Laura Cantrell: Leading off her summer tour in Leeds on Friday
NEW York country singer Laura Cantrell opens her 14-date British summer tour at Leeds Brudenell Social Club on Friday.
She will be promoting her first studio album in nine years, Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions, released on June 9 on the Propeller Sound Recordings label.
Nashville-born Laura, 55, is joined on the recordings by longtime friends Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores and Paul Burch.
Featured too are musicians Mark Spencer(Son Volt, Lisa Loeb),Jeremy Chatzky (Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen), Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives), Fats Kaplan (John Prine, Jack White), Dennis Crouch (Robert Plant, Diana Krall) and Jen Gunderman (Cheryl Crow, Jayhawks).
Cantrell’s co-writers include Mark Winchester(Randy Travis, Carlene Carter), Fred Wilhelm (Rascal Flats, Faith Hill) and Gary Burr (Patty Loveless, Ringo Starr). An unreleased Amy Rigby song and a new recording of When The Roses Bloom Again, adapted by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, are further highlights.
Originally, the album was intended to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Cantrell’s debut, Not The Tremblin’ Kind,in 2020, but recording was delayed by Covid restrictions. Eventually, the new collection was completed in studios in the New York City area and country capital Nashville.
“I thought I had figured it all out,” Laura muses, as she recalls her initial puzzlement in 2019 at how to acknowledge the approaching 20th anniversary of her first album. “I wanted to salute different aspects of my music life for the last two decades, to create more of a celebration than a traditional album.
“The idea of recording and releasing a series of singles in real time was intriguing, so I started a crowd-funding campaign and launched it on March 1 2020.”
Within days, the world was a very different place, however. Cantrell duly placed her plans on hold while the pandemic raged in her neighbourhood in Jackson Heights, New York, and throughout the world.
Slowly and fitfully, she pushed on as restrictions and delays changed the timeline and shape of her plans. “We moved so slowly I thought ‘this isn’t even happening’. But with the help of many great ‘music people’ the songs emerged,” says Laura.
The cover artwork for Laura Cantrell’s Just Like A Rose, her first studio album since 2014
“There was a risk working with different producers that the results would feel disjointed, but I love where the album landed. Having come through the gauntlet of the pandemic, I felt so much joy in the process, I hope people hear and feel that in the tracks themselves.”
The material spans Cantrell’s latest songwriting and songs she has been humming to herself since before she had had her own band or played her own shows. “It is interesting maturing into your musical worldview,” she says.
“You still have songs that hit you like you’re a teenager with your first crush, and others that reflect more experience and nuance, or frustration with tough realities, and then those you just love purely as music – there’s a bit of it all on this album.”
Since 2000, Cantrell has released the albums Not The Tremblin’ Kind, When The Roses Bloom Again (2002), Humming By The Flowered Vine (2005), Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs Of The Queen Of Country Music (2011), No Way There From Here (2014) and The BBC Sessions (2016).
She was a favourite of the late pioneering radio presenter John Peel, who called Not The Tremblin’ Kind “my favourite record of the last ten years, and possibly my life”. She recorded several Peel Sessions for the BBC from 2000 to 2004 and appeared on the first Peel Day programme on BBC Radio One commemorating the first anniversary of Peel’s death.
She presented a weekly country and old-time msuic radio show on WFMU, The Radio Thrift, and since August 2017 she has hosted Dark Horse Radio, SiriusXM’s weekly programme featuring the music of George Harrison on The Beatles Channel. Her show States Of Country streams on GimmeCountry.
Away from music, Cantrell held a day job as a vice-president in the equity research department of Bank of America until 2003 and later began working as a recruiter for AllianceBernstein.
Brudenell and Please Please You presents Laura Cantrell, supported by Doug Levitt, at Leeds Brudenell Social Club on Friday (23/6/2023) at 8pm. Box office: brudenellsocialclub.co.uk or seetickets.com.
Track listing for Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions
1.Push The Swing (Laura Cantrell/Mark Winchester)
2. Bide My Time (Mark Winchester/Laura Cantrell)
3. Brand New Eyes (Amy Rigby)
4. Just Like A Rose (Laura Cantrell/Mark Spencer)
5. When The Roses Bloom Again (Jeff Tweedy/Public Domain)
6. Secret Language (Laura Cantrell)
7. Unaccompanied (Laura Cantrell/Fred Wilhelm)
8. I’m Gonna Miss This Town (Laura Cantrell/Fred Wilhelm)
9. Good Morning Mr. Afternoon (Joe Flood)
10. Holding You In My Heart(Laura Cantrell/Gary Burr)
Alex Ashworth: “Wonderful, resonant bass”. Picture: Debbie Scanlan
The Dream Of Gerontius, University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra, York Minster, June 14
THE Dream Of Gerontius opened with a well-judged expansive orchestral Prelude; the ghost of Wagner ever present in the slowly unfolding haunting melodic lines.
The performance reminded me how surreal this instrumental journey is, quite radical really, as it closes in to greet Gerontius on his deathbed.
Joshua Ellicott’s dramatic opening Jesu, Maria, I Am Near To Death was imbued with both frailty and trepidation. Naturally, most of the vocal responsibility lies with the tenor role of Gerontius, and Mr Ellicott was simply imperious. He strove to deliver an unforgettable emotional and spiritual journey, one rich in dramatic effect and emotional depth.
The somewhat chilling opening aria was both passionate and persuasive, and the delivery of the later Sanctus Fortis, a musical statement of faith, was both powerful and compelling. Particularly musically pleasing was the way the opening aria bled into, seeped into the Kyrie Eleison.
It is not until the end of Part 1 that Gerontius is joined by the Priest, a wonderful, resonant bass, Alex Ashworth, who leads the processional Go Forth Upon Thy journey, Christian Soul. The closing…Through The Same, Through Christ Our Lord also had a wonderful, satisfying musical landing.
Part 2 opens with the Soul of Gerontius singing I Went To Sleep; And Now I Am Refreshed. Mr Ellicott delivered this beautifully, aided by the clarity of texture – muted strings, woodwind gentle, overlapping commentary.
Mezzo soprano Kitty Whately proved to be a worthy (female) Angel, the singer displaying a lovely, velvety tone. Her aria Softly And Gently was just heavenly. The dramatic highlight was, of course, when Gerontius sees God; a silence of shock and awe, orchestral explosion. Very effective indeed, particularly in this acoustic.
The orchestra and choir (often singing very demanding vocal lines such as Praise To The Holiest In The Height) were excellent throughout. The Minster acoustic is and was problematic; it tends to take more than it gives. Conductor John Stringer managed these huge forces plus soloists in this acoustic with exceptional musical skill, and a full-capacity audience seemed to agree.
Sally Maybridge’s John the Baptist and Michael Maybridge’s Jesus Christ with Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden’s angels in rehearsal for The Barbours Play at Holy Trinity Church
PAUL Toy directs the York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust community cast in The Barbours Play: The Baptism of Christ on Saturday at 2 pm and 4 pm and Sunday at 4.30pm.
This play from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays will be staged in a 20-minute performance of words and music in the garden of Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, as part of the St John’s Eve Festival.
Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry says: “We were delighted to respond to Holy Trinity’s invitation to stage a Mystery Play as part of the festival. In the church calendar, June 23 is the festival of St John the Baptist, hence our choice of play.
“It is the only play in the cycle significantly featuring the Baptist. We hope to attract people to the performance who have not had chance to see a Mystery Play before, as well as those in the city already familiar with the tradition.”
In Toy’s cast will be Michael Maybridge as Jesus Christ and Sally Maybridge as John the Baptist, accompanied by Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden as angels.
Leeds Lieder Festival 2023: Véronique Gens & Susan Manoff, The Venue, Leeds Conservatoire, June 13
IT is a tribute to the stature of this festival that a soprano of the international calibre of Véronique Gens should wish to perform here. Her pianist Susan Manoff has partnered several French singers on a regular basis: her credentials in the mélodie repertoire are equally impressive. A purely French recital is extremely rare in these parts; for multiple reasons this was an unmissable event.
Half of the programme was devoted to early songs by Reynaldo Hahn, all written in the 1890s before he was 25. Three came from his cycle to poems from Leconte de Lisle, Études Latines (oddly titled, since most of the subjects are Greek). Néère had the feel of a rueful lament, whereas Lydé was a grand hymn to the softening pleasures of wine. In both, the piano was a little too obtrusive. Balance was better in Tyndaris, where Gens distilled eternity from its somnolent ending.
These three crystallised a problem that surfaced all evening: where Gens was undemonstrative, barely using her arms and leaving her shapely phrasing to provide atmosphere or drama, Manoff seemed determined to share her spotlight, often raising her hands above her shoulders by way of emphasis: she should let her fingers do the talking. Balance was too often not as smooth as it might have been, with Manoff over-emphatic; the piano lid might have been better on the short stick.
At the very end, Gens delivered a mighty climax to Hahn’s Le Printemps, giving a rare glimpse of what she delivers on the operatic stage. She had clearly been harbouring her resources until then. Naturally Manoff was with her every step of the way here.
Earlier we had heard two Gounod songs, including some fine coloratura in Où Voulez-Vous Aller? and a beautifully controlled ending to De Polignac’s Lamento, hoping against hope that a dear departed will return.
The duo excitedly conjured Chausson’s butterflies and cut loose in an ecstatic account of Fauré’s love-affair between butterfly and flower. His Ispahan roses were predictably fragrant too.
But the highlight was Duparc’s exquisite setting of Baudelaire’s L’invitation au Voyage. It contained everything that makes Gens a remarkable specialist in this repertoire. She made the words melt into the melodic line, caressing rather than stressing their optimistic evocation of hazy, lazy sunshine at the end of a voyage. The firmer second stanza enhanced the anticipation. Manoff’s rippling piano made an ideal underlay. This was mélodie perfection.
Later in the festival Graham Johnson delivered a compact, highly informative lecture-recital on Schubert’s song-cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. Extracts from more than a dozen songs were delivered with admirable clarity by the baritone George Robarts. Johnson accompanied these and played more examples besides, including glimpses of similarities in earlier Schubert songs.
It is fashionable to decry the poetic achievement of Wilhelm Müller in this cycle. Johnson not only demolished that argument by implication but more importantly showed how Schubert added layers of meaning to what is after all a tragic tale, the young lad drowning himself in the brook. It is doubtful whether any of his listeners will ever hear this cycle in quite the same way again.
Opera singer Jennifer Coleman: Soprano soloist on song at York Proms
PROMS, outdoor festivals and carnivals, here comes the sun and summer fun as Charles Hutchinson reaches for the cream.
Outdoor event of the weekend: York Proms, Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates open at 5pm
BRITISH-IRISH soprano Jennifer Colemen, Opera North tenor Tom Smith and West End musical theatre singer, actress and TV presenter Shona Lindsay will be the soloists for Sunday’s York Proms.
Musical director Ben Crick conducts the 22-piece Yorkshire Festival Orchestra in a musical theatre tribute, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story through to Les Miserables and Wicked. The rousing Proms finale will be accompanied by The Fireworkers’ fireworks. Tickets update: sold out; waiting list for returns at yorkproms.com/contact.
Tom Smith: Tenor soloist at Sunday’s York Proms
Shakespeare Shorts: Twelfth Night, Barley Hall Great Hall, Coffee Yard, York, today, on the hour, every hour, from 11am to 3pm
SHAKESPEARE in only 15 minutes presents an immersive re-telling of Twelfth Night, the one with heaps of mistaken identities, cross-dressing and long-lost siblings.
Barley Hall’s costumed storyteller promises to “make simple a story that has even the characters confused, all while exploring themes of gender identity and the history of cross-dressing in theatre”. Barley Hall admission: barleyhall.co.uk.
Shakespeare Shorts: The artwork for the 15-minute Twelfth Night at Barley Hall
Strensall Community Carnival, Strensall Village Hall and Field, Northfields, Strensall, York, today, 12 noon to 5pm
BACK for its 8th year, Strensall Community Carnival has attractions for all the family, with a procession from Hurst Hall, a food court, 30-plus charity and business stalls and entertainment on the outdoor arena.
Look out for Ebor Morris, The Cadet Band, York Karaoke DoJo, Dynamics Band and Generation Groove in the arena; the Robert Wilkinson School Choir and Band and Mark’s Magic Kingdom Puppet Show in the main hall, and the Captivating Creatures animal show, medieval mayhem with the Knights of the Wobbly Table storytellers, Messy Adventures sensory play and Generate Theatre drama games in the outdoor space.
The Grand Old Uke of York: “Almost unplugged” at Stillington
Uke over there: The Grand Old Uke of York, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK collective The Grand Old Uke of York grace the At The Mill stage in an unusual twist to their norm: turning their usual set list on its head to bring gorgeous, pared-back vocals, buttery harmonies and ukuleles played with summery vibes – rather than their usual rock mode – to the garden.
Formed more than ten years ago, they love nothing more than to transform expectations of the ukulele’s bounds. Tonight is a rare chance to see the dynamic group stripped back and “almost” unplugged. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925922
Party time: Just Josh celebrates a decade of entertaining children’s parties with a JoRo show
Big kid of the weekend: Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm
AFTER a decade of doing other kids’ parties, York family entertainer, magician and pantomime silly billy Josh Benson has decided he should have his own bash.
Expect all Just Josh’s usual mix of daft comedy chaos, magic, juggling, balloons, dancing and games, plus extra-special surprises. “It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family,” he says. “Yes, even Dad. It is Father’s Day after all!” Ticket update: last few on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for York Printmakers’ summer showcase at Blossom Street Gallery
Exhibition of the week: York Printmakers: A Showcase, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until July 31, open Thursdays to Sundays
SIXTEEN York Printmakers members demonstrate techniques and printing processes that date back hundreds of years through to those that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, with laser-cut plates, digital elements and 3D techniques.
Taking part are: Harriette Rymer; Lyn Bailey; Bridget Hunt; Carrie Lyall; Patricia Ann Ruddle; Jane Dignum; Jo Rodwell; Lesley Shaw; Phill Jenkins; Sally Parkin; Emily Harvey; Gill Douglas; Becky Long-Smith; Vanessa Oo; Sandra Storey and Rachel Holborow.
Two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg”: Terrain Theatre in Helen at Theatre@41
New play of the week: Helen, staged by Terrain Theatre/Theatre 503 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
HELEN is 40 when she loses her husband. Becca is 15 when her dad dies. Now it is only the two of them, what do they do next? From Maureen Lennon, the Hull-born writer of York Theatre Royal’s 2022 community play, The Coppergate Woman, comes Helen, a series of snapshots of their relationship’s joys and traumas, laughs and arguments over the next 40 years.
Presented by new northern company Terrain Theatre and directed by Tom Bellerby, this 85-minute play about love, death, grief, postnatal depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, dementia and cancer, and two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg, explores the thread that binds them together and the different ways they damage and save each other. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster for the return of Mrs. Brown Rides Again: Heading to Hull in October
Comedy booking of the week: Mrs. Brown Ride Again, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27, 7.30pm, and October 28, 2pm and 7.30pm
BRENDAN O’Carroll and Mrs. Brown’s Boys will be back on stage in their “classic play” Mrs. Brown Rides Again from August to November. The only Yorkshire shows of the ten-venue tour with the television cast will be at Hull Bonus Arena in late-October.
Written by and starring O’Carroll as the beloved “Mammy”, the play finds Agnes Brown and her dysfunctional family romping their way through what seems to be her last days at home. After hearing of a plot by her children to have her put into a home, Agnes decides to prove them wrong by displaying a new lease of life. Box office: bonusarenahull.com.
The Prodigy: “Full attack mode, double barrel” at Leeds First Direct Arena this autumn. Picture: Andrea Ripamonti
Gig announcement of the week: The Prodigy, Army Of The Ants Tour, Leeds First Direct Arena, November 18
THE Prodigy’s Liam Howlett and Maxim will play Leeds on night three of their seven-date autumn arena tour after a spring and summer run of international festival headline dates. Support will come from Soft Play, the British punk duo of Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman, formerly known as Slaves.
“Army Of The Ants is a calling to The Prodigy peoples,” says Howlett. “We’re comin’ back for u the only way we know, full attack mode, double barrel.” Box office: tix.to/TheProdigy
Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and Marc Almond: Headlining Let’s Rock Leeds
Recommended but general and VIP admission sold out already:Let’s Rock Leeds, Temple Newsam, Leeds, today, gates 11am; 10.30pm finish
HOMECOMING Leeds duo Soft Cell and OMD top the bill at this retro festival. Tony Hadley, Midge Ure, Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom, The Farm, The Real Thing, Roland Gift, Heatwave and Hue & Cry play too. For any form of tickets left, head to: letsrockleeds.com.
In Focus: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 27 to July 1
York Light Opera Company cast member Sanna Jeppsson
RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’s off-Broadway musical comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change looks at how we love, date and handle relationships.
In a revamp of the original 1996 production, York Light Opera Company stage this witty hit show with a cast of seven under the direction of Neil Wood, fresh from his menacing Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. Martin Lay provides the musical direction for the two 7.30pm peformances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee.
Noted for its insights into human nature and catchy-as-a-Venus-flytrap songs, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change explores the joys and challenges of love in songs that chart the heart’s path from dating to marriage to divorce.
Guiding audiences through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson and Mark Simmonds.
Cue shocks, surprises and songs aplenty as our love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box Office tickets.41monkgate.co.uk
The poster for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Helen Spencer directing a rehearsal for Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Musicals In The Multiverse. Picture: Jenny Jones
JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company’s summer fundraising show, Musicals In The Multiverse, will be their “most ambitious concert production ever”.
Staged at the JoRo on June 29 and 30, this out-of-this-universe show will be directed by Helen Spencer, last seen on that stage in the title role of JRTC’s Hello, Dolly! in February.
“We have some of the best talent York has to offer in our 36-strong cast, so it’s been a joy to cast,” says Helen. “We were delighted after the success of Hello, Dolly! to welcome a lot of new members and this concert is the perfect showcase for the ever-growing JRTC as we invite the Yorkshire community to this epic show.
“It’s our ‘most ambitious’ concert in that it’s the biggest cast we’ve had for a summer show and it’s much more of a production than just a concert: more numbers, more choreography, more cast members, and the concept itself is more ambitious and challenging.”
Introducing the show’s concept, she says: “Musicals In The Multiverse will be an exciting evening of musical theatre favourites with a twist. In the parallel universes of this musical multiverse, you’ll hear the songs that you know and love, but with their traditional presentation turned on its head, so they are different but still recognisable. This means gender swaps, minor to major key swaps, musical style swaps and more!
“The concept came from a conversation among JRTC members about songs they would love to sing but would never get the opportunity to do so in a fully staged musical production, for example due to the gender, age etc of the character in the original setting.
“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and welcoming artistic space for all. The concept for this show allows our wonderfully talented and diverse cast to perform songs that explore and celebrate who they are, to push some of the traditional musical theatre boundaries and ultimately honour some of the best musical songs ever written.”
Cast members in an early rehearsal for Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Musicals In The Multiverse. Picture: Jenny Jones
Accompanied by a five-piece band, Helen’s cast will perform a mixture of solos, duets, small group and full ensemble numbers on a set list featuring songs from Les Miserables, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Rent, Blood Brothers, Company, Bat Out Of Hell, The Little Mermaid, Jersey Boys, Chicago, Guys And Dolls, Beauty And The Beast, Frozen and Billy Elliot.
“As well as showstopping songs from a whole cast bursting with vocal talent, our strong core of dancers will perform several spectacular featured dance numbers, such as Electricity from Billy Elliot,” says Helen.
“Every song in the show will have at least one twist. Our tagline ‘Expect the unexpected in the multiverse’ is absolutely right. The most basic shift will be from male to female voice, for which we have to change the key. Then we have musical style changes for songs that were classical or musical theatre pieces into jazz or blues numbers.
“There are era swaps too, moving songs contextually into a different era so that the words take on a different meaning. Bring Him Home, from Les Miserables, is moved from 19th century France to Second World War Britain, sung beautifully by Jennie Wogan-Wells as a mother to her son on the front, wanting to bring him home safely.”
In the shift from major key to minor, two Disney numbers change dramatically. “Frozen’s Let It Go, sung by Connie Howcroft, and Little Mermaid’s Part Of Your World, sung by Rachel Higgs, take on a more sinister, evil vibe,” says Helen. “Let It Go becomes a much darker song, less Disney, more jazz.”
Focusing on the gender swaps, Helen says: “Often we’ve not changed the gender within the song, so the sexuality of the song becomes different. For example, Rosy Rowley sings Meat Loaf’s Dead Ringer For Love from Bat Out Of Hell and takes Frankie Valli’s lead vocal in Who Loves You from the musical Jersey Boys.
“That’s one of the things we’ve loved about the rehearsal process: people have the chance to sing songs they now feel comfortable with, so we’re proud of supporting of that aspect of the show, because of the gender diversity in the cast.”
As consultant psychiatrist and JRTC regular Helen swaps Dolly’s red feathers for the director’s hat, she is joined in the production team by musical director Matthew Clare, choreographer Jennie Wogan-Wells and assistant musical director James Ball.
“It’s a formidable new creative team for this adventure,” says Helen. “I have a huge amount of professional experience as a performer, vocal coach and company manager and I’m delighted to be taking the reins for this exciting project.
“Some of his arrangements are absolutely stunning,” says director Helen Spencer of musical director Matthew Clare. Picture: Jenny Jones
“Well known on the York musical circuit as a director, musical director and musician, this is Matthew’s first production with JRTC. However, he has close ties with the cast and the company, and he is most excited to be writing unique and innovative arrangements of some all-time favourites.
“I approached Matthew, who I’d worked with before, as he’s very good at rearranging music and parts and that’s what we needed for this show, altering songs in some way. Some of his arrangements are absolutely stunning, some are challenging to sing: he never does anything easy!”
As for choreographer Jennie, Helen says: “She has been a key figure in JRTC for many years, both on and off the stage, and we’re thrilled to have her experience, energy and vision as the choreographer in the multiverse.
“We’re super-super happy to have Jennie doing it as she’s a really strong dancer in JRTC shows and she’d expressed a wish to get more involved in the choreography. She has the imagination to run with an idea, which is perfect for this show.
“We’ve also been lucky to get some really good dancers so that it’s not just a stand and sing show but has lots of great dancing in it.”
Helen will feature in the show in a “very tiny way”. “I’ll be performing in a fun number from City Of Angels, What You Don’t Know About Women, which is usually sung as a duet, but we’re doing it as a sextet where we’ve changed it from the 1930s to the modern day as a pyjama party for women bitching about men!
“I’m only doing it because I was feeling jealous about not doing anything at all on stage, though I’m a believer in stepping back as the director and giving everyone in the company as much chance as possible to shine,” she says.
“It felt right to do that as we’re determined to have featured parts for everyone, even if its’s just a featured line or a highlighted moment to show what an amazing company we’ve put together.”
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Musicals In The Multiverse, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, June 29 and 30, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk. All profits go straight back the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Making moves: Choreographer Jennie Wogan-Wells in action. Picture: Jenny Jones
Cast List:
Abi Carter; Alex Schofield; Ashley Ginter; Ben Huntley; Catherine Foster; Charlotte Wetherell; Chris Gibson; Connie Howcroft; Dan Crawford-Porter; Ellie Carrier; Helen Barugh; Jack James Fry; Jai Rowley; James Willstrop; Jen Payne; Jennie Wogan-Wells; Jenny Jones; Jono Wells; Kat Dent; Kathryn Lay; Lorna Newby; Meg Badrick; Nick Sephton; Nicola Strataridaki; Pamela Bradley; Rachel Higgs; Richard Goodall; Rosy Rowley; Ryan Richardson; Scarlett Rowley; Steven Jobson; Tessa Ellis; Vanessa Lee and Victoria Beale.
Did you know?
HELEN’S children, Temperance and Laertes Singhateh, aged ten and seven, will be singing in the show. “In When I Grow Up, from Matilda, adults will sing Matilda’s lines and Tempi and Laertes will do teacher Miss Honey’s lines, because the concept is, we’re all children but we happen to grow up,” says Helen. “It realy changes the song doing it this way.”
Did you know too?
HELEN Spencer worked in theatre professionally, touring Europe in her 20s, having studied for a music and drama degree.
She has been a consultant psychiatrist for 12 years since changing her career path. Initially she combined performing with her medical studies but then decided psychiatry should be her focus.
Now she is embracing performing and directing anew. “I love psychiatry, working for the NHS in my job, but part of my well-being is doing music and drama, so it’s good to be doing that too. If I don’t do it, I’m sad,” she says. “Being busy and happy is fine by me.”
Sam Varley’s Alfie, with Miss Root’s cat Zang, Emily Harrigan’s Miss Root, Georgia Grant-Anderson’s Gabz and Misha Malcolm’s Winnie in David Walliams’s Demon Dentist. Picture: Mark Douet
AS part of Birmingham Stage Company’s 30th anniversary, director Neal Foster is drilling down into the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth in a third collaboration with prolific children’s author David Walliams.
As with Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, already presented at the Grand Opera House by these regular York visitors, Foster has written the adaptation and lyrics for this fast-moving fangtasy.
In familiar Walliams style, Roald Dahl meets Little Britain for little’uns in his toothy tale of dental detectives Alfie Griffin (Sam Varley) and school classmate Gabz (Georgia Grant-Anderson) – his friend who’s a girl but not his girlfriend, just to be clear – investigating the strange events suddenly besetting children’s bedrooms in their hometown.
As per the norm, children leave their teeth for the tooth fairy, but in Walliams’s warped world, they awake to find strange, unpleasant things under their pillows. Dead mice. A bat’s wing. The rest of the bat is apparently still alive, reduced to flying around in circles. A typical Walliams gag in a show that adds a pinch of Tim Burton and Addams Family gothic humour and pathos too.
Alfie is 12, a lone child, with a dead mother and an ailing dad (James Mitchell), who is reduced to walking on sticks as he struggles with his breathing after years of working down the mine. Pneumoconiosis. Not long to go.
Dark materials for a children’s show, you might think, but it was ever thus in literature. Besides, there is the bond of love, a routine of tea and biscuits after school. Comfort amid the difficulties of what life has thrown at them.
Emily Harrigan’s “tooth witch”, Miss Root. Picture: Mark Douet
Varley’s Alfie has something of the downbeat yet upwardly aspirant diarist Adrian Mole about him, aged 12, not 13¾, not least in his Me Against The World demeanour, especially in his relationship with social care worker Winnie (Misha Malcolm), with her expectations of chocolate biscuits or any variation of chocolate whenever she visits.
Those demands peak in one of the show’s best scenes, full of comic timing by Varley and Malcolm, as his exasperation meets her insistent enquiries in pursuit of a choc boost.
Where does the demon dentist of the title fit in, you ask? All routes lead to Emily Harrigan’s Miss Root – “Call me Mummy,” she says, arms outstretched – who is one of those white-coated practitioners that puts the mental into dental, like Orin Scrivello in Little Shop Of Horrors.
Alfie has not sat in a dental chair since his traumatic encounter with his last dentist – Mr Erstwhile, a literary gag of a name for a late dentist – six years ago and his mouth is more like a graveyard. Off to the corner of Drill Drive and Plaque Place he is taken, and evil this way lies.
Before you know it, kindly, if eccentric newsagent Raj (Zain Abrahams) has given him his late wife’s false teeth and drunk the stale water himself. Raj makes a case to be the favourite character here, with his bargain offers on everything, his warm heart and eternal optimism. A cornershop caricature, yes, but within the exaggeration rests the ring of truth too.
Sometimes, especially in the first half, Foster’s production feels overstretched, the comedy striving too hard. Alas, Miss Root falls short of a premier league villain, no match for a Miss Trunchbull or Miss Hannigan: a dental disappointment.
Dental detectives at work! Sam Varley’s Alfie Griffin and Georgia Grant-Anderson’s Gabz. Picture: Mark Douet
Gems are to be found, however: observations of no-one liking the coffee-flavoured Revels; how boys and girls behave towards each other at 12; above all, the scene-stealing cameo by the over-excitable drama teacher (Aaron Patel), flouncing around as he revels in an improvisation session. Why is every school impro play always about the end of the world, ponders Walliams. How true!
Jacqueline Trousdale’s set, comprising brick walls and interiors beneath a brooding urban skyline, moves with ease from house to school to dental surgery and later, in the equivalent of a pantomime transformation scene, to a mine shaft and Miss Root’s bewitching HQ. Jak Poore’s songs are functional rather than memorable.
This driller-thriller adventure ends with self-sacrifice, a thwarted, flattened baddie, an adoption and a wedding, so much melodrama to cram in, like a misfitting set of dentures, but with a big smile as the reward.
David Walliams’s Demon Dentist, Grand Opera House, York, today, 10.30am, 6.30pm; Saturday, 11am, 3pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
What’s next from Birmingham Stage Company on tour?
David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Live On Stage!, coming to a theatre near you in 2024. Watch this space.
York Printmakers’ work on show at Blossom Street, York
YORK Printmakers are presenting A Showcase at Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until July 31.
On show is an array of printmaking skills, demonstrating techniques and printing processes that date back hundreds of years through to those that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, with laser-cut plates, digital elements and 3D techniques.
Taking part are: Harriette Rymer; Lyn Bailey; Bridget Hunt; Carrie Lyall; Patricia Ann Ruddle; Jane Dignum; Jo Rodwell; Lesley Shaw; Phill Jenkins; Sally Parkin; Emily Harvey; Gill Douglas; Becky Long-Smith; Vanessa Oo; Sandra Storey and Rachel Holborow.
York Printmakers formed in 2015 when a dozen or so printmakers from the York area joined together. The group now numbers around 50 members who meet monthly to share work, discuss ideas about processes in an informal way and learn from each other.
Their work spans a wide variety of methods, from etching, linocut, collagraph, monotype and screen print to solar plate, Japanese woodblock, lithography and stencilling.
Members have a wide range of printmaking backgrounds, from art students to professional artists who exhibit widely, and they work continually work on new opportunities for the group. For example, the logo was created as a group project with several members choosing letters and producing prints of them in their individual ways.
Regular opening hours at Blossom Street Gallery are: Thursdays, 11am to 3pm; Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.
Losing grip on power: Nigel Barrett’s Julius Caesar grapples with Thalissa Teixeira’s Brutus in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar. Picture: Marc Brenner
FRIENDS, readers, Yorkshiremen, lend me your time; I come neither to bury Atri Banerjee’s Julius Caesar, nor to praise it.
Recruited to direct Shakespeare’s political thriller through the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Hire initiative “to improve transparency and access to freelance creative jobs in theatre”, Banerjee brings his South Asian heritage to a production of global scope, one where he plays with gender identity too, as well as playing with the artform of theatre.
A play is called a play because it is an act of play, one that gives free rein to artistic expression and interpretation refracted through present times. In our case, Covid, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Trump, the climate crisis, three Conservative Prime Ministers in a matter of months, and progression from LGBT to LGBTQIA+.
Some reactions have suggested that Banerjee is playing with his audience, from his warm-up exercise crowd-opening with all the opera-sized RSC cast running on the spot and howling, to casting Brutus (Thalissa Teixeira), Cassius (initially Kelly Gough, now the non-binary Annabel Baldwin) and Octavius Caesar (Ella Dacres) as women, to a ghostly Caesar (Nigel Barrett) waving insouciantly at Brutus.
You could argue that Banerjee is playing instead with audience expectations, in a case of when in Rome, don’t do as the Romans do, by taking on the po-faced antediluvians who think such a serious play should be taken more seriously, because politics is no laughing matter, although any number of political sketches by John Crace or Marina Hyde’s columns in the Guardian counter that view.
What’s more, Banerjee is being serious, very serious, if modish in his delivery, in asking the big question: how far would you go for your principles?
Presented as part of the RSC’s Power Shifts season, Julius Caesar reflects how political change appears to be happening ever faster, (although despotic leaders have a way of re-writing the rule books – or commandeering the ballot box – to allow themselves to stay in power).
This week alone, Italy has come to bury – and reappraise – the first of the modern wave of populist leaders, Silvio Berlusconi, while another, Boris Johnson, has had his political career buried underneath a stinking mound of lies about lying.
Julius Caesar was the populist ruler of his time, here played in casual shirt sleeves by Barrett with rather more commanding order to his delivery of the blank verse. His crime, as William Robinson’s Marc Antony ascribes four times to Brutus, is ambition. Yet Marc Antony calls Brutus “honourable”, just as Othello calls Iago “honest” and Macbeth is praised for his valour and worthiness. Vaulting ambition did for him too, of course.
Misjudgements may have proliferated in modern politics, our age of narcissistic frontmen, but this is no longer the age of lies, damn lies and statistics, or truths and half-truths, but “alternative truths” and “post-truths”.
Caesar was a “divisive ruler”: he surely would have thrived in our era of divide-and-rule leaders, nourished by an equally divisive media in print, on screen and on air. In his time, however, he was removed, despatched, without a plan of what might come next, other than a craving for a “better future”. (Don’t all politicians say that when first entering the House of Commons before the Whip-cracking and corruptive need to keep power take over?)
Death after death, as it turns out, is the result here, all gathered in what has become known flippantly as the “ghost bus” on Rosanna Vize’s revolving stage. At that point, they are restored to clean clothing, whereas those assassins still alive are still stained by Caesar’s blood, here black and sticky as newsprint rather than red.
Those death blows had been applied in smearing actions, rather than as 33 stab wounds, to be followed by a PAUSE, announced in big letters, accompanied by a two-minute countdown before Caesar’s exit, taking almost long as an opera death by aria. This would be one of those moments that has made Banerjee’s Julius Caesar as divisive as the ruler himself,
It finds its echo in the INTERVAL countdown on screen, 20 minutes ticking by to the mournful repetitive sound of a single trombone: in keeping with the sombre mood, or irritating, depending on how you reacted to the 90-minute first half. Or, maybe, a sonic tool that theatres could use in future to drive customers to the bar.
Banerjee’s “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” style of production is full of ideas: the Caesar wave; the rising multitude of ghosts, giving a sense of time running out; Joshua Dunn’s Cinna the Poet re-emerging all in ashen grey after his death; the use of a York community chorus (Hilary Conroy, Astrid Hanlon, Elaine Harvey, Stephanie Hesp, Anna Johnston and Frances Simon, under Jessa Liversidge’s musical direction), only to employ them rather less than a traditional Greek chorus role; not enough ill wind in their sails.
Better is the casting of the power seekers as young, like the Blair intake in 1997, still learning the political ropes and prone to mistakes and rash judgements. You will enjoy the nods to Dominic Cummings and Malcolm Tucker in Matthew Bulgo’s administrator, Casca.
Frustrations? Why does Teixeira’s Brutus not find her footing until deep in the mire? Why is Niamh Finlay playing the Soothsayer in red tracksuit bottoms with juddering, jagged dance movements like Happy Mondays’ Bez, as if three Macbeth witches trapped in one body?
Why, after making much of changing the gender dynamics of Julius Caesar’s world, does Antony’s eulogy to Brutus still conclude: “This was a man”? Ask Atri! He may be making a point about women having to mirror men to fit in, to succeed.
Ultimately, in the play for power, will we ever decide that Brutus was right: “Good words are better than bad strokes”?
Royal Shakespeare Company in Julius Caesar, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Josh Benson: Sunday party to mark ten years of children’s parties
ALL-ROUND York entertainer Josh Benson performed his first children’s magic show in a kitchen in Fulford.
Now, after a decade of doing other children’s parties, Josh has decided he should have his own bash as a tenth anniversary present to himself.
On Sunday afternoon, this ever-perky purveyor of daft comedy chaos – “daft is cleverer than stupid,” he says – presents Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party! at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.
“It’s a big stage, much bigger than a church hall, community centre or school room that I usually do these shows in. I needed to upsize for this one,” he says.
Expect Josh’s usual comedy magic, juggling, “balloonology”, dancing and games, plus some extra-special surprises in a show for “anyone from four to 104”.
“It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family. Yes, even Dad!It is Father’s Day after all!” he says.
“I’m having a huge Just Josh sign made for the stage – by Spectrum Signs in Elvington – as it’s my tenth year of these shows and I can have a sign if I want to! It’s six foot high with lettering that I’m painting blue and red as per my logo.”
Newly confirmed to play Muddles in Darlington Hippodrome’s 2022-23 pantomime, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs after three seasons at Halifax’s Victoria Theatre, Josh is equally happy doing magic tricks to children or playing the silly billy to a panto crowd each winter.
Add to that list performing on the P&O Britannia cruise ship, as he was earlier this spring, when his act would be followed by Basil Brush, and being the Corntroller in charge of the summer entertainment at York Maze, at Elvington, Britain’s largest maze attraction.
“That’s why I need a triple-ended candle, not just one that burns at both ends,” says Josh. “As Corntroller since 2019, I write the shows, sing the theme tune, manage the shows and co-host them, and I’m a control freak, so like to be able to do everything.
Josh Benson signs up for York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime in 2020
“I’m overseeing five shows this summer: The Crazy Maze, a big corny game show; Cornula One, which has replaced the pig racing, using converted [should that be cornverted?] shop mobility scooters.
“Then there’s Cobzilla, the dinosaur meet-and-greet experience; Crowmania, the pantomime on wheels that had a big overhaul in 2021, and the Cornival, which is the closest to one of my kids’ parties, being a party more than a show.”
Josh, who will celebrate ten years at “Farmer Tom” Pearcy’s York Maze next year, is in charge of a team of 15 entertainers, with Maia Stroud, Kit Stroud, Sam Wharton and Fiona Baistow among the York names in the Crowmania cast. Charlotte Wood and Annie Donaghy play their part in the stage team too when available.
“The closest comparison to the Crowmania Ride is Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Imagine that with a much more sarcastic, very self-aware writer, lots of one-liners and way more corn and crow-based gags,” he says.
“The 25-minute ride is on a 110-seat trailer, pulled by a tractor, with 25 rides a day, so around 2,500 people can go on it on any one day if we’re full.”
After presenting seven years of children’s parties, “I knew we needed something like that at York Maze, so we introduced the Cornival, with an enormous foam cannon – which I can promise you won’t come out at the Joseph Rowntree show as there’s no grass there!
“But Sunday’s show will feature some of the York Maze characters, like Kernel Kernel, Sweetie Corn, his girlfriend, Russell Crow and Maizey, a pantomime cow with corn cobs around her neck.”
Josh still has first magic show business card, printed in June 2013. “I remember doing shows at Stockton on the Forest Village Hall, Rawcliffe Pavilion and a smaller one in Copmanthorpe for friends of my mum’s,” he says.
“I was 15, a kids’ entertainer who was a child myself and couldn’t drive, so my mum had to drive me to shows with my briefcases of tricks for full-on magic shows. But then I’m still a big kid, as we all know!” A big kid, who now drives a little grey van, as it happens.
Josh Benson, right, with fellow actors Ben Hunter and May Jackson, writer Tim Firth and composer Gary Barlow, promoting the 2015 premiere of The Girls at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Matt Crockett
Reflecting on ten years of children’s parties, Josh says: “The thing that I really want to get across is that doing these shows is what’s been massively important to me, providing me with a constant that a lot of performers don’t have.
“There are people who want me to move away from it, which I don’t understand. I’ll go from playing to 1,500 at the panto to playing to 30 children in a village hall on a day off, but work is work.
“I’m very lucky that I’ve built up a reputation where kids really want me to do their parties; they’re adamant that it has to be Josh! That’s so beautiful and lovely, and I don’t feel like an expensive babysitter but an entertainer.
“You’re being booked for your skill set rather than kids just being shoved on to a bouncy castle. Bouncy castles are my Kryptonite! You don’t need to do anything. Just book me and I’ll do it all, no bouncy castle, because how can I compete with an amazing bouncy castle that frankly I’d prefer to be on?! Mind you, bouncy castles have gone up in price, but that’s inflation for you!”
Josh had started his professional theatre career with York Theatre Royal, aged ten, in the 2007 Berwick Kaler pantomime Sinbad The Sailor, later appearing there as John Darling in Peter Pan, and going on to play Little Ernie in the award-winning BBC Morecambe & Wise biopic Eric & Ernie.
He was chosen for the cheeky-chappie role of Yorkshire schoolboy Tommo in Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s The Girls, the Calendar Girls musical, appearing from 2015 to 2017 in the world premiere at Leeds Grand Theatre and The Lowry, Salford, and the subsequent West End run at the Phoenix Theatre, London.
He did four seasons of The Good Old Days at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, taking his magic act down to London for the Players Music Hall at Charing Cross Theatre and Cockney Sing-Along at Brick Lane Music Hall before launching his one-man cabaret act It‘s Not The Joshua Benson Show/Josh Of All Trades.
“Especially when I was living in London, actors were doing kids’ parties because they had to, for the money, but I do them because I haven’t fallen out of love with them,” he says.
“It’s part of what I do: kids’ parties; the cruise ships; the York Maze summer season and Hallowscream; the panto comic, which I started doing as Buttons in Cinderella at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield in 2018, and the Brick Lane Music Hall adult pantomime in London, mixing panto with Carry On humour, from January to March each year.
“Those shows take a huge amount of thought, written by David Phipps-Davis, a renowned panto dame. The next one will be my third year, Peter Pan And His Loose Boys. Last time it was Goldilocks And The Bare Bears and before that, Robin Hood And His Camp Followers.
Just Josh and WonderPhil: Josh Benson and Phil Grainger’s magical double act at the 2019 Great Yorkshire Fringe in York
“They’re panto for adults, which is cleverer, I think. Not dropping the C-bomb but full of clever lines. With these pantomimes, you have adults that are prepared to be kids for the next couple of hours, where I can be naughtier but with the same energy levels as at a family pantomime.”
Josh bills himself as the “Josh of All Trades, Master of None”, having never trained conventionally in anything, but he has skills aplenty that add up to being “Just Josh” joshing around.
“I may have been doing kids’ parties for ten years but annoyingly I didn’t come up with the ‘Just Josh’ name until I did a double act show with WonderPhil [Easingwold magician, actor, soul singer, guitarist, event organiser and polymath Phil Grainger]. When we first made a show for the Great Yorkshire Fringe in York in 2019 – called Making A Magic Show – we wrote it the night before from 10pm to 4pm, then did the first performance!” he recalls.
Sunday’s audience can expect an appearance by Phil Grainger on Zoom and should look out for the Halifax pantomime drummer, Robert Jane, too. “There’s nothing better than pantomime percussion and no-one better at reading my unpredictability than Robert,” says Josh.
“Frankly he makes me funnier, with his Swanee whistles and an actual slap stick, and he makes the sound of falling down better with a drum roll. Knocking my knees together is funnier with a cowbell accompaniment than without. I think the term ‘punctuating the movements’ is really key to comedy and pantomime, and I learnt a lot about that at Halifax.”
Reflecting on cramming so much into 25 years, Josh says: “I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to doing another West End musical, but the perception that I want to be famous? No. not really. I just want to be good and keep it real.
“I got a little bit of a taste of fame when I was doing The Girls, when I definitely wanted to be a star, the next Bradley Walsh, but I realised that once you get there, it’s the hardest thing to stay normal in showbiz.
“I’m happy to be me in this life, where it’s real. Theatre is my first love and always will be, but I’m just lucky that I can do everything, the kids’ parties, the York Maze, the big family pantomimes at Christmas. I like to tread that line.
“My dad [Josh’s sometime partner in cabaret and former Rowntree Players’ panto dame Barry Benson] drummed into me that while it’s nice to be important, it’s more important to be nice. It’s simple advice, but he’s right.”
Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
