The poster for next summer’s Shed Seven invasion of Leeds Millennium Square
YORK heroes Shed Seven will take over Leeds Millennium Square on July 15 in an exclusive open-air Yorkshire show next summer.
Joining them on Sounds Of The City 2023’s 6pm to 10.30pm bill will be Britpop cohorts Cast, John Power’s Liverpool indie rock combo, and fellow terrace-anthem York group Skylights.
“This is a HUGE show for us, and we hope the Shed Seven family will make the pilgrimage to Leeds and join us on what’s sure to be a special night,” say The Sheds, who played to a 10,000 crowd at Leeds First Direct Arena in December 2019.
All tickets for this standing-only outdoor triple bill with a 6,000 capacity are priced at £35 (£38.50 with booking fee) and go on sale tomorrow (18/11/2022) at 9am at millsqleeds.com/whatson-event/shed-seven-sounds-of-the-city/
Shed Seven’s Paul Banks and Rick Witter
UPDATE 19/11/2022
GONE in a flash. All tickets have been snapped up within a day for Shed Seven’s Leeds Millennium Square gig.
The Sheds took to Twitter today to say: “SOLD OUT. A massive heartfelt thank you to everyone who bought tickets for our Leeds Millennium Square show yesterday. We can’t wait for this show, 6,000 people singing along with us in the sunshineeeeee …. Old and new tunes… maybe some special guests too! Love the Sheds x”
“The rule should be, if the audience stops laughing, you have to try something different,” says Sara Pascoe. That’s the beauty of comedy: it’s not pressure, it’s liberating”
HOW does comedian, actor, playwright, author, TV presenter and new mum Sara Pascoe quantify success?
She seeks to provide the answer in her biggest tour yet, Success Story, whose 50 dates in two blocks from November 10 to December 3 2022 and January 26 to April 22 next year take in four Yorkshire gigs: York Barbican on November 24 (7.30pm); Sheffield Octagon, the next night; Hull City Hall, March 17, and Harrogate Royal Hall, April 21.
She is delighted to be returning to the road for the first time since her LadsLadsLads tour of 2018-2019, the one where she contemplated the positive aspects of self-imposed celibacy, exploring love, sex and doing both alone.
This time, expect “name-dropping, personal stories and anecdotes,” says Sara, who will deliver jokes about status, celebrities, plus her new fancy lifestyle versus infertility, her multiple therapists and career failures.
“What I want to explore is how do we define success and when do we define it. Does it change with age? Do we only want things we can’t have? When we attain our goals, do we move the goal posts and become unsatisfied with what we’ve got and want something else instead?
“I’m 41 now and it’s a reflective time; it feels like a very adult age. Looking back on my life to when I was 14, I really wanted to be on television. That’s where I work now but is it what I imagined it to be?”
The trigger for Success Story were her experiences when undergoing IVF after a miscarriage. “When I was going through that with my partner [Australian comedian Steen Raskopoulos], they kept talking about it in terms of success,” says Sara, who became a mum on Valentine’s Day this year at the age of 40.
“I started thinking about success, what I wanted as a child, and then thinking about what makes you happy, or if you’ve set out on a certain path that makes you unhappy, should you do something else?”
“If you’ve set out on a certain path that makes you unhappy, should you do something else?” ponders Sara Pascoe in Success Story
Deciding she wanted to be famous at 14, Dagenham-born Sara would go on to audition for Barrymore, scare Dead Or Alive’s Pete Burns and ruin Hugh Grant’s birthday, but she would also notch a decade in stand-up comedy and pen the feminist Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female Body in 2016 and her exploration of sex through the medium of evolutionary psychology, sex work, and the role of money in modern heterosexual relationships in Sex Power Money in 2019, spawning an accompanying podcast.
Her “big, bold and funny” stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice played York Theatre Royal in October 2017 and she wrote and starred in the October 2020 sitcom Out Of Her Mind on BBC Two. She has presented television shows too, hosting Comedians Giving Lectures on Dave, Guessable on Comedy Central, BBC Two’s Last Woman On Earth and this year’s BBC One series of The Great British Sewing Bee.
“What quite often happens with stand-up comedy, it doesn’t take up a lot of your time, when it’s your main job. You have a lot of time on your hands, when that main job only takes up an evening five times a week.
“You can do other things, like writing a book, where they aren’t looking for gags, whereas you can’t go half an hour without a joke in a stand-up show,” says Sara.
Hence her diversification. “It’s more about thinking, ‘oh, that would be good to have a go at that’, rather than worrying about being found out at one thing,” she reasons.
How do you judge success in comedy? “I’ve noted that some people, once they get to the top, they then plateau, and that can be hard, as not everyone can be a stadium comic,” says Sara.
She enjoys the expectation of having to come up with fresh material for every new tour, whereas the success of a band’s gig is often judged on which hits they played, which they chose to leave out.
“It’s horrible when a gig becomes dead behind the eyes,” says Sara, outlining what to avoid when seeking comedy success
“That’s the added benefit of doing comedy. I was thinking how boring it must be to always have to play songs from 20 years ago when the bands probably hate them by now, whereas comedians have to move on, just as people do when they can’t keep talking about a divorce or an old girlfriend,” says Sara, who switched from the repetition of performing theatre to the freshly squeezed juice of comedy.
“You’re quite often in a different place by the end of a tour and your set reflects that. It’s horrible when a gig becomes dead behind the eyes.
“I remember being told very early in my career how Bill Bailey always had five minutes of new material each night, working it into shape for the next tour, and it’s true that if you try out new bits after the interval, you’re never dead behind the eyes.”
Sara continues: “The rule should be, if the audience stops laughing, you have to try something different. That’s the beauty of comedy: it’s not pressure, it’s liberating. If you have three nights in a row where people aren’t connecting, throw that material in the bin. Actors can’t do that!
“At the end of a show, you don’t want a crowd going ‘yeah, that was fine’. You want them to say, ‘oh god, do you remember that bit?’. You want an audience to be engaged in what you’re saying.”
At the time of this phone interview, Sara was busy writing a book and filming the latest series of The Great British Sewing Bee. She could reveal that those shows would be broadcast on BBC One next spring; she could say rather less, however, about her next venture into print.
“We’ve not done a proper release yet,” she says. “Put something vague… ‘I’m moving into fiction’. It’s a chance to make some things up for a change.” Watch this space.
Tickets for Sara Pascoe’s Success Story tour are on sale at sarapascoe.co.uk/sara-on-tour; for York Barbican at yorkbarbican.co.uk; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Millie O’Connell’s young Cher, Babe, with Tori Scott’s Georgia, her mother, in The Cher Show. Picture: Pamela Raith
THERE may be only one Cher, 76 and now ‘dating’ Alexander Edwards, 40 years her junior – “Love doesn’t know Math,” she says – but it takes three Chers to portray her in The Cher Show: A New Musical.
Sharing out Cher are Millie O’Connell as Babe (childhood, Sonny Bono and Cher up to The Sonny And Cher Comedy Hour); Barnsley-born Danielle Steers as Lady (the Seventies’ solo years) and Debbie Kurup as Star, the Cher-leader role of narrator and “oldest and wisest” Cher (the movie years, her relationship with bagel factory worker, bartender and actor Rob Camiletti (Sam Ferriday), the “Comeback” finale, auto-tune anthem Believe topping the charts et al).
Missing out are the Dead Ringer For Love duet with Meat Loaf and any direct reference to the 2002-2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. Meanwhile, the 2018-2020 Here We Go Again tour of America (and the postponed 2022 British leg) and Cher’s role as Ruby Sheridan in Mamma Mia! 2: Here We Go Again, the 2018 excuse for a second Abba movie, have both added to her legacy since The Cher Show made its June 2018 debut in Chicago.
No complaints at any absentees: the running time of two and a half hours (including a 20-minute interval) has so much to cram in already from Cherilyn Sarkisian’s life as the 100 million record-selling “Goddess of Pop” and “Queen of Reinvention”, singer, actress, television host, fashion icon, drag queen favourite and charity founder.
Seventies’ shimmer:Danielle Steers as Lady in The Cher Show. Picture: Pamela Raith
No time to lose, Rick Elice’s book seeks to crack the whip in trademark Cher style, opening with Kurup’s Star undergoing a crisis of confidence in her dressing room and seeking words of comfort from her younger selves, Babe and Lady.
Hearing all three speak in that quavering Cher alto with her distinctive vowel sounds is a tad freaky at first, but it instantly establishes their rapport, as they observe each other, comment and banter, sing together, overlap but never undermine. When shall we three meet again? In studio, divorce court or in pain? When the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won.
Battles aplenty there are, from childhood days of dyslexia and feeling she did not fit in at school as an Armenian American with dark hair, days when her truck driver father, with his drug and gambling habits, just upped and left. Yet there is humour aplenty, a knowing Cher trademark, both in Elice’s book and in Arlene Phillips’s direction, from the moment O’Connell’s Babe enters on a bike, aged six, in Sixties’ Cher garb and already with an adult voice.
The balance of light and darker; of being funny and being laughed at; success and slumps; falling in love and out of love; the tongue in cheek and not turning the other cheek; having hits and fallow spells; singing and acting; concerts and TV, (over)working and motherhood, ebbs and flows throughout. All played out against a backdrop of a woman having to fight against a man’s world, rebelling against convention, whether dealing with Phil Spector (Ferriday), Sonny Bono (Guy Woolf this week, alternating on tour with Lucas Rush), Greg Allman (Ferriday again) or TV directors.
Cher leader: Debbie Kurup’s Star in The Cher Show. Picture: Pamela Raith
There are constants too: the love and support of her mother Georgia (Tori Scott); the constant drive for reinvention; the eye for a costume of her designer, Bob Mackie (Jake Mitchell).
Whether singing solo, in duets or sometimes, better still, as a trio, the three Chers do Cher proud, capturing the drama, passion, swagger, yearning, defiance, assertiveness and droll melancholia of that extraordinary alto voice. Never settling into broad impersonation, they find the heart and humour and hurt in Cher, both individually and collectively, attuned to the facial and bodily mannerisms, the gradual change in the singing tone too.
Woolf seeks to make Sonny a rounded figure, a man of talents and faults alike, but one who kept playing his part in her career; Ferriday has a field day with assorted cameos as men who came and went.
If you enjoyed Gabriella Slade’s costume design brio with bling dazzle in SIX, then you will love it in The Cher Show, where she broadens the colour palette, denoting a different mood board for each Cher, but with black and silver still to the fore for Star and the ensemble alike.
Three Chers: Millie O’Connell, as Babe, left, Debbie Kurup, as Star, and Danielle Steers, as Lady. Triptych picture: Matt Crockett
Tom Rogers’ set combines row upon row of garment bags and wig stands with recording studio and concert hall paraphernalia and room for home interiors and spectacular performances on towering steps.
Oti Mabuse’s choreography plays true to the Cher trademarks and is thrilling for the three Chers, rather less so for the well-drilled but somewhat monotone ensemble.
Best number? Every detail coming together, from singing to choreography, orchestrations to design, for Bang Bang. Believe seeps in and out, acting like a theme tune; Half-Breed is poignant; Strong Enough, resilient; I Got You Babe as love-struck as a crush could ever be; The Shoop Shoop Song, cannily returned to its 1960s’ roots.
Three cheers for the three Chers, but if I could turn back time, a tightening of the text would have been beneficial. Less Cher to share, yes, but better for the glitter and the grit, the wow factor and the wit before the party finale.
The Cher Show: A New Musical, runs at Grand Opera House, York, turning back time until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York
Eric Jensen’s Bill Sikes and director Steve Tearle’s Fagin in an argumentative scene in rehearsal for NE’s Oliver!
THE company name is becoming ever shorter, but NE’s production runs in York are growing longer.
Formerly NE Musicals York, NE will be stretching Lionel Bart’s Oliver! into a second week at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, under the direction of Steve Tearle, who is playing Fagin for the fourth time in his career at 62.
“It’s our first venture into doing a fortnight in the theatre,” says Steve. “We wanted to do a show where, if we were going to have two casts, we were going to have a return on it by lengthening the run. We wanted it to be two weeks, not just for us as a company but as an experience for everyone involved.
“Two performances have sold out already [the Saturday matinees] and four have only limited availability [November 18, 19, 25 and 26, 7.30pm]. We’re selling 100 tickets daily and have sold more than 2,800 so far, but you can always ask for more!”
Where once ‘NE’ stood for the company’s roots of New Earswick, now it is an anagram for creating “New and Exciting” musical productions, the latest being a revised version of Oliver! that complements the familiar songs and characters with added scenes to “bring the story to life in more detail”.
Toby Jensen’s Artful Dodger, left, Callum Richardson’s Charley and Matthew Musk’s Nipper
“It was revised in 2018, when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh revised it,” says Steve. “So now we have Bill Sikes in Act One with Fagin.
“I’ve put in a new scene that explains why Nancy so loves Oliver because he stops Sikes from hitting her, and we’ve also revamped Mr Bumble’s character, played at every performance by Chris Hagyard, making him much more fruity!”
The two teams of performers – Team Dawkins and Team Twist – will play alternate performances, led by Zachary Pickersgill and Fin Walker sharing the role of Oliver Twist, the boy who asks for more.
Henry Barker and Toby Jensen will be the Artful Dodger; Fiona Ann Cameron and Aileen Stables, Widow Corney, and Perri Ann Barley and Maia Stroud, Nancy. “They’re playing Nancy in contrasting ways, one older, one younger, so they’re very differing characters,” says Steve.
The intimidating role of Bill Sikes has been re-cast after the original actor had to pull out for health reasons. “Luckily, Eric Jensen has stepped in to play his first big role on stage. Last time, he pushed the bus around and appeared in the bar scenes in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical,” says Steve.
Ali Butler Hind’s Mrs Sowerberry, Chris Hagyard’s Mr Bumble, and Tom Henshaw’s Mr Sowerberry
“He’s been on the equivalent of a speed-dating experience to achieve what he has! To go from where he was to where he is now is unbelievable. He’s taken to it like a duck to water. Who knew he had it in him! And he’s getting on so well with the dog, Bonnie, an English bull terrier, who’s playing Bill’s dog, Bullseye.”
Steve himself is performing in Oliver! for the sixth time, having played Mr Sowerberry for the Tyneside Theatre Company in the late-1970s, Mr Brownlow for York Opera and Fagin four times, first for the Tyneside company in the 1980s and now completing a hattrick for NE, after earlier performances eight and four years ago.
“That’s one of the reasons I can direct it because I know the story so well, the characters so well, the songs so well, that I can concentrate on getting the vision I want,” he says. “It means I can try something new, something different. This is our simplest production of Oliver!, quite dark, and I believe it’s our best,” says Steve, who is joined in the production team by musical director Scott Phillips and choreographer Ellie Roberts.
“We have an amazing set too, costumes designed exclusively for this production and 45 children coming on from everywhere in the opening number. Each show, half of them leave after half an hour; the other half stay to do the rest of the show, and we alternate that with each show. The parents have been amazingly supportive, which we really appreciate.”
Steve is “fanatical” in his research for the show’s costumes. “I think it’s really important, when you’re taking someone back to that Victorian time, to be accurate. You want someone to love this musical for everything it stands for, especially if it’s the first time they’re seeing the show, coming with their parents,” he says.
Oliver at the double: Zachary Pickersgill, left, and Fin Walker will share the title role in NE’s Oliver!
“I’ve even researched tattoos, which became fashionable in the 1700s, particularly around the docks.
“I’m also passionate about everyone creating their own back story for their role, so that they really live their character.”
Steeped in theatre through his family’s heritage – Osmond Tearle, Godfrey Tearle et al – Steve has been at the helm of NE for ten years, with one guiding principle, ever since being invited to take over by NEMS stalwart Mavis Massheder.
“I’ve gone back to true community theatre,” he says. “I believe in introducing people to performing theatre for the joy of it and the discipline of it too.
“I love it when we take on people who are just starting out because they have to begin somewhere, and if you don’t give them the chance, how will they ever develop? There are so many life lessons from doing theatre.”
Perri Ann Barley’s Nancy in the rehearsal room
NE will re-emerge next year with a new name, still incorporating ‘NE’, as Steve looks to expand the company’s vision. “I need to get rid of the word ‘musicals’ from the title to the point where it isn’t necessary for songs to be in the shows. It could be dance; it could be drama; a whole dance show, a straight play, but definitely not a music revue night.
“I want to attract more dancers and more people who are interested in drama that maybe can’t sing. In essence, we’ll look to do three shows a year, like Nik Briggs with York Stage and Robert Readman with Pick Me Up Theatre.”
NE in Oliver!, at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, today until Saturday, then November 22 to 26, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm matinees, November 19 and 26. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Did you know?
FORMED in 1914 as the New Earswick Dramatic Society, the society has mutated into New Earswick Dramatic and Operatic Society, New Earswick Operatic Society, New Earswick Musical Society, latterly NE Musicals York and now NE. A new name will be announced shortly.
Director Steve Tearle leading a rehearsal for Oliver! with his young charges
Did you know too?
WEST End actor, musical theatre performer and singing teacher Ashley Stillburn is NE’s new patron.
He grew up in North Yorkshire, performing on the York stage, before heading south in 2011 to study at Guildford School of Acting, where he graduated with a First in musical theatre.
He has since starred in Les Miserables and played the Phantom in The Phantom Of The Opera in London. From Buxton, in the Peak District, he teaches singing online and in person.
“We particularly look forward to Ashley coming up to York to talk to our young actors,” says director Steve Tearle.
Stand up, comedian: Slam champ, poet, maths graduate, comic, writer and TED talker Harry Bakes takes to the water. Back on dry land, he plays York and Leeds next February
WORLD Poetry Slam champion Harry Baker is taking to the road for his second nationwide solo tour with his new show Unashamed, visiting The Crescent in York on February 8 2023.
After his first tour was extended three times by a combination of popular demand and a global pandemic, followed by asell-out Edinburgh Fringe run for his new show, poet, mathematician, stand-up comedian and writer Baker is undertaking a 31-date tour from September 28 to February 16. Further dates include Left Bank, Leeds, on February 9, with tickets on sale at harrybaker.co
Baker’s bursts of poetry and comedy had been watched by millions online and had allowed him to perform all over the world, until suddenly Covid said No. His knee-jerk reaction was to put out heartfelt poems about missing hugs and to record a German pop music video in his local abandoned playground.
After reviewing loo seats online and writing falafel-based ‘diss’ tracks for radio presenter Chris Evans, he is returning to the stage in his most honest, playful, unashamedly Harry Baker show yet.
Lift-off: Harry Baker likes to write about “important stuff such as hope”
“At its heart, my work is all about connecting with people, whether it’s making them laugh, making them cry, or making them think ‘Hey, I didn’t think I liked poetry but this is actually pretty good’,” says Harry, who “writes about important stuff such as hope, dinosaurs and German falafel-spoons”.
“While I tried to make the best of performing online during various lockdowns, there’s only so many clap emojis you can take on Instagram live before you realise it’s not quite the same. “I’m thrilled to be back doing what I love – poems – in the places I love with the people I love (your delightful readers, who will come along after reading this).”
Summing up Unashamed, Baker says: “The show is a celebration of playfulness, the power of creativity to keep you going when your whole world falls apart, and how, if we are brave enough to be vulnerable with one another, we can build ourselves back to our best unashamed versions of ourselves.”
Since Baker became the youngest-ever World Poetry Slam champion in 2012, the past ten years have seen him perform worldwide, from a sold-out Dubai Opera House alongside Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy, to becoming a festival favourite at Glastonbury, Latitude and Bestival.
Sitting on the duck of the bay? Not quite, but give Harry Baker poetic licence
Rising to the top of the British rap battle scene, he has become a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause For Thought, while his work has been shared on TED.com, seen by ten million people and translated into more than 20 different languages.
He has toured the UK and featured on The Russell Howard Hour as one half of the comedy-rap-jazz duo Harry and Chris (with songwriter Chris Read) and has appeared on the BAFTA-winning Sky TV show Life And Rhymesalongside Benjamin Zephaniah.
The 2022-2023 tour is accompanied by the release of Baker’s second poetry collection, also called Unashamed. Published by Burning Eye on October 6, it comprises poems from his latest show and the previous I Am 10,000, his celebration of the crossover between mathematics and poetry that toured the UK over three years, culminating in a run at Soho Theatre in March 2022.
Publisher Clive Birnie says: “We are thrilled to have Harry back with a new book. We are celebrating ten years of publishing this year and having our top-selling author back with a new title is the perfect way to crown ten years in business. We expect this one to outsell Harry’s first book, The Sunshine Kid.” Copies are on sale at gigs, all good bookshops and via harrybaker.co.
Harry Baker’s York gig will be presented by spoken-word musketeers Say Owt; doors open at 7.30pm; box office: thecrescentyork.seetickets.com or harrybaker.co.
Cher leader: Debbie Kurup as Star, centre stage, in The Cher Show: A New Musical. Picture: Pamela Raith
THE Cher Show’s “oldest and wisest” Cher, Debbie Kurup, is full of admiration for the American singer, actress, television presenter and charity activist.
“She is amazing,” she says, ahead of tonight’s opening performance of a week-long run at the Grand Opera House, York. “Some of her inner strength comes from when she was bullied at school, dyslexic and never felt she fitted in.
“When she met Sonny Bono at 16, it was her trajectory into the industry, but because she felt like an outsider, she’s always worked harder. She’s funny, she’s a consummate entertainer, not afraid to reinvent herself. That’s what sets her apart and makes her a megastar.”
The role of Cher in The Cher Show, A New Musical on the European premiere tour is shared by Debbie, Danielle Steers and Millie O’Connell. In a case of Cher, Cher and Cher alike, the trio of musical actresses will portray the American “Goddess of Pop” and “Queen of Reinvention” in three different stages of her career: Millie as Babe; Danielle as Lady and Debbie as Star, each accompanied by a different colour scheme.
From a young child with big dreams in El Centro, California, the shy daughter of an Armenian American truck driver, to the heights of global stardom, The Cher Show tells the story of Cherilyn Sarkisian’s meteoric rise to 100 million record sales, an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, three Golden Globes and even an award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
“We actually start the show with ‘Star’, having a bit of a confidence crisis and calling on the other two Chers to help her and go through the eras together. I pick up the baton again in Act Two, although I narrate throughout,” says Debbie.
As she defines it, the story will progress through her break-up with Sonny Bono to going solo, from the mid-1970s into the ’80s, diversifying into acting and her rock phase, followed by “a bit of a slump”, and onwards to the comeback “where nothing can stop her”.
“Because it’s tongue in cheek as well, it’s at the stage where she’s friends with her counterparts and she knows she’s sending herself up now, but there’s something unique about her; a power to her, and she’s fun too,” says Debbie.
On the road since April, the year-long British and Irish tour of this Tony Award-winning 2018 Broadway smash is directed by Arlene Phillips and choreographed by two-time Strictly Come Dancing professional champion Oti Mabuse, with a book by Tony and Olivier Award-winning Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, The Addams Family) and costume design by Gabriella Slade (Six, In The Heights, Spice World 2019 Tour).
As the publicity blurb puts it, “Cher takes the audience by the hand and introduces them to the influential people in her life, from her mother and Sonny Bono to fashion designer and costumier Bob Mackie. It shows how she battled the men who underestimated her, fought the conventions and, above all, was a trailblazer for independence”.
“Obviously a lot of research went into this show and into portraying Cher, because when you create a character, you can let your imagination run wild, but with a real person you have to be more contained in your imagination, and then you can add the layers on top.
“So I want to stay true to Cher, working with a really strong book by Rick Elice, who did Jersey Boys. We have the benefit of him meeting Cher and really getting to know her from spending time with her to imbue all those idiosyncrasies into the script and capture the essence of who Cher is. It jumps off the page, so we can really run with it, and enjoy all the one-liners in there.”
I got you Babe, Star and Lady: Millie O’Connell, left, Debbie Kurup and Danielle Steers in The Cher Show. Picture: Matt Crockett
As for Cher’s costumes, “oh my goodness, I have so many, I’m going to have to guess, maybe 15,” says Debbie. “Some of my costume changes are only 20 seconds, and they all have to be so well choreographed, timed to perfection, with five dressers and wig assistants working at the same time.
“Foot goes here, arm goes here, head goes here for the wig, to make sure I’m ready to re-enter on time. The team we have are incredible; we really work as a unit.”
Thirty-five hits feature, from I Got You Babe, Bang Bang, Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves to I Found Someone, If I Could Turn Back Time, The Shoop Shoop Song and Believe, from a songbook of the only artist to have a Billboard chart number one hit in six consecutive decades.
“The way the story of her musical legacy works, we’re using the songs to push the narrative, and whereas jukebox musicals are so reductive, this is so much more than just wedging songs into the storyline, especially as they are her songs,” says Debbie
“They have that weight to them because they have meaning in her life as stand-alone songs, so they mean so much to her. Like at the time of Heart Of Stone, she was breaking up with Rob [Camilletti], and when I sing it, I’m thinking of the pain she must have been in because I know she would have been suffering.”
Turning the focus to Cher’s distinctive voice, Debbie says: “She’s always had, even when she was very young, this alto range that set her apart from all those pretty, pretty soprano voices that were glamorised by Hollywood. Here she comes with this rich alto sound – and I love it because I’m a mezzo-soprano!”
On a technical level, “lots of diligent prep goes into getting the right tone to the voice, and some of that is to do with the work she’s had done on her face, which made her voice more up in her nose but also still in her throat,” notes Debbie.
“I do have to turn it up for the 1990s onwards, with the focus right forward in the nose, as opposed to when she was younger, when it was freer.
“For the big finale, the party – ‘OK, bitches, get your phones out!’ – it’s fun because it has to be slightly exaggerated. She does lean into that persona, the humour, the ‘bitch’, but we tread a fine line because we don’t want to turn her into the caricature sent up by drag queens.”
The Cher Show, A New Musical, runs at Grand Opera House, York, November 15 to 19, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/york.
Debbie Kurup’s theatre credits
Bonnie & Clyde (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane); Queen Tuya in The Prince of Egypt (Dominion); Blues In The Night (Kiln); Sweet Charity (Donmar Warehouse); Mrs Neilsen in Girl From The North Country (Old Vic/ Noël Coward); The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre); Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible/UK tour); Nikki Marron in The Bodyguard (Adelphi – Olivier Award nomination for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical); Velma Kelly in Chicago (Cambridge Theatre/Adelphi); Sister Act (London Palladium); East (Leicester Curve); West Side Story (Prince of Wales); Tonight’s The Night (Victoria Palace); Rent (Prince of Wales/UK Tour); Fame (UK Tour); Guys And Dolls (Sheffield Crucible), Pal Joey (Chichester Festival Theatre); Boogie Nights (Savoy Theatre); Star in The Cher Show, A New Musical, UK tour.
Everything Means Something, photographic collage, by Claire Morris
FIVE York artists are opening studio spaces on Saturday from 11am to 4pm for early Christmas shopping opportunities at three South Bank locations.
“The Winter Artists Open House is a chance to support the city’s independent artists and maybe buy unique greetings cards, a print or eye-catching original artwork,” says participating painter Kay Dower. “All venues are within walking distance of each other with parking available.”
Reflections Of York, acrylic, by Kay Dower
At Kay’s Corner Gallery, at 2 Telford Terrace, YO24 1DQ, a selection of her artworks will be complemented by photographic collages by Claire Morris. Kay will be displaying original acrylic paintings and limited-edition prints of corners of York, the Yorkshire coast and quirky still-life objects, from Yorkie chocolate bars to York Gin bottles.
Claire will be decking the walls with her latest collection of fine-art photographs inspired by vintage books, for which she cuts the characters out of books, then dramatically lights and stages the shot so that the figures appear to jump off the page.
Wizard, photographic montage, by Claire Morris
Kate Buckley’s sculptural ceramics and Marie Murphy’s modern, geometric paintings, prints and illustrations can be found at 31 Wentworth Road, YO24 1DG. Kate’s porcelain is described as “origami meets porcelain”; indeed, seeing is believing in the way her elegant wall sculptures play with light and shadow. Marie uses flat blocks of colour and striking angles to produce a serene sense of calm in her urban landscapes.
At mixed-media artist Jill Tattersall’s Wolf At The Door studio, at 15 Cygnet Street, YO23 1AG, she works with paints, inks and dyes on handmade paper to create vivid, dreamlike art. Please note, the entrance to Cygnet Street is by the back gate on Nunthorpe Road.
A sculptural ceramic by Kate Buckley
Among Jill’s works will be a newly framed recycled cedarwood block depicting sunset and wind turbines. “It’s just stunning to me,” she said on rainswept Tuesday (15/11/2022). “It’s a miserable day but this little painting gleams in the gloom. It will be on display at my Open House this weekend, from my Waste Not series, which I always make as affordable as possible.”
Looking forward to the weekend eagerly, Kate says: “Enjoy a winter wander around the varied selection of art on offer by York artists and get some inspiration for your Christmas list.
“As well as art to peruse, there’ll be refreshments available at the South Bank Studios Art & Craft Winter Fair, running at Southlands Methodist Church, in Bishopthorpe Road, from 10am to 5pm on the same day, or at the independent cafés and eateries on Bishopthorpe Road.”
The poster for Saturday’s Winter Artists Open House in South Bank, York
Made for Chering: Millie O’Connell’s Babe, left, Debbie Kurup’s Star and Danielle Steers’ Lady in The Cher Show: A New Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
FROM Cher times three and Charlie and that chocolate factory, to G&S and Oliver!, musical entertainment dominates Charles Hutchinson’s diary.
Cher, Cher and Cher alike: The Cher Show: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday
TURNING back time, Millie O’Connell’s Babe, Danielle Steers’s Lady and Debbie Kurup’s Star share out the Cher role in The Cher Show, the story of the American singer, actress and television personality’s meteoric rise to fame as she flies in the face of convention at every turn.
This celebration of the “Goddess of Pop” and “Queen of Reinvention” packs in 35 hits, I Got You Babe, If I Could Turn Back Time, Strong Enough, The Shoop Shoop Song, Believe et al. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Oliver at the double: Fin Walker, left, and Zachary Pickersgill will be sharing the title role in NE’s production of Oliver!
Community musical of the fortnight: NE in Oliver!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 16 to 19 and 22 to 26, 7.30pm; 2.30pm, Saturday matinees
NE, formerly NE Musicals York and soon to be renamed again, are performing a fortnight’s run for the first time, presenting Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! in a revised version that complements the familiar songs and characters with added scenes to “bring the story to life in more detail”.
Two teams of performers will be undertaking alternate performances, led by Zachary Pickersgill and Fin Walker, sharing the role of Oliver Twist, and Henry Barker and Toby Jensen’s Artful Dodger. Director Steve Tearle plays Fagin for the fourth time, joined in the production team by musical director Scott Phillips and choreographer Ellie Roberts. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Exhibition of the week: Lesley Seeger & Katherine Bree, Pigment & Stone, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, in collaboration until November 27
Jewellery designer Katherine Bree, left, and artist Lesley Seeger in the North Yorkshire countryside
LESLEY Seeger and Katherine Bree form Yorkshire-London collaboration for the painting and gemstone show Pigment & Stone at Pyramid Gallery.
In a celebration of form and colour with an earthy elemental twist, city jewellery designer Katherine has chosen paintings by Huttons Ambo landscape painter Lesley as inspiration for her new collection of gemstone treasures.
Katherine divides her collections into the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – and this provides a perfect complement to Lesley’s elemental paintings, which she describes as “talismans that will reveal themselves over time with their rich histories of place, layers and colour”.
Love-struck at sea: Jack Storey-Hunter’s sailor Ralph and Alexandra Mather’s Josephine, the Captain’s daughter, in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore
Light opera of the week: York Opera in HMS Pinafore, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK Opera sets sail in Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta HMS Pinafore or The Lass That Loved A Sailor, steered by a new command of stage director Annabel van Griethuysen and conductor Tim Selman.
The story follows Ralph (society newcomer Jack Storey-Hunter), a lovesick sailor, and Josephine (Alexandra Mather), the Captain’s daughter, who are madly in love but kept apart by social hierarchy. All aboard for such G&S favourites as We Sail The Ocean Blue, Never Mind The Why And Wherefore and When I Was A Lad. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory cast members in the rehearsal room at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Johan Persson
Yorkshire’s big opening of the week: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory – The Musical, Leeds Playhouse, November 18 to January 28
CHOCK-A-BLOCK! Around 30,000 chocoholics have booked their golden ticket already for Leeds Playhouse’s winter musical spectacular, presented in association with Neal Street Productions and Playful Productions ahead of a British tour.
Songs such as The Candy Man and Pure Imagination from the film versions of Roald Dahl’s sweet-toothed adventure will be bolstered by new songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Gareth Snook’s Willy Wonka, Kazmin Borrer’s Veruca Salt and Robin Simoes Da Silva’s Augustus Gloop lead James Brining’s cast; Amelia Minto, Isaac Sugden, Kayleen Nguema and Noah Walton share the role of Charlie Bucket. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
Chloe Latchmore: York Musical Society’s mezzo-soprano soloist for The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace at York Minster
Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace, York Minster, November 19, 7.30pm
YORK Musical Society’s dramatic performance of Sir Karl Jenkins’s powerful work The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace features full orchestra and soloists soprano Ella Taylor, mezzo-soprano Chloe Latchmore, tenor Greg Tassell and baritone Thomas Humphreys.
Jenkins’s work will be complemented by Joseph Haydn’s lyrical 1796 Mass In Time Of War – Missa In Tempore Belli, also known as Paukenmesse (Kettle Drum Mass in German), on account of its kettle drum solo. Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and on the door.
The poster for South Bank Studios’ Art & Craft Winter Fair at Southlands Methodist Church
Looking for Christmas presents? South Bank Studios Art & Craft Winter Fair, Southlands Methodist Church, November 19, 10am to 5pm
SOUTH Bank Studios’ winter fair assembles 28 artists and crafters, who will be displaying and selling their original artwork and creations, targeted at the Christmas market.
Browers and buyers alike can tour the 18 studios within the church building’s upper floors with a chance to meet assorted artists in situ. Entry is free and refreshments are available throughout the day.
Julie Madly Deeply: Sarah-Louise Young celebrating the life and songs of Dame Julie Andrews at Theatre@41. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Truly scrumptious show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young in Julie Madly Deeply, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 20, 7.30pm
AFTER her glorious An Evening Without Kate Bush, Fringe favourite Sarah-Louise Young returns to York with her West End and Off-Broadway smash in celebration of “genuine showbiz icon” Dame Julie Andrews.
Fascinating Aida alumna Young’s charming yet cheeky cabaret takes a look at fame and fandom by intertwining Andrews’ songs from Mary Poppins, The Sound Of Music and My Fair with stories and anecdotes of her life, from her beginnings as a child star to the challenges of losing her singing voice, in a humorous, candid love letter to a showbusiness survivor. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Strictly between them: Ten – yes ten, count’em – Strictly Come Dancing professionals will be sashaying their way to York Barbican next May
Hot ticket of the week: Get a move on for Strictly Come Dancing – The Professionals, York Barbican, May 12 2023
HURRY, hurry! The last few tickets are still on sale for a spectacular line-up of ten professional dancers from the hit BBC show: Strictly professionals Dianne Buswell; Vito Coppola; Carlos Gu; Karen Hauer; Neil Jones; Nikita Kuzmin; Gorka Marquez; Luba Mushtuk; Jowita Przystal and Nancy Xu.
“Don’t miss your chance to see these much-loved dancers coming together to perform in a theatrical ensemble that will simply take your breath away,” says the Barbican blurb. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/strictly-come-dancing-the-professionals-2023-york.
BREEEEP! BREEEEP! Tickets go on sale today for Tim Vine: Breeep!, the punslinger’s May 27 2023 show at the Grand Opera House, York.
Expect a mountain of nonsense, one-liners, stupid things, crazy songs and wobbly props, plus utter drivel, advises Vine, introducing his latest fast-moving stand-up tour.
“Tim’s like the manager of a sweet shop where all the sweets are replaced by jokes, and he serves them in a random order,” says the show blurb. “So it’s like a sweet shop where the manager just throws sweets at you. Enjoy the foolishness and laugh your slip-ons off.”
Vine, twice winner of Dave’s Best Joke at the Edinburgh Fringe, has starred in The Tim Vine Chat Show (BBC Radio 4) and Tim Vine Travels Through Time (BBC One).
Change of gear: With his publicity head on, Tim Vine has gone from a multitude of milk bottles for Sunset Milk Idiot to an attack of antlers for Breeeep!
He has made appearances on Taskmaster (Dave), Countdown (Channel 4), Not Going Out (BBC One), The Sketch Show (ITV), Blandings (BBC One), Football Genius (ITV) and Whittle (Channel 5).
His wealth of material has been preserved in books such as The Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book and The Tim Vine Bumper Book Of Silliness; Sunset Milk Idiot is his sixth DVD, and he has re-created moments from 20 episodes of Columbo in his online project Recreating Columbo.
After touring as Plastic Elvis, his Elvis tribute act, Vine returns to doing what he does best – telling silly jokes, singing daft songs and waving mad props akimbo in Breeeep!. The show carries a safety announcement: Please remember to breathe between laughs.
Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/york.
Infinite possibilities, finite world: Emilio Iannucci’s Roland and Carla Harrison-Hodge’s Marianne in Constellations at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Nick Payne’s Constellations, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, written in the stars, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly, 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
White Rose Theatre in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in the tunnel of love until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly; 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
HERE is a brace of award-garlanded boy-meets-girl one-act two-handers, each playing with time and space with all the elan of Alan Ayckbourn’s playful works of this ilk.
First up, Constellations, University of York alumnus Nick Payne’s multiverse play already staged in York this year by Black Treacle Theatre’s Andrew Isherwood and Jess Murray at Theatre@41 in February.
Named as one of the 50 best plays of the 21st century by the London Evening Standard, now it is in the supple hands of Stephen Joseph Theatre artistic director Paul Robinson, whose cast features Emilio Iannucci, an actor whose thrilling combination of mental agility and physical alacrity has delighted York Theatre Royal and Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre audiences alike.
In Payne’s exploration of the myriad paths one love story can take from one meeting, Iannucci plays beekeeper Roland – with more than one sting in the tale – opposite Carla Harrison-Hodge’s scientist Marianne. “The action takes place (sort of) chronologically,” the programme forewarns. “A change of scene indicates a change of universe”.
“Emilio Iannucci and Carla Harrison-Hodge jump from universe to parallel universe with dazzling speed”. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
To avoid any consternation over Constellations, in a nutshell, each scene – the first meeting, the first date and – spoiler alert – the break-up – unfurls in several different ways, as Iannucci and Harrison-Hodge jump from universe to parallel universe with dazzling speed over 70 minutes in a world of What Ifs and endless possibilities, the next leap dependent on the decision each makes.
Comparisons have been made with the films Sliding Doors and Groundhog Day and, more pertinently, with York-born author Kate Atkinson’s novel Life After Life. Sliding Doors keeps offering two possibilities; Groundhog Day replays the same day over and over; Life After Life positsalternative possible lives for Ursula Todd after death after death.
Bolder still, yet shadowed by the finite nature of life, Constellations combines science and art, physics and chemistry, romance and alternative realities, in an otherwise simple love story.
All life is here within these Constellations: happiness and sadness; honey sweetness and ill health; devotion and cheating; certainty and uncertainty; tremors of the heart and traumas of the mind; the everyday and the extraordinary; decisions big and small; questions and more question; connection and disconnection. A day in the life and the life in a day. The roll of the dice; the truth and the lies.
On a breathtaking set by TK Hay of wooden blocks within a geometric carapace of one and a half miles of fibre-optic cable lighting, Iannucci and Harrison-Hodge talk and move equally nimbly, in response to Payne’s text, Robinson’s direction and Jennifer Kay’s movement direction alike. Sign language speaks volumes too.
Like the sky-at-night lighting’s evocation of drawing lines from star to star, the multifarious stories travel up and down lines of humour and heartbreak, light and darkness, exhilaration and loss, warmth and sudden chill, to the point where you care deeply about Roland and Marianne, whatever direction their paths take. What’s more, you ponder what alternative routes your own life could have followed.
As Robinson puts it, Constellations is “deeply human, deeply moving, genuinely tilting the world for you”. In his notes, he challenges anyone not to leave the theatre “just a bit more aware of what a fragile and remarkable thing life is”. Job done, Mr Robinson. Fragile, remarkable, and always better for a trip to the theatre to appreciate that.
Close together and drifting apart: Simon Radford’s Jamie and Claire Pulpher’s Cathy in a montage for The Last Five Years
YORK Stage director Nik Briggs has long wanted to bring Jason Robert Brown’s emotionally charged 2001 American musical The Last Five Years to York, but his ideal couplings to play Cathy and Jamie have never been in York at the same time.
The York premiere instead falls to White Rose Theatre, the city’s newest stage company, in a passion project for director Claire Pulpher and fellow actor Simon Radford, who both name it as their favourite musical.
Brown drew on the trials and tribulations of his own failed marriage to Theresa O’Neill. So much so that she sued him on the grounds of the musical’s story violating non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements within their divorce decree by representing her relationship with Brown too closely.
For Brown, read successful young novelist Jamie Wellerstein, Random House’s rising poster boy. For, well, let’s not say O’Neill, but any struggling actress, read Cathy Hiatt, from Ohio.
Brown’s sung-through musical has the novel structure of Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while, at the other end of the stage, Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.
The songs take the form of internal monologues, alongside the occasional phone call, usually delivered with the other partner having left the stage, save for a duet where they touch for the first time, exchange marriage vows and swap ends to continue on the same trajectory. There is to be no middle ground in this relationship, no alternative paths, unlike in Constellations.
Simon Radford and Claire Pulpher in rehearsal for The Last Five Years
The singing brings to mind the work of Stephen Sondheim, melody playing second fiddle to recitative, (the form of accompanied solo song that mirrors the rhythms and accents of spoken language), whether upbeat when courting or for broken-hearted ballads.
The accompaniment, however, under the musical direction of Jon Atkin, is often beautiful as he leads a six-piece band with the strings to the fore: Marcus Bousfield on violin and Rachel Brown and Lucy McLuckie on sublime cello. Paul McArthur on guitar and Christian Topman provide the electricity.
The balance in the relationship can be played in different ways, more often with Jamie trying everything to save the relationship, to stimulate Cathy, in a gentler interpretation of the role. In song, Radford’s Jamie is intense, hyper, rising to the point of anger and shouting, uncompromising, in your face, over-confident, deceitful too.
Pulpher’s Cathy tunes into a different wavelength, more controlled, one where she experiences flights of happiness, frustration rather than embitterment with failed auditions, but moments of humour too before loss of confidence, insularity and loneliness take over.
Done this way, where Jamie is the one who is unreasonable, you wonder whether these two would ever have lasted five years or whether they were polar opposites never meant to travel in the same direction.
Nevertheless, the structure is engaging; the songs draw you in; the simple set of two chairs and one table at each end is well chosen, complemented by the regular changes of attire that match the two stories in one’s progress.
After the last two years in Covid’s shadow, seeing a new company of established York talents take its first steps in The Last Five Years is another reason to celebrate Theatre@41’s upward curve under chair Alan Park.
Review by Charles Hutchinson
Award-winning TK Hay lights up the SJT with fibre-optic design ‘unlike anything ever seen in a theatre production before’
Only connect: Cast members Carla Harrison-Hodge and Emilio Iannucci on TK Hay’s ground-breaking set design for Constellations. All pictures: Tony Bartholomew
HOTSHOT young designer TK Hay has created a dazzling and innovative set design for the multiverse story world of Nick Payne’s Constellations at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre.
Crowned Best Designer in the Stage Debut Awards 2022, Hay has used over one-and-a-half miles of glowing fibre optic cable to create a web of light that surrounds actors Carla Harrison-Hodge and Emilio Iannucci.
Payne’s play looks at the ‘What Ifs’ that arise from a single meeting, following the crazy paving of the couple’s path through a multitude of possibilities depending on the decisions they make.
Shining light: Designer TK Hay
Hay was inspired by two installation artists to create a set “that is believed to be unlike anything ever seen in a theatre production before”: Chiharu Shiota from Japan, who makes huge and intricate networks of thread and yarn, and Italian “artist of pure light” Carlo Bernardini, who uses fibre optics, prisms and sculptural elements to form laser-like geometric installations.
“What we wanted was a design that responded to the action of the play, so the direction from the start was very visually focused,” says Hay.
“I was thinking about the connection between the two protagonists and how across all these different realities they are somehow managing to connect with one another.
Illuminating: TK Hay’s fibre-optic design for the SJT’s production of Constellations
“I pitched to Paul Robinson, the director, that we took Shiota’s and Bernadini’s work and fused it together – I thought it would look incredible!”
Robinson says: “TK’s design is absolutely remarkable: we’re pushing at not just what this play can do, but also what theatre form can do with what he’s come up with.”
The set design has created its own challenges for SJT’s production manager Denzil Hebditch, and technical manager Tigger Johnson.
Denzil says: “Working with fibre optics in this way wasn’t something we had done before, and we were concerned that we would struggle to achieve TK’s vision, but the results have been pretty spectacular!”
A floor-level view of TK Hay’s design in the Round at the SJT
