Category: Breaking News

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No.45, from Gazette & Herald

Courtney Brown: Directing Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography

FROM Rodgers & Hammerstein favourites to Caliban’s dancing revenge, Francis Rossi’s songs and stories to German beer festivities, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.

Musical revue of the week: Pickering Musical Society presents My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, tonight  to Sunday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

LONG-TIME member Courtney Brown directs Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, a showcase of the very best of Broadway’s most iconic songwriting partnership.

As well as the cheeky charm of Honey Bun, the playful fun of The Lonely Goatherd and the rousing barn-dance energy of The Farmer And The Cowman, the show feature songs from The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and The King And I. Dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance take part too. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Eddi Reader: Playing York for the first time in seven years at The Citadel

Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, tonight, 7.30pm

EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.

Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block team up at the NCEM, York

Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 7.30pm

GROUNDBREAKING  banjo players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.

O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Francis Rossi: Shaking up the Status Quo with songs and stories at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography

Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm

IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why Quo went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Natnael Dawit in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and Saturday, 2pm and 7.30pm

SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.

Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington

As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, Friday, 8pm

HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.

His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Sam Moss: Heading out on to the moors at The Band Room. Picture: Jake Xerxes Fussell

Moorland gig of the week: Sam Moss, The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, North York Moors, Saturday, 7.30pm

FINGERPICKING folk virtuoso guitarist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Moss heads to the North York Moors this weekend from Staunton, Virginia, USA, to showcase his February 2025 album Swimming, championed by the scribes of Uncut, No Depression and Paste and Los Angeles online magazine Aquarium Drunkward, no less. “For the record, he is a renowned woodworker too, particularly celebrated for his incredible spoons,” says Band Room promoter Nigel Burnham. Sofa Sofa support (as sofas always do!). Box office: 01751 432900 or thebandroom.co.uk.

Drag diva Velma Celli lights up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor

Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, Saturday, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm

MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.

The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.

Posted on

Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 15, 7.30pm

Eddi Reader

EDDI Reader will play her first York show in seven years tonight, accompanied by her full band at The Citadel, the old Salvation Army building in Gillygate, now home to the York City Church.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” says the Glasgow-born singer, who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, and has a dozen solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.

“I’m excited to be playing there. I’m lucky enough to have audiences that keep turning up, and new ones turning up too. My journey has been really blessed, with lots of songs over the years, and my songwriting broadening. ”

Eddi’s Scottish folk band Fairground Attraction famously broke up after only one studio album, The First Of A Million Kisses, a year after winning the BRIT Awards for best album and single in 1989 to pursue solo careers.

That split came in January 1990 in the throes of recording their second album that instead took the form of B-sides and unreleased songs from ‘Million Kisses’ sessions on Ay Fond Kiss in June that year. Roll on to 2024 when, in the shadow of band member Mark E Nevin’s wife, Louise, having a life-threatening health issue, the group re-grouped.

“There was no pressure getting back together,” says Eddi. “We got together for only 14 days to try to get an album out, and we succeeded. I noted how things came back, like control issues that had been poisonous 35 years ago and were still there, but also how my experiences had expanded. When I thought ‘that’s not how you do it’, I sensed how diplomatic you have to be. I had to unlearn a lot of stuff.

“I think you have to accept a lot of things are just the way they are, and it’s OK to accept it, to forgive it and move on. My expectations are always very high, expecting it to be a family, but you can’t expect everyone to be a long-lost buddy, with me being the one who wants it to be happy ever after.

“It wasn’t as easy as it might have been, but I realised that with bands, you get together with another human being and you try to create something, and when you do, it’s lovely. People think it must be easy but it isn’t. You know that the love is there but you don’t know how to reach it, so all you can do is pour love on it.”

The album, Beautiful Happening, duly arrived on September 27 2024, coincidentally the day when Louise was given the all clear, making the title even more resonant.

Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, Eddi took on another role in 2023 when making her London theatre debut at @sohoplace, Charing Cross Road.

Headhunted by director Jonathan Butterell, she played the Balladeer for five months in a stage adaptation of Annie Proulx short story Brokeback Mountain, singing the folk and American songs of The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells. Among those who attended were her fellow members of Fairground Attraction.

“I really, really enjoyed the experience, providing me with an acting role as a woman from the Mid West, leading a band,” says Eddi, who told one interview [by Caitlin Devlin, June 14 2023] that “in my head it’s Wyoming 1968”.

“I got some voice coaching for the role, had to play guitar as well as sing, and at the end I had to come on and play the dead young man’s mother.”

Eddi had previous acting experience, both on stage and screen. “I’d done a bit of that before, and I’ve always enjoyed playing a character, like in The Trick Is To Keep Breathing [as a psychic voice] at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow [in 1993]. The biggest was the John Byrne one, Your Cheatin’ Heart, playing Joleen Jowett [opposite Tilda Swinton’s Cissie Crouch in a six-part BBC mini-series about the Scottish country music scene in 1990].”

Whether re-forming Fairground Attraction last year, appearing in Brokeback Mountain, making solo records or never going on stage with a set list, authenticity drives Eddi. “It sounds like a cliché, but I don’t see any other way to do it. All alternatives are painful, because if you’re not true to yourself, you’re not authentic” she says.

“I’m just getting the dishes done, making the bed, but I did have a number one and I still enjoy singing it. I’m very grateful that it opened doors for me.”

Never under-estimate a singer’s skill. “It’s a mistake that people make when they say ‘just a singer’, because sometimes the singer hears things in music that not even the writer knows are there, so it’s like being the Columbo of music! Finding the feeling can make a song much more potent sung by a woman when written by a man!” says Eddi.

“You have to find the character in the melody as well as the lyrics; that gives the extra help to get the emotion across – and that’s different from acting, though I do see similarities.”

Eddi continues: “I’ll hear something that everyone else thinks is an old baggy hat on a coat stand, but I’m thinking, no, look at it, imagine making something with that. I see the movie!

“Like the Robert Burns songs I do. I saw him as being like a songwriter in his mid-twenties now; something of the young David Bowie about him, or Johnny Rotten or Tom Waits; there’s just something more of now about the songs, but being of then, so that didn’t matter because I could feel my way into Rabbie Burns’ words.”

Now 66, Eddi has “never felt unequal to any musician, male or female”. “I’ve never had a challenge in that way,” she says. “I’ve never noticed anyone getting in the way. I just plough my own furrow; I just do my own thing. I’m not difficult! I’m looking for jewels in the junk shop.”

What’s coming next from Eddi? “Me and John [husband John Douglas] are doing a little duo thing that we’re getting together at the moment,” she says. “We haven’t recorded it yet. We’ve got one song written so far. Eleven to go!”

Eddi Reader plays The Citadel, Gillygate, York, tonight, 7.30pm, with Alan Kelly, John Douglas, Boo Hewerdine and Kevin MacGuire, supported by Eilidh Patterson. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Posted on

When Irishman Damien O’Kane meets Californian Ron Block, banjo magic happens at National Centre for Early Music

Damien O’Kane, left, and Ron Block, with their contrasting banjos

THE humble banjo is often maligned…until placed in the whirling hands of Northern Irishman Damien O’Kane and Californian Ron Block, whose banjo bromance blooms anew on third album Banjovial and its accompanying tour.

The 14-date itinerary opened in Barnsley last Friday and arrives at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on Wednesday (15/10/2025).

Seven years on from their Banjophany debut album, followed by 2022’s Banjophonics,  Coleraine-born, Barnsley-based O’Kane picks up his Irish tenor banjo once more to recharge his telepathic transatlantic connectivity with Gardena-born Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo on Banjovial’s ten new tunes and two original songs, supplemented by guest contributions from Irish button accordionist Sharon Shannon and American bluegrass fiddlers Aubrey Haynie and Tim Crouch.

Percussive and punchy, ebullient and life-affirming, their banjo union revels in light and shade and tempo shifts from fast, cracking fireworks to more reflective flowing timbres and tunes.

“It would have been in 2012 when we first performed together,” says Damien, as he looks forward to returning to the NCEM – “a gorgeous little place”  – for the first time in more than a decade.

“I first met Ron in 2011 as he’s involved in a bluegrass summer school called Sore Fingers at Kingham High School [in the Cotswolds], where Kate’s brother Joe works every year on the sound for the concerts.” Kate being Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby, Damien’s wife since 2010.

“Ron invited us to see him playing with Alison Krauss & Union Station [his regular beat] and invited us backstage, and that was our first meeting.”

Block duly played on two songs on Rusby’s album 20, joining Eddi Reader and Dick Gaughan on Wandering Soul and Reader, Jerry Douglas and Philip Selway on Sho Heen. “Kate then asked Ron to play on the 20 tour , so it all went uphill from there!” says Damien.

The cover artwork for Damien O’Kane and Ron Block’s third album, Banjovial, released on Cooking Vinyl on October 3

Their partnership brings out the best in each other’s banjos. “The most notable difference is that the five-string banjo is bigger with more frets and those five strings, and Ron plays with two picks on his fingers and one on his thumb, so his style is very much fingerstyle, very ‘arpeggioed’, whereas the Irish tenor banjo is plectrum style,” says Damien.

“Over the years we’ve both tried in our playing to give a nod to the other style, so I’ll do a lot of cross-picking on the Irish tenor banjo.

“It makes for really interesting tunes with two completely different banjo sounds. The five-string strings are lighter, so there’s a brighter sound, whereas I like the mellow sound of the Irish tenor banjo that doesn’t ‘punch you in the face’!”

Damien has always been a fan of duel banjo playing. “I grew up listening to and playing Irish traditional music, watching music sessions from The Corner House on Irish TV [on Geantrai on TG4], when Cathal Hayden and Brian McGrath would play tunes together, just two banjos,” he says.

“I was about nine years old, and I remember it being one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard. It was like a banjo epiphany.”

O’Kane and Block first toured together on their own, but now perform with a band featuring Steven Byrnes on guitar and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog, both from Rusby’s band.

“It’s fascinating to do because I don’t really get to play much banjo on Kate’s tours, which is my main focus through the year, primarily playing guitar, and yet the banjo was my main instrument long before guitar, so to be able to record and play tunes with Ron is a real chance to push each other’s musicianship,” says Damien.

The Damien O’Kane and Ron Black Band, featuring Steven Byrnes and Duncan Lyall

“I remember thinking with the first album, ‘oh my god, I’m playing with Ron Block, I have to bring my A-game’.”

 He still does, this time in tandem with Block on tunes “triggered by comedic events, family and friends, CS Lewis’s The Chronicles Of Narnia’, heart-stopping moments, beloved animals, the craziness of Covid and even cartoon themes,  swinging from the humorous to the heartfelt”.

“We record everything live for the albums, as playing live give it an extra spark,” says Damien. “I think the new album is definitely our best, probably in a few senses, one of them being that we really learned how to lock on to each other’s playing.

“There’s a running joke we have that I’m always ahead and Ron is always behind, which adds to the excitement, as we’re not about making perfect music.

“This album is more mature. I’m not taking anything away from the other two but we’ve learned so much from each other and from the band. We’re tight-knit now, knowing each other’s strengths – and weaknesses too!”

It was Ron Block, by the way, who came up with the Banjovial album title. “We wanted to keep that title theme going, and I thought, ‘that’s the one’, as it sums up what we do, when people tend to be scared of one banjo, let alone two, but not us!”

Damien and Kate had first met Banjovial guest contributor Sharon Shannon when they were gigging at Monroe’s Live in Galway, where Sharon lives. “We were playing upstairs and she was playing a session downstairs; she came up to listen to the last half of Kate’s set and we went out for a couple of drinks afterwards,” he recalls.

Galway button accordionist Sharon Shannon: Played on Damien’s tune St Patrick’s Day on Banjovial

“That’s when I asked if she’d like to play on the album, and she said, ‘oh, absolutely’, which was a pinch-me moment, as I’d listened to her albums since childhood. She’s a sweetheart too.

“We sent her the track [Damien’s St Patrick’s Day], she recorded it in Galway, and that was that!”

Likewise, Damien and Ron sent the track Mario Kart Rides Again to bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player Aubrey Haynie. “I’d never come across him before but Ron said, ‘we’ve got to get him on an album some time because he’s amazing’,” says Damien.

“All the car sound effects on there, the car screeching, the police car, Aubrey did them all on his fiddle. He’s incredible.”

On the road from October 10 to 26, Damien will be on driving duty. “Ron stays in the passenger seat. He did drive us once over here, and I told him he’d never do that again!” he says.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band’s Banjovial Tour plays National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow (15/10/2025), 7.30pm, and Otley Courthouse, October 24, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk; Otley, 01943 467466 or otleycourthouse.org.uk.

Damien O’Kane’s guitars and banjo will be in the band for Kate Rusby’s Christmas Is Merry concert at York Barbican on December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Posted on

REVIEW: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York *** 1/2

Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. All pictures: Ryan Healey

THIS is Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ biggest show – by far.  Company founder and director Matthew Peter Clare has assembled five leads, an ensemble of seven and a choir of 23; numbers to match the grandeur of Notre Dame cathedral.

Alas ticket booking has not been of a matching scale: last Thursday’s first night and Sunday’s two shows were pulled, and maybe Black Sheep are unfortunate to be playing against the irresistible tidal wave of SIX The Musical’s sold-out return to the Grand Opera House this week.

Or, sometimes, who knows why, a show just does not light a flame at the box office, but in the case of ‘Hunchback’, that is baffling. Both Victor Hugo’s 1831 source novel and Disney’s animated 1996 film are ever popular, and the stage show is all the better for adding more Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz songs and for being closer in tone to the book.

Imagine a show more aligned to the dramatic heft and impassioned song of another French tale, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Miserables, et voila, ‘Hunchback’.

The people of Paris taunting Jack James Fry’s Quasimodo in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

“Our mission has been art with a point,” says Clare, who relocated Black Sheep to York in 2022 from Lancashire beginnings. “Art that matters and art that connects with the human experience, in its glories or its pain.”

In those words in his programme note, you can hear his zeal for making theatre that “speaks to the heart of everyone watching” and see why he wanted to present ‘Hunchback’ as his next big challenge, one that could not be more topically timed in light of the rising intolerance of immigrants and “otherness”.

Clare’s resulting choral production is not only his largest but his most ambitious too, hence the big cast that must be accommodated on the JoRo stage, making their entry, heads covered, in cloaks, mysterious and full of foreboding.

Like a church building, he has kept much of the stage bare, save for scaffolding that provides a mezzanine level for the cathedral bell tower and a row of church pews to either side below.

Robbie Wallwork’s Captain Phoebus in an ensemble number in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

The choir either stands behind them or beneath the scaffolding, in view but always rather distant, to the extent that it is not always clear who is singing when it is a solo voice.

Furthermore, on press night, that individual singing could not always be heard, although one should make allowance for technical tweaks to remedy what is a difficult sound balance with so many players on the fringes of the stage.

I stress, however, that there was no deficiency in commitment, and the presence of a choir adds a new element to Black Sheep. Hopefully, their impact can be at full throttle for the rest of the run in Ollie Nash’s sound design.

Clare is an audaciously talented musical director, and here he leads his 13-strong band through the intricacies of Menken’s score with elan. Every gorgeous note, every soaring climax, breathes with passion and the highly technical playing is beautifully balanced, heart-felt, dynamic, moving.     

At the double: Jack James Fry as Quasimodo and Dan Poppitt as the Voice of Quasimodo, a five-star partnership at the heart of Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ show

The big talking point, the big selling point too, is the role of Quasimodo, here impeded more by loss of hearing from all that bell ringing than his bodily disfigurement that does not rob him of his extraordinary physical strength. He is isolated by his powers to communicate being so denuded.

Quasimodo is played by two actors; one, the deaf Jack James Fry, being his physical embodiment, utilising British Sign Language that has sound and fury, but huge human heart too, signifying everything as Quasimodo craves understanding and acceptance.  He can sure swing a bell rope too.

The other, Dan Poppitt, is Quasimodo’s voice, interpreting the sign language in speech and song by Fry’s side. Poppitt has been a rising light on the York stage as Tunny in Green Day’s American Idiot, Alonso in The Tempest and Roger in Rent. Now he rises higher still, whether mirroring Fry’s movements or in the show’s most powerful, dramatic singing.  What a magnetic, heartbreaking partnership he and Fry make.

Quasimodo’s fellow “outsider”, the gypsy dancer Esmerelda, is played with fearless fervour by Filipino-born Ayana Beatrice Poblete, while Emily Pratt’s Florika has the show’s outstanding female voice, classically pure in tone.

Jack James Fry’s Quasimodo and Emily Pratt’s Florika

Robbie Wallwork’s Captain Phoebus, caught between the romantic heroic figure of the Disney film and the flash vainglorious womaniser of Hugo’s novel, favours the former but his performance could be more assertive.

James Robert Ball, ever nimble, quick, light as a Malteser, recalls his Puck in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in May, taking the narrator’s role as Clopin Trouillefou, jester, Romani leader and Festival of Fools master of ceremonies, but this time beneath the mischief-making front lies a darker soul, saddened by experience, closer to Cabaret’s Emcee.

Clare plays the joker in casting Jack Hooper as the turbulent Judge Claude Frollo, the embittered Minister of Justice and guardian of Quasimodo.

From such roles as bubbly Mr Poppy in Nativity and the profusely sweaty cop Eddie Souther in Sister Act, we know of his comic prowess, but now he switches to the dark side in a transition to rival Alan Carr’s treachery in Celebrity Traitors. Hell fire, villainy suits him in his buttoned-up, suppressive air, the balloon popper of the piece, topped off by his raging version of Hellfire.

Darkness descends: Jack Hooper’s volte face into villainy as Judge Claude Frollo

In a further directorial decision that pays off, the full “carcase” of the stage is left exposed, and so we can see the flymen, Jon Drewry and Georgia Legg, in action on the ropes, pulling both a stained glass window and three bells of Notre Dame into view, matching Quasimodo’s own rope work.

Adam Kirkwood’s lighting design works best in scenes of close-up focus but less so for the choir, lost in the shadows. Charlie Clarke’s choreography, however  draws the production forward to fill the stage with life in big numbers, as if in defiance of Frollo.

Take a hunch by ignoring the disappointing box office so far and booking to see the Hunchback, especially for Fry & Poppitt.

Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

James Robert Ball’s Clopin Trouillefou and Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda at the Court of Miracles in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Posted on

Badapple Theatre Company’s study of celebrity comes with live baking in Crumbs

Ellen Carnazza’s Petronella Parfait mid-sprinkle in Badapple Theatre Company’s new baking comedy Crumbs

THE long-awaited sequel to Badapple Theatre Company’s groundbreaking “live baking” hit comedy is on tour until October 26 and heading to York Theatre Royal next May.

Crumbs, a one-woman show starring Harrogate actress Ellen Carnazza from the pen of Green Hammerton writer-director Kate Bramley, features baking on stage for the audience to taste, as the story of former TV baking show host Petronella Parfait unfolds.

After being “let go” from a high-profile TV show under dubious circumstances, Petronella is trying to re-style herself within the fast-paced and cut-throat world of influencers and social-media millionaires.

“It’s always fun to create a villain as a lead character,” says Kate. “Especially one who then bakes bread live on stage. We’re very lucky to have the brilliant talent of Ellen in the starring role, and she has proven to be an audience favourite already.”

Follow Petronella Parfait’s slips and trips as she tries to keep the lights – as well as the oven – on in the face of almost certain doom.

Combining comedy, song, original music and bread, Crumbs is touring Yorkshire, Northumberland, the South-West and the Midlands in Badapple’s 27th year of delivering original works “on your doorstep”, placing theatre at the heart of rural community life.

Badapple Theatre Company artistic director and writer Kate Bramley

Here Kate picks up the Crumbs story in discussion with CharlesHutchPress.

What gave you the idea for this show, Kate? The popularity of TV baking/cookery shows? Controversies surrounding presenters? The bread-like rise of influencers?

“So it’s a companion play to Daily Bread that I wrote ten years ago about the financial crash. And yes, the recent controversy about TV hosts and the power of influencers has fed into the story of this character.

“But one of the inspiration points was the court case where four female BBC presenters (Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera) claimed they were discriminated against, based on sex and age, when they lost their senior roles at the BBC in 2023 as part of a channel re-launch. 

“This play isn’t about that event, but it did get me thinking about having a female heroine character, who ironically turns out to be a villain in this piece!” 

How would you sum up Crumbs?

 “It’s a study of celebrity, especially those like our heroine who have a flexible relationship with the truth…and how food – and the stories we tell while making it – have a universal language, just like laughter, that brings everyone together.”

Ellen Carnazza? With that surname, she should be an Italian bread! Why did you pick her for the role of Petronella Parfait?

“Ellen is a legend. She’s from Leeds originally, now in Harrogate, who first came to us for The Frozen Roman about four years ago and she’s so talented.

“Her skill with accents, her physicality, clowning techniques and all-round sunny personality have all come into play.

“And thankfully when I told her she had to make bread as well as everything else she wasn’t too scared!”

Ellen Carnazza’s Petronella Parfait kneading the dough in Crumbs

What are the challenges of a solo show, as opposed to your productions with bigger casts? 

“It’s a real challenge for Ellen, no doubt. So what we’ve done to support her is make sure she gets all the tech and tricks, and a beautiful Badapple full set – from AJ Lowe – that our audience have come to expect.

“I really have pushed the boundaries of what one performer can physically achieve as a storyteller…but our audiences have responded amazingly, so I guess we are doing something right!”

Do you bake bread yourself?

“I do. In fact during Covid I bought flour by the sack and kept making it with my son.”

Is there a crumb of comfort to be drawn from Crumbs?!

“I hope so. As you know, we are all about spreading joy to our audiences, and this is one of our most joyous pieces to date. As a contrast to the times we are living in I guess.

“And you get to have a laugh and get free bread, baked by Ellen during the show, so what’s not to like about that?” 

Crumbs plays Green Hammerton Village Hall, near York, on October 14, 7.30pm, sold out ; box office for returns only, 01423 331304.

Further Yorkshire shows will be at Kilham Village Hall, near Bridlington, October 25, 7pm (tickets, 07354 301119) and The Old Girls’ School Community Centre, Sherburn in Elmet, October 26 (tickets, 01977 685178). The show dates for next May at York Theatre Royal are yet to be announced.

Posted on

York classical pianist Sarah Beth Briggs to release Small Treasures album on October 24 and play Huddersfield Music Society concert at St Paul’s Hall on December 1

Sarah Beth Briggs: New album celebrates the notion that small is beautiful. Picture: Marci Stuchlikova

YORK international concert pianist Sarah Beth Briggs is to release her new album, Small Treasures, on AVIE Records (AV2771) on October 24.

“The recording celebrates the notion that small is beautiful and great and familiar miniatures contrast with some very fine lesser-known gems,” says Sarah.

The disc is bookended with two of the greatest sets of miniatures ever written, Robert Schumann’s Woodland Scenes and Brahms’ Piano Pieces op 119, although, given how her international career was launched by winning the Mozart Competition in Salzburg, it seemed fitting for Sarah to end with a tiny, 90-second gem by Mozart – effectively providing an encore.

Along the musical journey, there are delightful miniatures by two female composers, Robert Schumann’s wife, Clara and 20th century French composer Germaine Tailleferre. (Tailleferre’s compatriot Francis Poulenc’s evocative Novelettes are included too.)

Alongside the musical treasures on the recording, the cover photo features Sarah’s own small treasure, with whom she spends as much of her free time as possible, her cocker spaniel, Animé (or Ani), pictured alongside natural small treasures in the floral form of bluebells from Yorkshire woodlands.

While two pre-release tracks are available already on Spotify, the full release will be available from October 24 on CD and via all the standard digital platforms.

Sarah Beth Briggs’s album cover artwork for Small Treasures

“There is something for everyone in this album, from the committed classical music lover to those who are just interested in giving classical music a try,” says Sarah.  “With no track lasting more than seven minutes and many hovering around two to three minutes, I really hope the variety of moods and emotions will capture the imaginations of listeners of all ages and tastes.

“Small can be beautiful and serene, fun, virtuoso or perhaps reckless and eccentric. Have a listen and let me know what appeals to you!”

Sarah’s schedule over the coming weeks takes her the length and breadth of the country, from Scotland to Surrey, but closer to home she will be performing one set of these Small Treasures (the Brahms Piano Pieces op 119) at St Paul’s Hall, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield,  on December 1 for the Huddersfield Music Society.

Her 7.30pm programme also will feature Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor, K397; Schubert’s  Sonata in A major, D664;  Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque; Hans Gál’s Three Preludes Op. 65 (1944) and Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses. Box office: huddersfield-music-society.org.uk.

For more information on Sarah, visit sarahbethbriggs.co.uk. To view Sarah’s promotional videos, head to: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOfultMjR6V/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14DFM9h6XEk for a longer introduction.

Pianist Sarah Beth Briggs at Wyastone recording studio, Monmouth, Wales. Picture: Fritz Curzon

Sarah Beth Briggs: back story

YORK classical pianist began her professional career at 11 years old. Gained early recognition as youngest finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and later won International Mozart Competition in Salzburg.

Performed as soloist with leading UK orchestras, such as Royal Philharmonic and Hallé. Appeared at prestigious venues, including London’s South Bank Centre.

Experienced educator, teaching at  University of York and offering masterclasses internationally. Her recordings, featuring works by Britten, Haydn and more, have received widespread praise.

Posted on

REVIEW: Anna Soden: It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 11

Anna Soden: No bum notes to her songs or scatalogical subject matter

I HAVE in my hand a piece of paper. Or, more precisely, a piece of loo roll, handed out by our jocund hostess for It Comes Out Your Bum, comedian and actress Anna Soden, last seen on the York stage as a talking, trumpet-tooting pantomime cow In Jack And The Beanstalk.

On the sheet, she had written “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” Not as momentous as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Peace In Our Time document, waved at Heston Aerodrome on September 30 1938: a bum deal when it turned out we were rather more than “halfway there” to the Second World War.

Anna, in party dress and party mood, swished among the tables at York Theatre Royal Studio , re-booted in Old Paint Shop livery for October’s cabaret season of comedy, burlesque and live music. She had penned a loo-roll bon-mot for each of us, a strip of positivity to be shared.

Now based in Brighton, but still bearing her York roots in her frank comedic manner, she had planned a grand entry, but in the absence of a stage curtain, there could be no element of surprise, no hiding place for the pair of buttocks, designed by York puppeteer and fellow comedian Freddie “Does Puppets” Hayes, through which Anna would announce her arrival.

What a bummer? No, she played on the absurdity of it all, having already broken down theatre’s fourth wall by explaining what should have been the ideal opening, establishing her facility for putting the cheeky into the butt cheek.

Poking her trumpet through the backside, she would soon emerge on the front side for an hour of “talking out of my ass”.  And yes, Anna, not to put too fine a word on it, did talk s**t, whether bodily functions of celebrities; stools colour; being caught short (like Paula Ratcliffe, when winning the 2005 London Marathon, she recalled).

She even imagined if we were to excrete flowers instead. Would that be poo-pourri, your reviewer ponders.

On a roll : Anna Soden’s bon-mot handed out to CharlesHutchPress

Not that Anna poo-pooed other subjects. Far from it. She turned herself into a string of sausages for five increasingly surreal minutes; she issued a tongue-deep-in-cheek apology to Andrew Lloyd Webber for dissing his musicals in her comedy videos that went viral on TikTok and YouTube.

Earlier she had made rather shorter shrift of putting down Boris Johnson with a pictorial one-liner and delivered a longer tongue-lashing to the propensity for actors from posh schools to do best, at the expense of state-school talents such as herself.

Albeit with a self-deprecating wink, she bragged of her prowess at slam poetry, duly delivering a fusillade of stream-of-conscious wham-bam-slam raps from audience suggestions. “Planes,” said  one. Planes promptly soared and crashed. Next? “Ships,” chipped in another. “No,” said Anna, sensing one mode of transport was enough. That ship had sailed.

She used the audience regularly, whether asking communal questions for hands-in-the-air answers or inviting individuals to read from her “script” for a “serious” play she was writing. Here is when the show went off-script, impromptu, unpredictable, Anna at her freest to respond how she saw fit. Using the audience, yes, but never going quite as far as abusing the assembled bums on seats.

The pace was snappy, the tone was chatty, the humour batty, peppered with bursts of satirical songs, each preceded by an exhortation for the tech desk to “Hit it”.

And hit the mark, she did. On a night of the scatological, Anna scattered logical thoughts from her playful “brain-bum” about the “been-there-done-that” universality of her subject matter; so much so, she should give herself a PooHD for her “toilet humour”. And there wasn’t a party pooper in the house.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

Posted on

Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, October 17, 7.30pm; October 18, 2pm & 7.30pm

Natnael Dawit in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou

SHOBANA Jeyasingh, one of the most dynamic and distinctive forces in UK dance, turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells.

The Bard’s tale of power lost and regained is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.  

Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story, wherein Caliban, the island’s original native inhabitant, is the enslaved, deformed “son” of the witch Sycorax.

We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay, presented by Jeyasingh as “an abstracted and impressionistic take that draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as the personal experiences of Jeyasingh and her co-dramaturg Uzma Hameed”. 

Performed by eight dancers, Jeyasingh’s bold and imaginative 80-minute new work is partnered by projections by Will Duke and music by Thierry Pécou. Lighting design is by Floriaan Ganzevoort; set and costume design by Mayou Trikerioti. 

The production is supported by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s touring engagement project, Window Into The Tempest. The company is partnering with venues, higher education institutions and dance organisations to deliver tailored participation opportunities for students, early career artists, intergenerational groups and communities to connect with and to gain insight into the creation of We Caliban. 

The York programme, Tempest Rising, is a four-day co-creation project with York St John University students, resulting in a seven-minute curtain-raiser performance before next Saturday’s 7.30pm show, featuring an original score by We Caliban composer Thierry Pécou. 

Next Friday’s performance will conclude with a post-show discussion. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 12 plus.

Posted on

More Things To Do in York and beyond monsters, ghosts, banjos and bratwurst. Hutch’s List No. 45, from The York Press

Anna Soden: No bum deal, bum steer or bum’s rush, for that would be a bummer at tonight’s hour of comedy, It Comes Out You Bum, at The Old Paint Shop

FROM royal history re-told to Dickens’ ghost stories, magical monsters to banjo brilliance, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.

Homecoming of the week: Anna Soden, It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 8pm

NOW based in Brighton but very much shaped in York, comedian, actor, writer, TikTok sensation and award-nominated Theatre Royal pantomime cow in Jack And The Beanstalk, Anna Soden delivers her debut hour of madcap comedy, full of brainwaves, songs, revenge and talking out your ass. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Robin Simpson: Monster storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame, performing at Rise@Bluebird Bakery

Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, doors 4pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.

“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Out for revenge: Henry VIII’s wives turn the tables in SIX The Musical, returning to the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith

Recommended but sold-out already: SIX The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, October 14 to 18; Tuesday & Thursday, 8pm; Wednesday & Friday, 6pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 4pm and 8pm

FROM Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. Think you know the rhyme? Think again. Divorced. Beheaded. LIVE!

Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s hit show is making its third visit to York, but it’s third time unlucky if you haven’t booked yet. Like Anne Boleyn’s head, every seat has gone.

Eddi Reader: Performing with her full band at The Citadel

Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 15, 7.30pm

EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.

Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Banjovial partnership at the NCEM

Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 15, 7.30pm

GROUNDBREAKING  banjo  players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.

O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Francis Rossi: Solo show of song and chat at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography

Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm

IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why they went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

James Swanton: Halloween beckons, so here comes his double bill of Dickens’ ghost stories at York Medical Society. Picture: Jtu Photography

Ghost stories of the week: James Swanton presents The Signal-Man, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 16, 17, 20 to 23, 7pm; October 27 and 28, 5.30pm and 7.30pm

A RED light. A black tunnel. A waving figure. A warning beyond understanding. Here comes the fear that  someone, that something, is drawing closer. Gothic York storyteller James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with The Signal-Man, “one of the most powerful ghost stories of all time and certainly the most frightening ever written by Charles Dickens”.

Swanton pairs it with The Trial For Murder, wherein Dickens treats the supernatural with just as much terrifying gravity. Tickets update: all ten performances bar October 21 have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Natnael Dawitin in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, October 17, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and October 18, 2pm and 7.30pm

SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.

Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington

As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 17, 8pm

HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.

His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. . “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Velma Celli: York drag diva lighting up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor

Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, October 18, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm

MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian Bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.

The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.

In Focus: Charlie Higson and Jim Moir: A Very Short But Epic History Of The Monarchy, York Theatre Royal, Oct 13, 7.30pm

In the frame: Author Charlie Higson and artist Jim Moir discuss royalty and comedy at York Theatre Royal on Monday

36 kings. Five queens. Two comedy legends. Join Charlie Higson and Jim Moir (alias Vic Reeves) for the rip-roaring story of every English ruler since Harold was shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings.

Higson has always been interested in the story of the fabled English monarchy: from the b*stardly to the benevolent,the brilliant to the brutal. “Far from being a nice, colourful pageant of men and women in funny hats waving to adoring crowds, it’s a story of regicide, fratricide, patricide, uxoricide and mariticide (you might have to look those last two up),” he says.

Launched for the coronation of his namesake King Charles III, Charlie’s podcast Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee takes a deep dive into the murky lives of our monarchs. Now, his new book of the show features illustrations by artist Jim Moir, his compadre in comedy.

On Monday, Charlie and Jim will first share stories from their comic collaborations over 30 years, including Shooting Stars, Randell And Hopkirk Deceased and The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer. Then they will take the plunge into the storied history of this most treasured of institutions. Bloody treachery? Check. Unruly incest? Check. Short parliaments? Check. A couple of Cromwells? Check.

Their rip-roaring journey takes in the Normans, Tudors and Stuarts, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?), tin an “utterly engrossing and grossly entertaining primer on who ruled when and why – with never-before-seen illustrations”!

A signed copy of Higson & Moir’s book Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History Of Our Kings and Queens (RRP £22) is included when purchasing Band 1 (£55) tickets, available for collection on the night. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Posted on

Courtney Brown directs Pickering Musical Society for first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein

Courtney Brown: Directing Pickering Musical Society for the first time in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography

PICKERING Musical Society opens an exciting new chapter in its history when staging My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Kirk Theatre from October 15 to 19.

For the first time, long-time member Courtney Brown takes the reins as director, while society stalwart and theatre manager Luke Arnold steps into the assistant director’s role to support and guide her in this transition.


Next week’s production marks an inspiring milestone for both the society and Courtney. After serving as assistant director for 2024’s sold-out  Wonders Of The West End, she moves centre stage creatively, shaping a production that promises to be vibrant, polished and heartfelt .

Courtney is relishing the challenge: “It has been such a joy to step into the director’s role and watch this production grow from the rehearsal room into a fully staged concert,” she says.

Poppy Coulson-Arnold, left, and Ruby Featherstone in My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography

“The cast has been incredibly supportive, and seeing everything come together – the  music, the costumes, the choreography – is just magical.

“I feel so grateful to have Luke by my side, offering his experience and encouragement. It’s a true team effort.”

Luke, who has directed many of the society’s productions, has embraced his mentoring role with enthusiasm. “Courtney has a wonderful eye for detail and a real passion for musical theatre,” he says.

“It has been a pleasure to guide her through the process and watch her flourish as a director in her own right. I’m proud of what she and the whole team are achieving. This is going to be a very special show.”

Members of the Pickering Musical Society Junior Chorus with Susan Smithson. Picture: Robert David Photography

Running for six performances, My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein will showcase the very best of Broadway’s most iconic songwriting partnership.

Audiences can expect a glittering selection of much-loved numbers, from the cheeky charm of Honey Bun and the playful fun of The Lonely Goatherd to the rousing barn-dance energy of The Farmer And The Cowman.

Alongside these highlights, the evening will feature songs from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most famous shows, including The Sound Of Music, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I and more.

The concert brings together the heart, humour and sweeping romance of the golden age of musicals, ensuring there is something for everyone — whether you know every word or are discovering these timeless songs for the very first time.

Will Smithson, left, and Jack Dobson in Pickering Musical Society’s My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography

The company of singers will be accompanied by an orchestra under the baton of Clive Wass, who has reassembled the musicians who wowed audiences at Hello, Dolly! earlier this year. 

Adding sparkle and spectacle, dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance will light up the stage with elegant and vibrant choreography. Their energy and artistry will bring a dynamic, visual flourish to the evening, complementing the glorious Rodgers & Hammerstein score.

The production will feature a minimalistic but striking set, built by the society’s dedicated Saturday morning volunteers, led by Rob Thomas. This clever design provides the perfect canvas for the music and performances to shine, while still delivering visual impact.

The society’s team of skilled technicians will transform the stage with lighting, special effects, and even a spectacular video wall, creating an immersive concert atmosphere.

Verity Roffe in Pickering Musical Society’s My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Picture: Robert David Photography

Courtney reflects on the rehearsals: “The first time we put costumes, lights, and music together, everything suddenly came alive,” she says. “It felt like we’d stepped into the Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals themselves. That’s the moment I realised how special this production is going to be.”


Luke adds: “Our society has always been about giving people opportunities, whether it’s new performers on stage, new musicians in the pit, or new directors stepping forward. Seeing Courtney grow into this role has been a privilege, and I know audiences are going to be amazed by what she and the whole team have achieved.”

Pickering Musical Society presents My Favourite Things – The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, October 15 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

Tickets update: selling fast. Box office: 01751 474833, kirktheatre.co.uk or in person at Kirk Theatre box office (Tuesdays, 11am to 1pm).