th year, York’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival is bigger and broader than ever. Not only more than 300 shorts, features, documentaries, animations and experimental films, but also the VR & Games Lab; masterclasses and panels; workshops and roundtables; networking and pitching; Listening Pitch premieres; the inaugural New Music Stage and Aesthetica Fringe shows; Beyond the Frame events at York Theatre Royal; the UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO and the Podcasting strand. For the full programme and tickets, go to: asff.co.uk.

Mary Gauthier: Playing Pocklington Arts Centre tonight

Troubadour of the week: Mary Gauthier, Pocklington Arts Centre, tonight, 7pm

MARY Gauthier hung up her chef’s coat to move to Nashville at 40 to start a troubadour career, going from open-mic gigs to playing Newport Folk Festival a year later. Twenty-five years ago, this courageous lesbian songwriter’s groundbreaking debut album Drag Queens In Limousines announced: “Drag queens in limousines, nuns in blue jeans, dreamers with big dreams, they all took me in.”

The song has become an anthem for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider: as it turns out, all of us. It is typical of her deeply personal, yet paradoxically universal work, written in reaction to what matters most to her, as Gauthier expresses boldly what is often too hard for us to say. Box office:  01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Bugsy at the double: Zachary Stoney, from Team Malone, left, and Dan Tomlin, from Team Bugsy, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone

Young performers of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

LESLEY Hill directs and choreographs York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast of more than 40 young performers in Alan Parker and Paul Williams’s musical, replete with the film songs You Give A Little Love,  My Name Is Tallulah, So You Wanna Be A Boxer?, Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and Bugsy Malone.

In Prohibition-era New York, rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan are at loggerheads. As custard pies fly and Dan’s splurge guns wreak havoc, penniless ex-boxer and all-round nice guy Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown. Can Bugsy resist seductive songstress Tallulah, Fat Sam’s moll and Bugsy’s old flame, and stay out of trouble while helping Fat Sam to defend his business? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate giving a team talk in James Graham’s Dear England, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre

Sporting drama of the week: National Theatre in Dear England, Leeds Grand Theatre, until Saturday, kick-off at 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

JAMES Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play (and forthcoming television drama) takes its name from revolutionary England football  manager Gareth Southgate’s open letter during the Covid-19 pandemic.

David Sturzaker plays Southgate, Samantha Womack, team psychologist Pippa Grange, in this “inspiring, at times heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting story” of England, penalties, lost finals and a new-found national identity. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Ben Rosenfield and Laura McKeller in Neon Crypt and The Deathly Dark Tours’ The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!

Halloween horrors and jump scares of the week: Neon Crypt and The Deathly Dark Tours in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

BETWEEN 1986 and 1993, a series of often violent hauntings rocked the small Yorkshire town of Wetwang. The cases went cold and all the records were lost…until now! Join York ghost walk guide Dr Dorian Deathly and his team as they dig into the history and horrors of these cases. “This show is not for the faint of heart,” he forewarns. Suitable for age 13 upwards. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Jessica Shaw’s Forms Of Water, on show at Pocklington Arts Centre

Ryedale exhibition of the week: Jessica Shaw, Forms Of Water, Helmsley Arts Centre, until February 27 2026

BASED on the edge of the North York Moors, printmaker Jessica Shaw explores the impact of water and ice on landscape, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s assertion that “in time and with water, everything changes”. 

Combining screenprint, woodcut, monoprint and etching with diverse media such as gouache and acrylic ink, her work draws from organic patterns and shapes made by water and ice, detailing their effect on the North York Moors National Park’s topography by highlighting the shapes of its high ground and the curls of its rivers, to the ephemeral ice patterns found in puddles and windows in winter.  

Katie Leckey: Directing Griffonage Theatre in Kafka By Candlelight

Deliciously disturbing stories of the week: Griffonage Theatre, Kafka By Candlelight, The House Of Trembling Madness, Lendal, York, tonight to Friday, 6.30pm and 8.30pm  

“NO rest for the week,” say Griffonage Theatre, York’s purveyors of the madcap and the macabre, who are performing Kafka By Candlelight in the cavernous belly of the House Of Trembling Madness cellar as part of Aesthetica Short Film Festival’s debut  Aesthetica Fringe, featuring 25 shows across the city.

This one showcases five of Franz Kafka’s strangest short stories, told disturbingly in the darkness with the audience in masks (optional). “Dare to join us?” they tease. Box office: eventbrite.com/e/kafka-by-candlelight-tickets-1815618316259.

Entwined: Nik Briggs’s cooking copper, Ben, and Harriet Yorke’s carer, Gemma, in York Stage’s York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical

York musical premiere of the week: York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

BAKING battles, singing sponges and a sprinkling of hilarity is the recipe for York Stage’s York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical, rising to the occasion under the direction of Nik Briggs, who also makes a rare stage appearance as one of the Bake Off contestants.

Expect a sweet and savoury symphony of British wit and oven mitts, propelled by a menu of  jazz hands and jubilant original songs that capture the essence of the Bake Off tent, from nerve-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become fruitful reality. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Understaffed and overworked: The hotel workforce on clean-up duty in John Godber Company’s Black Tie Ball. Picture: John Godber Company

One helluva party of the week: John Godber’s Black Tie Ball, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

ON the glitziest East Yorkshire fundraising night of the year, everyone wants to be there. The Bentleys are parked, the jazz band has arrived, the magician will be magic, but behind the bow ties, fake tans and equally fake booming laughter lie jealousies and avarice, divorces and affairs, as overdressed upstairs meets understaffed downstairs through a drunken gaze. 

The raffle is ridiculously competitive, the coffee, cold, the service, awful, the guest speaker, drunk, and the hard -pressed caterers just want to go home. Welcome to the Brechtian hotel hell of John Godber’s satirical, visceral comedy drama, as told by the exasperated hotel staff, recounting the night’s mishaps at breakneck speed in the manner of Godber’s fellow wearers of tuxedos, Bouncers. Box office:  01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Offcut Theatre’s poster for Libby Pearson’s Four By Three

Uplifting mini-dramas of the week: Offcut Theatre in Libby Pearson’s Four by Three, Milton Rooms, Malton, Thursday, 7.30pm

PAULINE, Bill and Martin invite you into parts of their lives through three separate monologues before coming together in a short play in Libby Pearson’s hopeful, uplifting, light-hearted look at the need for human contact.

In The Woman Next Door, is Pauline a lonely, nosey neighbour or a woman full of unfulfilled longing? In Silk FM, Bill runs a very local radio station; catch it on Thursdays, 1pm to 3pm, term-time only. In The Picker, Martin is desperate to be acknowledged for his innovative litter-picking ideas. In Shelved, Pauline, Bill and Martin run a volunteer-led library, where the council may have plans for it, but so do they. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

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Halloween horrors and jump scares of the week: Neon Crypt & The Deathly Dark Tours present The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!

Jimmy Johnson, left, and Dr Dorian Deathly (Jamie McKeller) in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Pictures: Emma Warley/Emma &Rich

BETWEEN 1986 and 1993, a series of often violent hauntings rocked the East Riding village of Wetwang. The cases went cold and all the records were lost…until now!

Join York ghost walk guide Dr Dorian Deathly as the Neon Crypt and the Deathly Dark Tours team digs into the history and horrors of these reawaken cases at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tonight to Saturday in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live. “This show is not for the faint of heart,” he forewarns.

Here Dorian (alias York actor Jamie McKeller) discusses the Wetwang hauntings, the podcast and live show, Neon Crypt, Deathly Dark ghost walks and future plans with CharlesHutchPress.

How did you learn of the Wetwang Hauntings?

“There are two answers to this. The first is the one that’s in the podcast and live show, that we were brought an old shoebox filled with tapes by a man who only wants to be known as Mr Whispers.

“Dorian listened to the tapes, hours and hours of paranormal investigations carried out by the long-since-vanished Mayor Dick Nightly. We didn’t know what to do with the tapes at first, and then we realised that we are men in our 30s and 40s with microphones and access to fast internet. Making a podcast was the only logical choice; turning it into a staged show was the second.

“The second answer is that Jamie (the other guy) was having afternoon tea with a friend in Wetwang, and he got chatting to someone in the tea room about my time spent telling ghost stories on the streets of York.

“They told me that all the staff felt that the tea room was haunted and that was that. My brain got excited and before long I was pitching the show to my co-writers on the project, Ben Rosenfield and Jimmy Johnson.” 

Laura McKeller (Dede Deathly) and Michael Cornell (Michael Nightly/Mayor Nick Nightly) in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

Who or what is Neon Crypt?

“Neon Crypt are at the core a group of four actors and writers. Myself, my wife Laura McKeller, [York Mix presenter] Laura Castle and Michael Cornell. Laura Castle can’t be with us for this one; she’s very in demand but is very much missed and will be back for the next one!

“This is our third show. A Night Of Face Melting Horror was the first, then earlier this year we performed Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth. The Wetwang Hauntings is our first full-length, original play and we have two more planned for next year. In the future we’re looking to start touring one of these shows.”

Here is what AI says of the Wetwang Hauntings:  “The ‘Wetwang Hauntings’ refers to a series of violent and unsettling paranormal events that reportedly took place in the Yorkshire village of Wetwang between 1986 and 1993.

“These events are the subject of a modern horror-themed podcast and live show that investigates the history and folklore surrounding the cases. While the historical ‘hauntings’ are steeped in local legend, the area is also famous for a significant archaeological find of an Iron Age chariot burial from around the 3rd or 4th century BC.“

What would you like to add to that summary?

“I’m not sure I should argue or disagree with AI; it’s a terrifying thing. Our thoughts on it are presented in the show this week.”

Do you have any theories on why the cases went cold? How come all the records were lost?  Deliberately?

“As far as we can tell, something terrible happened to Mayor Nightly. We know that he was last seen in 1998, so we don’t know why the tapes have only surfaced now and we have no idea where they were kept. It’s all very strange, but I’m sure that it will all be fine. I think.”

Jimmy Johnson, left, Ben Rosenfield and Dr Dorian Deathly in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

What has been the reaction to your podcasts?

“Just wonderful. We’ve had comparisons to The League Of Gentlemen, early Doctor Who, Uncanny and more, which is great as all of those things were heavy inspiration for us.”

More specifically, what has been Wetwang’s response? Has anyone from Wetwang or indeed the afterlife been in touch?

“One Wetwang resident has reached out to us and mostly said ‘yes, this all makes sense’. I’m not sure what that means, but she seems to be enjoying the show.”

How will The Wetwang Hauntings – Live! take the story further than the podcasts?

“The live show goes a little further into the tapes than where we are in the podcast. We’re looking at three hauntings chosen by the cast, with a fourth one to be chosen on the night by the audience.” 

What will happen in the live show?  Who will take part? 

“The show features three out of four of the Neon Crypt gang, plus we’ve drafted in a couple of the Deathly Dark Tours gang, Dafydd and Dalton, who are the alter egos of Jimmy [Johnson] and Ben [Rosenfield].

Laura McKeller’s Dede Deathly in The Wetwang Hauntings – Live

“Laura McKeller is playing Dede Deathly, who is in turn playing the roles of several characters featured in the retelling of the hauntings. Michael Cornell is playing actor Michael Nightly, who is in turn playing his father Mayor Dick Nightly. Layers on layers! Over the course of the night we will be exploring the events that occurred in Wetwang in the 1990s.”

How will you use the theatre space as opposed to York’s streets to set the atmosphere?

“It will be warmer, which is always nice. We have tech that isn’t usually available to us, even having the ability to play sound and music, to isolate certain areas of the space.

“Over the years, we have become very, very good at scaring people on the sometimes mean streets of York with nothing more than what nature provides, so you can only imagine how much terror we will be conjuring in the theatre.”

What’s next for the Deathly Dark Tours as the dark nights lengthen and the chills set in?

“I’m stepping back from the tours for a little while to focus on Neon Crypt. The ghost walk is in very good hands, and I have other ambitions I need to focus on for a while. I’ll be back now and again, but Dorian will be mostly behind the scenes of it all for a little while.

“We had an intense Halloween with almost 5,000 people joining the tour, of which we ran more than 120 in 30 days. Things do ease off a little over winter, but it’s still steady. Then it will be February half-term and full steam ahead again in no time!”

Dr Dorian Deathly on stage at Theatre@41, Monkgate

On a different note: will Jamie be in the Rowntree Players panto again this winter? If so, which role?

 “I certainly am. It’s Peter Pan this year, and I’ll be ticking off a big thing on my bucket list by playing the role of Captain Hook. He’s a proper big baddie this year. No eggs, no roads, he just wants to kill Peter Pan and he isn’t shy about it.

“Howard Ella and Gemma McDonald have written a fantastic script, and I have some absolutely preposterous songs this year. I’m straight back into rehearsal for it the day after The Wetwang Hauntings closes its first run!”

Neon Crypt & The Deathly Dark Tours present The Wetwang Hauntings – Live!, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 4 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Suitable for age 13 upwards. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Jamie McKeller will play Captain Hook in Rowntree Players’ The Pantomime Adventures Of Peter Pan, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, December 6, 2pm and 7.30pm, December 7, 2pm and 6pm; December 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Wetwang in a nutshell

EAST Riding of Yorkshire village, in the Yorkshire Wolds, six miles west of Driffield. Known for Iron Age chariot burial site and black swans. Television presenter and Countdown host Richard  Whiteley served as honorary mayor from 1998 to 2005. Richard Whiteley, Dick Nightly…you can see where The Wetwang Hauntings is heading!

Michael Cornell bathed in red light in The Wetwang Hauntings –Live

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York Stage find the perfect recipe for showstoppers in The Great British Bake Off Musical at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

Nik Briggs’s cooking copper, Ben, and Harriet Yorke’s carer, Gemma, become entwined in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

YORK Stage will be rising to the occasion in the York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical from Wednesday (5/11/2025) to Saturday at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.

Nik Briggs’s cast will be putting the tension into the tent – and the fun bite into the bun fight – in the familiar journey from never-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers as eight contestants seek to avoid soggy bottoms en route to impressing judges Phil Hollinghurst  (Chris Wilson) and Pam Lee (Tracey Rea).

“Prepare yourself for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become delicious reality,” says director and producer Nik. “It’s a show that proves baking isn’t just about the final product, it’s about the journey and the joy that comes from sharing that journey with others.”

He was determined to snap up the show for York Stage. “It started off in July 2022 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, then transferred to the West End [Noel Coward Theatre, February 24 to May 13 2023], and when the rights became available earlier this year, we were straight in there with our application!

“It’s a show by Jake Brunger [book and lyrics] and Pippa Cleary [music and lyrics], who did the 2015 musical The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, and this show has gone the furthest for them since then. It’s gorgeous!  It has the perfect recipe: it’s got comedy, real heart, it’s so British – and it knows how to poke fun at the great national institution that Bake Off has become, but at the same time hold it in respect.”

The show is built around Brunger and Cleary’s original songs. “A lot of the humour comes in the wordplay and the lyrics, which are reminiscent of Victoria Wood’s patter songs, so rehearsals have been so funny,” says Nik. “It’s just been a lovely experience, which is just what you need when you’re rehearsing a show in only five weeks, whereas we normally do ten.

“Traditionally in musicals, you have your principals and the chorus singing the rousing chorus in harmony four times in the same song, but with this show, you have your Bake Off contestants being eliminated, so you have fewer people to do the harmonies as the show goes on – and everyone’s harmonies then swap too!”

Nik continues: “There’s one song with four choruses, where I sing different parts with different harmonies in every chorus! Those harmonies are gorgeous – and as Bake Off fans will recognise, all the big numbers are based on the underscore music from the TV series.

“It’s so clever the way it’s been done. The audience will think, ‘what a gorgeous, heart-filled British comedy’ it is, and they will realise what hard work has gone into it when people thought it might be twee, but it really isn’t.”

The Bake Off musical condenses the path of a full TV series into one  show, replete with the aforementioned technical challenges, show stoppers, eliminations by the musical’s answer to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith  all introduced and jollied along by hosts Jim (Sam Roberts) and Kim (Mary Clare).

“Like in the TV series, we learn about their home life, why they’re doing Bake-Off. Like Izzy (Amy Barrett), the Cambridge graduate, who’s very competitive, desperate to win and thinking of the big deals that might come from winning.

“There’s a school dinner lady, who’s just there for the experience, and the environmentalist, who will not cook with butter and insists on everything being vegan. There’s a carer and policeman, both at a new stage in their lives, and we see them connecting with each other as the competition progresses.”

The policeman, Ben, will be played by Nik. “His daughter Lily is with him for reasons that will become clear, and I have four of my York Stage School students, Eady Mensah, Abigail Hodgson, Ella Laister and Meg Pickard, sharing the role,” he says.

Now so busy directing York Stage shows and running York Stage School, Nik is seldom to be seen on stage. Indeed Ben will be his first principal role since leading the cast in green in Shrek The Musical in September 2019 at the Grand Opera House.

“When I first came by the show, there is this duet that Ben sings with Lily, and though it’s very rare these days, I thought, ‘ooh, I would love to sing that’, when nowadays I’m much more comfortable on the other side, directing.

“I still felt that way about the song after a few months, so I decided that I would scratch that [performing] itch once in a decade!”

Nik has been turning his hand to another skill. “We have to make 50-odd cake and pastry props,” he says. “We’ve been designing and making them ourselves, using various crafts, like making things out of Polystyrene and foam. After this interview, I’m off to finish off the Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Tower cakes!”

How does he rate his own baking skills? “I’m rubbish with pastry as I have hot hands, when cold hands are good for pastry making, but back in the day, I was quite renowned for my sponges and cakes in food tech at school,” says Nik. “But in lockdown, I just lost the knack. Neither of my banana breads worked, so I gave up.”

York Stage’s show could not be better timed. “This year’s final is on Channel 4 tomorrow night[4/11/2025); we open on Wednesday. Some people might think it was planned!” says Nik.

York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 5 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, splurging all & sundry until Saturday ****

Joseph Egan’s club boss Fat Sam, from Team Malone, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone

THIS is Pick Me Up Youth Theatre by all but name, revelling in the chance to fire off splurge guns at those joyless dullard authoritarians determined to make artistic expression more and more difficult for young people.

Why, why, why? I defy anyone not too see the benefits, the joys, the camaraderie, the sheer fun of being on stage, working as a team but flourishing individually, in Bugsy Malone, British writer-director Alan Parker’s 1976  gangster spoof with words and Jazz Age  music by Paul Williams.

The Grand Opera House stage is buzzing with energy, with comic glee, with the sharpest of suits and glitziest of gowns (outstanding work by Julie Fisher & Costume Team).

A gauze screen with a full canvas of a young chap in suit and pork pie hat, and the title Bugsy Malone in boldest red, establishes immediately that Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman and fellow designer Rich Musk are going to hit the right notes on the design front.

Theo Rae’s Fizzy: Outstanding performance, topped off by his rendition of Tomorrow

In familiar Readman style, there is a stairway to either side of a mezzanine level, on which musical director Adam Tomlinson’s band members are kitted out in Prohibition-era attire.  To the front of them, singers will be picked out by squares of light bulbs.

To the sides of the stage are yet more banks of light bulbs, the kind to be seen in dressing rooms. A revolving stage turns from well-stocked bar to a plain backdrop. Images of New York’s skyline and more besides are projected on drapes. The evocation of the Big Apple and Fat Sam’s Club is complete, and it looks fantastic, good enough, frankly, for a touring professional show.

Readman has focused on the staging this time. Lesley Hill, from the Attitude Dance Club in Copmanthorpe, takes on the dual role of director and choreographer, and her cast responds with both aptitude and just the right attitude to portray 1920s’ gangland New York.

“This has been a truly wonderful experience,” says Lesley, in the programme, and that enjoyment is writ large in her cast. Make that casts, not cast, because performances are being shared between Team Bugsy and Team Malone, some actors appearing in both, and more than 40 involved overall.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s Dandy Dan at the double: Kurtis Moss from Team Bugsy, left, and Max Porter from Team Malone

The love for this musical among the performers – one of the Blousey Browns said she had watched Parker’s film more than 100 times – is evident from the start, whether in principal or ensemble roles, in the opening Bugsy Malone and Fat Sam’s Grand Slam numbers.

The joy for these young swells is being centre stage, children playing adult roles, showing up the absurdities, mannerisms and machinations of adult behaviour by playing it straight, eliciting laughter from doing so, as speakeasy boss Fat Sam (Team Malone’s Joseph Egan on press night) goes to turf war with Dandy Dan (Max Porter) who is holding all the aces.

Penniless boxing promoter Bugsy (Zachary Stoney) is Fat Sam’s fixer, drawn to wannabe club singer Blousey Brown (Elizabeth Reece), but can he resist the charms of seductive songstress and former flame Tallulah (Cara Suddaby, now Dandy Dan’s moll)?

You watch throughout with a beaming smile, loving the audacity, the confidence, the dazzling look and the delightfully daft comedy of this sassy, snazzy jazzy show, suffused with knockout performances, not only from Stoney, Egan, Porter, Reece and Suddaby, but also Tommy Lonsdale (good surname for a boxer) as putative pugilist  Leroy in the outstanding ensemble routine So You Wanna Be A Boxer?

Their name is Tallulah: Cara Suddaby, left, and Freya Horsman in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone

Taylor Carlyle’s Knuckles gives a cracking performance too, as does Nancy Walker is her cameo as Lena Marrelli, the loose-cannon star singer.

On talent watch, keep an eye on Theo Rae’s Fizzy, a stage natural with a wondrous voice already. Good news, he will be fizzing his way through every performance, serving in both teams.

As if Bugsy Malone were not fun enough already, SAHA Media provides even more thrills in Fat Sam and Dandy Dan’s car on the big screen.

Bugsy Malone remains the perfect avenue for theatre colts and fillies to learn the ropes, here kitted out with New York accents, custard pies and whipped cream-firing splurge guns in this tongue-in-cheek look at gang warfare in 1920s’ America that hits the target with every song, every gag.

Pick Me Up Theatre in Bugsy Malone, Grand Opera House, York, resumes tomorrow until November 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

Bugsy Malone times two: Team Malone’s Zachary Stoney, left, and Team Bugsy’s Dan Tomlin

Introducing: Team Bugsy and Team Malone’s Bugsy and Blousey Brown

HAVE you heard the one about the three All Saints Catholic School pupils and the Manor Church of England Academy boy?

They are all starring Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone at the Grand Opera House: All Saints’ Zachary Stoney, 12, as boxing promoter and speakeasy boss Fat Sam’s fixer Bugsy, and Elizabeth Reece, 13, as aspiring singer from the sticks Blousey Brown, in Team Malone and Manor student Dan Tomlin, 12,  as Bugsy to 11-year-old All Saint Darcey Powell’s Blousey in Team Bugsy.

All four have seen Alan Parker’s 1976. “I must have seen it at least 100 times,” says Darcey. “It’s my favourite musical movie.” Elizabeth? “I’ve grown up watching it.” Zachary? “I kind of grew up watching it. It’s one of my favourite musical films.”

Elizabeth Reece’s Blousey Brown and Zachary Stoney’s Bugsy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Bugsy Malone

For Dan, however, “I was completely new to Bugsy Malone, but then I watched it for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it,” he says.

Director-choreographer Lesley Hill’s cast may be divided into teams, but this quarter has enjoyed bouncing ideas off each other. “Me and Dan have given each other notes,” says Zachary. “It’s constructive to do that.”

“We all have our differences in how we interpret our roles, but sometimes you can draw inspiration from each other,” says Darcey. “I’m making the role for myself, but watching Darcey too,” says Elizabeth.

Darcey Powell’s Blousey Brown and Dan Tomlin’s Bugsy

They are all thrilled to be in such an iconic show. “It’s such an opportunity to be on this stage, at this theatre, playing this role,” says Darcey. “It’s just that feeling, that emotion of getting up on stage and doing this show.”

“I cried when I got the part of Blousey!” says Elizabeth. “I’d say I’m best at my dancing, but I’ve loved doing all the other things in this show. I’ve taken inspiration from seeing what Blousey [Florrie Dugger] did well in the film, but thinking about what style I can bring to it myself.”

“I was thinking I was going to get Fat Sam’s role, but I was so pleased that I ended up with Bugsy,” says Zachary. “Having the opportunity to do my own version of Bugsy is such fun.”

Darcey Powell’s Blousey Brown, left, standing back to back with Elizabeth Reece’s Blousey Brown

“I auditioned for Dandy Dan, the bad guy, but then I was picked to play Bugsy, and I’m so glad because I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I am because I wasn’t expecting it,” says Dan.

“I’ve been waiting for this role for so long because it’s a great part in a great show,” says Darcey. “Growing up, I’ve always wanted to play Blousey, so it’s lovely to be doing it,” says Elizabeth.

Sitting chatting in the front row of the Grand Circle, their enjoyment of performing together is abundantly clear. “We’re all good friends, and working with each other you build such good friendships,” says Darcey.

“We’re loving the chance to play the leads in an all-child cast,” says Zachary. “Usually you’re playing a kid, but in Bugsy Malone, we’re children playing adults – and that’s cool!”

Pick Me Up Theatre cast members in Lesley Hill’s knockout production of Bugsy Malone

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Ex-England manager at the double: In Conversation with Gareth Southgate, Lessons In Leadership, York Barbican, November 3; National Theatre in Dear England, Leeds Grand Theatre, Nov 4 to 8

Sir Gareth Southgate: Discussing his new book Dear England at York Barbican…and the subject of James Graham’s play of that title at Leeds Grand Theatre

SIR Gareth Southgate, of Swinsty Hall, Fewston, Harrogate, makes the comparatively short trip to York Barbican to discuss his eight years of leading England’s footballers on the world stage with a revolutionary management style that combined calm empathy with mental resilience, courageous integrity with strong accountability.

He will discuss his new book Dear England: Lessons In Leadership, a title shared with James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play (and forthcoming television drama) that takes its name from Southgate’s open letter during the Covid-19 pandemic.

David Sturzaker plays Southgate, Samantha Womack, team psychologist Pippa Grange, in this “inspiring, at times heart-breaking and ultimately uplifting story” of England, penalties, lost finals and a new-found national identity. 

The cast also includes returning performers Jass Beki as Bukayo Saka, Courtney George as Alex Scott, Miles Henderson as Ensemble and Tom Lane as Eric Dier, joined by Jake Ashton-Nelson as Jordan Henderson, Luke Azille as Jadon Sancho, Ian Bartholomew as Greg Dyke, and Ashley Byam as Raheem Sterling.

Steven Dykes plays Sam Allardyce; Oscar Gough, Harry Kane; Jayden Hanley, Marcus Rashford; Connor Hawker,  Harry Maguire; Ian Kirkby, Gary Lineker; Jack Maddison, Jordan Pickford; Liam Prince-Donnelly, Dele Alli, and George Rainsford, Mike Webster.

In Conversation With Gareth Southgate, Lessons In Leadership, York Barbican, November 3, 7.30pm; National Theatre in Dear England, November 4 to 8, kick-off at 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate, in signature waistcoat, in James Graham’s play Dear England, on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre

Here stage and screen writer James Graham discusses Dear England, meeting Gareth Southgate, his own lack of sporting prowess and the power of theatre.

What did you feel when you met Gareth Southgate, James?

“Well, he’s a hero, so I felt nervous. But I was relieved that he didn’t remotely disappoint. I felt moved by his humility, his evident decency and his normality. He gave me confidence.

“I felt like a bit of a fraud in the world of competitive male sport. I wasn’t a sporty person at school. PE was my least favourite subject. I wanted to do plays, but I felt safe with Gareth. He’s a bit more like me, slightly shyer and softer and not an alpha male in the traditional sense.

“In a very Gareth Southgate way, he was mortified that the play was happening and that a famous actor [Joseph Fiennes, National Theatre, 2023] was playing him. He said he wanted to help, but he would never come and see it.”

Samantha Womack’s Pippa Grange, the team psychologist in Dear England. Picture: Mark Brenner

Have other England players seen the play?

Former England greats such as Gary Lineker, David Seaman and Ian Wright have come along. Lee Dixon too. And members of the women’s team, such as Alex Scott. The reaction has been really positive because they think that what Gareth has done is extraordinary and it’s exciting for them to come to a theatre and see their world reflected.

“They also enjoyed the comedic impressions of people they’re familiar with. Gary Lineker thought Gunnar Cauthery, who played him when he caught the production in 2023, was bang on.”

What can you say about making Dear England into a four-part TV series for BBC One?

“On stage, it’s a big panorama, quite comedic and the football is very abstract. That all plays to theatre’s strengths. On television, it’s going to be more literal and naturalistic, with more of the behind-the-scenes machinations and more of the players’ interior lives.”

David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate leading a team talk in Dear England. Picture: Mark Brenner

You say you weren’t a sporty child at school. More of a nerd?

“An absolute nerd. I tried to get out of games all the time. I did support Nottingham Forest and Mansfield Town but didn’t follow club football like some people do. It was the sheer operatic scale of World Cups and international tournaments, the stakes of them, the fact that they only come round so often, that I loved.

“I had to get over my imposter syndrome with this play, and in a very Gareth Southgate way, what I’ve learned is you can’t fake it. I knew I had to walk into a room of young actors who could explain the offside rule in two and a half seconds and admit that there are things about football I don’t know or feel innately. I feel the drama and passion of it but I don’t know the data.”

Why do you love theatre so much?

“Because there’s nothing else in the modern world except arguably sport, arguably football, that demands you leave your home and go to a physical space and sit in proximity with your community and laugh and cry together.

Goal celebration for, who else, but England in James Graham’s Dear England. Picture: Mark Brenner

“You interrogate your nation together, and the systems that run it, and what it is to be alive together and it’s that final bit of being together that makes it just electric.

“I felt that the first time I was ever in a play at school. The feeling of making your neighbours laugh and sharing it as an endeavour with your cast mates. The chemical reaction of it is extraordinary. It’s the most eruptive thing I experience in my life, and it is so satisfying.”

Did you know?

THE National Theatre is running a year-long schools engagement programme inspired by Gareth Southgate’s Dear England open letter that he wrote to England fans in 2021.

This programme, designed to prompt young people across the UK to reflect on their own place in history, just as the footballers in Southgate’s squad were encouraged to do, is in response to the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

It is being delivered in schools across England with assemblies and workshops using spoken word and sound design to support students to share the hopes and aspirations they have for themselves, and other young people, 80 years from now.

The resulting sound archive will form a unique 2025–2026 time-capsule. Students also will be invited to see performances of Dear England during the tour.

This engagement programme is expected to reach more than 10,000 young people.

Oh dear, England. Will we ever win a final again? David Sturzaker’s Gareth Southgate in contemplative mood on James Graham’s play. Picture: Mark Brenner