Madness: June 19 headliners at the first York Festival
YORK Festival, next summer’s three-day music event headlined by Madness,
Westlife and Lionel Richie, wants to raise thousands of pounds for good causes
by supporting York charities.
The organisers,
concert promoters Cuffe and Taylor, are seeking three charity partners, who
will benefit from the June 19 to 21 concerts at York Sports Club, in Clifton
Park, Shipton Road.
Charities in and
around York are asked to send an email to hello@york-festival.com to “find out how
York Festival can help you” and register their interest in becoming a partner.
Cuffe and Taylor director Peter Taylor said: “We are incredibly excited
about York Festival. This is going to be three amazing days of live music in
this wonderful and historic city, headlined by a host of global stars.
“York Festival is going to be something really special,” says Cuffe and Taylor director Peter Taylor. “What will make it extra special is if we can help good causes in the city.”
“We want to help raise funds and exposure for local good causes. Over the past
decade, we have worked with a number of fantastic charity partners at our
events right across the UK. Through these partnerships we have helped raise
more than £100,000 and we are now looking for charities based in and around
York who we can work with.
“York Festival is going to be something really special. What will make it extra
special is if we can help good causes in the city.”
Cuffe and Taylor promote the summer concert seasons at Scarborough Open Air Theatre,
bringing Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Lionel Richie to the Yorkshire coast.
They also staged Rod Stewart’s sold-out York Racecourse concert this year,
drawing 35,000 people to a specially constructed pop-up amphitheatre in the
centre of the Knavesmire course on June 1.
All night long: Lionel Richie has the York Festival stage to himself on June 21
Cuffe and Taylor previously set up Lytham Festival, a Lancashire event
that has worked with various charities over the past decade.
Trinity Hospice and Brian House Children’s Hospice in Blackpool, for
example, have benefited to the tune of £50,000.
Trinity Hospice Community fundraising manager Michelle Lonican
said: “We feel very honoured to have worked with Cuffe and Taylor on a
number of their high-profile events.
“Their support for both Trinity Hospice and Brian House has been
phenomenal, and not only have we been able to raise thousands of pounds, but
also every event has always been a fantastic opportunity for us to increase our
profile and attract new supporters.
Westlife: Playing York Festival on Summer Solstice night
“It is great to see Cuffe and Taylor launching a new festival in York
and we would urge charities there to apply to become a partner and get involved
in what will no doubt be a very successful event.”
York Festival’s debut line-up brings together headliners Madness, those Nutty
Boys from Camden Town, Lightning Seeds,funk and soul DJ Craig Charles, Leeds
indie rockers Apollo Junction and York’s Violet Contours on June 19.
Irish boy band Westlife top the Saturday bill – next year’s Summer
Solstice night – as part of their Stadiums In The Summer Tour, joined by All
Saints, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Scouting for Girls and Take That’s Howard
Donald for a DJ set.
The Sunday night focus falls on American soul and funk legend Lionel
Richie for a set of Commodores and solo hits.
For more York Festival information and tickets, go to York-festival.com.
CATS and dogs will be in
harmony on December 29 when City Screen, York, plays host to a dog-friendly screening
of the new musical fantasy film.
“We’re offering dog-lovers the chance to bring their canine friends to the cinema that morning at 11am,” says marketing manager Dave Taylor.
“A dog is not just for Christmas, but it’s Christmas for dogs too, so
this is a special treat for dog-owners and their pets.
“They’ll be issued with a fleece blanket to cover the seat used by the
dog or to use as a rug if the dog sits on the floor. During the screening, we’ll
provide bowls of water around the screen, and we’ll also leave lighting levels
a little higher than usual during the screening and lower the volume of the
soundtrack.
“Please be aware that we reduce capacity for such screenings, so there may be fewer tickets than usual. We also have a limit of one dog per adult so that people can keep control of their dog.”
City Screen has arranged dog-friendly screenings in the past. “They’ve been well received by dog-owners and have gone off without incident, though cinema staff undertake a thorough ‘deep-clean’ of the auditorium before the next film is shown,” says Dave.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, one of the most successful stage musicals of all time, has been adapted for the big screen by director Tom Hooper, who directed The Damned United in 2009, The King’s Speech in 2010, Les Misérables in 2012 and The Danish Girl in 2015.
Now he “reimagines the musical for a new generation with spectacular
production design, state-of-the-art technology and dance ranging from classical
ballet to contemporary, hip-hop, jazz, street dance and tap”.
Released this Friday, its cast of star actors and dancers includes Dame Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy; Idris Elba stars as Macavity, the mystery cat; Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots; Ray Winston, Growltiger; James Corden, Bustopher Jones; Jennifer Hudson, Grizabella; cat lover Taylor Swift, Bombalurina; Jason Derulo, Rum Tum Tigger, and Sir Ian McKellen, Gus the Theatre Cat.
Oscar winner Hooper wrote the script with Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall, based on T.S. Elliot’s whimsical Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats.
Tickets for Cats (U) on December 29 are on sale on 0871 902 5747, at picturehouses.com or in person from the City Screen box office. “You’re also welcome without a dog,” says Dave.
The York Waits: festive songs, carols and celebratory music at the NCEM
THE York Waits celebrate Christmas in tomorrow’s concert at the National Centre for Early Music, York, when they will be joined by singer Deborah Catterall.
The start of Christmas was traditionally announced at the entrances to York on December 21, St Thomas’s Day, with the reading by the Sheriffs of the Yoole-girthol, with the Waits’ shawm band in attendance.
This proclamation declared “an amnesty to all nere-do-wells and unthrifty folk” and invited 12 days of merriment in the city.
The York Waits recreate this atmosphere with festive songs, carols and celebratory music from across mediaeval and Renaissance England and Europe, performed on loud and quiet wind consorts, bowed and plucked strings, the rustic bagpipes and vielle.
The York Waits will be in conversation at the NCEM at 7pm before their 7.30pm concert programme. Tickets cost £23, concessions £21, on 01904 658338 or at tickets.ncem.co.uk.
Going out: Supergrass have a run of gigs next summer
EVERYTHING has aligned for Supergrass on the “improbable comeback”
trail.
The Oxford four-piece of Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey, Rob Coombes and Mick Quinn will head to Scarborough Open Air Theatre on June 20 next summer, with tickets going on sale at 9am on Friday.
Coming first will be Supergrass: The Strange Ones 1994-2008, released on
BMG on January 24 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of their chart-topping
debut album I Should Coco.
This box set stacks up their six albums on picture-disc LP and CD; bonus CDs of unreleased live material; B-sides; remixes; rarities; studio out-takes; demos; acoustic versions; oddities, new mixes; a deluxe book, posters and button badges.
Supergrass made their comeback in September in a bold manner, taking to the stage unannounced at Glastonbury Pilton Party to rip through a greatest hits set, embracing Richard III, Moving, Alright, Lenny, Going Out, Caught By The Fuzz, Sun Hits The Sky, Pumping On Your Stereo and Grace.
Supergrass are back after a decade away? I should coco
“Everything aligned for us to make this happen for 2020,” says drummer
Goffey, recalling September’s re-launch. “It was the first time that we
collectively felt the buzz to get back in a room together and play the songs.
We’re extremely excited to get out there and bring a bit of Supergrass joy
to all our fans… and their extended families.”
Formed in 1993, the Oxford band released the Mercury Prize-nominated I
Should Coco in 1995; In It For The Money in 1997; Supergrass, 1999; Life On
Other Planets, 2002; Road To Rouen, 2005, and Diamond Hoo Ha, 2008, plus the 2004
compilation Supergrass Is 10.
After the BRIT, NME, Ivor Novello and Q award-winning band split in
2010, Gaz Coombes released his solo albums Here Come The Bombs in
2012, Matador in 2015 and World’s Strongest Man last year.
Quinn has been playing with his own group, DB Band, and has been a
member of Swervedriver since 2015; Goffey’s album Schtick came out in 2018.
From Friday (December 20), tickets can be booked on 01723 818111 or 01723 383636; at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com or in person from Scarborough OAT, in Burniston Road, or the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau, Scarborough Town Hall, St Nicholas Street.
Did you know?
Supergrass’s I Should Coco in 1995 was the Parlophone label’s biggest-selling debut since The Beatles’ Please Please Me in March 1963.
Shining light: Heather Findlay in angelic pose for her Christmas show
HEATHER Findlay will play York concerts on successive nights
this week, the first with Friends in her Christmas Show at the National Centre
for Early Music on Friday.
The next night, the York singer joins fellow composer Simon
Snaize for a “pre-Christmas
solstice spectacular” in the last of four concerts in the inaugural Live In
Libraries York season in York Explore’s wood-panelled Marriot Room.
“I love making my Christmas show really magical, nostalgic and
unique,” says Heather. “So, there’s a slightly different line-up, with Sarah
Dean joining us on harp and special guest Annie Donaghy on vocals, and a couple
of unannounced guests too.”
On Saturday, Findlay accompanies Snaize as he showcases his new
album, A Song Of Bones, and his 2012 recording The Structure Of Recollection, in
an intimate performance to a capacity audience of 50. CDs of the new record
will be on sale on the night before the official release in January.
Wrapping up for winter: Heather Findlay heads to the NCEM for her Christmas show
Heather Findlay and Friends’ Christmas Show, plus
Annie Donaghy, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, Friday, 8pm; Heather
Findlay and Simon Snaize, Live In Libraries York, York Explore, Saturday, doors
7pm. Box office: NCEM, 01904 658338 or at
ncem.co.uk; Live in Libraries, exploreyork.eventbrite.co.uk
WHISPER it abroad, the inaugural Live In Libraries York season of intimate concerts in York Explore Library and Archive’s Marriott Room, in Library Square, concludes this weekend.
East Yorkshire folk-Americana
singer-songwriter Edwina Hayes was first up in September, followed by hotly
tipped York band Bonneville And The Bailers on October 25; Bradford songwriter
Bella Gaffney on November 21, and Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize in a rare
duo gig on Saturday.
The season has been curated by York
busker David Ward Maclean in tandem with Dave Fleming, Explore York’s inclusive
arts and media co-ordinator.
Simon Snaize and Heather Findlay: performing in a rare duo format at York Explore
Here Charles Hutchinson puts questions to David and Dave.
What
prompted you to set up this series of concerts and how long has it taken to arrange
the season, David?
“It started
from a chat with York Explore manager Barbara Swinn and Explore York’s Dave
Fleming about the feasibility of the Marriott Room as a regular venue. Although
we settled on a short series of just four concerts, it’s still taken a while to
work out the logistics of both the requirements for staging the events and York
Explore’s very busy timetable as a working library.”
How
did Live In Libraries York come to fruition, Dave?
“Barbara and I thought it was a great idea to approach David to help
curate, advise and develop the concept and the season of concerts.
“I’ve known Dave for
years, both on the music scene and working together many years ago when I
worked for City of York Council’s Arts & Culture service as community arts
officer and working as part of the Illuminating York team.
“I coordinated a series of live short cultural performances in
some of the city-centre churches called Inspire York and Dave created a
soundscape in one of the churches. Barbara came across Dave performing in York
and was captivated by him, so I suggested a chat and for Dave to check out the
space and see what he thought.It’s fair to say he was blown away by its potential for live intimate
performances.”
Bonnie Milnes of Bonneville And The Bailers, who played Live In Libraries York in October
What
attracted you the Marriott Room, David?
“The first
thing that struck me was the sound: astonishingly clear acoustics, requiring no
more than the minimum amplification, if any. That’s probably down to the wood
panelling and the wooden floor, combined with a fairly high ceiling.
“Also, due
to its location at the rear of the library, it’s a very quiet location,
making it the perfect small listening venue. We’ve limited seating to about 50,
so that there’s plenty of room, and that also makes for a great intimate
atmosphere. It looks gorgeous too.
“There are
very good Green Room facilities behind the Marriott Room, and the performer accesses
the venue from a different door, which I always think enhances an event.
Everything I’ve ever looked for in a small venue. I’m hoping to book in myself
next year sometime.”
What are
the Marriott Room’s attributes as a concert setting, Dave?
“There’s nowhere else like it in York! Everyone who has popped down to
check out the space wants to perform in the space. The interest has taken us by
surprise.
“We did a test concert
a few months back with two internationally renowned harpists. It was sold out and
both the performers and audience were captivated by the experience and were so
impressed with the space.
“We dress the space
beautifully and it will make you re-imagine what libraries can
offer.”
What does
a library setting bring to live music, David? After
all, libraries are associated with hush, contemplation, study and
solo concentration!
“I
definitely think that when you walk in, the beautiful main entrance to
the library instils a certain focus, ideal for listening events. I
think we’re going for communication and attentiveness, rather than heads bowed
in reverence.”
When curating the acts for these performances, how and why did you choose
each one and what have they each brought to Live In Libraries York,
David?
“When I was
first asked for acts, Edwina Hayes was an instant choice.
She’s incredible, a world-class act and a big favourite in York, and I’m
so pleased she started the series.
“I also
wanted to get two local organisations involved – Dan Webster of Green Chili
Promotions and Dave Greenbrown from Young Thugs Records – and they put forward
two fantastic up-and-coming York artists, Bella Gaffney and Bonneville And The
Wailers.
David Ward Maclean: Curator of the Live In Libraries York season
“I’d
always wanted to hear Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize as a duo again after
they bowled me over with a set some years back. It’s an extraordinary sound,
they truly complement each other and I’m so happy to finish the season on a
high with them, on Winter Solstice no less!”
As a
musician yourself, David, what makes for your perfect gig setting?
“This one.”
What sort
of contrasting places have you played in your long career?
“Pretty
much everything, from Sheffield City Hall to playing for a couple in their home
while they had dinner. Probably the strangest was back in 1984, hitchhiking to
Bremen, playing for some German policemen in a motorway service station to
prove I was on my way to play some concerts. I passed the audition.”
Would you
like to see a further season of such shows taking place in the Marrott Room,
David? Or is this a special one-off?
“I would
love to see more concerts here in the future.”
What would be your ideal song for a library setting, David?
“(What A)
Wonderful World by Sam Cooke.”
How about
yours, Dave?
“My word, this is a tricky one to answer! Struggling to think of one because there are so many. So, I’m going to say one of David Ward Maclean’s original songs as he is such a brilliant songwriter and local legend. Oh, and he sounds incredible in the Marriott Room!”
The Seven Dwarfs and Muddles (Martin Daniels, right) attend to the poison apple-drugged Snow White (Louise Henry) in the Grand Opera House pantomime. Picture: David Harrison.
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4 2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.
THIS
is Three Bears Productions’ fourth Grand Opera House pantomime, written, directed
and co-produced by Chris Moreno, a canny veteran of commercial theatre.
He
has made two significant additions this year, bringing a York flavour to his
familiar panto template of a serviceable script and set design. First, “York’s
very own” Louise Henry, 22, from Knaresborough, was picked from more than 30
hopefuls for the title role, in a year when she has impressed as Liesl in York
Stage Musicals’ The Sound Of Music at the same theatre and in Rigmarole Theatre Company’s apocalyptic
When The Rain Stops Falling last month.
Playing
Snow White marks her professional debut, a step up she handles with aplomb and
poise, in song, dance and bonding with fellow York panto debutant Jonny Muir’s upstanding
Prince Rudolph and the Seven Dwarfs (played by two alternating teams of
children, the Magic Mirrors and Magic Apples). Louise Henry will be back, for
sure.
The
second smart move was to invite one of York’s most familiar voices, Minster FM
breakfast show co-host Ben Fry, to reprise his official role as York’s Town Crier,
ringing his bell and making proclamations, as he has since May, but this time
on stage. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah,” he says. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” comes
the audience’s reply without hesitation or invitation.
Fry,
spoiler alert, also pops up as the ageing King and has plenty of fun with North
Eastern entertainer and magician Martin Daniels’ Muddles in the time-honoured Busy
Bee water slapstick scene: one of those moments that can be played off the cuff
by two performers tuned into quick thinking.
There
is room for more such impromptu outbreaks, in particular for Steve Wickenden’s southern
dame, Nurse Brexit, a divisive name but never a divisive character in his fourth
Grand Opera House panto. The Brexit joke gets done once and then disappears even
more quickly than Boris Johnson hopes to conclude his oven-ready deal.
Last
year, after Ken Morley was taken ill in the very first performance of
Cinderella, Wickenden turned himself into both Ugly Sisters, a solo double act
that was twice the pleasure. This time, by comparison, he is a little
underused, although his version of Avenue Q’s I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today
is an inspired, unexpected choice, delivered with panache, and his wardrobe is
as peachy as ever.
Getting Nurse Brexit done: Steve Wickenden’s dame in: Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Picture: David Harrison.
Rather
than topical satirical comment, big names are occasionally dropped in, Laurence
Llewelyn Bowen, Donald Trump and Gordon Ramsay, for example. Much of the comedy
is rooted in traditional pantomime routines, putdowns and daft one-liners,
although Daniels’ Muddles, the show’s very reliable glue in his jester’s hat,
has room to roam into adlibs while being the children’s favourite. His magic
ingredient is his cheeky nous, but he has magic tricks up his sleeve too.
Daniels
and Wickenden have become important to the Grand Opera House panto, continuity
being the third factor in establishing the Three Bears brand.
Star
names always play their part too. Say ’Allo, ’Allo! to Vicki Michelle as the
vampy, vain Wicked Queen Titania (“You can call me Titty,” she says) and comedian
and presenter Mark Little, once of Neighbours, now her Australian sidekick in
the land of Much Piddling.
Little
had been expecting to play the Evil Sorcerer when the cast first gathered for
the press launch but he is now billed as Lord Chamberlain of Trumpville, one of
those evil, but actually not evil roles that inevitably loses some of his bite.
Little and not so larger than life, in other words. That said, his duet of
Elvis Presley’s Trouble with Michelle is one of the musical high spots.
Musical director Aaron Nice has chosen the ballads and cheesy pop hits well, from the opening ensemble number Nicest Kids In Town; through the Dwarfs’ signature song, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), and the Snow White-led Whistle Whistle; to the crowd pleasers, Live While We’re Young and especially Shutup And Dance.
Emily
Taylor’s choreography is bright and bubbly, driven by dynamic bursts of movement,
amusingly so when the Dwarfs join in. Played in the past by dwarves from the
actors’ union, the roles now tend to go to puppets or, as is the case here,
children with adult voiceovers and movement to give them character.
Strictly
speaking, look out too for a familiar fairy face in the mirror, Debbie McGee, seeking
out the fairest in the land, and you can’t say fairer than that.
Ebor Singers, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 15
THIS was the Ebors’ now traditional performance of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, spiced with a selection of contemporary American carols and seasonal songs.
The Britten, given in the original all-female version, was accompanied by the harp of Rachel Dent, even to the extent of some optional improvising during the processional plainsongs. Her Interlude was a touch halting, but elsewhere she sustained a pleasing pulse.
The singing had its moments, though few were provided in the solo work where intonation was wayward. As a choir, the ladies made plentiful amends. There was a lovely legato in There Is No Rose and a direct, confident approach to This Little Babe. In contrast, the reverential ending to In Freezing Winter Night reflected the manger’s “humble pomp”.
The pair of soloists in Spring Carol chirped merrily. Deo Gracias was a little too rushed for its cross-currents to have maximum impact. Though it was good to have this music made available again, its overall effect was not as strong as it was last year.
In The Moon Of Wintertime, the evening’s subtitle, taken from the Canadian Huron carol, was also used by American composer Stephen Paulus. In the event, his modal tune was less attractive than the original (Jesous Ahatonhia), and he used a bowdlerized paraphrase of Edgar Middleton’s translation, which is much less down-to-earth than the native Indian version. Its last verse, however, was a model of choral control here.
The same composer’s Three Nativity Carols, surprisingly enjoying their UK premiere – Paulus died in 2104 – brought an engaging post-Britten style to some ancient texts. They were accompanied by oboe (Jane Wright) and harp (Dent). Syncopation jollied up The Holly & The Ivy, florid oboe counterpointed the slow rocking of This Endris Night, and Wonder Tidings used a proper refrain to add colour to the mediaeval text, with the instruments dancing attendance.
Much of the rest was slow-moving and diction went to the wall. American audiences may love it, but Craig Hella Johnson’s pairing of Lo, How A Rose with Amanda McBroom’s The Rose (written for Bette Midler and covered by Westlife) did the lovely Praetorius tune no favours at all.
Hackneyed favourites by Lauridsen and Whitacre came and went and a Jake Runestad lullaby just picked itself in time to avoid a similar fate. It was left to Nico Muhly’s setting of Longfellow’s Snowflakes, with piano backing, to offer some true atmosphere, albeit out of a corner of the minimalist playbook. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas makes for a tacky ending – it should be dropped.
I know this was a Christmas concert, with all the festive sentimentality that implies, but overall I left feeling that this choir is coasting: it is capable of tackling something a lot less anodyne and a lot more challenging.
Frank Brooker’s Happy Chappies: Playing at the Cross Keys on January 2 2020
“GET jazzing done!”, says Alan Bramley, organiser of a new season of Thursday
afternoon jazz sessions at the Cross Keys pub, in Tadcaster Road, York.
“Those weekly sessions have become increasingly popular since their
inauguration in 2017,” says Alan, who not only makes the bookings but also plays
trombone with some of the bands.
“For the start of 2020, I’ve booked a programme of jazz in varying
styles, all highly entertaining.”
Frank Brooker’s Happy Chappies kick off the New Year on January 2, followed
by the Cross Keys Jazz Band on January 9; Tim New Jazz Band on January 16; 7th City
Jazz Band on January 23 and the Nicki Allan Five, finishing off the month, on
January 30.
These traditional jazz afternoons run from 1pm to 3.30pm each Thursday.
Admission and parking are free, food is available and the pub is both dog and
child friendly.
More details can be found on Facebook at Crosskeysjazz.
Mary, Mary, very contrary: Fiona Baistow., left. and Florence Poskitt clash over who plays Mary in York Stage Musicals’ The Flint Street Nativity
The Flint Street Nativity, York Stage Musicals, John Cooper Studio @41 Monkgate, York, until Sunday. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorkstagemusicals.com.
THIS is the second time York Stage Musicals have gone back to school to stage Tim Firth’s riotous Christmas comedy.
First seen on television with York actor
Mark Addy in a donkey head, and then adapted for the stage at the Liverpool
Playhouse in 2006, The Flint Street Nativity that re-creates the trepidatious highlight
of the primary-school Christmas calendar, the Nativity play.
“There’s no treachery
assassination, double-dealing, deceit, coercion or blackmail that you encounter
later in life that you will not have been prepared for in the classroom,” says
teacher’s son Firth, who brings to school the clash between teamwork and
individual desires that flavoured his pent-up comedy in Neville’s Island,
Preston Front and Calendar Girls.
Verity Carr’s Wise Gold, Chloe Shipley’s Shepherd and Florence Poskitt’s Angel Gabriel in The Flint Street Nativity
Robert Readman was YSM’s
equivalent of “Mizzis Horrocks”, the play’s schoolteacher, for the York company’s
first go at Firth’s Nativity play in November 2011. Now Nik Briggs makes an ass
of himself…in a good way, not only directing but also playing the Addy role of
Ass, having starred opposite a Donkey as Shrek in YSM’s Shrek The Musical at
the Grand Opera House in September, by the way.
Briggs has designed the
classroom stage and costumes too. “Nik has been very busy this term and shows a
real aptitude for theatre,” his school report would say.
Mizzis Horrocks is often
heard, but not seen, in Firth’s play, as she strives to guide her class of
seven years olds through their Nativity play at Flint Street Junior School, being
reduced to sounds, rather than words, that nevertheless capture her increasing
exasperation at their antics.
Firth’s salient powers of observation
are as sharp as ever as the children pretty much do their own thing, much like
Mary’s donkey, a holiday relic that swears in Spanish.
Inn-timidating: Paul Mason as the Inn Keeper in The Flint Street Nativity
Andrew Roberts’s jumper sleeve-picking, stoical Narrator is resolute
that the show must go on, flattening everything before him, voice and all, but
he must contend with petty squabbles, rampant egos and the disappearance of
Peter Crouch, the school stick insect.
Your reviewer called on York directors to give Florence Poskitt a lead role next year after seeing her Ethel Cratchit in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Scrooge The Musical last month. Glory be, that rallying call has been answered early in the form of her seemingly ruthless little madam playing the Angel Gabriel, so determined to gazump Mary’s role. Anything but angelic, Poskitt nevertheless reveals the girl’s inner vulnerability behind the hard-nosed, playground bully front.
Her usurping classroom troublemaker is
but one comic joy, topped off with her spiralling spat with Fiona Baistow’s class
swat Jenny B as they vie for the prized role of Mary.
Fiona Baistow’s little miss goody two shoes playing Mary
Two roles require constant headgear:
Briggs as the loveable Irish lad who grows so attached to his Ass’s cardboard head
that he will not remove it, and Matthew Clarke as the NASDA-fixated dreamer designated
the part of the Star of Bethlehem in a performance full of pathos and frustration
as much as wonder.
Conor Wilkinson makes a delightful YSM
debut as the boy assigned to play both King Herod and Joseph, but obsessed with
re-enacting the Ally McCoist era on A Question Of Sport and smiling distractedly
at his parents in the audience.
Jack Hooper taps into the sadness, desperation
and pain in the new boy playing Wise Frankincense, struggling with his lisp as he
shies away from saying “Jesus”.
Mizzis Horrocks’s class performing their Nativity play in York Stage Musicals’ Christmas production
Verity Carr’s Wise Gold, Louise Leaf’s Angel and especially Chloe Shipley, as the blunt , no-nonsense farm girl bringing home truths to the role of a Shepherd, contribute plenty to the fractious fun too.
Fun, meanwhile, is not the word the rest
of the class would choose to describe the oddball loner (Paul Mason), a pub landlord’s
son with a last orders’ threat about him, whose scary Innkeeper keeps stealing
scenes.
Firth complements the delicious mayhem, social comment and joy of watching adults play children with two masterstrokes. Firstly, to Jessica Douglas’s strident school-piano accompaniment, each child sings a familiar Carol with satirical new lyrics that tell the truth about their parents, from a child’s frank, hurt or frustrated perspective.
Star-struck: Matthew Clarke as the NASA-obsessed pupil playing Star
Secondly, the YSM actors re-emerge for
the finale as those parents, whose behaviour so explains why the children are
how they are. Darkness descends at the finale, Firth fuelling the
nature-versus-nurture debate, the real-life story trampling over the Nativity
play.
Chances are you won’t see a funnier
Nativity play this term.
York Stage Musicals present The Flint Street
Nativity, John Cooper Studio @41 Monkgate, York, until December 22, 7.30pm
except Sunday at 6pm. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorkstagemusicals.com or in
person from the York Theatre Royal box office.
Putting the “barb” into York Barbican: Ed Byrne on Friday night
Ed Byrne, If I’m Honest, York Barbican, December 13
FRIDAY the 13th is unlucky for some”,
and certainly for those who missed out on Ed Byrne’s If I’m Honest show at a
half-full York Barbican. An honest mistake, no doubt, that should be rectified
next time.
Unlike our political parties in the General
Election, 47-year-old Dubliner Byrne has decided honesty is the best policy,
and while comedians are no less likely to exaggerate than politicians seeking
the X factor at the ballot box, they do so with a silver, rather than forked,
tongue.
Byrne headed to York, the lone red rash in deepest
blue North Yorkshire, on the night after the nation had voted. Yet more politics
was not for him, however. “I could talk about Brexit for 20 minutes, but I
choose not to,” he said. Exit Brexit, stage hard right. Good call, Ed, judging
that the party mood needed to be joyful, not political.
He was not one to massage figures, either, instead
drawing attention immediately to the empty seats, making everyone there feel
better for their impeccable judgement. Honesty, straightaway, was the best
policy.
Byrne book-ended the show, providing the short
opening and longer closing chapters, with Henley comedy pup Kieran Boyd let off
his lead in between. While this can break the rhythm of the night, Byrne knows
the importance of giving fledgling acts their wings. Nish Kumar, for example, played
support slots in York several times before graduation to headline status at the
Grand Opera House.
Rather too many comedians do material about their children;
the equivalent of being passed endless pictures of little Johnny or Joanna at an
inescapable party, but when Byrne, fast thinking and even faster talking, is
making the observations, then fair children’s play to him.
In If I’m Honest, he “takes a long hard long hard look at
himself and tries to decide if he has any traits that are
worth passing on to his children”. On
Friday, he did so self-deprecatingly, as he takes on parenthood in his forties
with children named Cosmo and Magnus. And no, they were not named for comic
effect.
Far from it. When he
played Reykjavic, Byrne was greeted with an outpouring of Icelandic
congratulations for choosing one of their own!
Byrne could laugh
at how his young sons already were mirroring him and his mutually sarcastic exchanges
with his wife, theatre publicist Claire Walker.
Byrne’s comedy is
both mentally and physically energetic, even hyper, as well as laced with Irish
storytelling lyricism and much mischief making, and not only children’s received
behaviour was up for his honesty test.
So too were
superdads and superheroes and the way superhero film titles have become so
convoluted, as he yearned for the simplicity of old.
Byrne wore a shiny red
jacket and tapered jeans that would not have looked out of place competing on
Strictly Come Dancing, a show he revealed he had turned down, foregoing the chance
for “Byrne the floor” headlines, much to his family’s disappointment. He could not
trust himself with the dancers, said the Oti fan, honest to the end.
