Laura Cantrell: “Friday’s setlist was crafted with the same care that goes into her songs”. Picture: Paul Rhodes
LAURA Cantrell is one of a rare breed. Seeking a life, rather than a career in music has enabled her to resist the drip-drip to pander to today’s fads, which is perhaps why her body of work is so consistent.
Cantrell is also a DJ of note, so it was not a surprise that the setlist on Friday was crafted with the same care that goes into her songs. The 13-tune, 80-minute set showcased her new album, but began and ended with tunes from her debut and had enough forays into her back catalogue to keep everyone happy. It helped that over more than 20 years almost everything she has released is of the highest quality.
Despite being an Americana artist, what also startles is how many of her songs feel like bona fide hits – from the 1960s. Her cover of Amy Rigby’s Brand New Eyes recalls Ronnie Spector. Do You Ever Think Of Me (from her proper debut, Not The Tremblin’ Kind) would sit proudly in the country pop canon of Skeeter Davis, while Two Seconds, the closing song on Friday, can devastate just as effectively as her heroine Kitty Wells. Listening to too much Wells can be a bit of a straightening experience, but Cantrell’s set was far more varied.
This was her first show at the Brudenell since 2016, and it was clear from the first that she hasn’t spent the last seven years gargling stones and whisky. Her voice was as clear and wonderful as ever.
Kicking off her UK tour, Cantrell’s five-piece band were still, laughingly, brushing off a few rough edges, but these enhanced rather than detracted from the show. Adding too much polish would obscure the music’s soul.
“Laura Cantrell’s voice was as clear and wonderful as ever,” says reviewer Paul Rhodes
Alongside Cantrell (rather than at a deferential sidestep), Mark Spencer and Jimmy Ryan on electric guitar and mandolin shone. They took in the different contours of the Americana map, with country at the centre, but more than a smidgen of rock, rockabilly and folk.
Cantrell’s new album, Just Like A Rose, her first since 2013, is among the strongest of her career. It is saying something that the new duet with Steve Earle of her signature song When The Roses Bloom Again (penned by Jeff Tweedy, but made entirely her own by Cantrell) is not the best tune on the record.
That honour goes to AWM – Bless. AWM (Angry White Man) is a protest number that takes aim at any number of entitled white-backed alpha males. Written in anger, it retains a dignity that makes such songs endure.
When it comes to Laura Cantrell, the Leeds crowd were powerless. They also enjoyed entertaining opener Doug Levitt. This songwriter is leading a colourful, itinerant life, a former foreign correspondent and travel writer too (listen to his Greyhound Stories on BBC Sounds).
His first album, Edge Of Everywhere, is an apt title for his journeyman songs. The pick of the bunch, (not coincidentally the shortest by some distance) was I Killed Buddy Gray.
The crowd gave Levitt a warm hand, but for Cantrell they really didn’t want her to leave. A great night at the Brudenell, thanks to Joe Coates and Please Please You Productions.
Review by Paul Rhodes
Laura Cantrell’s set took in the different contours of the Americana map, with country at the centre, but more than a smidgen of rock, rockabilly and folk
York countertenor Iestyn Davies: Performing Eternal Source Of Light concert with Ensemble Jupiter on July 8. Picture: Chris Sorensen
YORK Early Music Festival 2023 takes the theme of Smoke & Mirrors with many of next month’s concerts reflecting the religious uncertainty of life in Tudor times.
Running from July 7 to 14 in York’s churches and historic buildings, the nine-day extravaganza of concerts, talks and workshops features The Sixteen, Ensemble Jupiter & Iestyn Davies, Rachel Podger and the City Musick among its headline performers.
Festival director Dr Delma Tomlin says: “This year’s outstanding line-up of artists also includes Carolyn Sampson, RPS Vocal Award winner Anna Dennis, Alys Mererid Roberts and Helen Charlston, leading the charge for women across the ages.
“We are also presenting some of the most accomplished emerging ensembles from across Europe, including the 2019 and 2022 winners of the York International Young Artists Competition, who we are delighted to be welcoming back to York.”
The 2023 festival commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of one of England’s most celebrated composers, William Byrd, a man who lived a life beset by “smoke and mirrors” – hence the festival theme – as a practising Roman Catholic composer working for a constantly threatened Protestant Queen.
Mezzo soprano Helen Charlston: July 10 concert with theorbist Toby Carr at the Undercroft, Merchant Adventurers Hall. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega
“The Rose Consort of Viols and The Marian Consort will share music of state and church for voices and viols, in Byrd At Elizabethan Court, at the National Centre for Early Music, directed by Rory McCleery on July 11,” says Delma.
“You can learn about his keyboard music with harpsichord supremo Francesco Corti in Musica Transalpina, also featuring toccatas and variations by Girolamo Frescobaldi and Peter Philips, at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, on July 10, and take a ‘Byrd pilgrimage’ around the churches of York with York Minster organist Benjamin Morris at All Saints’ Church, North Street, on July 12, and St Lawrence’s Church, Hull Road, and St Denys’s Church, Walmgate, on July 13.
“You can also enjoy the heavenly sounds of Byrd’s liturgical masterpieces in The Sixteen’s A Watchful Gaze concert with the York Minster Choir, directed by Harry Christophers at York Minster on July 9, when Byrd’s legacy will be taken firmly into the modern day with two new works by Dobrinka Tabakova, Arise, Lord Into Thy Rest and Turn Our Captivity.”
Tickets are still available for several prominent festival concerts, not least The Sixteen, the festival’s opening concert by The City Musick on July 7 and York countertenor Iestyn Davies with festival debutants Ensemble Jupiter on July 8, both at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.
Directed by William Lyons, The City Musick’s Renaissance big band – 20 musicians in all – will be focusing on the legacy of David Munrow in an homage to his iconic 1970s’ recordings but with a modern twist.
Apotropaïk: Performing at All Saints’ Churchon July 12
Lyons’s band brings together – deep breath – consorts of recorders, strings, shawms, crumhorns, racketts, dulcians, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, cornetts, sackbuts, keyboard, lutes and percussion to delight in the joy and richness of Renaissance instrumental sounds and dance styles, from sombre almains and pavans to effervescent bransles, galliards and ciaconnas.
Directed by lutenist Thomas Dunford, Ensemble Jupiter join with Iestyn Davies to perform Eternal Source Of Light, a selection of Handel’s most beautiful arias from the 1740s and ’50s, as heard on their award-winning Eternal Heaven album collaboration. Expect a seamless sequence of the secular and the sacred, the tranquil and the tempestuous, the sumptuous and the sophisticated.
On July 12, sopranos Carolyn Sampson, Anna Dennis and Alys Mererid Roberts join the Dunedin Consort to perform Out Of Her Mouth, three miniature cantatas written by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
Performed in three historic venues, the NCEM at St Margaret’s Church, the Great Hall of the Merchant Adventurers Hall, Fossgate, and the hall’s Undercroft, these works by a woman, about women and for women reveal the stories of three Biblical women narrating their own complex, heart-searching experiences.
This concert has sold out, as have the The Rose Consort of Viols and The Marian Consort’s celebration of Elizabeth I and her courtiers, festival artistic advisor Helen Charlston’s July 10 concert with theorbist Toby Carr at the Undercroft, Merchant Adventurers Hall, and violinist Rachel Podger’s return to the NCEM with theorbist Daniele Caminiti on July 13.
Violinist Rachel Podger: Returning to the National Centre for Early Music on July 13
Mezzo soprano Charlston and Carr explore the intimate sound-world of solo voice and theorbo in Battle Cry: She Speaks, those battle cries resounding down the centuries in song; Podger and Caminiti perform Hidden In Plain Sight, celebrating the virtuosity of the violin and its place on the concert platform.
The NCEM Platform Artists’ showcase for emerging European ensembles opens with 2019 EEEmerging+ Prize winners The Butter Quartet’s Well Met By Moonlight on July 9, moved to the NCEM after selling out Bedern Hall, followed by Apotropaïk,who scooped three prizes in last year’s York International Young Artists Competition, performing songs from a 13th century re-telling of the story of Tristan and Isolde, on July 12 at All Saints’ Church
2019 winners L’ Apothéose, from Spain, launch their new album, recorded at the NCEM last year, with a July 13 programme of Carl Stamitz chamber works from the 1780s, back at the NCEM. 2022 prize winners The Protean Quartet perform Tempus Omnia Vincit there on Juy 14 ahead of recording their debut album with Linn Records.
The festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2023 will be awarded to baroque trumpet player Crispian Steele-Perkins at the NCEM on July 9 immediately after the live edition of BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show, broadcast from there.
For the full festival programme and tickets, visit: ncem.co.uk.
I Zefirelli: July 6 concert at the National Centre for Early Music
I Zefirelli to play July 6 concert in NCEM gardens as part of week-long residency
AWARD-WINNING young instrumental ensemble I Zefirelli will arrive in York from Germany on July 4 for a week-long residency.
They will perform Mr Handel In The Pub! on July 6 in the National Centre for Early Music gardens, at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, where they will present a very particular blend of folk and early music as seen through the lens of life in London in the 1700s.
The ensemble will be undertaking the residency as part of the EEEmerging + programme, a large-scale European cooperation project that promotes the emergence of new talent in early music.
In the I Zefirelli line-up are Luise Catenhusen, recorder; María Carrasco, baroque violin; Jakob Kuchenbuch violoncello, viola da gamba; Tobias Tietze, lute, theorbo, baroque guitar, vihuela; Jeroen Finke, percussion, baritone, and Tilmann Albrecht, harpsichord, percussion.
Tickets for the 6.30pm to 7.30pm concert cost £10 at www.ncem.co.uk/events/i-zefirell. Refreshments will be available.
The Wizard of York with Frog Eggs on his award-garlanded Wizard Walk of York
THE Wizard Walk of York has won third place in the Best Family Experience in the World category of the TripAdvisor Best of the Best Awards, pipped only by Californian dolphins and Scottish chocolate.
“Apparently less than one per cent of the eight million attractions receive this international award,” says the Wizard of York, alias wandering wizard and magical mirth maker Dan Wood.
“The overall winner is swimming with dolphins in South Carolina, then The Chocolatorium in Edinburgh, my tour at number three, then the Roman Gladiator fighting school in Italy!”
The award is based on an analysis of 12 months of reviews, comments and ratings on the TripAdvisor website and app and recognises traveller experiences that appeal to children as well as their parents. As many as 111 York tours feature on the site!
Hot act: Magical wizardry tour guide Dan Wood, the Wizard of York
Despite only launching in February 2022, Dan’s tour already has won Best Tour of York (Little Vikings Awards), Silver Winner, Best Small Attraction (YorkMix Choice Awards) and Highly Commended, Experience of the Year (Visit York Awards).
TripAdvisor, however, is the first international award for York’s wandering wizard and Central School of Speech and Drama-trained entertainer, who first made his mark as magician The Magic Hatter for more than a decade at events and parties and on stage.
“I’m absolutely spellbound and delighted be recognised for bringing wizard fun and comedy to the streets of York,” says Dan, whose tour involves searching for magical creatures, from gargoyles to carved cats, in York’s alleys and snickleways. “There are 15 ghost walks in the city, but my goal was to create a truly unique family-friendly experience, with the emphasis on making magical memories.”
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Dan’s tour was born from the chaos of the pandemic, prompting him to hang up The Magic Hatter’s big green hat to focus on the Wizard Walks and his charity work in hospitals as a trained Giggle Doctor.
“My goal was to create a truly unique family-friendly experience, with the emphasis on making magical memories,” says the Wizard of York
Attired in cloak, frock coat, waistcoat and hat, Dan leads his walks with the promise of mystery, history, magic, spells, comedy and “more wizard puns than you can shake a wand at”.
“With it’s cobbled streets and winding alleys, York looks like something from the pages of a magical wizarding novel,” he says. “There’s magic around every corner, and lots of opportunities for young wizard fans to join in with their own optional Wizard Wand Kit.”
Tours for children aged five to ten and their parents – plus “bigger kids with a silly sense of humour” – can be booked at www.wizardwalkofyork.com. They run regularly from Shambles (St Crux churchyard to be precise), taking in Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, Mad Alice Lane, York Minster, St William’s College and Bedern.
“I’ve been working on my ‘sunny spells’ and have many extra walks scheduled through the summer holidays,” says Dan. “Exclusive private tours are available for birthdays, school groups, kids’ clubs, Rainbows, Beavers and more.”
York Light Opera Company’s Emma Dickinson, left, Richard Bayton, Monica Frost and Mark Simmonds in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography
RIOTOUS, rude and oh-so relevant, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change promises shocks and surprises plus character and costume changes galore in York Light Opera Company’s hands from tonight.
Writer Joe DiPietro and composer Jimmy Roberts’ off-Broadway musical comedy is directed by Neil Wood at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in its 2018 updated revamp in a witty look at how we love, date and handle relationships.
Guiding love’s path through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson, Mark Simmonds and Monica Frost and Emily Hardy in their first principal roles for York Light, as love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal.
“It holds the record as the second longest-running revue staged off-Broadway,” says Neil. “Originally it was done with a cast of four, but we decided to double it to eight to be able to swap things around, and when one cast member dropped out, we stuck to seven.
“We did the first read-through and sing-through in April, so it’s a quick turnaround for a show, but we’ve still had the time to explore a lot of multi-role playing. Some of the cast are playing as many as eight characters, so we did some Laban technique workshops, looking at how characters are created, getting inside them and how the actors move.”
Richard Bayton and Emily Hardy, front, with Monica Frost and Mark Simmonds rehearsing On The Highway To Love
His first step as the director was to find the world depicted in the show’s 20 vignettes. “Then you must find the key thing within each scene; those moments that are poignant; those moments that are the turning point for a character.
“To do that, we had a really rigid rehearsal timescale with only two scenes per night, to really explore each scene, one running to eight minutes, the others to five or six minutes. It’s not a sung-through musical; some scenes are purely dialogue; some scenes are just a song; others are a mix of dialogue and song.
“Those songs vary in style from a Luther Vandross-style soul number to a country music song and a Rat Pack-style number.”
In her York Light debut after performing for Pick Me Up Theatre and York Stage, Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson will be playing eight roles. “They vary from young and bold to old and experienced; shy and timid to a downtrodden housewife; a happy single woman to a sporty type – a tennis player, though the only thing I do for that is carry a tennis racket!” she says.
“It’s a fantastic array of characters in a show that has such a variety of scenes that can be real or twist reality in others, where you can go more crazy with a character.”
James Horsman and Sanna Jeppsson rehearsing the scene where two old people in a funeral parlour discuss love’s labours lost and found
Neil chips in: “That’s when you have to decide whether a scene is naturalistic or you can break the fourth wall and be very Brechtian, grabbing the audience by the hand or talking directly to them.
“I’ve been really impressed with what the cast has done in making 3D characters. Once you’ve created a scene, you can develop those characters and they have to be true. As well as their physicality, you need to find their vulnerability.
“That’s a key thing we’ve worked on: the intimacy of the scenes where you’re almost a voyeur into people’s most vulnerable moments.”
Last seen on stage leading York Light’s cast in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Neil is enjoying pulling the strings from the director’s chair. “When we get into Theatre@41, half the fun will be the quick changes, with some full costume changes in only 30 seconds to the accompaniment of scene-change music,” he says.
“The show is split into two 55-minute halves with a 20-minute interval, and the joy for the audience is that everyone will see relationships on stage that they recognise or have been in themselves.
Sanna Jeppsson, left, Emily Hardy, Monica Frost, Richard Bayton, Mark Simmonds and James Horsman in York Light Opera Company’s rehearsal room
“It’s laugh-out-loud funny, a show where you will come out beaming from ear to ear – and you don’t have to think too hard either!”
For Sanna, the rehearsal process has contrasted with her past productions in York. “That’s because this show is so episodic, so it’s almost felt like a different play at each rehearsal, which has been fun as an actor,” she says. “Now it’ll be fascinating to see what kind of reaction we’ll get from the audience, as we bring all those scenes together.
“I’ve been there most nights, where we’ve rehearsed two scenes a night, and it hasn’t felt frantic at all, just enjoying developing new scenes at each rehearsal.”
Neil adds: “We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to do it episodically, with the majority of the rehearsals being done chronologically, which has helped the cast.”
He savours the accumulative impact of the 20 vignettes. “It’s not just 20 one-act plays, but real people, real amotions, real life, and it’s our job to make each scene as realistic as possible; to find the truth of these people,” he says.
“What I love about Joe DiPietro’s writing is that you definitely get every character’s viewpoint in each scene. He’s very clever at doing that.
Emma Harrison, left, Sanna Jeppsson, Emily Hardy and Monica Frost in a music rehearsal for I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
“In the updated version, there’s been a gender swap in the Two Franks scene, and if there’s one scene that’s a caricature, it’s that scene, but then the reality comes through.”
Neil believes he has come up trumps in finding a cast able to play multiple roles. Sanna, in turn, is thrilled to be taking on that challenge. “I’ve had my eyes on this show for many years, waiting for this opportunity after first hearing about it when I was training in London in 2013/2014,” she says.
“I thought, ‘I’d love to do a show with all these characters parts’, and now the chance has come. It’s everything I imagined it would be – and more. It’s been a joy to work on because the script is really good, the songs are really good…and the director is really good, obviously!”
Sanna will be playing characters ranging in age from 25 to 75, and as she added each new one in rehearsal, she found she could not decide on a favourite. She does, however, then highlight her scene with James Horsman, where they play two old people discussing love in a funeral parlour.
“It’s such a beautifully written scene that says so much with such carefully chosen words,” she says.
Sanna Jeppsson and Richard Bayton in a reflective moment during York Light’s rehearsals
Neil picks out Monica’s closing second-half monologue. “It’s set around online dating and that thing of what we want people to see, rather than who we are, and yet then she realises her true story is far more fascinating,” he says.
Twenty vignettes with so many characters call for a diversity of American accents. “I don’t think it would work if you were to transfer it to Yorkshire or France, but you can place it anywhere in America. Some of the scenes are very American,” says Neil.
“The rhythms of the language scream American,” says Sanna. “Though I did read that it has been translated into a number of languages and it’s been done with Australian accents, but not with British ones.”
“The country song, Always A Bridesmaid, needs to be sung in a Tammy Wynette style,” reemphasises Neil.
As opening night arrives, he concludes: “This is a lovely show to finish off York Light’s 70th anniversary, something a little different, all about love.”
York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (27/6/2023) until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Natasha Jones’s Lucy and Joe Gregory’s Jekyll/Hyde in rehearsal for 1812 Theatre Company’s Jekyll & Hyde The Musical
JULIE Lomas makes her directorial debut for the 1812 Theatre Group at the helm of the Helmsley company’s ambitious production of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical.
The resident troupe at Helmsley Arts Centre will be performing Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s thrilling pop score there from July 5 to 9 as part of the Meeting House Court venue’s 30th anniversary celebrations.
Julie, who has a wealth of experience directing at the The Grange Theatre, Walsall, is joined in the creative team by John Atkin, a musical director who needs no introduction to York audiences.
Julie Lomas: Directing 1812 Theatre Company for the first time
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s story, a devoted man of science, Dr Henry Jekyll, is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve some of mankind’s most challenging medical dilemmas. Indeed, he is trying to discover cures for what now would be recognised as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Rebuffed by the powers that be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons along with the man the world would come to know as Mr Hyde.
Wildhorn’s soaring melodies offer wonderful opportunities for the performers to showcase their abilities. The two leading ladies each have their showstopping moments, but for the actor playing Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the role is a breath-taking tour de force.
Sarah Barker and Esme Schofield rehearsing a scene from Jekyll And Hyde The Musical
Enter Joe Gregory, a talented musician and experienced actor, who is a stalwart of 1812’s pantomimes and latterly has appeared in Martin Vander Weyer’s Helmsley’s Whole History, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends and David Tristram’s Going Green.
Joe will be playing opposite his wife, Amy Gregory, here cast as Jekyll’s fiancée, Emma Danvers. Amy is a “graduate” of the 1812 Youth Theatre, run by Natasha Jones, who will play Lucy, the other woman in Jekyll’s life.
Seven cast members are drawn from the youth theatre ranks, bringing their energy and skills to Julie’s production, which is sponsored by the Yorkshire Future Music Fund and Gillham Charitable Fund.
Amy Gregory’s Emma Carew in the rehearsal room
The full cast will be: Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, Joe Gregory; Emma Carew, Amy Gregory; Lucy, Natasha Jones; Utterson, John Lister; Danvers, Richard Noakes; Simon Stride, Kristian Gregory; Mrs Poole, Joanne Lister; Aunt (Brothel Madam), Sarah Barker; New Girl, Esme Schofield; Nellie (Prostitute), Sara Todd; Winnie (Prostitute) Jeanette Hambidge; Lady Beaconsfield, Sue Smith; Lady Savage, Heather Linley, and Bishop of Basingstoke, Barry Whitaker.
Further roles will be: General Glossop, Stephen Lonsdale; Sir Archibald Proops, Graham Smith; Miss Henrietta Faversham, Rosie Hayman; Jekyll’s Father, Stephen Lonsdale; Miss Louisa Pembroke, Annabelle Bridgman; Ward Orderly/Bouncer, Tom Robson, plus Dancer and Prostitute, Abigail Elliot, Millicent Neighbour, Bella Cornford, Amelia Featherstone and Charlotte Mintoft.
1812 Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 5 to 9, 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, under 18s, £7.50, from the arts centre or at helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Taking the chair: Barry Whitaker as the Bishop of Basingstoke
Are You A Robot? playwright Tim Crouch. Picture: Lisa Barnard
YORK company Thunk-It Theatre will host a free summer youth theatre project at Pocklington Arts Centre to create a performance of Tim Crouch’s Are You A Robot?
Run by industry professionals from August 7 to 11, the sessions for 11 to 18-year-old theatre enthusiasts will climax with a last-day performance for family and friends.
Thunk-It Theatre’s Becky Lennon and Jules Risingham have held youth theatre sessions in the Pocklington area for two years. Now the summer school activities will form part of the Wonder Fools’ international participatory arts project Positive Stories for Negative Times.
Funded by the I AM Fund, Thunk-It Theatre will provide five days of free youth theatre for youngsters with a flair for dramatics, who want to gain confidence and love to perform.
In Crouch’s play, two groups of children meet. They look the same; they imagine similar things; they make almost the same noises; they dance in almost the same way, but one group is a digital version of the other.
Thunk-It Theatre’s summer project poster
“They are the face we see reflected back to us online,” says Tim. “They’re exciting and demanding and hard to live up to. The two groups try to work each other out and decide if they can exist together.
“This is a joyful collision between real and fake, perfect and imperfect, human and robot. It’s an investigation into – and a celebration of – humanness.”
Thunk-It directors Becky and Jules say: “We’ve been blown away with the talent, drive and enthusiasm of the young people we’ve worked with in and around Pocklington. There’s a huge importance for rural arts provisions and the impact that this can have on individual young people is incredible.
“We cannot wait to get stuck in with another week of fabulous fun. Not only will young people develop performance skills, they also will learn confidence techniques, leadership skills, and have the opportunity to express themselves in a safe and supported space.”
For more information or to sign up, head to Thunk-It Theatre’s social media (Instagram, @thunkittheatre; Facebook, Thunk-It Theatre; Twitter, @ThunkItTheatre), or email hello@thunkittheatre.co.uk.
Lady Bunny: Vividly vulgar in The Greatest Ho On Earth at the SJT
FABULOUSLY filthy American drag queen Lady Bunny brings her comic debauchery to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on July 23.
The “good-time Sally of salacious song and story will tantalise, titillate and may even traumatise you” in her riotously risqué, vividly vulgar 7.30pm show, The Greatest Ho On Earth.
Accompanied by a retro groovy soundtrack, a Lady Bunny performance finds her shimmying between racy rapid-fire jokes, stinging social commentary, one-line zingers, self-deprecating snorts and her trademark potty-mouthed pop song parodies.
“My humour is outrageous, my look is over the top, and my politics are in your face. That’s just the way I am,” she says.
Born Jon Ingle on August 13 1962 in Wilmington, North Carolina, she performed originally as Bunny Hickory Dickory Dock.
At 60, this New York City drag icon, jet-set DJ, actor, comedian, recording artist, podcaster and event organiser is as famous for her bouffant style and naughty wit as for her ability to get a dancefloor jumping.
In “frosted lips, double false eyelashes and pounds of paint beneath a thunderhead of blonde wigs”, she is a familiar face from RuPaul’s Drag Race – RuPaul was once her roommate – and her MC duties at the LGBT prom in an episode of Sex And The City.
A Manhattan gal since the early 1980s, Lady Bunny co-founded and hosted Wigstock, the annual New York City Labor Day outdoor drag festival that ran for nearly 20 years.
She tours constantly, from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, Buenos Aires to Sydney, Marrakesh to Scarborough. She has shared the stage or screen with Joan Rivers, Bea Arthur, Chaka Khan, Grace Jones and Christina Aguilera.
After such one-woman shows as That Ain’t No Lady!, Trans-Jester, Pig In A Wig and Clowns Syndrome, here comes The Greatest Ho On Earth.
After her Scarborough performance, she will host an exclusive Meet & Greet with Lady Bunny in the SJT bar. Show tickets cost £25; post-show tickets, an additional £20, on 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
“Whatever happens, Lady Bunny’s here to show you a good time and you’ll be happy you came,” the show publicity promises.
Six facts about Lady Bunny
Lady Bunny: “Good-time Sally of salacious song and story”. Picture: Steven Menendez
Recorded two duets with RuPaul, Throw Ya Hands Up and Lick it Lollipop.
In New York City, she DJs the Disco Sundays tea dance at The Monster.
Performed original music and commentary in The Tyranny Of Consciousness (The Waning Of Justice), an installation by pioneering video artist Charles Atlas at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
New York City home décor guru Jonathan Adler designed a Lady Bunny pitcher. “My mug’s on a jug!” she says.
Photographed by Andy Warhol and fashion photographers Francesco Scavullo, Mario Testino, Ellen Von Unwerth and Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.
Interviewed Scarlett Johansson, Marc Jacobs, Anohni (of Antony And The Johnsons) and Leigh Bowery for bygone gay fanzine Pansy Beat.
Heading for a beheading: Lou Henry as Catherine Howard in SIX! The Musical. Picture: Pamela Raith
LOU Henry will be giving SIX of the best at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday, returning to the York stage where she made her professional debut as Snow White in December 2019.
This time, the Grand Opera House is but one stop on a 15-month tour in the role of Catherine Howard in SIX The Musical, the all-female show for the millennial age that reactivates the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII in modern mode, with attitude.
Call it gig theatre, call it a pop concert, wherein the Queens tell their story in song in chronological order to decide who suffered most at Henry’s hands once he put a ring on that wedding finger.
Billed as “York’s own” when picked to play a black-wigged Snow White in Three Bears Productions’ Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Knaresborough-raised Louise now performs as Lou Henry, playing wife number five in Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s musical since April 25.
Lou’s Catherine Howard was Queen Consort from 1540 to 1541, beheaded at the Tower of London on February 13 1542, still only in her 18th year. Henry had called her his “rose without a thorn”, but the history books ascribe to her a scandalous past and present, one that led to her being found guilty of adultery.
“And ever since I was a child, I’d make the boys go wild,” she brags in All You Wanna Do, but later adds: “With Henry, it isn’t easy, his temper’s short and his mates are sleazy.”
“I think she’s misunderstood,” says Lou. “By the time she sings her song, she undercuts everyone’s expectations because there’s a darker side to what she experiences, which is so sad and harrowing, though it’s also a really fun act as a role, not just a big belting moment in song, but there’s loads to act out.
“I have mums and lots of the female members of the audience coming up afterwards and saying, ‘I feel so sad at the end of the song because it’s such a terrible experience she goes through.”
Lou feels the pressure to “tell the story right”. “Already we’ve done more than 70 shows, so it feels more settled now. Catherine’s song is really long – seven minutes of singing; it’s ridiculous! – but she’s giving it everything,” she says.
SIX The Musical is playing to packed houses wherever it goes, whether York this week or Leeds Grand Theatre in early August, and the Grand Opera House has even added standing tickets for the first time, such has been the demand to see the “Spouse Girls musical” on its return to York only six months after its first run here.
“It absolutely is the show of the moment,” says Lou. “It feels very current and important in its subject matter, and the reason it sells so well is the message behind it as much as the pop concert format.
“That’s what attracts people in the first place and keeps them coming. Yes, it’s a pop concert but it turns the mirror round on the audience and says it’s not right that women keep being treated like this.”
Performing in such a show is an 80-minute adrenaline rush, but “we try to keep ourselves really calm before the start, as it can be very excitable in the auditorium, even though there’s a harpsichord playing as if it’s just a Tudor piece,” says Lou.
“But then we have the ‘SIX switch’, where we say we’ve got each other’s backs and what we want out of the show that night. Hit the Six switch, and we tell our story, undercutting historical expectations and people’s expectations of what’s coming.
“Because it’s so interactive, encouraging involvement, you’ll see people singing along or dancing – you can see they’re so invested in it – so I’ll take a deep breath and think, ‘I’ve still got a job to do here’!”
What has Lou learned after those 70-plus performances? “I was under the preconception that it was just a poppy concert but now I really have something to say [through Catherine Howard], and we’re making points in this really well-oiled machine, which is really special, while interacting with each other through the experience of touring, with little changes that keep it interesting for ourselves on stage.”
Joining Lou’s Katherine are Nicole Louise Lewis’s Catherine of Aragon, Laura Dawn Pyatt’s Anne Boleyn, Erin Caldwell’s Jane Seymour, Kenedy Small’s Anna of Cleves and Aoife Haakenson’s Catherine Parr, backed by the all-female band The Ladies in Waiting.
SIX! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 27 to July 2; Tuesday to Thursday, 8pm sold out; Friday, 6pm, 8.30pm, sold out; Saturday, 4pm, 8pm, limited availability; Sunday, 2pm, sold out. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Also Leeds Grand Theatre, August 1 to 6, 8pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 5pm, Friday and Saturday; 2pm, Sunday. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Hitting it for Six: The cast on a 15-month tour
SIX The Musical: the back story
SIX follows the six wives of Henry VIII as they take to the mic to tell their own personal tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power.
Since its early days as a student production in a 100-seat room at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s pop concert/musical has become a global phenomenon.
On the international stage, SIX has productions playing on Broadway at the Lena Horne Theatre, New York, and two concurrent North American tours, including a seven-week run in Las Vegas, with autumn runs announced for Canada and the Netherlands (featuring the UK tour cast from September 20).
SIX has played an Australian tour too. The South Korean production ran at the Shinhan Card Artium, Seoul, from March 17 to June 25, to be followed by July 1 and 2 performances at the Sejong Centre for the Performing Arts in Sejong.
On home turf, the London production continues its reign in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre (its third royal residence), while the UK and Ireland tour continues to break box office records, booking through to 2024.
Winner of 26 major international awards, including the 2022 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design on Broadway; double Whatsonstage Award for Best West End Show for 2022 and 2023 and 2020 BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical. Nominated for five Olivier awards, including Best New Musical.
More than 500 million streams and three billion views of Marlow and Moss’s songs on TikTok. Original studio album of SIX turned gold in 2021; Broadway album SIX – Live On Opening Night was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Vote Nature: York artist Jade Blood with her Community Notice Board installation for Bloom in the Artists Gallery behind York Art Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham
FLOWER power indoors and out, musicals with a twist, trees and romantic entanglements hark the arrival of Charles Hutchinson’s new summer of love.
Garden of delights: Bloom at York Art Gallery, on display until October 8
FLOWERS, plant life and gardens have fascinated and inspired generations of artists. Cultivated by York Art Gallery curator of fine art Becky Gee, the Bloom display brings together more than 100 botanical artworks from York Art Gallery’s collection, alongside key loans, to explore the importance of nature and green spaces for enjoyment, creativity and wellbeing and highlight the gallery’s relationship with the neighbouring Museum Gardens, set up by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1828. Look out for York artist Jade Blood’s installations too.
Banjo player Curt Eller: Bringing his band to the Arts Barge on July 1
Down by the river: The Arts Barge presents Dylan Earl, on Selby Tony, Foss Basin, York, tonight, 7pm; Curtis Eller’s American Circus, July 1, 7pm
ARKANSAS singer Dylan Earl returns to the Arts Barge for a headline gig after his Arts Barge Hoodang appearance last year. Likewise, Curtis Eller’s American Circus show heads back to the barge, this time with full band in tow for a night of banjo-driven rock’n’roll. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.
SIX of the best: The Queens giving Harry the hurry up. Picture: Pamela Raith
Quick return of the week: SIX The Musical at Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Sunday; also Leeds Grand Theatre, August 1 to 6
WAS it only last October that Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s Spouse Girls musical/pop concert first wowed York? Its return has all but sold out again as the dancing queens with attitude tell their story in song in chronological order to decide who suffered most at Henry VIII’s hands once he put a ring on that wedding finger.
Of York interest, Knaresborough-raised Lou Henry returns to the stage where she made her professional debut in the 2019-2020 pantomime as Snow White. This time she plays the apparently not-so-squeaky-clean Catherine Howard, short-lived wife number five. Box office (probably for frustration only): atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Mark Simmonds, Monica Frost, Emma Dickinson and Richard Bayton (at the wheel) in rehearsal for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
In pursuit of love: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’ off-Broadway musical revue is directed by York Light’s Neil Wood in its 2018 updated revamp in a witty look at how we love, date and handle relationships.
Guiding love’s path 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. Shocks and surprises incoming, as love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members rehearsing Musicals In The Multiverse
Expect the unexpected: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Musicals In The Multiverse, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm
IN a fundraiser for the JoRo, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company transports you into a multiverse full of musical theatre favourites with a twist. Guided by director Helen Spencer, enter a parallel universe where familiar songs have their traditional renditions turned on their heads in swaps of gender, major to minor keys, musical styles and eras. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Acoustic gig of the week: An Evening With Ocean Colour Scene’s Simon & Oscar, Harrogate Theatre, Thursday, 7.30pm
OCEAN Colour Scene vocalist Simon Fowler and drummer Oscar Harrison present an intimate acoustic performance of their big hits and anthems, from The Riverboat Song, The Circle and Traveller’s Tune to Hundred Mile High City and The Day We Caught The Train.
“Our acoustic shows are a real tonic: a great chance to look the audience in the eye and interact with them on a more personal basis than ever before,” says Fowler. Dexys Midnight Runners founder member Pete Williams supports. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Murray Watts: His play Mr Darwin’s Tree will be performed at Stillington Mill
Science meets art: Mr Darwin’s Tree, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, July 1, 7.30pm
COMMISSIONED for Charles Darwin’s bicentenary and premiered at Westminster Abbey, Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts’s 75-minute play has since been staged in China, South Korea, and throughout the United States. Now Stillington Mill beckons.
Watts directs film, television and theatre actor Andrew Harrison – last seen at Stilllington in Fire From Heaven last summer – in a study of the relationship between the agnostic Darwin and his Christian wife Emma that explores science, faith, family, love and destiny. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill.
Saxophonist Snake Davis: Having a blast at Cop’ Carnival’s Jazz Night
Community event of the week: Cop’ Carnival Day, Copmanthorpe Recreation Centre, Barons Crescent, Copmanthorpe, York, July 1, 11.30am to 7pm
COP’ Carnival Day returns in its 53rd year for a day of dance troops, bands (including Miles And The Chain Gang), traditional games and attractions. Tickets are on sale at copmanthorpecarnival.org.uk and on the day.
The carnival week runs from June 27 to July 1, featuring a jazz night with saxophonist Snake Davis on Tuesday (7.45pm); a wine-tasting quiz on Wednesday (7.30pm, sold out) and a comedy night with Justin Moorhouse, Tal Davies, Roger Monkhouse and host Alex Boardman on Thursday (8pm). Copmanthorpe Methodist Church houses the carnival exhibition by 30 artists from today to July 1.
Jack Whitehall; Chance to Settle Down at York Barbican
Not many tickets left: Jack Whitehall: Settle Down, York Barbican, July 12, 6.30pm
SETTLE Down is comedian, actor, writer and presenter Jack Whitehall’s “most personal show to date”, driven by material aplenty focused on the big changes in his life.
“It’s about my struggle to settle down gracefully,” says Londoner Whitehall, 34. “I’ve got a long-term partner, a ridiculous dog and am now hurtling towards middle aged without a clue. It’s about a foppish man-child’s cack-handed attempt at adulting!” Note the early start time; no late night for this all-work-and-no-play Jack! Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ballet Black dancers Sayaka Ichikawa and Mthuthuzeli November in Will Tuckett’s Then Or Now. Picture: Bill Cooper
CASSA Pancho’s Ballet Black return to York Theatre Royal on Friday with a double bill of original ballets in Pioneers.
Formed in 2001 to celebrate dancers of Black and Asian descent, the London company presents works by two of their best-known collaborators, the award-winning Will Tuckett ((Depouillement, 2009, Orpheus, 2011) and Mthuthuzeli November (Ingoma, 2019, The Waiting Game, 2021).
Tuckett’s 35-minute Then Or Now, created in 2020, blends classical ballet, music and the poetry of Adrienne Rich to ask the question: in times like these, where do we each belong?
The second piece, the world premiere of November’s 40-minute Nina: By Whatever Means, is inspired by the artistry and activism of American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist Nina Simone. November weaves a picture of Simone’s turbulent and influential life to create an emotional and empowering love letter to this legendary cultural icon.
Cassa Pancho, Ballet Black’s founder, chief executive officer and artistic director, says: “Every year, I describe how delighted I am to present new works and this, our 21st year, is no different. I am so pleased that we can bring Then Or Now back for a longer run. Originally created to premiere in 2020, this ballet was delayed by the pandemic, and only had a very short run across four theatres in 2021.
Rosanna Lindsey, left, and Sayaka Ichikawa in Mthuthuzeli November’s Nina: By Whatever Means. Picture: Bill Cooper
“One of the joys of having work created specifically for Ballet Black is getting to revisit it with the choreographer, and we’ve had fun having Will back in the studio to restage this beautiful ballet.”
As for November’s Simone work, Pancho says: “It’s thrilling to be able to bring Nina: By Whatever Means to life. It’s part of our growing collection of ballets that depict the Black experience through classical ballet, creating a new and relevant repertoire for audiences of all ages, backgrounds and cultures.
“It is the realisation of a dream Mthuthuzeli had to create a love letter to Nina Simone, and I cannot wait to share this programme with you all.”
Ballet Black: Pioneers, York Theatre Royal, June 23, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 7+. Caution: themes of racism and fleeting domestic violence in Nina: By Whatever Means.
Isabela Coracy in Ballet Black’s world premiere of Mthuthuzeli November’s Nina: By Whatever Means. Picture: Bill Cooper
