COMEDIAN and world-famous prankster Simon Brodkin once showered FIFA president Sepp Blatter with cash, handed Prime Minister Theresa May her P45 and created the BBC comedy series Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show. Now he is to play York Barbican on March 14 2027 on his 56-date Unleashed tour.
Hampstead-born Brodkin, who pivoted to stand-up comedy in 2019, is launching his 2026-2027 travels with ten international shows between May and July, taking in Australia, Sweden, Greece and Cyprus.
Unleashed will hit the UK and Ireland for 46 shows from September 11 2026 to March 20 2027. Combining outrageous punchlines with electric crowd work, Brodkin, 48, will rip into broken Britain, the American Dream, religion, marriage, Genghis Khan, vape shops and wild swimmers.
“I can’t wait for my biggest ever tour!” he says. “The timing feels perfect. I’ve not toured for two years, so I’ve got a lot to say, and my teenage kids no longer find me funny.”
Brodkin’s last tour, Screwed Up, was extended four times, running to 170 shows around the world, culminating in three sold-out nights at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, as well as a headline-grabbing appearance at the Royal Variety Performance.
He is breaking records on social media with his stand-up clips, averaging more than 50 million views across his platforms every month. He has more than one million followers on Facebook and four million across all platforms.
Screwed Up became the most viewed UK special to premiere on YouTube. Filmed at Theatre Royal, East London, Brodkin tore into social media, celebrities, the police, Prince Andrew, Putin and God. Nothing was off limits, including his own mental health, his family, his five arrests and how he once found himself at an underground sex party.
Brodkin first rose to fame with his outrageous characters that became household names in the UK, such as Lee Nelson and superstar footballer Jason Bent. He wrote and starred in three BBC series of Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show and Well Funny People.
Brodkin has made global headlines frequently with his audacious stunts on the world’s most powerful people, from Sepp Blatterand Theresa Mayto joining Kanye Weston stage at Glastonbury Festival and ambushing President Donald Trumpon his golf course by surrounding him with “creatively decorated” golf balls.
Brodkin last played York on November 10 2024 at the Grand Opera House on his Screwed Up tour.
The full cast for Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s tour of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, playing Grand Opera House, York, from October 27 to 31
ALEX Keenan and Imi Price will become the first women to portray fearful yet fearless teenager Chris Boone in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s bold new interpretation of The Curious Incident In The Night-Time, booked into the Grand Opera House, York, for October 27 to 31.
Directed by Ned Bennett, this fresh perspective on one of contemporary theatre’s most iconic characters will honour the heart of the original story while inviting audiences to experience Simon Stephens’ adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel through a new lens.
The story combines the intrigue of a whodunit with a coming-of-age story, wherein 15-year-old schoolgirl Chris Boone is gifted with a brilliant mind for numbers but is unsettled by the unpredictability of people and everyday life, distrusting strangers deeply, never venturing alone beyond the end of her road.
Novelist Haddon never called Chris autistic or attributed Asperger Syndrome to the character, but she does not like to be touched, is incapable of lying, can count binary numbers to infinity and has powers of logic beyond conventional reasoning or normal patterns of behaviour.
When a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, Chris comes under suspicion. Determined to prove her innocence, Chris becomes both detective and suspect, drawn into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered.
Charlie Brooks as Teresa Phillips in her York debut at the Grand Opera House in 2017 in Alan Ayckbourn’s How The Other Half Loves
What begins as the search for a culprit soon reveals secrets closer to home, forcing Chris to confront truths that will test her courage, family and understanding of trust, independence and the wider world.
Keenan and Price will alternate the lead role on tour, joined by Charlie Brooks and Joe McFadden as Chris’s parents Ed and Judy.
Brooks is best known for her long-running soap opera role since 1999 as wildcat Janine Butcher, caught up in cocaine addiction, murder and prostitution in EastEnders. Rumours began yesterday that Janine is to return after four years [on release from prison] for “two explosive episodes in the autumn”.
Brooks made her York debut in October 2017 in Alan Strachan’s revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1969 comedy of matrimonial mishaps How The Other Half Loves, playing Teresa Phillips on tour at the Grand Opera House. “Teresa is fiery and strong, like Janine, but I think the similarities end there,” she said at the time.
McFadden has appeared in the BBC’s The Crow Road and Holby City and ITV’s Heartbeat and was the 2017 Strictly Come Dancing Glitterball winner to boot. He played film director Jason in the Original Theatre Company’s production of Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at York Theatre Royal in October 2022 and was last seen on a Yorkshire stage as Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption at Leeds Grand Theatre in May this year.
Joe McFadden’s Jason, the film director, in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at York Theatre Royal in October 2022, playing opposite Sophie Ward
Completing the ‘Curious Incident’ cast will be Bridgette Amofah as Siobhan;Alex Murdochas Mrs Alexander/Posh Woman/Voice One; Matthew Bulgo as Roger (Mr Shears)/Duty Sergeant/Voice Two/Mr Wise/Man Behind Counter/Drunk One and Jerone Marsh Reid as Mr Thompson/Man with Socks/London Policeman/Voice Three.
Carla Garratt will play Punk Girl/No. 40/Voice Five/Information; Tom Clegg, Reverend Peters/Uncle Terry/Voice Four/Station Policeman/Station Guard; Robert Penny, Voice Seven, and Sera Mustafa, Mrs Gascoyne/Woman on Train/Shopkeeper/Police Officer One/Voice 6. All will perform ensemble roles too.
Alongside Ned Bennett in the production team will be set & costume designer Eleanor Bull; lighting designer Laura Howard; composer & sound designer Giles Thomas; video designer Hayley Egan; movement director Jenni Jackson; costume supervisor Izzy Pellow; props supervisor Eve Hall; casting director Abby Galvin and associate director Anastasia Osei-Kuffour.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2012 and has been seen globally by more than five million people. The National Theatre’s inaugural tour visited the Grand Opera House, York, in January 2015. York company Pick Me Up Theatre staged the play in April 2025 at Theatre@41, Monkgate.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Andrew Isherwood’s production of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in April 2025
OUR first great songwriter, John Dowland, is normally experienced today with a single voice singing to lute or viol accompaniment, but this is not necessarily how his contemporaries heard him.
The secret lies in the subtitle of his First Book of Songs (1597), “or Airs of Four Parts” (in modernised spelling). This simple revelation lies behind what Dowland’s Foundry does with his music. As a vocal quartet, accompanied by the lute of Sam Brown, they tend to sing all four parts, thereby obviating the need for viols.
The songs in this book are all strophic (with tunes repeated for each verse), so variety depends on performers enlivening the texts. This ensemble was also adept at adjusting to Dowland’s many moods, by no means all of them as melancholic as his reputation.
At times we heard only two voices, or conversational-style exchanges, rather than straight four-part delivery. Dowland’s songs are an amalgam of madrigals, consort songs, broadside ballads and even dance music, which largely accounts for their enduring popularity. Dowland’s Foundry were attuned to these styles and able to draw in their audience very quickly through the enthusiasm of their approach. Brown’s eloquent lute added further colour.
PianistLukas Sternath performing at St John The Baptist, Easingwold, at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Jonas Cradock
That evening, five players from among the current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists brought Schubert and Dvořák to the generous acoustic of Easingwold parish church. The pianist Lukas Sternath is an accomplished technician who was unashamedly forthright in his approach to Schubert’s Sonata in G major, D.894 (‘Fantasie’), which dates from October 1826.
All but one of its four movements begins either piano or pianissimo; only the minuet (effectively a scherzo) starts forte, but its trio sets out pianissimo and quickly moves into triple piano.
You would rightly surmise that Schubert had in mind an intimate work. Sadly Sternath had other ideas. He played as if in a hall ten times the size. He used every excuse to move directly from relative quietness to fortissimo, hammering out accents at every opportunity.
He was not oblivious to Schubert’s melodic possibilities and spiced his phrases with rubato, robbing the tempo in the name of musicality. But such a move has to be compensated. He rarely moved back into his original tempo, so that the overall effect was that he couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
Aris Quartet playing at St John The Baptist, Easingwold, at Ryedale Festival. Picture: Jonas Cradock
Perhaps he was misled by the work’s nickname, ‘Fantasie’, which would possibly allow some latitude in interpretation, but this was a publisher’s idea, not Schubert’s. What we lacked was serenity. Nevertheless the closing rondo was exciting, if rather more rumbustious than the composer intended.
An entirely different side to Sternath’s musical personality emerged when he returned to collaborate with the Aris Quartet in Dvořák’s Second Piano Quintet. Where some pianists are inclined to treat the work as a piano concerto, leaving the strings trailing in their wake, Sternath was a model of restraint throughout. The work is very much built around dance rhythms and the pianistic underlay here was at the heart of all these.
The Aris are a beautifully balanced group. There was a strong contrast between the two themes of the opening Allegro, and the eloquent viola of Caspar Vinzens was positively soulful in the slow movement’s Dumka.
The lively Furiant in the scherzo was partnered by a much more intimate trio, while the polka-based finale was again bursting with high spirits, but even here Sternath was relatively subdued. The overall ensemble, however, was never less than engaging.
Conductor Charlotte Corderoy. Picture: Ryedale Festival
THE oldest professional orchestra in Britain in the world premiere of a flugelhorn concerto, alongside two classical symphonies, together constituted a mouth-watering opportunity. It offered precisely the kind of adventure for which Ryedale Festival has become renowned.
Although still in her 20s, Charlotte Corderoy is a conductor of considerable promise. All sides of her musical personality were on view here. At first, she took a cautious approach to Weber’s Second Symphony, meticulously strong on detail. The tension in her body language, however, did not always reflect the moods she was attempting to capture.
By the second slow movement, she had shaped some fine ensemble in the woodwinds, allowing the solo bassoon to shine. The busy final Scherzo was neatly clipped, with important attention to the composer’s telling rests – and his throwaway ending.
Gabriel Jackson built his new Flugelhorn Concerto, with accompaniment for strings, harp and percussion, around the numerical positions in the alphabet of the letters in ‘Roy Anthony Hargrove’, a trumpeter and flugelhornist in whose memory it was written.
The result, as he freely admits, is a pastoral reminiscence, but his method came across as something of a straitjacket, allowing very little room for any type of virtuoso display from the soloist, Imogen Whitehead.
Trumpet and flugelhorn soloist Imogen Whitehead. Picture: Matthew Johnson
It got off to a strong start, with some leaping string figures that recalled Britten, but these were barely recalled later. He soon toned things down by muting his soloist, in company with long, elegiac phrases to which Whitehead brought a lovely legato.
It is true that there were some fanfare-like moments and even string syncopation, but these soon dissipated into a duet between flugelhorn and vibraphone in full warble mode.
Much of what followed was similarly dream-centred, built around a dominant pedal, with only fleeting moments of activity in the strings. There was full-blown trumpeting at the very end. Whitehead had added some tightly decorative little roulades to her otherwise slow lines and was in admirable control throughout, but the piece as a whole never quite caught fire.
In Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, Corderoy was right in her element and altogether more relaxed. After a suitably weird opening Adagio, the entry into the Allegro was truly exciting, with syncopation taut and accents fierce. Some of the fortes in the slow movement were a touch forceful for the context, but the succeeding Scherzo was light and airy by contrast.
Excitement returned in the finale, where the composer’s ma non troppo was effectively ignored and Corderoy chose a cracking pace. The orchestra stayed right with her and the return of the main theme was absolutely gripping.
Tom Grennan: Performing after this afternoon’s race card on Knavesmire
VETERANS James Taylor and Tom Jones on the coast, Knavesmire’s music showcase, York Proms and Johnny and June’s country musical stand out in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for the week ahead.
Race day concert of the week: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, Tom Grennan, today
BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is today’s post-racing performer, drawing on such hits as Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together, Remind Me, Here and How Does It Feel, plus songs from his number one albums Evering Road, What Ifs & Maybes and Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be and top-five debut Lighting Matches. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.
Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre tomorrow
Coastal concerts of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, today; Tom Jones, with Stone Foundation, tomorrow; gates open at 6pm
MASSACHUSETTS singer, songwriter and guitarist, Laurel Canyon folk luminary, six-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame inductee James Taylor, 78, draws on six decades of songs, from his self-titled 1968 debut to 2021’s 19th studio album, American Standard, tonight.
Tom Jones, or Sir Tom Jones since 2006, to be more formal, returns to Scarborough this weekend aged 85 to perform such favourites as It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, Green, Green Grass Of Home, A Boy From Nowhere, Kiss, Mama Told Me Not To Come and Sex Bomb. Joining Sir Tom will be the eight-piece soul collective Stone Foundation. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Hannah Maxwell: Fiercely hopeful exploration of human connection in the Information Age at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Christa Holka
Fringe shows of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, presents Hannah Maxwell: Turn Your ****ing Phones Off (Work in Progress), today,6.30pm; Kate McCabe and Adam Perrott,The Name Of The Dame, tomorrow, 7.30pm
PERFORMED in traverse with an immersive technical design by Benji Huntrods, theatre-maker Hannah Maxwell’s Edinburgh Fringe-bound new performance artwork is a dark, absurd and fiercely hopeful exploration of human connection in the Information Age, expounding playfully on the rise of Big Tech, attention-hacking innovations and surveillance capitalism, while recounting Maxwell’s personal struggles with phone addiction and her bid for a life in analogue.
Dames, detectives, stylish hats and ‘car chases’ combine in comedians Kate McCabe and Adam Perrott’s hour-long film-noir parody. “If you like Airplane and Police Squad, the oeuvre of Mel Brooks, dicey puns and sight gags, this show is probably for you,” they say. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Totally Visible Theatre Company in a scene from Invisible, to be spotted at Friargate Theatre tonight
Bonds of friendship of the week: The Totally Visible Theatre Company in Invisible, Friargate Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm
FIVE women meet up on a Saturday morning, as they have done every week for years, but this time they have a plan. Fast forward one year and their lives have changed irrevocably.
Celebrating the bonds of friendship and the fascinations and pitfalls of contemporary life, Invisible is a frank, fast-paced, all-female comedy-drama that ruminates on how older women are perceived in society, the relationships they forge and, most importantly, their “invisibility” in writer-director Jane Barrie’s exploration of sisterhood, motherhood and the effects of upbringing. Box office: 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/friargatetheatre.
Ashley Stillburn: York-born tenor making his York Proms debut tomorrow
Picnic concert of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, tomorrow, 5.30pm
RUN by classical chart-topping York soprano Rebecca Newman and now in its ninth year, York Proms features music from the world of classical and opera, film soundtracks and show songs. Increasing the orchestra size this summer enables the inclusion of John Williams cinema compositions.
The soloists are York-born tenor and West End musical actor Ashley Stillburn in his York Proms debut and British/Irish soprano Jennifer Coleman, making her third appearance. Tickets update: Available today but NOT tomorrow at yorkproms.com/collections/tickets-2026.
Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny Cash and Christina Bianco’s June Carter Cash in The Ballad Of Johnny & June, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, next week. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Musical of the week:The Ballad Of Johnny & June, The Johnny Cash Musical, Grand Opera House, York, July 28 to August 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday matinees
THIS thrilling musical from Jersey Boys director Des McAnuff celebrates the love, music and mayhem of country music couple Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Electrifying chemistry marks the performances of Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny and Christina Bianco’s June in a story observed through the eyes of Ryan O’Donnell’s John Carter Cash, their son. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
In addition, the trio gives a special pop-up performance of songs from the show at Forty Five Vinyl Cafe, the Nashville-inspired concert venue, record store and coffee house in Micklegate, on July 29 at 1pm.
“Tribute” show of the week: Songs Of presents The Songs of Joni Mitchell, with Jesca Hoop & Lail Arad, The Citadel, York, July 31, doors 7pm, show 7.45pm
JESCA Hoop & Lail Arad, acclaimed singer-songwriters in their own right, perform intimate interpretations of their favourite Joni Mitchell songs, accompanied by Richard Sears on piano and special guest Naima Bock. Hoop presented Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story, the award-winning six-part BBC radio documentary and podcast on the Canadian singer-songwriter. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Jesca Hoop: Intimate interpretations of Joni Mitchell songs at The Citadel
Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 31 to August 29
MOIRA Buffini’s 2014 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.
Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Alexandra Mathie, left, and Pandora Clifford in rehearsal for Handbagged at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Shakespeare show of the week: Four Forty Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 31, 7.30pm
FOUR Forty Theatre (or 440 Theatre, as their website uses both names) tackle Shakespeare’s romantic romp of a chaotic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with their trademark irreverence, wit and theatrical ingenuity, directed by Dominic Gee-Burch, formerly of fellow high-speed Shakespeare humorists Oddsocks Productions.
Lovers are enchanted, fairies feud and a troupe of hapless players rehearse their way into disaster, all in a single moonlit night. Inventive staging, breakneck character changes and playful dismantling of tradition mark out Four Forty’s mischief-making take on Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy: part affectionate homage, part riotous reinvention. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Four Forty Theatre: Mischief-making in the woods in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Joseph Rowntree Theatre
Art event of the week: Carolyn Coles & Mike Marshall, Beyond The Nab, St Mary’s Church, Sandsend, near Whitby, today, tomorrow & Monday, 10am to 5pm
ARTISTS and fossil collectors Carolyn Coles and Mike Marshall are sharing their love of the north east coastline in Beyond The Nab at St Mary’s Church, Sandsend, near Whitby.
Held at this beautiful church located at the end of the Sandsend Valley at the bottom of Lythe Bank, the special four-day event takes place in one of Yorkshire’s prettiest valleys, noted for its picturesque, high-end stone cottages, rich local history, tied to the Mulgrave Estate, and ancient woodlands leading to the ruins of Mulgrave Castle.
On show and sale are contemporary paintings with a traditional twist, sculptured fossils, evocative photography, jet jewellery, cards and prints, with both York seascape artist Carolyn Coles and East Coast fossil legend Mike Marshall on hand to guide you through the works.
South Bank Studios artist Carolyn will be demonstrating painting techniques while Mike, who runs Yorkshire Coast Fossils, will be glad to identify any fossil you bring along. A pop-up cafe will serve light refreshment in aid of the church, championed by volunteer Helen Lloyd.
Mike Marshall looking out to sea
Carolyn explains the idea behind the event as a “brilliant medley of art and heritage, combining contemporary art and sculpture with traditional techniques”. “We talked about coming together professionally as our work is a perfect compliment and we have such a shared love of the area,” she says.
Carolyn has had a busy 2026, joining wildlife sculptor Karen Fawcett and PICA Studios ceramicist Emily Stubbs in The Sky’s The Limit exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York, from late-January to mid-March and taking part in York Open Studios in April.
“My dream is to open a studio and gallery and live by the coast, so this event is a huge pleasure to hold,” she says.
York artist Carolyn Coles enjoying painting in plein air at Sandsend
Lizzie Lawton’s Robert, left, and Max Palmer’s Bernard in vexed conversation with Val Debenedetti’s Italian air hostess Gabriella in Rowntree Players’ Boeing Boeing. Picture: Jamie McKeller
LEEDS Conservatoire musical theatre masters graduate and freelance theatre-maker Hannah Shaw is directing her second Rowntree Players production of 2026.
After her LGBTQ+ exploration of gay playwright Oscar Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people” The Importance Of Being Earnest in March, she now pilots Marc Camoletti’s high-flying French farce Boeing Boeing, cleared for take-off with five cast members – Bethan Olliver, Jorja Cartwright, Lizzie Lawton, Max Palmer and Rebecca Thomson – returning from her Wilde nights.
Newly on board is Val Debenedetti, who draws on her Italian heritage to play the hot-blooded Gabriella, one of three air hostesses engaged to Palmer’s philandering American architect Bernard.
Rebecca Thomson’s house maid Bertha, fielding yet another problematic phone call in Boeing Boeing. Picture: Jamie McKeller
Shaw introduces all three fiancées, along with Bernard, his gloriously blunt, long-suffering French housemaid, Thomson’s Berthe, and his long-lost friend, Lawton’s callow, gauche Robert, from Wisconsin, in a pre-show sequence in the style of TV credits (think Friends, for example), set to Jennifer Carney’s choreography of Max Barron’s Sixties sitcom theme pastiche.
This establishes both the characters’ individual style and the location, Bernard’s Parisian apartment, with its seven doors – or eight if you count the central double doors – in Camoletti’s 1960 setting, adapted in 1962 by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans. In front is a large sofa, with a leather chair to one side, a bean bag to the other, a drinks trolley, a spinning globe, bannisters by the doors and a regularly ringing phone.
In the tradition of farce, Camelotti’s smart, stylish comedy starts in a haven of calm, where Palmer’s self-satisfied Bernard is the cat with the full-fat cream, utilising the timetables dextrously to juggle his time with his airline fiancées, first Olliver’s apple-pie American Gloria, next Debenedetti’s tempestuous Gabriella, and lastly, Cartwright’s slightly frightening, no-nonsense German, Gretchen.
Jorja Cartwright’s German air hostess Gretchen: All in yellow, right down to her painted eye lids. Picture: Jamie McKeller
Each entry is designated by their airline colour – red, blue, yellow – lighting up a door, immediately followed by a sound ‘sting’ from Barron’s compositional tool box, keeping the audience one step ahead every time those signals are repeated.
Into the farcical mix is stirred the interruptive presence of Lawton’s Robert, who has not seen Bernard for more than 18 years and is determined to make up for lost time, never leaving the apartment, always interjecting with a suggestion and then playing his own cards with Cartwright’s Gretchen.
As in The Importance Of Being Earnest, Lawton (they/them) favours a physical form of comedy acting, constantly on the move and no less frenetic in their line delivery.
Lizzie Lawton’s jaunty, livewire Robert in Boeing Boeing. Picture: Jamie McKeller
It plays well against Palmer’s more laidback performance style, his calm-in-the-face-of-a-storm Bernard contrasting with the almost volcanic flow of suggestions and reactions from busy Lizzie’s Robert.
Shaw does not update the Sixties setting, but she has cut the backside-patting tropes, the women all the stronger for being empowered to be the decision makers, including Thomson’s ever-exasperated Berthe demanding an ever-rising pay increase.
Camelotti’s men are exposed as chancers, flippant and indeed weak, despite thinking they hold the upper hand, when in fact the women call the shots.
Bethan Olliver’s American air hostess Gloria: Bust-up incoming over her discovery of the discarded bras of another of brazen Bernard’s trio of fiancees. Picture: Jamie McKeller
Consequently, Camelotti’s French frolic retains its Parisian air, Sixties chic and outrageously clichéd national stereotypes – from the jet-set age when air hostesses were the height of glamour – but the humour is liberated from its period chains and now feels more truthful.
Shaw’s cast delights in the ever-quickening chaos of comedy that is frothy and frivolous, but deftly delivered, choreographed slickly with the doors in constant use. The performances are fun, the men, flighty; the air hostesses, saucy but sassy; Berthe, the Shakespeare’s Fool of the piece.
Rowntree Players present Boeing Boeing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Hannah Shaw directing a rehearsal for Boeing Boeing. From December 5 to 12, she will step the other side of the footlights to play the villainous Maleficent in Rowntree Players’ pantomime Sleeping Beauty, directed and co-written by Howard Ella. Tickets will go on general sale from August 8 on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Christina Bianco in the role of June Carter Cash in The Ballad Of Johnny & June. Picture: Michael Wharley
AFTER sold-out seasons at La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego, California, and the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Canada, Christopher Ryan Grant is playing Johnny Cash on tour in The Ballad Of Johnny & June. Next stop, Grand Opera House, York, from June 30 to June.
Joining him as June Carter Cash will be Drama Desk Award nominee Christina Bianco, the American actress, singer and impersonator last seen in York playing the multi-voiced LV in Jim Cartwright’s tragic-comedy The Rise Of Little Voice at York Theatre Royal in July 2022.
Christina had hankered after the role of the reclusive LV for a decade and what a performance she delivered, mastering an Oldham accent, suitably quiet and diffident yet full of stage presence as she brought the house down with her myriad voices.
“I had the time of my life there because York was one of those places where, when I opened a book, I thought it looked so beautiful, so magical,” she recalls. “Then when Ian [York-born actor and fellow cast member Ian Kelsey] took me around all the sights, it was hard to take it all in, so this time I have a list of things I’d like to see and others I want to go back to.”
Christina Bianco on her guided tour of York with Ian Kelsey, her fellow actor in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice at York Theatre Royal, in July 2022
Christina has been living in the UK for “coming up five years now”. “In fact, it was just before ‘Little Voice’ that I made the move with my husband Bill and our dog Jeff Vader, who’s an adorable Schnauzer/Poodle mix,” she says.
“He’s almost 17 years old, so I guess I started the ‘oodle’ mix trend, though I didn’t know I was trendy at the time! I’m a life-long New Yorker but Jeff Vader’s life has been improved by living in the UK.”
Now Christina is enjoying starring in the new musical co-created and shaped by the recollections of John Carter Cash, Johnny and June’s son, whose role in the show will be played by Ryan O’Donnell, who narrates the story from the son’s perspective.
In that story, love is a burning thing, and no-one burned brighter than Johnny and June. He was a small-town musician and storyteller with a volcanic voice that stirred the soul. She was a multi-talented performer and a music pioneer. The pair married in 1968 and remained together until June’s death in 2003.
“I feel a great responsibility to present June as accurately as possible, without doing an impression,” says Christina
“I’d heard of the show when it was at La Jolla Playhouse, where I had a couple of friends in the cast,” says Christina. “I’m a big fan of Johnny and June Carter Cash, with my dad being a DJ, so I had my eye and ear on it when it was being built, but then I did sort of forget about it.
“But then I remember sitting in my dressing room when playing the Narrator in Joseph And The Amazing Dreamcoat – an absolute dream come true, doing my eight shows a week, when the Narrator does more than usual, playing other roles, working my booty off – and I was thinking it would be great to do more of an acting role next.”
Whereupon she received Des McAnuff and Robert Cary’s script for The Ballad Of Johnny & June from the show’s producers, Trafalgar Theatre Productions. “It was so true to Johnny and June’s story, and the fact the piece has the blessing and input of John Carter Cash makes it a show like none other,” says Christina. “The film [James Mangold’s 2005 biopic Walk The Line] is only about 60 per cent accurate, whereas it’s so special that this show comes from the family.”
No doubt that is music to the ears of John Carter Cash, who has said: “It has meant a great deal to me to be involved in bringing this new musical to the stage and see my parents Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s story told with such care, heart and honesty.
“Johnny and June’s music was inseparable from their lives, and this musical captures that truth through powerful story telling by a brilliant company, set to their genre-defining music. I have loved working with the creative team, and my family and I are both delighted and proud that audiences across the UK and Ireland get to see this celebration of their legacy.”
Christina Bianco with Christopher Ryan Grant, her fellow American co-star in The Ballad Of Johnny & June. “We got on like a house on fire immediately, bringing out the New Yorker in me. We just seemed to fit together perfectly,” she says. Picture: Michael Wharley
In turn, Christina is delighted to be working with two-time Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff, whose credits include Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
“Des and musical director and arranger Ron Melrose, who worked with Des on Jersey Boys, are names I have respected and revered all my working life, and nothing can prepare you for the first meeting,” she says.
“You know the music well, but there was a pressure to get it right, every word, every line, and it went so well that I was sure I wasn’t going to get the part! But it turned out I got the job very early on, and it did feel like a marriage made in heaven.
Christopher Ryan Grant’s Johnny Cash and Christina Bianco’s June Carter Cash in a scene from The Ballad Of Johnny & June. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
“I then met Christopher Ryan Grant – who my friends in America said had been so marvellous as Johnny – at the photo-call last November and we got on like a house on fire immediately, bringing out the New Yorker in me. We just seemed to fit together perfectly.”
As for playing June, Christina says: “Without giving too much away, the story focuses a lot on June, her story. Like Johnny, she had her problems with addiction [prescription pills in later life], though people didn’t know that, but it’s in John Carter Cash’s book. I feel a great responsibility to present her as accurately as possible, without doing an impression.”
Summing up a show that is as much a play with music as a musical, Christina says: “Like any good musical, it will have you singing along, it will make you laugh, make you cry and hopefully leave you thinking there’s hope in the story of love and redemption – and who doesn’t need that?”
The Ballad Of Johnny & June – The Johnny Cash Musical, Grand Opera House, York, July 28 to August 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The latest tour poster for The Ballad Of Johnny & June, The Johnny Cash Musical
NEWSFLASH
ON July 29 at 1pm, the Grand Opera House has organised a pop-up performance by The Ballad Of Johnny & June principal cast members Christina Bianco (June Carter Cash), Christopher Ryan Grant (Johnny Cash) and Ryan O’Donnell (John Carter Cash) at Forty Five Vinyl Cafe, Micklegate, York’s Nashville-inspired home of concerts by American country acts, record store and coffee house.
“They will play a short selection of songs from the show, which we are really excited about,” says marketing and communications manager Lucy Perrins.
Dominic Goodwin’s struggling variety act Freddie “Mine’s A Half” Francis in Twice Nightly
DOMINIC Goodwin is a man of many arts parts.
Actor, playing everything from Hercule Poirot to Siegfried Sassoon, Wind In The Willows’ Toad to Frankenstein’s Monster. Director. Georgian Little Theatre pantomime dame. Former theatre manager. The Dr Watson half of a Holmes & Watson double act from 2009 to 2024. Tales at Tiffin storyteller. Banks Music Publications director. Mimic. Bon vivant. You are always onto a good thing with Goodwin.
A figure of mirth as much as girth, forever larger than life, with a waistcoat to match, he has added another string to his bow in his debut solo comedy show cum fading memory play, Twice Nightly: a nostalgic trip through the golden days of variety and its dying embers, written and performed by the Scottish-born Ryedale polymath.
The year is 1956, Johnnie “Prince of Wails” Ray’s Just Walking In The Rain is reigning everywhere, Elvis and TV sets are on the rise, clouding the future for the likes of Goodwin’s Freddie “Mine’s A Half” Francis as he struggles with drink and bookings alike, unstable on his feet but ever willing and still able to raise a titter, mild, not bitter.
Tipsy and ever closer to tipping over the edge after 30 years as a second-spot act, we join Freddie on stage, glass of sustenance on a table to his side, and in his dressing room, with a hat stand and partition screen behind to facilitate multiple costume and character changes (in costumes by Pam Broadbent).
Freddie will be as much avuncular narrator as enervated performer, interweaving his own story with routines by the greats of variety in a series of quickfire transformations.
All are pulled off with uncanny mimicry, from Max Miller to Jimmy James and “Monsewer” Eddie Gray (not the Revie-era Leeds United footballer); from the Act Two-opening Norman “Over The Garden Wall” Evans’s gossiping housewife to Robb Wilton’s woeful wartime worries, many performed with the backing of the late performers’families.
Freddie’s own material never matches those heights, but we warm to his recollections of a life spent touring the halls: “the ups, the downs, the riotous, the fantastic and the downright silly,” as Goodwin put it in his CharlesHutchPress interview.
Dominic Goodwin in the guise of Norman Evans’s Over The Garden Wall caricature of a gossiping housewife in Twice Nightly
We learn of Freddie’s days entertaining the troops during the Second World War, surviving the jibes of the intimidating Glasgow Empire crowd, and what really happened when a speciality act lost her snake on stage.
We learn too of the personal price he must pay for “doing what he just had to do”: the trudge of all those nights away, the solace of empty bottles, to the cost of his marriage, providing the show’s pathos to counter all that patter and natter.
Directed by the experienced hand of York actor-director Thomas Frere, Goodwin’s performance is the apotheosis of his many talents, even stretching to baritone singing for The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo, Happy Days Are Here Again, Goodnight Sweetheart and an out-of-season White Christmas.
In the vein of such solitary rueful ruminations as Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Heathcote Williams’s Hancock’s Last Half Four and Philip Meeks’s desolate veteran pantomime dame in Twinkle, Little Star, life’s fading fires and thwarted pathways in Twice Nightly make for a brightly burning star vehicle for Dominic Goodwin.
Dominic Goodwin’s 22-date tour of Twice Nightly began on May 21, climaxing with this week’s five-night run at The Lantern Theatre, Brighton (July 21 to 25).
Twice Nightly will play Terrington Village Hall, near York, on March 12 2027, 8pm. Box office: ticketsource.com; email [email protected] or phone Dave on 01653 648394.
Did you know?
THE wall for Dominic Goodwin’s Norman “Over The Garden Wall” Evans routine was built in Dominic’s home village of Moniaive in south west Scotland by Angus McIver, whose wife, Carole, searched for the correct colour paints to design it.
Did you know too?
DOMINIC Goodwin uses Frankie Vaughan’s make-up box, donated to Henley on Thames Kensington Theatre, when applying the colours Number 5 and 9 in a dressing-room scene.
Hannah Davies & Jack Woods in tandem. Picture: Matt Jopling
THE Ballad Of Blea Wyke began as a five-minute commission for the Green Shoots project at York Theatre Royal in May 2022 that demanded further exploration.
Then came the Scarborough Fair Fringe premiere of the 60-minute version in June 2025.
Now, North Yorkshire slam champion poet, theatre-maker, storyteller and writer Hannah Davies and guitarist Jack Woods’ re-imagining of the selkie myth for a not-too-distant dystopian future on the North Yorkshire coast is shedding its skin anew, playing Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, and Helmsley Arts Centre, with the backing of York arts organisations Say Owt and Next Door But One.
Hannah, by the way, has been on the move too, leaving Scarborough for Saltburn-by-the-Sea, with a return to York upcoming, but the draw of the sea prevails in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke, where her fascination with the myth of seals transforming into humans by shedding their skin plays out so imaginatively.
The crashing of waves wrapped within an eerie soundscape set the haunting atmosphere in the bar seating at Helmsley Arts Centre, with a door open to the garden beyond, enhancing the sense of direct connection with the natural world (as opposed to using the HAC theatre).
Leather’O musician Woods sits to the side, complementing Davies’s lyrical word-spinning throughout with simpatico acoustic guitar, loop effects and sporadic harmonies.
Davies, in sea green dress, has a magnetic, mellifluous voice and highly original turn of phrase, allied with a grace of presence, that makes her storytelling so compelling in its combination of contemporary insight, timeless mystery and folkloric mythology in her subject matter.
In her too-close-for-comfort near-future, especially prescient in this hottest of summers, there is nothing left to fish, ice cream and buses have long gone, cities are locked down, motorways have closed, Bluetooth and sugar are taxed, the military issues permits and fines, and most people have never seen the sea.
The waters are rising, the shallows are toxic, the East Coast cliffs are crumbling, and the last grey seal is bobbing in the water “like a blubbery shuttlecock”.
In her private school, scholarship student Cerys feels out of place on her 18th birthday, and not only because of her Broad Acres accent that has the other girls calling out “Hey, Yorkshire” as she stands scowling in the canteen queue at the end of term before they “fly off to their air-cons in private jets”.
Cerys, the loner, will instead venture to the place where no-one is allowed to tread: Blea Wyke, the headland located south of Ravenscar, “the Town That Never Was” (on account of Victorian plans to convert the hamlet into a resort to rival Scarborough being abandoned after only 12 houses were built).
Born in a storm and fearless, Cerys is carrying her social worker’s case folder, containing everything about her life, her back story. Looking on from Clifftop Farm, as she wades into the sea, is a tall, wiry, weather-beaten stranger who has patched up a hole in his jacket with Gaffer Tape.
His farm is now a shell, ruined through fire and flood, landslides are commonplace, and yet still he remains, counter to the government scheme to repatriate farming families in towns.
What keeps him there? What draws Cerys to the sea? Davies’s story will hook you in, as all the while the last grey seal looks on and the love story of the farmer and selkie girl is revealed.
Davies’s imagery keeps on delighting, whether describing the selkie’s shod skin as an “oily rind” or “discarded peel” or depicting “girls with fossils for toes” and “eyes like Whitby Jet”. Humour peppers the salty sea tale too, typified by a badge that proclaims “Geology Rocks”.
Nostalgia for lost times, erosion of coast and rural tradition alike, the curse of climate change and lost nature, the need for mystery and magical realism to survive, for love and ultimately hope to prevail, are interwoven into Davies’s mystical yet earthy storytelling drama, replete with poetry and siren song, directed so harmoniously by Em Whitfield Brooks, whose PitchWitches vocal quintet had opened the Helmsley show.
Above all, The Ballad Of Blea Wyke reinforces the joy to be found in sharing stories. As Hannah told CharlesHutchPress: “Stories are embedded into us at the very core. We are all made up of our stories and by telling and sharing them we get to see and understand ourselves in others action, words and deed. Humans need connection and shared experience to thrive and I think stories do that for us all. In such a divided world we need that more than ever.”
How true. If you missed this month’s York and Helmsley performances, put this date in your diary: October 8, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Stephen Webb’s Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, doing the Time Warp again at the Grand Opera House, York
TOM Jones on the coast, Knavesmire’s music showcase weekend, a not-so-sweet Transylvanian transvestite and a French farce promise variety aplenty in Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.
Musical of the week: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, tonight and tomorrow, 8pm; Friday & Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm
STEPHEN Webb leads the cast as Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show’s latest return to the Grand Opera House, joined by comedian Jackie Clune as the Narrator. Directed by Christopher Luscombe, Richard O’Brien’s outré musical tells the story of squeaky-clean American college sweethearts Brad and his fiancée Janet’s very frank encounters at the freaky doctor’s Transylvanian castle after their car breaks down.
Cue an adventure full of fun, frolics, frocks and frivolity, bursting with timeless songs and outrageous outfits as O’Brien combines science-fiction, horror, comedy and music while encouraging audience participation. Those audiences are sure to dress up in the most outrageous fancy dress. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lou Bass’s artworks for Bring Me Sunshine at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition of the week: Bring Me Sunshine, Paintings by Lou Bass and Adam King, Helmsley Arts Centre, until September 4
SCARBOROUGH artists Lou Bass and Adam King have teamed up for a joint exhibition, Bring Me Sunshine. A regular North Yorkshire Open Studios participant at Beeforth’s Hive, Lou’s vibrant paintings are brought to life with help from playful and poignant characters, such as Donkey, Crow, Angry Man, Bandit Cat, Dog and Fox, as she explores emotions and situations through simple narratives.
Painter and printmaker Adam has been painting for more than 35 years, holding exhibitions and doing residencies throughout Yorkshire. Educated at Leeds Met, York St John and Huddersfield, he led the Foundation Art and Fine Art degree courses when lecturing at Harrogate College before painting full time. His work is marked by a fresh approach to image making, combining simplicity with sophistication and a sureness of composition.
Andrew O’Neill: Looking to Escape at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Friday. Picture: Andrew O’Neill
Fringe shows of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, presents Dylan Howells in Forget About Me (Work In Progress), tonight, 7.30pm; Joe Sellman-Leava in Copycat (Work In Progress), tomorrow, 7.30pm; Andrew O’Neill: Escape, Friday, 8pm
IN a remote, northeast village, something lurks in the bathroom: something Dylan struggles to remember, which even his dad’s deadly DIY skills can’t fix, as designer-performer Dylan Howells weaves psychological illusions and fragmented memories into a magical, chilling tale of a home that won’t stay still.
Part magic show, part ghost story, tonight’s show Forget About Me isn’t your typical conjuring act: mind-bending mentalism and spine-tingling effects blur the line between reality and fiction in a twisted tale designed to get under your skin.
DOES AI spell the end of humanity, or the dawn of a new utopia, ponders Fringe First winner Joe Sellman-Leava tomorrow. He might be a technophobe, but he is determined to find out by using innovative design and a whirlwind of uncanny impressions to tell the story of a teacher, a student and a copycat dictator to examine the links between art, fascism and rapid technological change.
HOW do we get out of this mess, asks cult comedian Andrew O’Neill on Friday in his surreal, political show, Escape, about the ways in which we disagree with each other, while suggesting some ways we can find our way out. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Jorja Cartwright’s German flight attendant Gretchen in rehearsal for Rowntree Players’ Boeing Boeing
Farce of the week: Rowntree Players in Boeing Boeing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm
MARC Camoletti’s high-flying 1960s’ French farce Boeing Boeing is cleared for take-off in Hannah Shaw’s English-language production for Rowntree Players. Meet self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German and American fiancées, each one a beautiful airline hostess with frequent “layovers.”
He keeps “one up, one down, and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris, and to Bernard’s apartment, at the same time. Shaw’s cast features Max Palmer as Bernard, Lizzie Lawton as Robert, Rebecca Thomson as Berthe, Jorja Cartwright as Gretchen, Bethan Olliver as Gloria and Val Debenedetti as Gabriella. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Welsh pop legend Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Sunday
Coastal concerts of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, Saturday; Tom Jones, with Stone Foundation, Sunday; gates open at 6pm
MASSACHUSETTS singer, songwriter and guitarist, Laurel Canyon folk luminary, six-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame inductee James Taylor, 78, draws on six decades of songs, from his self-titled 1968 debut to 2021’s 19th studio album, American Standard, on Saturday night.
Tom Jones, or Sir Tom Jones since 2006, to be more formal, returns to Scarborough this weekend at 85 to perform such favourites as It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, Green, Green Grass Of Home, A Boy From Nowhere, Kiss, Mama Told Me Not To Come and Sex Bomb. Joining Sir Tom will be the eight-piece soul collective Stone Foundation. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Holly Taymar: Performing Eva Cassidy’s songbook at Helmsley Arts Centre
Tribute show of the week: Holly Taymar Sings Eva Cassidy, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK singer-songwriter Holly Taymar delivers a warm, authentic performance that blends Eva Cassidy’s folk, jazz and blues material in renditions of Fields Of Gold, Songbird, Over The Rainbow and Autumn Leaves.
In a show of appreciation for Eva’s life and career, rather than imitation, Taymar combines intimate guitar accompaniment, mesmerising stage presence, melody and emotional truth. Singer-songwriter David Swann supports. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Craig David: TS5 DJ set after Friday evening’s race card at York Racecourse
Race day concerts of the week: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, York, Craig David presents TS5, Friday, and Tom Grennan, Saturday
SOUTHAMPTON singer-songwriter and DJ Craig David presents his TS5 DJ set on Music Showcase Friday’s double bill of racing and old-skool anthems, from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, plus current House hits, when he combines his song and MC skills.
Tom Grennan: Saturday live set at York Racecourse
BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is Saturday’s post-racing performer, drawing on such hits as Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together, Remind Me, Here and How Does It Feel, plus songs from his number one albums Evering Road, What Ifs & Maybes and Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be and top-five debut Lighting Matches. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.
York tenor Ashley Stillburn: Making his York Proms debut on Sunday
Picnic concert of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, Sunday 5.30pm
RUN by classical chart-topping York soprano Rebecca Newman and now in its ninth year, York Proms features music from the world of classical and opera, film soundtracks and show songs. Increasing the orchestra size this summer will enable the inclusion of iconic John Williams cinema compositions.
The soloists are York-born tenor and West End musical actor Ashley Stillburn in his York Proms debut and British/Irish soprano Jennifer Coleman, making her third appearance. Tickets update: Still available at yorkproms.com/collections/tickets-2026.
