Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker. Picture Sophie Beth Jones
2026 will see Leeds company Northern Ballet launch the world premiere of Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre from March 7 to 14.
Already the stuff of biographies, novels and a brace of TV series, the story of adventurous Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall, Halifax, will be staged with a new live score by Peter Salem in a co-production with Finnish National Opera and Ballet.
Exciting times ahead under Federico Bonelli’s artistic directorship, but in the meantime Northern Ballet regulars will be delighted at the latest return of company staple The Nutcracker.
Premiered in 2007, former artistic director David Nixon CBE’s decorative, delightful, dazzling winter wonderland has become his most performed work, bidding farewell to the old year and embracing the new every few years, last doing so in 2022 on tour and back home in Leeds.
Glory be, this latest resurrection comes with a live orchestra (under conductor Yi Wei on press night), when the sight as well as sound of musicians makes the ballet all the more joyous (whereas recorded accompaniment can be so sterile).
What’s more, like singing Christmas Carols or re-visiting Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the familiarity of Nixon’s choreography and costume designs breeds ever more contentment, adding to the emotional impact of a story told so beautifully, with such sparkle, wonder and bravura dancing, against the grain of the 21st century world’s woes and wars.
Once more snow may fail to dust Yorkshire’s hills this festive season, but winter’s white coat is all part of the nostalgic magic of Nixon’s Nutcracker, where snowflakes flutter across the stage front cloth to set the mood for his Regency England setting of Tchaikovsky’s late-19th century Christmas ballet.
Charles Cusick Smith’s gorgeous designs cast their own spell again, their grand scale sweeping up audience and dancers alike in the fantastical journey from castle drawing-room party to toy battlefield, snowy fairyland and a world above the clouds.
As in every home across the land, Rachael Gillespie’s inquisitive Clara excitedly awaits the chance to unwrap the presents that lie behind the towering, closed doors on Christmas Eve night.
When the clock strikes midnight, Clara is transported to fantasia by Harris Beattie’s noble Nutcracker Prince, her journey through the snow orchestrated flamboyantly by Harry Skoupas’s dandy Herr Drosselmeyer, fleet of foot and full of poised purpose.
Bruno Serraclara’s Mouse King seeks to defy the odds, so brave in dashing defeat, and making an amusing exit to boot, before Act One’s climax mirrors the traditions of pantomime in the outstanding transformation scene, graced with the most beautiful imagery of all, yet more delightful for Mark Jonathan’s lighting: spectacle as big as Yorkshire.
As ever, Act Two is even better, its tempo set by Saeka Shirai’s enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, in tandem with Jonathan Hanks’s Cavalier.
Amid the snow, contrast is provided by the kaleidoscopically colourful pageant of national dances – Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, French, Russian – in a showcase with an amusingly competitive spirit, orchestrated with panache by Skoupas’s Drosselmeyer.
Throughout, Nixon adorns Tchaikovsky’s rousing score with the poetic eloquence of his elegant choreography, at once beauteous and charming, suffused with romance and drama, always up for mischievous comic interplay too in Puck style.
The Nutcracker is on cracking good form, a winter warmer like no other in Yorkshire this season.
Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2026. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com
Ancient Hostility: Passionate political and personal song in harmony at The Black Swan Inn, York
IN his first guide to the New Year, Charles Hutchinson picks out upcoming highlights on January’s calendar.
Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools III, The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, January 4, 7.30pm, doors 7pm
WELCOME to A Feast Of Fools III, York arts collective Navigators Art’s sign-off to “Holiday’s end – the last gasp of Mischief” in a celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas is packed with live folk music and a nod to the pagan and the impish.
On the bill will be: Ancient Hostility, performing passionate political and personal song in harmony, in the vein of The Young Tradition, plus fiddle and squeezebox, and North West folk duo Joshua Arnold and Therine, presenting vocal-led trad and experimental versions of songs in the British folk canon on hurdy gurdy, harmonium and DIY instruments.
So too are Pefkin, whose slowly unfolding, ritualistic hymnals draw heavily on the landscape and the natural world, using processed violin/viola, electronics, voice and field recordings, and White Sail, York’s multi-instrumental alt-folk legends, weaving sound-spells for the season’s final curtain. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.
The Hammonds Band: A blast of brass at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Lorne Campbell
The Hammonds Band, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, January 11, 3pm
THE award-winning Hammonds Band returns to the SJT for an afternoon of the best of brass music. Founded by mill owner Sir Titus Salt in Saltaire as an amenity for the workers, the band later had a long association with Hammonds Sauce Works under the baton of the legendary Geoffrey Whitham. Now, under Morgan Griffiths’s direction, the band performs across the world. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine and Alice Rose’s Snow Whitein Pickering Musical Society’s panto Snow White
Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25
INTEREST has been “extraordinary” for Pickering Musical Society’s January 2026 pantomime, directed for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold. More than 1,000 tickets have sold already; January 18’s 2.15pm performance has sold out and several others are close behind.
Written by Ron Hall, the show combines comedy, spectacle, festive magic, dazzling scenery and colourful costumes and features such principals as Marcus Burnside’s Dame Dumpling, Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine, Alice Rose’s Snow White, Paula Cook’s Queen Lucrecia and Sue Smithson’s Fairy Dewdrop. Audiences are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.
York actor Harry Summers: Wintering in panto villainy as Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin
Malton and Norton Musical Theatre in Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, January 17, 1.30pm, 5.15pm; January 18, 2pm; January 20 to 23, 7.15pm; January 24, 1pm, 5.15pm
BETWIXT York roles in York Shakespeare Project’s The Spanish Tragedy and Black Treacle Theatre’s Anne Boleyn, Harry Summers continues to corner the market in dark, dramatic and deliciously boo-worthy roles as wicked magician Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin.
Fresh from his villainous scene-stealing in The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Jennings plays the Emperor, insisting he is “one of the good guys”, even if his idea of good includes execution and arranged marriages. Further principal players in the mystical land of Shangri-La include Harriet White’s Aladdin, Isabel Davis’s Princess Jasmine; Rory Queen’s dame, Widow Twankey, Tom Gleave’s Wishee Washee, Mark Summers’ Genie of the Lamp and Annabelle Free’s Spirit of the Ring. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Sue Perkins: Reflecting on stigma, humiliation and misunderstanding at the Grand Opera House, York
The Eternal Shame Of Sue Perkins, Grand Opera House, York, January 18, 7.30pm
YOU may know her as Bake-Off Sue, Taskmaster Sue, Just A Minute Sue, or the Sue that gives you travel envy, but stand-up Sue is full of surprises. In this new show, Sue Perkins shares the unlikely happenings from a career in the spotlight.
What’s the fallout when your pituitary gland goes haywire on live TV? How do you convince the public you didn’t really fall on to that vacuum cleaner attachment? And when intimate photos are splashed all over the internet, how do you switch the shame to dignity and joy? Find out in Perkins’ first live show in more than a decade, wherein she delivers a humorous treatise on stigma, humiliation and misunderstanding. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for Deadpan Players’ Star Wars spoof at the JoRo, York
Deadpan Players in Star Wars: May The Farce Be With You, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 23, 7.30pm, and January 24, 2pm and 7.30pm
IN a time of deep unrest, rebel forces are fighting for survival. Led by Garth Vader, the Empire has created a sinister network called The Dark Web, through which Vader could travel back in time to crush the rebellion. Plucky Princess Slaya has encrypted and uploaded the password, along with a desperate cry for help to cute droid R2Ai.
Can Fluke Skywalker decipher the message, find Only One Kenobi, enlist the help of rogue pilot Ham Solo and the legendary, if rather pungent, Gedi Master, the diminutive but powerful “Odour”, then rescue the Princess and save the Galaxy? Find out by attending this fundraising event, with all proceeds going to Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Candlelighters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Snake Davis and special guest Sumudu Jayatilaka: Performing together at Helmsley Arts Centre
Snake & Sumudu, Helmsley Arts Centre, January 24 2026, 7.30pm
SAXOPHONIST to the stars Snake Davis and singer-songwriter Sumudu Jayatilaka often meet up to perform with Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra or to play together in arts centres.
Raised in Scunthorpe, now based in London, Sumudu has frequently toured as a backing vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and percussionist for Sir Van Morrison. At 15, she made her TV debut on BBCs Pebble Mill At One, performing her own composition, accompanied by Snake on sax and flute. Later they took part in a Royal Albert Hall concert with Burt Bacharach and Hal David. At Helmsley, expect classic pop, original compositions and a touch of soul and jazz. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Mike Joyce: Discussing his days on the beat with The Smiths at Pocklington Arts Centre
Mike Joyce, The Drums: My Life In The Smiths, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 28, 7.30pm
DRUMMER Mike Joyce has been asked numerous times, “What was it like being in The Smiths?”. “That’s one hell of a question to answer!” he says. Answer it, he does, however, both in his 2025 memoir and now in his touring show The Drums: My Life In The Smiths.
To reflect on being stationed behind singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr from 1982 to 1987, Joyce will be interviewed by the Guardian music journalist Dave Simpson, who lives near York. Audience members can put their questions to Joyce too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Aoife Kenny in the role of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
WEST End actress Aoife Kenny is making her York Theatre Royal debut as Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty of the title of this winter’s pantomime co-production with Evolution Productions.
Originally from Birmingham, now living in Reading and working mainly on the London stage, she made her first ever visit to York for the September 30 pantomime press launch. “My first time in Yorkshire was last Christmas for Snow White at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre [also co-produced by Evolution Productions],” she says.
Aoife had studied at Laine Theatre Arts performing arts school, in Epsom, Surrey, when the Covid 19 pandemic made for a disrupted finale to her musical theatre degree under lockdown restrictions in 2020.
“I had to finish my studies that summer on Zoom, and luckily it was a nice summer, so I was able to complete the course out in the garden,” she recalls.
“Ever since then, I’ve done various musical theatre shows, such as being in the ensemble for Frozen The Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which you can watch on Disney+. We filmed it in February 2024.
“I’ve just finished in a show in London called Clueless [at Trafalgar Theatre], a musical theatre show that KT Tunstall wrote the score for, with lyrics by Glenn Slater [best known for Sister Act and Tangled]. Amy Heckling, the writer-director of the original film, wrote the script.
“I was in the ensemble and covering for the role of Dionne Marie Davenport, played by Stacey Dash in the 1995 film. It was meant to run for a year but closed early after six months.
“When I rang Paul (Evolution Productions director and York Theatre Royal panto script writer Paul Hendy) and said, ‘the Clueless job has been cancelled, do you have a panto slot for me ?’, as I’d enjoyed Snow White so much, luckily this chance to play Aurora in York came up.
Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia singing a duet in Sleeping Beauty. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
“I’ve been raving about Paul’s script writing. He really knows his art and he just captures so well what works for a ‘straight’ panto character. He knows how kids think, being a dad, and is very up to date with the modern world, which always helps.”
Aoife enjoys performing with Evolution. “They’re lovely people to work with, really easy going, and it’s nice to have input into a show, whereas you can’t do that with West End show. The joy of panto is reacting to the audience and having fun with them,” she says.
“This year I’m in the princess’s role, which kind of drives the show forward – someone’s got to get the show’s message across! She’s a modern-day princess in our show, and although she’s still being rescued [from Carabosse’s curse], she can hold her own.”
Aoife can certainly hold a tune too. “I was brought up in an Irish-Jamaican family who loved musicals, growing up with so much music around me 100 per cent of the time. Me and my sister Sinead, all we’ve known is music and musical theatre,” she says.
“My parents were a bit reluctant at first [for Aoife to pursue a stage career] because it’s a hard industry but Sinead and I had the talent and they’ve thoroughly supported us.” Who should be sitting directly in front of CharlesHutchPress on press night but Aoife’s parents, whereupon a very proud conversation ensued.
Naming a favourite musician, Aoife picks Steve Wonder. “I went to see him at Hyde Park this summer, which was amazing, but that was the day I found out I’d lost my Clueless job, so there I was, in the middle of Hyde Park, crying – and that’s when I decided to contact Paul [Hendy] about a panto job.
She is a “huge fan” of Beyonce too. “I saw her at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June on her Cowboy Carter Tour,” she says. “I loved her country album! Her career has been going as long I’ve been here – I’m 26 – and she’s an icon. She does her own thing, and she has a message behind everything, so it’s not just the music with her.”
Christmas has been a chance for Aoife to reunite with her partner, musical theatre actor Matt Blaker. “He’s been out in the Philippines doing The Bodyguard The Musical for ten weeks,” she says. “My family are all away in Spain for Christmas, but Matt’s coming up for a couple of days from Reading. Just the two of us together – and York’s not a bad place to be for Christmas!”
Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles performing in Sleeping Beauty with ensemble members Chris Morgan-Shillingford, back row, left, Elijah Daniel James, dance captain Alyssia Turpin, Sophie Flora and, front row, Jayden Tang and Charlotte Rose O’Sullivan. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Aoife Kenny: back story
TRAINED at Laine Theatre Arts, Epsom, Surrey, graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in musical theatre in 2020.
Theatre credits include Clueless (Trafalgar Theatre); Frozen The Musical (West End); Snow White (Sheffield Lyceum); White Christmas (UK tour); Carousel (Kilworth House); Chess (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Sunset Boulevard (Alexandra Palace); Up Next Gala (National Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (Mayflower Theatre, Southampton); Peter Pan (Swansea Grand Theatre); Cinderella (SEC Armadillo, Glasgow) and A Little Night Music and Beauty And The Beast (Laine Theatre Arts).
Television credits include Songs Of Praise, The Chart (pilot), Children In Need and The X Factor. Other credits include Bare (London Palladium); Josh Groban’s Stages (UK tour); Russell Watson (UK tour); Turn Up London (Cadogan Hall); Drive In London (concert); Love Never Dies in concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane) and I Put A Spell On You (Theatre Cafe).
Kevin the “vicious” Velociraptor in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
On second thoughts: child’s play at the pantomime on a Saturday afternoon
RE-VIEW: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, until January 4 ****
ACCOMPANYING three children plus chocolate goodies to Saturday afternoon’s matinee of Sleeping Beauty, Charles HutchPress discovered – not for the first time – that he was wrong. Very wrong.
We need to talk about Kevin, the “vicious Velociraptor”, derided in the original review as the “dawdling, limb-twiddling dinosaur that somewhat undermined the impact of speciality act Kris Madden’s fire artistry as Guardian of the Raptor” at the close of Act One.
To these eyes, Kevin still looks lost in the sudden spotlight, his front limbs doing a Tommy Cooper “Just Like That” impersonation”, spoiling any chance of being scary, but no, no, no. Kevin was a roaring success with Louis, dinosaur devotee, aged five. Enraptured by the Raptor indeed.
And that’s the point. York Theatre Royal and co-producers Evolutions Productions have the right instincts for a pantomime that will appeal to all comers. The animal kingdom has always been part of the Theatre Royal show, whether Martin Barrass’s unforgettable Seal back in the day or Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie two years ago.
Louis loved Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics too – an act truly on fire, topped off by his burning top hat in his walk-down – and Finley named that twisting, turning fire starter as his favourite too, while Molly most enjoyed Golden, the up-up-uplifting K-Pop Demon Hunters hit that has become this pantomime season’s ubiquitous song in another on-trend choice by the Theatre Royal panto team.
Fired up:Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor in Sleeping Beauty. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Encountering Sleeping Beauty for a second time, CharlesHutchPress was struck once more by the political jibes (especially a dig at the early release of prisoners under Labour’s watch); the cornucopia of corny puns and the chemistry of dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Tommy Carmichael’s dippy Jangles and Christian Mortimer’s game Prince Michael in the outstanding splosh slapstick scene.
Top marks too go to Terry Parsons, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s gorgeous set designs and Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame Creations’ ever-witty costumes for Simpson’s polka-dotty dame.
The exploding confetti cannon – fired without warning after a big build-up much earlier– finds Simpson’s dame at his best in pulling all the strings amid the comical chaos.
No less explosive is the battle for supremacy of CBeebies’ star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam and Jocasta Almgill’s wicked fairy Carabosse in a lung-busting sing-off as they spar to the max in Everything About You.
To put the cherry on the festive icing, Louis excitedly joined the queue to meet Jennie Dale, still on full beam in the foyer ahead of another performance that evening.
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm (captioned performance), 7pm; December 31, 11am, 3pm; January 2, 2.30pm (relaxed performance), 7pm; January 3, 2.30pm, 7pm; January 4, 11am, 3pm.
Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam and Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse battling for singing supremacy in York Theatre Royal’s musical variation on a spoken-word slam or rap battle
Which songs feature in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal?
Good Day Sunshine (The Beatles)
Hot To Go (Chappell Roan)
Introducing Me (Nick Jonas, from Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam)
School’s Out/Baggy Trousers/ABC (Alice Cooper/Madness/The Jackson 5)
Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
Hakuna Matata (Elton John, from The Lion King)
Die With A Smile (Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars)
Golden Slumbers (The Beatles)
Hellfire (Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame)
Pinball Wizard (The Who)
A Hundred Years Have Passed (from Dragonland)
Everything About You (Ugly Kid Joe)
A Thousand Years, repurposed as A Hundred Years (Christina Perri)
Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr)
Together In Electric Dreams (Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey)
Golden (from K-Pop Demon Hunters)
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, audience songsheet song, (Wham)
Everybody Needs Somebody To love, walk-down song (Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, from The Blues Brothers).
Sean Heydon: From Britain’s Got Talent to The Basement’s New Year’s Eve bill for Laugh Out Comedy Club. Now that’s magic!
LAUGH Out Loud Comedy Club will see out the old year with an unusually early start to the New Year’s Eve bill at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York.
No, seriously, that is true. To facilitate revellers heading off for midnight revelries, master of ceremonies Damion Larkin will be calling out the names from 6pm tomorrow, with everyone having the last laugh at 8.30pm.
Britain’s Got Talent’s madcap comedy magician Sean Heydon has been performing at comedy clubs and corporate events for A-list celebrities and blue-chip companies for more than 15 years.
Heydon has many television credits to his name, such as Soccer AM on Sky One and three seasons as resident magician on The Paul O’Grady Show on Channel 4. In 2020, he was engaged by Google to headline its sales conference in Birmingham.
Headliner Heydon will be supported by viral breakout star Karl Porter and alt. comedy act Ryan Kenny. Sharp, physical and unpredictable, Porter can make a room chuckle by using nothing more than his body, his face and an instinctive understanding of how absurd everyday life really is.
Ryan Kenny: Comic turn with a love for all things different
Porter broke through in a way that almost never happens in comedy anymore: organically, virally and purely on talent. A single piece of physical comedy – his slow-motion goal celebration impression – took on a life of its own online, introducing him to a huge new audience overnight. Now he has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram.
His stage act combines physical comedy with observational material, weaving everyday frustrations, modern life, and human behaviour into routines that feel familiar yet still surprising.
British Comedian of the Year semi-finalist Ryan Kenny is a whimsical comic with a love for all things different. Host and promoter Larkin likes to improvise his entire set.
To book tickets, go to: https://lolcomedyclubs.co.uk. Laugh Out Loud’s first gig of 2026 will be on January 10 at The Basement at the usual starting time of 8pm (doors 7.30pm).
AS PARTING lines go, Robert Plant’s sign-off goes straight to the top: “See you again. We’ll be everywhere, forever.”
Now 74, but as well preserved as ever, Plant seems to have been musically rejuvenated by his incredible Saving Grace band and intent of creating his own version of Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour.
In unshowy jeans and black T-shirt, he seemed totally immersed in the set, watching everything and everyone like some well-intentioned hawk.
It would be easy for a leonine rock star to bask in the adulation and recreate his former glories. Plant has never wanted to take that path. Despite being probably the biggest star to grace a York stage this year, he clearly wanted to cut the full-house adoration short to focus on the songs.
“I love you Robert,” someone piped up towards the end, to be met with a good-natured “It’s far too late for that!”
Support act Burr Island were also good natured, their four-part harmonies impressing. Coming across like the better-off West Country cousins of Dexys Midnight Runners, the group are still in their thrall of their influences (Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Harvest Moon-era Neil Young) but have the talent – if not the rough edges – to reach their own audience.
Saving Grace’s set of what might loosely be called Americana comprised a mix of traditional tunes, West Coast classics, more contemporary covers, Plant originals and four Zeppelin numbers in acoustic form.
Musically scintillating, Plant has assembled an absolutely cracking band. Happy to step aside, the spotlight was often somewhere other than him. This underlined with light what was blindingly obvious: this is a band performance, not a frontman and some hired guns.
Singing harmonies and co-lead was Suzi Dian, whose voice was totally simpatico with Plant’s but giving a depth and richness that recalled two of country music’s finest: Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.
Dian sang lead on Orphan Girl, written by Gillian Welch but better known for Harris’s cover. Dian’s voice has some of the thin steel that characterises Harris’s voice, but has a richer palette to draw on. Plant and Dian rarely took their eye off the other while singing.
Each of the band had numerous standout moments, for example Barney Morse-Brown’s cello acted like the bass, but also created a wonderfully unexpected segment of the radical reworking of Neil Young’s For The Turnstiles.
Matt Worley on banjo and strings was a cut above and also took on a vocal on the traditional What Is The Soul Of A Man. On drums, Oli Jefferson never went anywhere near a four-on-the-floor beat as he wove a rich sound tapestry on his 1930s’ vintage kit.
This is Plant’s Black Country Grand Union Station (with Alison Krauss of course, Plant’s former singing partner). On this form, no other band could touch them, the dynamics, the imagination and the prowess on show (but never overplayed).
The music was full of twists and turns, often evoking a powerful Spanish, Middle Eastern sound. Plant exemplified this, using that big voice of his with the care of a maestro, often cruising with power in reserve.
It was a treat to hear Moby Grape’s West Coast gem It’s a Beautiful Day Today, which sounded fresh and full of promise (sadly no room in the set for Naked If I Want To, but I can dream).
Occasionally Plant let loose and showed us his Zepp chops, with the band seemingly pinching themselves. The Led Zeppelin covers (Ramble On, Four Sticks, Friends and The Rain Song) were tastefully done and arranged to fit into the style of the set, not stand out. Each was treated to a warm welcome and The Rain Song particularly glistened with mystery.
To be critical, a third of the songs were the same as his April 2022 performance at the Grand Opera House, York, and the encores added nothing new musically. The band appear to be playing a very similar set each night on this tour, so there is none of the jeopardy you might get seeing Dylan.
Instead, you get a supremely well-executed set of songs that seem to have been worked through down to the last intake of breath. The 95-minute set flew by: the rich cherry on a fine year for live music in York.
Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, and Adam Price’s Billy Crocker in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Felix Wahlberg
SEEING out the old year, welcoming in the new, Charles Hutchinson refuses to advocate putting your feet up in the festive season.
All aboard for the last chances to see: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today to December 30
CLIMB aboard the S.S. American as it sets sail in Andrew Isherwood’s all-singing, all-dancing staging of Anything Goes, Cole Porter’s swish musical, charting the madcap antics of a motley crew leaving New York for London on a Christmas-themed steamer.
Meet nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown). Alas, Hope is engaged to fellow passenger Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Neil Foster). Enter second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell) to join Reno in trying to help Billy win the love of his life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Frances Marshall of History Riot: Presenting Tales From The Trail at York Castle Museum
Family-friendly performances of the week: History Riot in Tales From The Trail, York Castle Museum, Eye of York, York, today (27/12/2025) to January 3, except January 1, between 10am to 5pm daily
HISTORY Riot return to York Castle Museum with Tales From The Trail, an array of family-friendly performances, with start times being advertised at the admissions desk each day. Join two madcap Victorian characters for an urgent shopping trip on the Victorian street of Kirkgate this festive season.
The billboard poster for The Tubs & Bull’s co-headline show at The Crescent, York
Double bill of the week: The Tubs and Bull, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm
IN A Please Please You Seasonal Rock’n’Roll Party, The Tubs and Bull team up for a co-headline show, featuring Dan Lucas at the double, complemented by some friends DJing in the bar.
Cardiff indie rock band The Tubs comprises Lucas, Owen Williams, Max Warren and Taylor Stewart; York alt. rock band Bull features songwriting frontman Tom Beer, guitarist Lucas, drummer Tom Gabbatiss, bassist Kai West and keyboard player and vocalist Holly Beer. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/the-tubs-bull/.
Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Still time for pantomime: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, until January 4
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty.
Written as ever by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced once more with award-winning Evolution Productions. Look out too for Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics: he indeed the fire starter, twisting, turning fire starter. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Turning ugly: Luke Attwood’s Melody Hard-Up and Brandon Nicholson’s Harmony Hard-Up in UK Productions’ Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Still time for more pantomime: Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4
CORONATION Street star Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother leads the Grand Opera House pantomime cast, joined by Tobias Turley (ITV’s Mamma Mia I Have A Dream) as Prince Charming and West End star Rachel Grundy (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Legally Blonde) as Cinderella in UK Productions’ Cinderella, scripted by award-winning Jon Monie.
Directed by Ellis Kerkhoven, West End drag stars Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson double down on the rather saucy mayhem in Ugly Sisters mode, joined in the capering comedy corner by Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The creative team behind The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz at Castle Howard. Picture: Tom Arber
The Yellow Brick enters the home straight: The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Castle Howard, near York, until January 4
CASTLE Howard is transformed for winter into an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations, floristry, projections, lighting and sound for The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
Created by CLW Event Design, headed up by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, the show-stopping Emerald City High Street in the Long Gallery is the highlight, with life-size fabricated shop fronts inspired by York’s Shambles, while the 28ft Christmas tree sparkles in the Great Hall. Leeds theatre company Imitating The Dog provides the spectacular projections and soundscapes. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Snow show in A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre
Deep freeze: A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre, York, until February 22 2026
A WINTER Adventure brings a new wintery experience to the underground York visitor attraction, where the 10th century Vikings are celebrating Yule with natural decorations hung on their houses. For the first time, visitors can peer through Bright White’s time portal into the blacksmith’s house excavated on this site in the 1970s, seeing what it would have been like to live there.
They will then board a time sleigh to travel back in time around the backstreets, transformed by Wetherby set dressers EPH Creative, who have covered streets and houses in a thick blanket of snow, bathed in cold blue lighting.Pre-booking is essential for all visits to JORVIK at jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk.
Fever presents: Candlelight: Best Of Bridgerton On Strings, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, January 3, 6.30pm; Candlelight: Tribute To Queen & More, 8.30pm
DEAREST Reader, Lady Whistledown has given her verdict: the event of the season is here! Bathed in the soft glow of candlelight, favourite melodies from Shondaland’s Bridgerton series on Netflix are re-imagined by the New World String Quartet in a magical 60-minute performance of Candlelight: Best Of Bridgerton On Strings.
Later that same night, Candlelight presents the music of Queen and More in a live, hour-long multi-sensory musical experience featuring We Will Rock You, Somebody To Love, Radio Ga Ga, Killer Queen, We Are The Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody and many more. Box office: support.feverup.com.
Ancient Hostility: Passionate political and personal song in harmony at Navigators Art’s A Feast Of Fools III
Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools III, The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, January 4, 7.30pm, doors 7pm
WELCOME to A Feast Of Fools III, York arts collective Navigators Art’s sign-off to “Holiday’s end – the last gasp of Mischief” in a celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas packed with live folk music and a nod to the pagan and the impish.
On the bill will be: Ancient Hostility, performing passionate political and personal song in harmony; North West folk duo Joshua Arnold and Therine, presenting vocal-led trad and experimental versions of British folk songs; Pefkin, whose ritualistic hymnals draw heavily on the landscape and the natural world, and White Sail, York’s multi-instrumental alt-folk legends. Box office: www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.
Pickering Musical Society’s principal panto players for Snow White at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
First panto of the New Year: Pickering Musical Society in Snow White, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, January 14 to 25, 7.15pm, except January 19; 2.15pm, January 17, 18, 24 and 25
DIRECTED for the tenth year by resident director Luke Arnold and writer by Ron Hall, Pickering Musical Society’s 2026 pantomime combines comedy, spectacle, festive magic, dazzling scenery and colourful costumes.
The show features such principals as Marcus Burnside’s Dame Dumpling, Danielle Long’s Prince Valentine, Alice Rose’s Snow White, Paula Cook’s Queen Lucrecia and Sue Smithson’s Fairy Dewdrop. Audiences are encouraged to book early to avoid disappointment. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.littleboxoffice.com.
Hannah Christina’s Rosie and Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s Rex in Elizabeth Godber’s Jingle All The Way at Pocklington Arts Centre
THIS is the third Christmas collaboration between Pocklington Arts Centre, playwright-director Elizabeth Godber and co-director Jane Thornton from the John Godber Company stable.
It also marks the last act of departing PAC artistic director Angela Stone, who has produced the show before returning to her native Scotland to live in Ullapool in the Highlands in January. Thank you, Angela, for all you have done for this East Yorkshire market town’s arts scene since October 2022.
“We take great pride in producing inclusive and engaging stories, bringing magical Christmas spirit to our stage and welcoming returning and new audiences to PAC,” she said, after completing a hat trick of Godber, Thornton and Stone enterprises, following in the snow tracks of The Elves And The Shoemaker: Save Christmas and Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish.
How right she is. Catching an evening performance, the audience of young children and their mums and dads were rapt in joyous attention as they revelled in the storytelling skills of writer Godber (yes, John ‘s daughter) and her cast of part-Spanish, wholly Hull-accented Emilio Encinoso-Gil, continuing his run of good form after such shows as John Godber’s Northern Soul song of praise, Do I Love You?, and professional debutante and Godber Theatre Foundation member Hannah Christina, a 2025 graduate of Performers College, Birmingham.
On Emily Clay’s beautiful set design of a forest of snowy Christmas trees, festive lights and multiple boxes, Encinoso-Gil’s Rex and Christina’s reindeer sister Rosie have newly enrolled at a new school, the East Riding Reindeer Academy, in Pocklington, it just so happens, as Christmas fast approaches.
Rosie wants to fit in, to be cool at school with the in-crowd, even if it means shunning her nerdy, outsider brother, with his never-ending list of interesting Christmas and Santa Claus facts but his struggle to know where he belongs.
She will have no problem in joining the Santa’s Sleigh cheerleaders. Rex, on the other hand, is anything but sporty and so initially is highly reluctant to compete to join the supremely athletic sleigh squad.
Rosie agrees to work with the schools’ coolest deer dudes, a strutting duo permanently in shades, even to inform on her brother. Ouch. Encinoso-Gil and Christina are a delightfully villainous duo as Jingle All The Way’s answer to Heathers, with deer-patterned jackets straight off the deer catwalk.
Hannah Christina and Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s to-cool-for-school villainous double act in Jingle All The Way
Nevertheless, not to be done over or outdone, this is an underdog, or rather underdeer story, where Encinsoso-Gil’s Rex finds his chutzpah to start training for the school-wide competition to fill the last place in the sleigh squad.
Kitted in American-college attire in green and red (Christina) and a different shade of red and green with brown (Encinoso-Gil) beneath antler headsets, they look suitably seasonal, their acting playful, physical and fun, their movement constantly changing (Encinoso-Gil’s energy-sapping training regime and weight-lifting exertions are a particular joy).
Their interaction with the audience is established quickly, topped off by a sing-song of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Children are not slow to exhort their very vocal support for Rex with words of encouragement and cheers. Hurrah!
After appearing in both The Elves And The Shoemaker: Save Christmas and Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish, Dylan Allcock returns for a third Pock winter season, this time as musical director, contributing instantly catchy original songs and a slew of deer-orientated Christmas favourites, not least Chuck Berry’s evergreen Run Rudolph Run.
Godber’s script has room for pathos as well as plenty of humour (in Godber family tradition), complemented by ruddy-cheeked Christmas spirit and fast-moving sense of purpose and attention-sustaining momentum under the Godber-Thornton axis, keeping each half to only 30 minutes.
Godber scores high points for local references too, always a good idea in Christmas shows but sometimes neglected or underplayed by other shows.
Encinoso-Gil is thoroughly good company as the loser-turned-winner, while the multi-role-playing Christina impresses with her array of accents, from Scottish to American to Yorkshire, in her characterful, character-filled debut.
“We make something that’s a little bit different to panto,” said Angela Stone. If the continuation of this pantomime partnership is her Pocklington legacy, then how fitting that would be.
For tickets: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles with dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
AFTER performing in an Evolution Productions’ pantomime co-production with York Theatre Royal for the first time in Aladdin in 2024, Tommy Carmichael is reprising his daft-lad act as Jangles in Sleeping Beauty this winter.
“Oliver Scott, who works with Evolution director [and Theatre Royal panto writer] Paul Hendy a lot, directed me in The Wind In The Willows on an outdoor theatre tour [by Ely company KD Theatre Productions], when I played seven characters, including Chief Weasel, and then recommended me to Paul, so it fell sweetly into place for me,” Tommy recalls.
Based in Livingston, near Edinburgh, where his partner works, Doncaster-born Yorkshireman Tommy felt very much at home on the York stage straight away. “It was a lovely experience. I felt so welcomed by everyone who was already part of the Theatre Royal show [writer Hendy, director Juliet Forster, regular dame Robin Simpson], but it was also nice that there was a fluidity to creating the show.
“It’s not completely set in stone, so you can play with ideas and suggest things to each other, so the show feels like it’s all of us making it, rather than one person’s ideas.”
Tommy Carmichael’s ever-cheerful Charlie in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal last winter. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Now playing the comic’s role in a panto for the fourth time in Sleeping Beauty, Tommy loves bonding with audiences. “The audience is like an extra member of the cast, another character that you can bounce off at each show, as Paul Hawkyard [playing villain Ivan Tobebooed] said to me at Aladdin last year,” he says.
“That helped me because I’ve never been able to work out how the energy changes from rehearsing a scene four or five times in the rehearsal room, where you think ‘Am I doing this right?’, but as soon as you test it in performances, you think, ‘Ah yes, this does work’.”
A key characteristic of his role is to connect with the children in the audience, to be their idiot brother! “I teach children theatre, from the ages of six to 18, in Livingston, where I work at Proscenium Stage School, so that’s very transferable to the stage show, as all the things I wouldn’t necessarily know, they bring into class!”
Tommy is delighted to be bouncing back to York this winter. “The fact that I’ve been asked back is an honour,” he says. “I feel so grateful that the Theatre Royal trusts me with it, because, from doing an audition to starting in the rehearsal room, they don’t know what you’ll be like, but they liked what I gave them in Aladdin and I’m just so excited to be back.”
Tommy Carmichael’s poster portrait, announcing his return in Sleeping Beauty
As is the lot of a jobbing actor, Tommy has performed in myriad spaces. “I performed in the grandeur of Ely Cathedral in The Wind In The Willows; I worked with Immersion Theatre Company in Harlow, and during lockdown I did an open-air show in a tent with all the sides off!,” he says.
“I’m a very sweaty person, and you could see the condensation come off my head and hands. That was in Dick Whittington, when I played the dame.”
In his amateur theatre days, Tommy appeared as the dame “a lot”. “I got my panto training in dames, and I’ve played the villain too,” he says. “But I love playing the comic, being able to shout and have the whole audience as your friend, being silly without the pressure of telling the story. I love that thing of ‘Can we just get on with it?’, and I’ll say ‘No’!”
Tommy is back in York after touring in the interactive cabaret show Big Strong Man with the Doncaster company The Growth House, whose motto is “Don’t Grow Up, Grow Out”, delivering “personal, passionate and experimental live events that are part protest, part party and all theatre”.
Tommy Carmichael: Spending Christmas Day back home in Doncaster
“They’ve become the resident company at CAST in Doncaster and are now being mentored by the Emma Rice Company [formerly Wise Children],” he says. “That show [Big Strong Man] is like a game show, where four different types of masculinity all fight for who should be ‘the ruler of all men from now until the end of time’.”
Combining storytelling, song, dance, improv, ladders, competition, boy band parodies, lip syncs, placards, blocks, charity-shop suits, karaoke and a bear in a celebration of northern culture and community spirit, “it’s a show where four Northern men are given the impossible task of fixing the men’s mental health crisis in one night. We did it in theatres and working men’s clubs too, taking it to spaces where men in various works of life feel more comfortable.”
Being in York for the winter season has its advantages at Christmas for Tommy. “It had been ten years since I was able to go back to the family at Christmas, but fortunately my family are in Doncaster, so I could see them last Christmas and will do so again this year, having been used to not spending Christmas with them, so that’s lovely.”
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Doing time in pantomime: Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, centre, in the Sleeping Beauty slosh scene with dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, left, and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
Jared More and Katie Coen feeling stressed out at the Bethlehem Inn in Riding Lights’ Christmas Inn Trouble
CHRISTMAS shows in myriad merry modes dominate Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for the week ahead.
Magical new twist on the Nativity of the week:Riding Lights Theatre Company in Christmas Inn Trouble, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, today, 1.30pm and 4pm, then December 21 to 24, 11am, 1.30pm and 4pm
BOTHER aplenty is afflicting The Bethlehem Inn and Spa, where taps are leaking, the rats are squeaking and the rooms are fit to burst. So many guests have arrived that parking your camel is impossible and, if things were not bad enough already, a rascally Roman soldier has come to make sure everything is above board.
Written by Rachel Price, directed by Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch and starring Jared More and Katie Coen, festive farce Christmas Inn Trouble “turns the traditional tale on its head” in a slapstick comedy perfect for telling the Nativity story to primary-school aged children and their families. Box office: 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/christmasinntrouble.
Eve Lorian: Conducting Prima Choral Artists’ Family Christmas Concert at St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York
Choral concert of the week: Prima Choral Artists, Family Christmas Concert, St Olave’s Church, Marygate, York, today, 4pm to 5pm
PRODUCED and conducted by Prima Choral Artists director Eve Lorian, today’s concert unites her choir with the New World String Quartet, organist James Webb and pianist Greg Birch in reflective and cheerful Christmas celebrations.
Here come high-spirited festive classics, modern choral arrangements and string and organ repertoire, including works by Tchaikovsky and Rawsthorne. Box office: primachoral.com and on the door.
The Queeries: Fun, frolicsome fiddling at Navigators Art’s As Yule Like It
All cracker, no cheese festive menu of the week: Navigators Art presents As Yule Like It, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 7.30pm (doors 7pm)
NAVIGATORS Art promises “All cracker, no cheese” at As Yule Like It, tonight’s live, local and loud showcase of “some of York’s finest and most individual sounds”. On the bill are University of York music student Cast Beatbox, racing up the ranks in national contests; Knitting Circle, York’s socially conscious and urgent post-punk trio, and York St John University folkies The Queeries, purveyors of fun, frolicsome fiddling.
Performing too will be Tang Hall Smart tutor and passionate singer-songwriter Toemouse, offering an invitation to a mystical ride, and Weather Balloons with a set of Boschian vignettes and betrayals of guitar music from a soft-rock renegade off duty from regular band Fat Spatula. Some material may not be suitable for young children. Box office: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/navigators-art-performance.
Hole Of Horcum, 2025, from Donna Maria Taylor’s This Rugged Earth exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Exhibition of the week: Donna Maria Taylor, This Rugged Earth, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, until February 12 2026
SOUTH Bank Studios resident artist Donna Maria Taylor’s latest collection of paintings, This Rugged Earth, is inspired by the world around her and her travels both in the United Kingdom and Europe.
“The majority of the new work nod to my love of rugged hillscapes and mountainous landscapes,” says Donna, who will be exhibiting at York Open Studios and York Hospital in 2026.
Hannah Christina’s Rosie and Emilio Encinoso-Gil’s Rex in Pocklington Arts Centre’s Christmas show, Jingle All The Way
Deer double act of the week: Jingle All The Way, Pocklington Arts Centre, today, tomorrow, 1.30pm; Monday, 4.30pm; Tuesday, 10.30am and 4.30pm
FROM the team behind The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas and Jack Frost’s Christmas Wish comes Elizabeth Godber’s latest Christmas family adventure, co-directed by Jane Thornton with musical direction by Dylan Allcock.
Reindeer siblings Rex (Emilio Encinoso-Gil) and Rosie (Hannah Christina) are reluctant to start at a new school just before Christmas, especially when that school is the East Riding Reindeer Academy, home of supreme athletes. Santa, however, has a position free on his sleigh squad; could this be Rex’s big chance? Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Northern Ballet’s dancers in a flurry of snow in The Nutcracker at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Sophie Beth Jones
Ballet of the week: Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2026
LEEDS company Northern Ballet’s much-loved festive production of The Nutcracker – premiered in 2007 – is revived anew this winter, featuring lavish costumes and Charles Cusick Smith sets that capture the 19th century Regency England setting beautifully for the timeless story of Clara and her wooden Nutcracker doll. As the clock strikes midnight, she finds herself being whisked away on a magical adventure filled with dancing snowflakes and a whole host of colourful characters.
Choreographed by former artistic director David Nixon CBE, the ballet is performed to the instantly recognisable music of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that first accompanied Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s original choreography in 1892. Glory be, that score will be performed live under conductor Yi Wei. Box office: https://northernballet.com/the-nutcracker.
Gemma Curry and her Arctic Fox puppet in Yuletide Tales at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Where the Northern Lights dance and old tales come alive: Hoglets Theatre in Yuletide Tales, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, Sunday, doors 4pm
GATHER round as the snow begins to fall and step into a world of wonder, cheeky robins and enchanted polar bears in Yuletide Tales, York company Hoglets Theatre’s heartwarming festive show for families, full of original songs, puppetry and magical storytelling.
Join cheerful storyteller Gemma Curry and her mischievous Arctic Fox friend as they journey through wintery folktales from the icy kingdoms of the North to the shimmer of the Northern Lights. Re-imaginings of traditional stories East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon, The Arctic Fox And The Northern Lights and How The Moon Got Its Cloak are accompanied by gentle audience interaction and a message of warmth and togetherness. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.
The poster for Anton Du Beke’s festive song-and-dance show with friends at York Barbican
Dandy dancing of the week: Christmas With Anton Du Beke & Friends, York Barbican, Sunday, 5pm
EMBARK on a dazzling journey into a festive wonderland as Strictly Come Dancing judge and ballroom king Anton Du Beke joins forces with his dynamic live band, vocalist Lance Ellington and troupe of dancers for a magical evening of cherished Christmas songs, captivating dance and festive humour. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Recommended but sold out already is Robert Plant’s Saving Grace gig, Ding Dong Merrily, at York Barbican on December 23 (doors 7pm), when Plant, co-vocalist Suzi Dian drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley and cellist Barney Morse-Brown showcase September 26’s Saving Grace album, “a song book of the lost and found”.
David Ward Maclean: Marking Winter Solstice with “iceberg songs with penguins on them”
Solo show of the week: David Ward Maclean Winter Solstice Concert, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
JOIN York singer-songwriting legend David Ward Maclean for a lovely night of songs to mark the Winter Solstice, drawing on material from the past 20 years for his two sets. “My songs are icebergs. With penguins on them,” he says. “All revenue will go straight to recording my new album Pilgrims.” Box office: https://wegottickets.com/event/668355/.
Jocasta Almgill’s wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
WEST End star Jocasta Almgill has headed home to Yorkshire to patrol the dark side as villainous Carabosse, East Riding accent and all, in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal.
One hundred years of sleep await Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora but there will be no rest for Jocasta’s wicked fairy until January 4 2026.
Originally from Hull and now based in London, she has appeared in such musical roles as Diana Morales in A Chorus Line (Curve Leicester/Sadler’s Wells/national tour) and Rizzo in Grease (Dominion Theatre, London), receiving nominations for the 2022 Black British Theatre Award for Best Supporting Female in a Musical and the 2023 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Supporting Performer in a Musical.
No wonder York Theatre Royal creative director and Sleeping Beauty director Juliet Forster enthuses: “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Jocasta to York for this year’s panto. She is an incredible talent and audiences are in for a real treat.”
Amid her myriad credits, Jocasta has performed in York previously. “I was in the original tribute to The Blues Brothers, which came to the Grand Opera House years ago in my first job out of college [Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, from where she graduated in 2009 after three years of musical theatre studies],” she says.
East Yorkshire-raised actress Jocasta Almgill
“Then I came back on tour in 2018 with Hairspray, when I was Peaches, one of The Dynamites.” Watch this space for news of a possible return there in a “big musical” next year.
In the meantime, Jocasta is revelling in breaking new ground in Sleeping Beauty. “Carabosse is my first baddie. It’s such fun,” she says. “I always do the Fairy normally, and I love the Fairy in panto, but she’s there to tell the story.
“As Carabosse, I can just have fun and have a lovely time being bad, so I’m really enjoying playing the baddie. Basically Carabosse is so annoyed she’s not been invited to Aurora’s Christening that she casts a spell on her that, before her 18th birthday, she will prick her finger and then be asleep for 100 years.”
Such bad behaviour contrasts with Jocasta’s previous goody-goody pantomime roles for Evolution Productions, York Theatre Royal’s panto partners. “Last year I played Cupid the Fairy in Beauty And The Beast at Canterbury; prior to that, Myrtle the Mermaid in Peter Pan in St Albans.
“In 2020, for Evolution, I was at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley, when we were socially distanced with the tier system in place for Covid 19, and we managed to stay open through the run. It was called something like Dame Dolly Saves Panto!” Indeed it was.
Jocasta enjoys working with the award-winning Evolution team each panto season. “One hundred per cent! It’s why a lot of actors go back to work with them each year, having that security of a good show each winter, which frees you up to do other acting jobs over the rest of the year, knowing you have a job at Christmas.”
Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse in her lair. “She’s my first baddie. It’s such fun,” she says. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography
This year took Jocasta to Japan to reprise her role as Diana Morales in A Chorus Line. “It started off as a Curve production in Leicester, then went to Sadler’s Wells, and then some Japanese producers picked it up,” she says.
“We were there for ten weeks, playing three cities, Tokyo, Sendai, Osaka and then back to Tokyo. Japanese is a tricky language to learn, but within the company there were lots of Japanese people, so I could practise my Japanese.”
How did that go? “Sometimes they would laugh at me! Like when I thought I was saying ‘That was delicious’ and in fact I’d said ‘Would you marry me’!”
She took the opportunity to go sight-seeing in each city. “There was more time than you might think to do that – and I’m quite the early bird, getting up early to see things. It was very special to be there; an experience I shall never forget.”
Jocasta had pinned her hopes on playing a panto villain earlier than this winter. “At St Albans two years ago, I said ‘I want to play Captain Hook’, which would have been so much fun, but then they cast me as Cupid,” she recalls.
Jocasta Almgill in rehearsal for her villainous role as Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty
“I thought, ‘it’ll never happen’, but thankfully they offered me Carabosse this winter, and I told them, ‘I’d love to do that’.”
Jocasta is delighted to be drawing the boos in Sleeping Beauty. “It’s great to be working with Evolution again. We have a brilliant show on our hands that’s really exciting and is a real spectacle, as well as being funny. Visually it’s amazing, and I’m very happy with my costumes,” she says.
“I sing quite a few big numbers. Paul [Evolution Productions’ artistic director and York panto writer Paul Hendy] always has me doing some rocky numbers. I did Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle as Welcome To The Panto in Beauty And The Beast, and here I’m doing Hellfire, from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame musical.
“I get to open Act Two with Pinball Wizard, and I’ve got a duet with Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam where we compete with each other in Ugly Kid Joe’s Everything About You.
“The cast bounces off each other so well, and I love working with Robin [Robin Simpson’s dame Nurse Nellie], who’s hilarious. Luckily I don’t have too many scenes with him or I’d be giggling!”
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jocasta Almgill in her poster portrait, announcing her appearance in Sleeping Beauty
Behind the scenes of Sleeping Beauty pantomime with S R Taylor Photography
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime photographer S R Taylor Photography has gone behind the scenes to give a glimpse into the backstage magic of this winter’s co-production with Evolution Productions.
Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs regular dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s villainous Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s daft lad Jangles, CBeebies’ star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora, Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia and fire act Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor in the panto run until January 4 2026.
Here is a selection of Taylor’s plethora of panto photographs.
Behind you: S R Taylor Photography takes a picture of York Theatre Royal dame Robin Simpson as Nurse Nellie prepares to enter the stage
Aoife Kenny’s Aurora in a quiet moment in the wings
Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam on full beam
Raptor the dinosaur and fire act Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor turn up the heat in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal
Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie in a riot of colours in Sleeping Beauty. The dame’s costumes are designed by Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame Creations
Kris Madden lighting the wheel of fire for his pantomime pyrotechnics in Sleeping Beauty
Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia performing a duet in a captivating scene in Sleeping Beauty
Hat trick! Kris Madden prepares to light up the panto with one of his fire highlights
