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York gig of the week: Andy Bell, Ten Crowns Tour, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

Andy Bell: Showcasing new album Ten Crowns at York Barbican tonight. Picture: Sean Black

ERASURE singer Andy Bell opens his tour at York Barbican tonight on the eve of Friday’s release of his third solo album.

Comprising ten tracks of dazzling, joyous pop, produced and polished in Nashville, inspired by the dancefloor and gospel, Ten Crowns will be available on vinyl (white, oxblood, and picture disc), CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings.

The track listing is: Breaking Thru The Interstellar; Lies So Deep featuring Sarah Potenza; Heart’s A Liar featuring Debbie Harry; For Today; Dance For Mercy; Don’t Cha Know; Dawn Of Heavens Gate; Godspell; Put Your Empathy On Ice and Thank You.

Bell unites with his ultimate pop heroine, Debbie Harry, for the wistful Heart’s A Liar, having first sang about the Blondie icon in DHDQ – short for “Debbie Harry Drag Queen” on his June 2010 album Non-Stop. “To have Debbie Harry singing with me – you know, I still can’t quite believe it,” he says.

The song is Bell’s re-write of a track by English-Italian singer-songwriter and regular Dave Audé collaborator Luciana that Bell imagines being about two lovers who are no good for each other.

“Debbie gives it this gravitas and this coquettishness, but she’s still very in command. And she recorded her vocals in the studio on Gay Pride, which I thought when I heard it, ‘oh, trust her’!”

The latest single, Lies So Deep, brings together Bell and The Voice finalist Sarah Potenza for an ode to Whitney Houston. “It’s a futuristic love song about a time where everybody is allowed the freedom to love whoever they want without interference,” he says. “Sarah adds the stunning diva counterpart which tips the song into soul overdrive!”

Bell will be on the road from tonight to May 19, performing a set that will combine new compositions with favourites from his solo catalogue and Erasure hits aplenty. His band features his principal Ten Crowns collaborator and co-writer, Grammy-winning American producer, re-mixer and DJ Dave Audé, who opens tonight’s show with a DJ set. 

The album cover artwork for Andy Bell’s Ten Crowns

Bell and close friend Audé collaborated previously on two American dance chart number ones, 2014’s Aftermath (Here We Go) and 2016’s True Original. “We just  kind of carried on writing as an exercise, and after that, Dave moved his family to Nashville because LA [Los Angeles] was so expensive, and so our writing took this kind of gospel-tinged Nashville twist,” says Andy.

Nashville struck him for having a church on every corner. “It reminded me of singing in choirs and cathedral school as a child, where the spirit of the church is imbued in the music,” he says.

Not that Ten Crowns is a sombre, spiritual set, instead being propulsive, electronic, passionate and driven by the need to encounter new emotions and experiences as life races on. 

“I mean, I’ve got everything I could possibly wish for, you know, I really have, but that’s not to say I’m always fulfilled,” says Andy. “This album’s about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, embracing life – and about taking that feeling on even when you’re fighting demons in the world, like homophobia, and fighting demons in yourself. It’s about being celebratory and uplifting.”

Travelling into new dimensions and possibilities with gospel in the heart and dancing in the soul, Ten Crowns’ release excites Bell. “It’s my third (sort of) solo record [following 2005’s Electric Blue and 2010’s Non-Stop] and in Erasure, our third album [1988’s The Innocents] was our most successful out of all that we’ve done, so I’m taking that spirit with me!”

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of Bell teaming up with Vince Clarke in Erasure. Good news, the duo has begun work on a new album.

Tickets are still available for tonight’s gig at yorkbarbican.co.uk. Look out for Paul Rhodes’s review for charleshutchpress.co.uk.

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Re-meet Mark Holgate and Suzy Cooper, the fairy king and queen of York Stage’s ‘Dream’ as Shakespeare goes Shameless

Suzy Cooper’s Hippolyta in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

GARY Oldman will not be the only former Berwick Kaler co-star returning to a York stage in 2025.

Suzy Cooper, for more than 20 years the ditzy, posh-voiced, jolly super principal gal in the grand dame’s pantomimes, will lead Nik Briggs’s cast alongside York-born actor Mark Holgate in the dual roles of courtly Hippolyta and Theseus and the quarrelling Queen and King of the Fairies, Titania and Oberon, in York Stage’s reinvention of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from May 6 to 11.

In his tenth anniversary of producing and directing shows at the Grand Opera House, Briggs relocates his debut Shakespeare production from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s path still does not run smooth, set to a Nineties and Noughties’ dancefloor soundtrack of Freed From Desire, No Limits, Show Me Love, Everytime We Touch et al as Shakespeare meets Shameless.

Presented as York Stage’s first co-production with the Cumberland Street theatre, Briggs’s ‘Dream’ will feature a new score by musical director Stephen Hackshaw. “Whilst not being a musical, the show will include a live band alongside powerhouse vocals that York Stage are famous for with their musical production,” says Nik.

Mark Holgate and Suzy Cooper in rehearsal for York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Suzy last trod the Grand Opera House boards in dowager dame Berwick Kaler’s valedictory pantomime after 47 years on the York stage in Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse, the final curtain falling on January 6 2024.

“It will be lovely to be back in York, performing at the Grand Opera House again,” says Suzy. ““I’ve not worked with Mark before, but he did the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre season in York the same summer that I did it at Blenheim, when we brushed shoulders in that amazing tent when we gathered for the start of the second summer. It’s going to be a lot of fun working with him.

“For ‘Dream’, the lovely Nik rang me and said, ‘it’s a very unusual thing we’re doing, a co-production with the Grand Opera House, and would you like to play Hippolyta?’. I didn’t  need to think about, and not to have to audition was music to my ears!”

Mark’s career has taken in the Royal Shakespeare Company, Cheek By Jowl, Sheffield Crucible and theatres across the UK, as well as such roles as Banquo in Macbeth and Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre seasons in 2018 and 2019 in his home city.

Forest fireworks: Mark Holgate’s Theseus in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

He last performed on a York stage in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s staged  reading of Maryland, Lucy Kirkwood’s “howl” of a protest play, directed by Bridget Foreman at the Friargate Theatre in November 2021.

Mark’s participation in York Stage’s ‘Dream’ was “actually all down to my Dad”. “He has always been a great support of my acting career,” he says. “He read an article in The Press and sent it over to me, about York Stage putting on ‘Dream’ and that they were holding auditions. I dropped Nik a line, came to York Stage to meet him and that was that.” 

Reflecting on the contrast between his past Shakespeare experiences, including Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, and now with York Stage, Mark says: “The main difference is the rehearsal schedule. A lot of the cast have 9-5s and so rehearsals have worked around people’s availability. Whereas I would rehearse for three or four weeks consecutively, with this production you could have a gap of two weeks before being back in the room again.

“So you really have to be on your game at keeping track of everything you’ve discovered and set in rehearsal. Working in this way is completely new to me. It definitely keeps it fresh and exciting.”

Suzy Cooper: “Making decisions organically about how we’ll play Hippolyta’s relationship with Theseus”

Suzy adds: “Mark and I have had around five days’ rehearsals, which though it sounds really scary, as you’d normally do three weeks, but actually they’re intense days, so I just have to keep calm and carry on!

“We’re still undecided, right up to the last minute, making decisions organically about how we’ll play Hippolyta’s relationship with Theseus, where she’s been won as a prize, but maybe she’s not unhappy about that. Wait and see!

“It’s trickier than Titania, and you know me, I need to get my [acting] shoes on to get my feet rooted in a role.”

What are the challenges of playing two roles, Theseus and Oberon, in one play, Mark? “Remembering who I am playing in each scene. Only joking! Theseus is quite tricky as, once you’ve seen him in the first scene, he doesn’t appear again right till the end. Keeping hold of his journey after playing Oberon in between will be the challenge.

Mark Holgate’s Theseus and Suzy Cooper’s Hippolyta, centre, with Sam Roberts’s Demetrius, left, Amy Domeneghetti’s Helena, Will Parsons’ Lysander and Meg Olssen’s Hermia in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“I’m really looking forward to taking them on to the Grand Opera House stage. Both of my daughters have performed there but I never have. They beat me to it.”

York Stage’s ‘Dream’ calls on Mark to do a double act at the double with Suzy Cooper’s Hippolyta and Titania. “Suzy and I have never worked together but we have crossed paths. On the first day of rehearsal I was a bit nervous as usual on the first day. Like the first day of school. Then Suzy entered the room, I walked over and gave her a hug and all my nervous energy disappeared.

“She has been an absolute joy to work with and I really look forward to sharing the Grand Opera House stage with her.” 

Both Suzy and Mark have “previous” form for appearing in Shakespeare’s most performed comedy. “I’ve never played Titania before, but I did play the fairy, Mustardseed, and Snout the Tinker in Lucy Pitman-Wallace’s production at York Theatre Royal, with Malcom Skates as Bottom and Andrina Carroll as Titania, and then Peter Quince in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s production at Blenheim Palace in 2019, the summer when I also played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth,” says Suzy.

“Suzy has been an absolute joy to work with and I really look forward to sharing the Grand Opera House stage with her,” says Mark Holgate

“Those nights doing ‘Dream’ were so joyful, when director Juliet Forster said ‘just trust in what you do’, but Nik’s show is a very different ‘Dream to any I’ve seen or done before, with Nik’s wonderful design and working with a composer. It’s the youngest, most exciting version I’ve experienced. I’m seeing out my history in the play with these new actors.”

Mark was  part of Juliet Forster’s cast for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre production of ‘Dream’ at the Eye of York in 2018. “The audience just love it,” he says, exploring the 1595 play’s abiding  popularity. “Apart from theatre being a great form of escapism, the play itself is such a fantastic piece. It has great characters, it’s funny, dramatic, poetic, and in this production the songs, movement and storytelling from a superb ensemble will really blow your socks off.

“I hope people come to see it because it will be so different to the idea of Shakespeare that you have in your head. It will be a lot of fun. It’s on for only one week, so get those tickets booked.”

York Stage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees . Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Dream casting: York Stage’s poster artwork for Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate’s participation in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Question: Can a group of strangers successfully stage a Shakespearean play in a day? Find out at Theatre@41 tomorrow

 

The artwork for Shakespeare’s Speakeasy at York International Shakespeare Festival

“IT’S Shakespeare, but it’s secret”. Can a group of strangers successfully stage a Shakespearean play in a day? 

Shakespeare’s Speakeasy is the place find out as part of York International Shakespeare Festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm (box office, yorkshakes.co.uk).

Directed and produced by Steve Arran, for one night only this production offers an irreverent and entertaining take on one of Bill the Bard’s best-known plays, crammed into only 60 minutes.

“Five  actors are given a script with their lines and cues and must learn it over the course of a month without ever meeting each other,” says Steve. “On the day of performance, the actors meet for the first time and rehearse for six hours before staging a 100 per cent ‘not-all-serious play’ from the canon. 

“But which play will it be? Well, like all good Speakeasy shows, that’s a secret. The only way to find out is to come inside.” 

Like last year’s inaugural York Shakespeare Speakeasy, when he played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, one of the actors will be Ian Giles, soon to reveal his Bottom in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Grand Opera House, York, from May 6 to 11 (box office, atgtickets.com/york).

Ian Giles’s Bottom in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set on a northern council estate

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 18, from Gazette & Herald

Climb every mountain: Rebecca Jackson in the role of Maria in Steve Tearle’s production of The Sound Of Music for NE Theatre York

THE spring weather may be perking up, but Charles Hutchinson still finds reasons aplenty to stay in the dark for cultural satisfaction.

York musical of the week: NE Theatre York in The Sound Of Music, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

IN its centenary year, members of Strensall Women’s Institute have accepted NE Theatre York creative director Steve Tearle’s invitation to play the abbey nuns in this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

The show brings back special memories for Tearle, who played Kurt Von Trapp at the age of 11 in a professional tour in his first role in any show. This time he plays his favourite part, Max Detweiler. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Cracking the whip: Carrie Hope Fletcher’s Calamity Jane in Calamity Jane, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Senior

Whip-cracking touring musical of the week: Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

WEST End leading lady Carrie Hope Fletcher takes the title role of fearless, gun-slinging Calamity Jane, the biggest mouth in Dakota territory and always up for a fight, in North Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster’s touring production, based on the cherished 1953 Doris Day movie.

When the men of Deadwood fall hard for Chicago stage star Adelaid Adams, Calamity struggles to keep her jealousy holstered. Here come The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), The Black Hills Of Dakota, Just Blew In From The Windy City and Secret Love in this Watermill Theatre production, choreographed by Nick Winston.  Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Got it taped: Gary Oldman with the reel-to-reel tape machine in Krapp’s Last Tape at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Gisele Schmidt

York theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, until May 17

OSCAR winner Gary Oldman returns to York Theatre Royal, where he made his professional debut in 1979, to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since 1989.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Tickets update: check availability of returns on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Andy Bell: New songs, solo favourites and Erasure hits at York Barbican tonight

York gig of the week: Andy Bell, Ten Crowns Tour, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

ERASURE singer Andy Bell opens his tour at York Barbican on the eve of Friday’s release of his third solo album, Ten Crowns, ten tracks of  dazzling, joyous pop, produced and polished in Nashville, inspired by the dancefloor and gospel, available on vinyl, CD (standard and 2CD versions), gold cassette and digitally via Crown Recordings.

Bell’s set combines new compositions with favourites from his solo catalogue and Erasure hits aplenty. His band features his principal Ten Crowns collaborator and co-writer, Grammy-winning American producer Dave Audé, who opens tomorrow’s show with a DJ set. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Guitar Legends: Terrific riffs galore at Milton Rooms, Malton

Tribute show of the week: Guitar Legends, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm,

GUITAR Legends celebrates the music of iconic guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Prince, Gary Moore, Mark Knopfler and Jimi Hendrix.

Through a blend of live music, visuals and anecdotes, the show takes a journey through rock history, showcasing tenor vocal prowess and guitar virtuosity. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Learlike: Greensleeved tell Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear from the distaff side at York International Shakespeare Festival

Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival presents Greensleeved in Learlike, York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, Saturday, 2pm

GREENSLEEVED, a female-led pan-European ensemble, premiere their show Learlike in York, presenting Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear but this time told by his daughters. These tyrant-children are newly in power but old in their ability for manipulation and deceit. Or are they? Even in the most corrupt homes the roots of resistance grow deep.

Greensleeved comprises performers who met at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: Amber Frances (Belgium), Ariela Nazar-Rosen (Poland/USA), Lucy Doig (Scotland), Julia Vredenberg (Norway) and Cecilia Thoden van Velzen (Netherlands). For the full programme to May 4 and tickets, head to: yorkshakes.co.uk.

Rob Auton: Any eyeful tower of ocular comedy at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall

The eyes have it:  Rob Auton: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Saturday, 7.30pm

“THE Eyes Open And Shut Show is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says surrealist Barmby Moor/York comedian, writer, artist, podcaster and actor Rob Auton. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut…thinking about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.” Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Scouting For Girls: Heading for York and Leeds in 2026

Gig announcement of the week: Scouting For Girls, York Barbican, March 17 and Leeds O2 Academy, March 24 2026

LONDON trio Scouting For Girls will accompany the 2026 release of a new studio album with a 22-date tour that takes in York Barbican and Leeds O2 Academy next March. General ticket sales open at 10am on Friday  at yorkbarbican.co.uk and academymusicgroup.com.

Roy Stride, vocals, piano and guitar, Greg Churchouse, bass guitar, and James Rowlands, drums, last payed York Barbican in October 2021. Next year’s shows will mark the 15th anniversary of their Everybody Wants To Be On TV album too.

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The James Brown Experience to get up offa that thing at York Barbican. Also making it funky in Harrogate and Bradford in October

Guy Kelton Jones: Fronting The James Brown Experience in York, Harrogate and Bradford

THE James Brown Family Foundation is teaming up with The James Brown Experience for a 12-date autumn tour that will visit York Barbican on October 1, Royal Hall, Harrogate, on October 3 and St George’s Hall, Bradford, on October 9.

Promoted by Cuffe & Taylor, this immersive concert experience “goes beyond imitation” to bring to life the songs, dance grooves and back story of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. Tickets are on sale at CuffeandTaylor.com; yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/the-james-brown-experience/; harrogatetheatre.co.uk or 01423 502116 and bradford-theatres.co.uk.

Founded for charitable and educational purposes in April 2007 by Brown’s daughter, Dr Deanna Brown-Thomas, the James Brown Family Foundation seeks to build on her father’s legacy of charitable giving in many communities around the United States and to see the world as Brown did, bringing hope to those who are less fortunate. 

The foundation says: “This production not only honours James Brown’s extraordinary musical legacy, but it also reflects his creativity, hard work and passion. We are thrilled to see this show bring his legacy and sound to new audiences.

“Our commission is to expand James Brown’s vision, touching those here at home and around the world to assist underprivileged children and impoverished families through our initiatives and projects.”

The James Brown Experience celebrates Brown’s impact on music, culture and civil rights, capturing his electrifying energy, soul-power voice and dynamic moves in a night of high-octane dance numbers, heart-wrenching ballads and timeless soul and funk classics.

As well as revelling in such hits as I Feel Good, It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Get Up Offa That Thing, Sex Machine and Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag, the show also explores the life and soul of the South Carolina-born singer, songwriter, dancer, musician and record producer in his own words.

The James Brown Experience features The New Soul Generals, a nine-piece funk orchestra whose musicians have toured with Jamiroquai, Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse and Martha Reeves.

Out front will be Guy Kelton Jones, tasked with matching the standards of “the Hardest Working Man in showbusiness” in his rasping vocals and itchy-footed moves. Like Brown, he was raised in Georgia.

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REVIEW: Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

Carrie Hope Fletcher’s Calamity in Nikolai Foster’s production of Calamity Jane. Picture: Mark Senior

MUM knows best. West End leading lady Carrie Hope Fletcher has played Éponine and Fantine in Les Misérables, Veronica Sawyer in Heathers: The Musical and Wednesday in The Addams Family, as well as originating the role of Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, but her mother reckoned there was one role her South Harrow daughter was born to play.

Namely, the gun-slingin’, tough-talkin’, hard-ridin’ American frontierswoman Calamity Jane, the feisty tomboy role immortalised by Doris Day in the 1953 film and last played on tour on the Grand Opera House stage by Jodie Prenger in February 2015.

Mrs Fletcher’s instinct was spot on. Here was a Calamity waiting to happen, you could say. Carrying her mum’s hopes, Carrie Hope is whip-smart in The Watermill’s cracker of a touring production as York audiences experience her musical theatre chops for the first time, having seen her only in Love Letters, her exploration in song of all forms of love, from romantic to maternal, unrequited to obsessive, at York Barbican last October. 

What a fabulous voice she has, even if the emotional release of the serenading Secret Love was shared with a women in the row behind your reviewer, who could not resist joining in with every line. Please, please desist.

Perhaps now is the time to introduce a singalong performance for every familiar touring musical to abate this selfish trend. If not, dear audiences, show better instinct when to join in, pretty much at the cast’s invitation here for reprises of Deadwood Stage and Black Hills Of Dakota.

Seren Sandham-Davies’s Katie Brown, the wannabe showgirl in Calamity Jane. Picture: Mark Senior

The 2025 Calamity Jane carries all the hallmarks of the 2015 version: direction by North Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster; co-direction and choreography by Nick Winston; set and costume design by Matthew Wright; musical supervision and orchestration by Catherine Jayes, topped off by the witty  touch of the plush Grand Opera House being covered by a worn, faded, ropey one to transform the York theatre into the financially stricken Golden Garter theatre in Deadwood, South Dakota.

A lonesome banjo is attached, the first sign that this will be an actor-musician musical,  where even Carrie Hope Fletcher joins on coconuts to mimic the sound and motion of a horse and carriage.

Complementing Wright’s nostalgic palette of colours in his evocation of the Deadwood City of Summer 1876, Tim Mitchell’s lighting compounds the sense of being amid the summer dust, dry heat, bluest skies and wild life of the Midwest, where Calamity Jane’s entrance is held back to enable maximum impact after talk aplenty about of how she “tried to behave like a man but couldn’t help lovin’ like a woman”.

Fletcher looks right at home in buckskins and britches, hands on her gun belt, quips on her lips, Dakota accent on a roll. Her Calamity whips up a storm; she sure can crack a wisecrack and she is as abrasive as coal tar soap once was, but behind the brassy front of this game gal is a vulnerability that steadily seeps through, especially when her romantic feelings are exposed.

Fletcher’s Calamity does not need to fire a gun to make an impact on each return, and crucially for the light, humorous tone of Foster’s production of Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster and Charles K Freeman’s musical, Fletcher’s performance is suffused with fun to go with the games being played.

Falling out: Vinny Coyle’s Wild Bill Hickok clashes with Carrie Hope Fletcher’s Calamity. Picture: Mark Senior

Caught up in those games are Vinny Coyle’s Wild Bill Hickok and Luke Wilson’s  Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin, as they squabble over Seren Sandham-Davies’s young maid and wannabe singer Katie Brown.

As in 2015, Jayes’s orchestrations bring out the golden ripeness of such familiar songs as The Deadwood Stage, The Black Hills Of Dakota and A Woman’s Touch in a rip-roaring show where the actor-musician skills on all manner of acoustic instruments add so much to the joy. Winston’s choreography peaks with the hoedown euphoria of Hoedown.

You will go wild for Coyle’s  old-fashioned leading man, Wild Bill Hickok, a guitar slinger as much as a gun slinger when he sings Higher Than A Hawk, while you can feel Wilson’s smitten Gilmartin turning up the room temperature on an already warm night.

Above all, just as her mum predicted, Fletcher carries all before her as Calamity, a whip-crackin’ winner of a goodtime, goofball musical hit.

Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

York Dance Works dancers join Carrie Hope Fletcher on The Deadwood Stage at Grand Opera House at Calamity Jane matinee

Pink stetson gathering: Lead actress Carrie Hope Fletcher and the York Dance Works dance team on stage at the Grand Opera House, York, before Wednesday’s matinee of Calamity Jane, the 100th performance of the 2025 tour

YORK Dance Works’ adult dance team met multi-award-winning West End actress and singer Carrie Hope Fletcher to relive their ‘Deadwood Stage’ moment at the Grand Opera House on Wednesday.

That afternoon they watched Carrie playing the title role in the matinee to celebrate their love of the whip-crackin’ American musical.

Before the 2020-2021 pandemic, the dance group learned a routine to The Deadwood Stage to be performed in a showcase event.  When lockdown was imposed, the team continued to learn the routine virtually, enabling the group to keep in touch and dance their way through a challenging period.  The dancers eventually performed the routine live in 2022 and have not forgotten it since.

York Dance Works principal Catherine Finta says: “When we were learning the routine online, it became a highlight – to dance, chat and have a social catch-up in what was quite a lonely time. 

Cast members celebrate the 100th performance of the 2025 tour of Calamity Jane with cake and balloons on the Grand Opera House stage stage on Wednesday

“Normally, we finish routines and move on to the next one, but with the stop/start uncertainty of the lockdowns, we worked on this one for longer than usual.  When we were finally able to, we wanted to perform this on stage, pink stetsons and all, and finally did in summer 2022.

“When we heard Calamity Jane was coming to York, we immediately booked a dance group outing to see the fabulous Carrie Hope Fletcher and the amazing cast.”

Wednesday’s matinee also marked the 100th performance of the Calamity Jane tour. Among the cast is Samuel Holmes, who plays Francis Fryer, having last appeared at the Cumberland Street theatre in the 2012 tour of Monty Python’s Spamalot.

“I’m very excited to be doing our 100th performance, especially in such a beautiful theatre,” he says. “It’s a very special theatre with lots of special memories for me.  The audiences are so amazing, and the reactions to the performances have been brilliant.  So, if you can get a ticket, come down and see us as we’d love to celebrate the hoedown and the party with you”.

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Coronation Street soap star Lisa George to sprinkle fairy magic over Cinderella pantomime at Grand Opera House

Lisa George: From Coronation Street to the Grand Opera House pantomime with the wave of the Fairy Godmother’s wand

CORONATION Street soap actress Lisa George is the first star to be announced for this winter’s Grand Opera House pantomime in York.

From December 6 to January 4 2025, she will swap Weatherfield for the Fairy Godmother’s glittering wings and wand  to “cast enchantment over audiences in this spellbinding tale of love, laughter and letting your sparkle shine as Christmas, dreams really do come true”.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be appearing as Fairy Godmother at the Grand Opera House, York,” says Lisa. “Panto is such a special time of year, and I can’t wait to see families and friends come together to share in the magic over the festive season.” 

Known to millions as Corrie’s Beth Sutherland, Lisa is a powerhouse performer with serious theatre chops too. A graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in Cardiff, she has toured nationally in musicals, tribute shows and pantomimes, showcased her vocals on All Star Musicals and skated on Dancing On Ice, finishing fifth in 2020 when partnering Tom Naylor.

A true all-rounder, Lisa is a gifted vocalist and seasoned live performer, who has toured the UK with musical tributes and soul and swing bands, even supporting rock’n’roll legends Little Richard and Chuck Berry.

Under the moniker Lisa George And The Pedalos, she released the rockabilly album The Devil Said Shake, showcasing her powerhouse vocals and retro flair. Her deep love for live performance has seen her take on everything from musical comedy and straight drama to radio plays and pantomimes, bringing heart, humour and authenticity to every role she has played.

Lisa George: First star name to be confirmed for Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York

From soul bands to Shakespeare, she has done it all, and now Lisa is ready to light up the Grand Opera House in a UK Productions show scripted by Jon Monie, winner of Best Script at the Great British Pantomime Awards. Here comes comedy, festive cheer, dazzling costumes and miniature ponies.

UK Productions producer Martin Dodd says: “We are thrilled to welcome Lisa George to the cast of Cinderella in York. Lisa brings a huge amount of talent, warmth and star power to the stage, and we know that the audience will fall in love with her Fairy Godmother.

“We’re also delighted to return to the Grand Opera House with another spectacular musical pantomime created by an incredible team of writers, directors, designers and performers. York truly embraces the magic of our panto, and we can’t wait to share this year’s sparkling production with everyone.”

Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House’s theatre director, says: “We can’t wait to welcome Lisa to the Grand Opera House in what will be another spectacular, magical, musical panto. The audience are in for another treat this year as we bring York the iconic panto title Cinderella, a show that will be enjoyed by the whole family. This is the most fun you can have with one pumpkin, two ponies and a whole lot of fairy dust!”

Watch this space for news of further casting for UK Productions’ fourth pantomime at the Grand Opera House.

Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, December 6 to January 4 2026. For tickets, go to: atgtickets.com/york

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Alexander Wright has a new idea for a Hamlet Show. You can question him at York International Shakespeare Festival

Alexander Flanagan Wright: Questions, questions and more questions about Hamlet

ALEXANDER Flanagan Wright has an idea for a show. Not Hamlet exactly, but a version that asks all the big questions in Hamlet, not only To Be Or Not To Be, at York International Shakespeare Festival tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday.

“I’ve got an idea for a version of Hamlet,” says Alex, storyteller, playwright, dream-weaver of words, director and leading light of The Flanagan Collective, one half of Wright & Grainger and co-founder of Theatre at The Mill, Stillington, near York.

“It’s a gathering, a conversation and a collective reading. We’ll have some tea and some biscuits (I’ll provide those), we’ll read some of Shakespeare’s play together, and we’ll have a good chat.”

There’s more than that, of course, he promises. “It’s deeper than that. It’s about us being somewhere together, here and now; it’s about us grappling with our existential place in the world; it’s about us seeing how words give rise to ideas and definitions about ourselves; it’s about feeling isolated when we’re in the middle of many people. It’s about us all doing something together, whilst bits of the world are tearing us apart.

“And, like I’ve already said, it’s about having a cup of tea. It’s a new show, a new gathering, a new idea. And I’d like to invite you to come and be a part of it.”  

To be or not to be at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, tonight at 8.30pm, or York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium, tomorrow at 10am, or Micklegate Social, Micklegate, York, on Wednesday, 7.30pm, you decide. To book, head to yorkshakes.co.uk. Running time: up to 90 minutes.

Full interview will run from tomorrow.

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Do you fancy doing jury service…at York Barbican? Head to Tigerslane Studios’ Murder Trial Tonight – The Doorstep Case

In the dock: Tigerslane Studios’ cast for the prosecution and defence in Murder Trial Tonight III – The Doorstep Case at York Barbican and Sheffield City Hall

“THIS isn’t just a theatre play; it’s a social experiment,” says Graham Watts, West End director of the courtroom drama series Murder Trial Tonight. “We aim to challenge perceptions and engage our audience in a way that goes beyond traditional theatre.”

Welcome to Tigerslane Studios’ third season of Murder Trial Tonight – The Doorstep Case, wherein storytellers, technicians and performers break down the fourth wall and bring a true-crime story to life, on tour at York Barbican tomorrow night and Sheffield City Hall on Wednesday, both at 7pm.

In case number three, a mother returns home in the early hours of the morning after a night out celebrating her birthday, only to find her daughter murdered on her doorstep. The daughter’s boyfriend has been charged with the murder. Is he guilty of murder or is the killer still at large? Book your seat on jury service now to decide – and then learn if you were right.

The show begins on screen, giving the backdrop and opening to the case, followed by a live murder trial, immersing the audience in a fast-paced courtroom experience, wherein they play a crucial role as members of the jury.

What happens? Both the prosecution and defence will present their cases and cross-examine witnesses, whereupon the audience will deliberate and deliver their verdict: Guilty or Not Guilt? At the end of the trial, footage of the murder will be revealed. Did the jury deliver the right verdict? All will be revealed on the night.

Please note, each season’s trial is based on a true story, with a disclaimer that names, events and dates have been altered for dramatisation purposes.

Court is in session tomorrow in York, where the Tigerslane Studios cast will include Joshua Welch, who studied writing, directing and performance in the University of York’s department of theatre, film and television from 2013 to 2016 and later gained a Masters in acting from the Drama Centre, London.

“I was in the University of York Drama Society’s project at Clifford’s Tower , where we performed  a play by lecturer Lisa Peschel, based on research of theatrical performance in the Second World War Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt,” he recalls.

Courtroom drama: True crime case plays out at York Barbican and Sheffield City Hall with the audience on jury service

“Recently I came back to the university to attend Michael Cordner’s farewell lecture and did a few performances on the campus but that’s the only time I’ve been back to York since leaving university.”

How did Joshua, 30, land a role in Murder Trial Tonight III? “One of my best friends, Lauren Moakes, who studied at York at the same time as me, was in last year’s cast for Murder Trial Tonight II and told me about the show,” he says. “I auditioned around Christmas and started rehearsals in January.”

Originally from Sheffield, Joshua lives in London, where he is an associate artist and performer for Kelly Hunter’s Flute Theatre, a company that makes Shakespeare shows adapted for performance to people with autism, with a focus on feeling and emotion. “We play to an audience of 12, who sit in a circle with the actors, who have met them that day,” he says.

“The whole play is acted out in a sensory drama game with each audience member getting a chance to play a part, and they age from seven to 70s.  

“The performance is more about the atmosphere in each scene, which can be lacking in some plays, but in Shakespeare, the feeling is so different between each scene.”

Now Joshua is entering the world of crime for Murder Trial Tonight III. “I’ve always loved Agatha Christie, but this is different because it’s based on true events, without the big Christie revelation at the end,” says Josh.

“The audience has the power to change the whole thing , which will vary from night to night because it’s a fully live court case, where you hear from the prosecution in the first half and the defence case in the second, followed by the closing case from the prosecution and the defence.

The poster for Tigerslane Studios’ Murder Trial Tonight III – The Doorstep Case

“Then it’s completely up to the audience to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty, and it makes you realise how difficult it is to decide when there’s a ten-minute deliberation after the case and you hear people discussing what they think has or hasn’t happened.

“At the end [after they each give their verdict with the aid of a QR code and app] the percentage of the vote is revealed – and we find out how many people got it right or wrong.”

Joshua, who takes the part of witness for the prosecution Eddie Harper, has never served on a jury. “Doing Murder Trial Tonight makes you aware what a big responsibility it is to be on a jury, and each case highlights how important it is for both the prosecution and defence to deliver the case so that a verdict can be reached beyond reasonable doubt.”

You will not that tomorrow’s performance is not in a traditional theatre – or court house, for that matter – but at York Barbican, a venue more associated with concerts and comedy. “It’s been a great acting experience, the ‘gig’ nature of it, where the venues are so different and you have to adjust to the space,” says Joshua.

“It’s fun to do, presenting the case, where my character has a way he wants the case to go where everyone will say ‘he’s telling the truth’, trying to convince people of that. Interestingly, some nights you find you’ll play it differently: sometimes you have to focus on what you’re saying, not on what the audience are thinking, how they’re reacting.

“I like playing the halls because the spaces are vast, so it feels intimidating, which matches how nervous people can be when they take the oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in court.”

Joshua is delighted to be back on home Yorkshire soil at York Barbican tomorrow and Sheffield City Hall on Wednesday. “It will be a lovely walk down memory lane for me,” he says.

Tigerslane Studios presents Murder Trial Tonight III – The Doorstep Case, York Barbican, April 29, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also: Sheffield City Hall Oval Hall, April 30, 7pm. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/murder-trial-tonight-3-the-doorstep-sheffield-30-04-2025/.

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West End star Carrie Hope Fletcher cracks the whip in Western musical Calamity Jane on York return at Grand Opera House

Carrie Hope Fletcher’s Calamity Jane in Nikolai Foster’s touring production of Sammy Fain’s musical at the Grand Opera House, York

WEST End leading lady, author and vlogger Carrie Hope Fletcher returns to York from tomorrow to Saturday in the title role in Calamity Jane at the Grand Opera House – much to her mum’s delight.

Something about the gun-slingin’, tough-talkin’, hard-ridin’ frontierswoman immortalised by Doris Day in the 1953 film made her reckon it was a role that Carrie was born to play.

How could she say No when the offer came through to the 32-year-old South Harrow actress, whose credits include Éponine and Fantine in Les Misérables; Veronica Sawyer in the original West End production of Heathers: The Musical; Wednesday in The Addams Family; Beth in the arena tour of The War Of The Worlds  and originating the role of Cinderella in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella.

“My mum had always said I would be a good Calamity Jane, and through the entirety of my adult career she has always said she would love to see my playing the part,” says Carrie. “It’s her dream role for me. So I looked into it and listened to the songs and watched the movie starring Doris Day and fell in love with it. Doris is such an icon. Though I did have to prepare my mum not to get her hopes up as things do fall through and you never know what might happen.”

“It’s so wonderful Calamity is not just an ingenue or the soppy romantic or just a comedy character, she is all of it,” says Carrie Hope Fletcher

Mum knows best, however! Since January, Carrie has been leading North Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster’s cast in the good-hearted Western musical comedy, following the likes of Carol Burnett, Barbara Windsor, novelist Lynda La Plante, Toyah Willcox and Jodie Prenger, who played Calamity on its last Grand Opera House visit in February 2015.

Carrie loves how the fearless, feisty Calamity pushes her as a performer. “I am relatively new to the whole world of Calamity Jane, but it’s a dream role in terms of her as a character,” she says of a whip-crackin’ woman “prone to making a few blunders and mistakes”. “She is the romantic lead, gets a great love story, has an amazing female friendship with Katie Brown and gets all the cracking, belty numbers.

“She ticks all of those boxes and it’s so wonderful she’s not just an ingenue or the soppy romantic or just a comedy character, she is all of it. Parts like that are really rare and she has been great fun to get to know.”

The subject of femininity plays out in Calamity’s relationship with Wild Bill Hickok, the Howard Keel-originated role now played by Vinny Coyle. “There are conversations between her and Wild Bill where he says ‘Why can’t you be more feminine?’,” says Carrie. “She goes through a Cinderella story finding it, but ultimately ends up going back to who she is comfortable as, and being loved and accepted for it. And it’s all hidden within this funny, farcical story.”

Carrie Hope Fletcher: West End leading lady, musical theatre singer, author, vlogger and sister of McFly’s Tom Fletcher

She is not daunted by singing songs such as The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away) and Secret Love forever associated with Doris Day. “I have a good mindset about the pressure that comes with that,” she says. “You can’t please everyone as everyone has different versions of what they want the character to be. If you tried to please people, you would come up with this warped version that isn’t anyone’s dream version.

“I feel like I have been entrusted with the role and I need to be the one to decide who this version of Calamity Jane is. And if people don’t like it, they don’t like it. But if they do, it means all the more.”

Alongside her theatre work, Carrie has published a series of books for young people and accrued more than 500,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. She last appeared in York last October in Love Letters, her exploration in song of all forms of love, from romantic to maternal, unrequited to obsessive, at York Barbican. 

As always, she found joy in singing, joy that transferred to the audience too. “That’s what people latch on to. Maybe the joy I get from it separates me from others. That’s what people connect to,” she says. “I do think that musical theatre is based in expressing emotion, and if you’re not feeling it one night, then it won’t transmit to the audience.”

The tour poster for Calamity Jane starring Carrie Hope Fletcher

Now her focus is on being on the road in Calamity Jane for the best part of a year, necessitating being away from her husband, fellow performer Joel Montague, and their daughter, Mabel, who will join her for some of the dates, however.

If juggling motherhood and appearing in a major tour were not enough, Carrie has mastered a new skill while working on Calamity Jane. Her cast cohorts are actor-musicians, and not one to be left out, she can be spotted picking up an instrument – a somewhat unusual one.

“I got the coconuts to play,” she says. “I am the horse! So while everyone else is incredibly talented with the saxophone and the trumpet and cello, I’ll be focusing on the coconuts.”

Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, April 29 to May 3, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

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