REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Rock Of Ages, Grand Opera House, York ****

Joe Gash’s Lonny Bartlet, left, Kevin Kennedy’s Dennis Dupree and Sam Turrell’s Drew in Rock Of Ages. Picture: The Other Richard

THE last time Rock Of Ages stuck its salacious tongue into both cheeks in York in 2019, a fire prevented the Wednesday show from taking place.

This time, the deliriously daft, self-mocking shock-rock musical is even hotter, saucier too, in Nick Winston’s 2022 direction and choreography: a lewd and loud show to make the woke vigilantes choke and everyone else laugh and scream.

York audiences love its big, brash, kiss-butt comedy, its ballsy attitude, as it time-travels back to the Sunset Strip bars of the mid-Eighties’ Los Angeles on a surfeit of anthemic poodle-rock guilty pleasures, from We Built This City to I Want To Know What Love Is, The Final Countdown to Every Rose Has Its Thorn.

Rock Of Ages is drawing the crowds once more on its fourth Grand Opera House staging in eight years, with Saturday’s finale sold out already, and if the cost-of-living crisis is seeing such one-nighters as Aggers And Cook’s cricket chat on Monday being called off, audiences will still turn out for the big hitters.

Musicals, in particular, and they don’t come cheesier or cheekier than this Broadway jukebox one, with its knowing, rebellious book by Chris D’Arienzo, as he sends up stereotypes galore, both male and female. All roads lead to the exuberant rock arrangements and orchestrations of American AOR radio smashes by Ethan Popp, and they really do snap, crackle and Popp.

Everything in Winston’s direction and choreography has a sure touch, typified by the hell-for-leather first-half finale, Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, and the show-closing Don’t Stop Believin’, the Sweet Caroline of rock.

Duncan McLean’s video and projection design, Morgan Large’s era-evoking fabulous, fun and fruity costume designs and Bourbon Room bar interior, Ben Cracknell’s lighting and especially Ben Harrison’s on-the-button sound designs add panache and swagger, as does Liam Holmes’s characterful band.

For any newcomers, Rock Of Ages is a satirical tale of the crash and burn of rock demigod Stacee Jaxx (Cameron Sharp), but rather than a cautionary tale of the dangers of excess, it is a caution-to-the-wind retort.

Stud Stacee’s rampant ego has outgrown his band Arsenal and his kiss-off will be a final basement gig back at the Bourbon Room as a favour to veteran bar owner Dennis Dupree (Corrie legend Kevin Kennedy’s amusingly ornery old hippie rocker).

Sunset Strip is losing its lustre (but not its lust), so Dennis could soon be put out of joint by ruthless German developer Hertz Klinemann (Vas Constanti, reprising his 2019 role) and his desperate-to-break-out-of-his-shadow son Franz (a scene-stealing David Breeds, fresh from his lead role in the National Theatre’s tour of The Curious Incident In The Night-Time, now revealing a Norman Wisdom/Lee Evans talent for physical comedy).

Nothing against Sharp’s egotistical jerk Stacee Jaxx (fine rock voice, quick to send himself up) but the one pulling the strings and receiving the biggest cheers is Joe Gash’s narrator cum “dramatic conjuror”, Lonny Bartlet.

Always the best role, Gash takes it to new heights as he steers both cast and audience, reminiscent of a meddlesome Shakesperean Fool, but much funnier and funkier too in his debunking of all around him. A loose cannon, yes, but he constantly hits the target in tearing down theatre’s fourth wall, making a play for Charlie in the front row and stepping out of the plot to pass comment.

His confessional duet with his Bourbon Room boss (Kennedy), I Can’t Fight This Feeling, is the show’s giddiest high.

Amid all the sex & drugs & rock’n’roll, Rock Of Ages shows another side to the Los Angeles experience, in the shape two innocents abroad with lessons to learn fast in love and life.

Sam Turrell has the straight-man role of sweet wannabe rock star/songwriter Wolfgang/Bourbon Room loo cleaner Drew Boley. Is he just too darn reserved to assert himself with Gabriella Williams’s Sherrie Christian, a naive wannabe “actress”, fresh up from the Mid-West to dream the Hollywood dream, only to end up as a stripper? Both are terrific in the show’s will-they, won’t-they love story.

Rock Of Ages shakes it dumb-ass, rather than its finger, at all that Eighties’ hedonism and sexism in LA’s exploitative rock scene and film world, but it shakes it with sass.

Behind all the bravado and cheek, smartness shows its face to make points about cynical property acquisitors and false rock gods, although everyone eventually succumbs to the frenetic comic looning, from Constanti’s Klinemann to Vicki Manser’s Save The Strip protestor, Regina Koontz.

Gash’s Lonny would probably pour scorn on such seriousness in a review, and it’s true, I can’t fight this feeling any more, Rock Of Ages is, above all, a big popcorn rush of a rocktastic musical theatre trip to Eighties’ heaven and hell.   

Rock Of Ages, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight until Saturday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/york

Rock of Ages cast members Phoebe Samuel-Grey, Joe Gash, Kevin Kennedy, Tianna Sealy-Jewiss and Cameron Sharp gather outside the Grand Opera House after the first night. Picture by David Harrison.

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on York Shakespeare Project in The Tempest, on tour until Saturday ***

The Ariel Collective confronts Stuart Lindsay’s Sebastian in York Shakespeare Project’s The Tempest at Thorganby Village Hall. All pictures: John Saunders

YORK Shakespeare Project (YSP) is completing its 20-year mission to perform all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays with its 35th production and first tour.

Only 35 productions? Twice, plays were amalgamated into a unified presentation. Whatever path was taken, however, The Tempest was always to be the finale, concluding in an “icing on the cake” staging at York Theatre Royal this weekend.

The tour opened at Thorganby Village Hall last Friday and then headed to Strensall and Towthorpe Village Hall for two Saturday performances.

Tonight comes Helmsley Arts Centre; tomorrow, Selby Town Hall; Thursday, The Junction, Goole; Friday, Acomb Parish Church Hall; Saturday, the York climax, to be followed by a Sunday party.

Paul French’s Prospero laying down the lore to suitor Ferdinand (Jacob Ward) and daughter Miranda (Effie Warboys)

Each venue presents different challenges: some have lighting, others do not; some have stage exits,others not so. This has led to one-size-fits-all halls design: Richard Hampton’s stage cloth with a tree daubed on it, along with a brace of monkeys on the branches, and a Pride/rainbow-coloured band, sand and sea around the edge. On that perimeter are placed wooden boxes and chests, swept ashore from the storm.

Thorganby Village Hall’s interior is cream coloured and equipped with most welcoming facilities for serving tea and biscuits. Paul French’s Prospero takes a seat by the door as everyone enters, overseeing proceedings even before the start.

The lighting is of the harsh, stripped variety, beloved of such village halls since the Seventies. Director Philip Parr (of Parrabbola and York International Shakespeare Festival) had talked of touring with a rig for Ian Frampton’s lighting design but decided on keeping the Thorganby hall lights on. Not ideal, but them are the breaks, as a departing Prime Minister quaffed only the other week.

On first night, that denied The Tempest of one of its primary elements in a play as rooted in nature as Macbeth is. In its absence, sound and spectacle became more important, indeed the crux of Parr’s interpretation. Maybe lighting can further add to the atmosphere elsewhere.

Tom Jennings’s Stefano happens across Andrew Isherwood’s Caliban and Jodie Fletcher’s Trincula (covered) with the offer of a reviving stiff drink

One key asset of community productions is the potential for a large cast without the professional companies’ burden of having to pay actors. This manifests itself in the role of Ariel, the freedom-craving spirit.  Make that 17, yes, seventeen Ariels: any one of the 350 actors who had appeared in a YSP play had an open invitation from Parr to be part of The Ariel Collective.  

Good call! These restless Ariels are everywhere, seated on the boxes, or suddenly springing up to assault the reckless shipwrecked; sometimes speaking separately, sometimes together; scoffing at Caliban’s claim to own the island; mocking anyone with pretensions. Not only shape-shifting sprites, but voice-shifting too, they speak for the island, as much as they answer to Prospero.

In the two decades of YSP, this is one of the very best directorial innovations, rivalling Maggie Smales’s all-female Henry V.  A round of applause too, please, for Blacksmith Shop Crafts, in Foggathorpe, and cast members who conjured the Ariel costumes, as decorative as an African wedding.

Head of wardrobe Judith Ireland has overseen The Tempest’s array of costumery, whether dandy for Jacob Ward’s Ferdinand or elegant for French’s waistcoated Prospero or free-floating for Effie Warboys’ Miranda.

Young lovers: Jacob Ward’s Ferdinand and Effie Warboys’ Miranda

The all-important storm scene is drowned in sound, the multitude of Ariels kicking up a right swell of noise, through which Harry Summers’ Boatswain and Lara Stafford’s Gonzala must strive to be heard as they cling to the mast. Yes, words are lost, but they would be in a tempest.

Having already played Lear for YSP, now Paul French takes on Shakespeare’s other veteran role. He has no book of spells, no rod, he must craft his own magic, and his Prospero, the wronged, exiled Duke of Milan, is a man no longer wild with anger, but sanguine and aware of his fading powers in pursuance of revenge.

He prefers calm control, a quiet word, whether in proudly coaching young daughter Miranda (full of wonderment in Warboys’ turn) or seeking to tame Andrew Isherwood’s enslaved monster, Caliban, before administering forgiveness in a radiant glow.

Often too, French will pause for thought before delivering both sentence and his next sentence, always choosing the mellifluous when greater variation of tone could be explored.  

In his Northern Broadside actor-manager days, Barrie Rutter decried the convention of Shakespeare’s swansong play being very dark in hue, bringing in blues and yellows and jettisoning the black thunder and rough magic.

Swept ashore: Tony Froud’s prone Alonso and Lara Stafford’s Gonzala, attended to by Andrea Mitchell’s Antonia and Stuart Lindsay’s Sebastian

Parr has retained the thunder but matched Rutter, not only in the bright garb of the Ariel Collective, but also in the humour to be found in those Ariels and Ward’s love-struck Ferdinand, working up a sweat in the interval as he keeps moving the Ariels’ boxes, only for them to move them back (in a representation of collecting wood for Miranda).

Not for the first time in YSP colours, Jodie Fletcher mines the comedy to broadest effect in her Trincula, matched by Tom Jennings’s vainglorious, preening butler Stefano.

Nick Jones, with a dozen YSP productions to his name, combines Ariel duties with composer and musical director credits. He favours Early Music instrumentation and delivers one of the highlights of Parr’s production, the Masque, where Emma Scott and Nell Frampton, last seen as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, reveal pure singing voices as Ceres and Iris, joined by Tracey Rea, always a belting-good singer.

Like the play itself – the prog-rock final flourish to Shakespeare’s gilded career – YSP’s The Tempest is good in parts, underwhelming in others, but that Ariel Collective will live long in the memory.

What next for YSP? Apparently, they will be starting all over again, adding plays by the Bard’s contemporaries too. This represents a chance to shake, rattle and roll out Shakespeare in disparate ways, reflecting changing times through the years ahead and the changing character – and characters – of York too.

The first steps will be taken at YSP’s annual general meeting on October 26 at the Black Swan Inn when the “shadow” committee will table its proposals for the next phase and a and a new chair will be elected.

Box office: yorkshakespeareproject.org; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk; Selby, 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk; Goole, 01405 763652 or junctiongoole.co.uk; Acomb, eventbrite.com/e/the-tempest-tickets-400909710737; York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Witch, Cat, Dog, Frog, Bird and you can find Room On The Broom at York Theatre Royal but, be warned, watch out for the Dragon!

Budge up! Peter Steele (Frog), Bird, Hannah Miller (Cat), Dog and Jessica Manu (Witch) try to find room on the broom in Tall Stories’ show. All pictures: Mark Senior

IGGETY Ziggety Zaggety Zoom, Tall Stories’ stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book Room On The Broom flies into York Theatre Royal today.

Directed by Olivia Jacobs, this enchanting Olivier Award-nominated production for everyone aged three and upwards is on an autumn tour after a West End summer run at the Lyric Theatre.  

Jump on board the broom with the witch and her cat in this fun-filled magical musical adaptation at 1.30pm and 4.30pm today, then 10.30am and 1.30pm tomorrow.

On their travels, they pick up some hitch-hikers – a friendly dog, a beautiful green bird and a frantic frog – but alas this broomstick is not designed for five. Crack! It snaps in two just as the hungry dragon appears. Will there ever be room on the broom for everyone?

Jake Waring (Bird), left, Peter Steele (Frog and Dog), Jessica Manu (Witch) and Hannah Miller (Cat) in a scene from Room On The Broom

Combining puppetry, singalong songs, humour and fun, Room On The Broom’s magical introduction to theatre for young children features a cast of Jessica Manu as Witch; Hannah Miller, Cat; Peter Steele, Dog and Frog and Jake Waring, Bird and Dragon. Jayant Singh is the understudy.

Tall Stories have toured adaptations of Donaldson-Scheffler stories The Gruffalo, The Smeds And The Smoos, The Snail And The Whale and The Gruffalo’s Child, as well as this revival of Room On The Broom. “After a difficult time for touring theatre companies, this story of pulling together in times of adversity feels very apt,” says director and company co-founder Olivia Jacobs.

“We’re looking forward to bringing a sprinkling of magic to families this autumn with this funny, fast-paced, high-energy show. Come and join us – there’s plenty of room on the broom!”

Toby Mitchell, Tall Stories’ artistic director and co-founder, says: “We’ve produced 31 shows in our 25 years of existence, including five adaptations of much-loved books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, alongside many smaller-scale shows.

Broom with a view: Jessica Manu’s Witch in flight

“We first brought Room On The Broom to the stage in 2008 and since then it’s toured nationally and beyond, including France, Germany, the United States, Australia and the Far East.

“We were delighted that the show was nominated for an Olivier Award [for Best Family and  Entertainment production] in 2013, and we’re particularly excited about bringing some magical spells, catchy songs and lots of laughter to family audiences this autumn, following the uncertainty of the last couple of years. We can’t wait to see all those smiling faces.”

Room On The Broom has toured the UK and Ireland extensively, as well as numerous international tours to Australia (including Sydney Opera House), Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Poland. The show has been translated into German, touring regularly with Junges Theater, Bonn. A soundtrack of the show’s songs is on sale at tallstories.org.uk

Jacobs is joined in the production team by designer Morgan Large, puppet designer Yvonne Stone, lighting designer James Whiteside, choreographer Morag Cross and composers Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw.

Tickets for today and tomorrow’s performances cost £15 on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/room-on-the-broom/.

Hannah Miller’s Cat doing what capricious cats do in Room On The Broom

Apphia Campbell journeys into the life and songs of Nina Simone in the redemptive soul of Black Is The Colour Of My Voice

Apphia Campbell: Black Is The Colour Of My Voice at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

INSPIRED by the life and songs of Nina Simone, American writer, director and performer Apphia Campbell wrote her play Black Is The Colour Of My Voice in 2013 and revisits it regularly.

She has returned to the stage for the autumn tour that brings her to the Grand Opera House, York, tonight (26/9/2022), after Florence Odumosu undertook the spring travels that came to the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in March.

Already, Campbell’s play has had sell-out seasons in Shanghai, New York, Edinburgh and London, where she made her West End debut at Trafalgar Studios in 2019.

“This is a new tour, with me performing it again, as I always did until Flo performed it in the spring,” says Florida-born Apphia. “That was new; that was brilliant! I wanted to take a step back from the show, let it grow seeing it performed by someone else.

“We found Flo and she was superb, doing 25 dates, which was a massive tour, and it was great for the play to take on a new life and for it to be seen in a new way. Seeing Flo made me think of doing it in a different way, with the different response of the audience.

“Now it feels new to me again, because I could try new ways of performing it, and as a writer it was affirming to know that it could have a life beyond me.”

Complemented by multiple iconic Nina Simone songs sung live by Apphia, the play follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. 

She reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy, destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

“I wrote it back in 2013 when I was living in China, in Shanghai. That’s where I first performed it too; there were quite  a few locals who came to see it who were not familiar with Nina, as well as the ex-pats who did,” Apphia recalls.

“I ended up doing three runs because it was so successful. Backstage was just a wicker panel, and after the shows these Chinese women would come by and hug me so tight, sobbing, saying they couldn’t believe how much Nina had been through and how she had persevered.”

Simone’s story is not as well-known as her songs. “That’s true, especially the perspective the play gives on her relationship with her father, who was such a powerful figure for her, particularly in her formative years,” says Apphia.

“Her introduction to music was through him, as he was singer, and he would introduce her to music that wasn’t necessarily gospel. I was really bowled over by that relationship when I read Nina’s autobiography.

“Her family wasn’t necessarily political, and she wouldn’t say she was political, but what changed was when she came into the realm of artists and activists after she met Lorraine Hansberry, the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway.”

Hansberry’s best-known work, the play A Raisin In The Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation.

“It’s not just about the hits, the Nina songs that people know, though also people have said that the songs they do know, they now hear in a new way,” says Apphia Campbell. Picture: Steve Ullathorne

“Lorraine Hansberry was quite political, and she told Nina of the importance of using her voice, having a voice for a movement, and she emboldened her to do that,” says Apphia.

In choosing the Nina Simone songs for the play, “it was really important to use songs that either enhanced the feelings of what I was trying to say or that let the lyrics contextualise that moment in the piece,” says Apphia.

“It was hard to narrow it down, but it was vital to think about how the songs would affect the audience because creating a mood was so important to Nina. So, it’s not just about the hits, the songs that people know, though also people have said that the songs they do know, they now hear in a new way.”

Apphia was determined to show the softer side to Nina. “When I started doing this show in 2013, there was no documentary about her, no film. Though people did focus on the political side of her too, they would tell these crazy stories about pulling guns on people or walking off stage,” she says.

“But she was also a pioneer and trying to figure out who she was, and she didn’t fully understand the full impact of what her music meant to black people. Certainly singing political songs did affect her career and not always in a positive way.

“That made it important to show her vulnerability, her tender side, and I feel happy that people have connected with that.”

Apphia is keen to distance herself from comparisons with Nine Simone. “The character in the play is not called Nina Simone, but Nina Bordeaux,” she says. “Sometimes people get caught up on that thing of, ‘Does she look like Nina?; ‘Does she sound like Nina?’, and because her voice is so unique, I’ve given the character I play a name to give me more freedom to explore moments in Nina’s life and to use my voice to be more authentic emotionally.

“I’m very happy with that decision, where I don’t need to sound like Nina. I just want you to connect with the lyrics in the most authentic way and to tell the story as my authentic self, channelling Nina.”

At its heart, Black Is The Colour Of My Voice is a tale of redemption. “The play takes place during the few days of a ritual that Nina did when her father passed away, when she went to Liberia, where she saw a witchdoctor, who said, ‘I see someone trying to connect with you from the afterlife…and he likes carnation milk,” says Apphia.

“The witchdoctor said, ‘go to this room, don’t smoke, don’t drink, for three days, and you will hopefully resolve your issues’. I thought, ‘what would you do for three days in bed, clutching carnation milk?’!

“It was one of those images where I was thinking, ‘what would you do except reflect on ‘how did I get to this point?’. It felt like the most natural way to go through her life in the play, thinking about the decisions that had got her to that point.”

Seabright Productions presents Apphia Campbell in Black Is The Colour Of My Voice, Grand Opera House, York, September 26, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York. Suitable for age 12 upwards.

What is Apphia Campbell’s favourite Nina Simone song?

“Plain Gold Ring. I find myself humming it two or three times a week. I love her voice, I love her storytelling; I love the piano playing, and it’s so mysterious, with all the spaces in the song…but there was no way to put it in the show.”

Prue Leith advises Nothing In Moderation as Bake Off judge takes off on first ever tour. Grand Opera House, York, awaits UPDATED with Christmas tips 17/12/2022

Dame Prue Leith: First tour at 82 next year (or 83, as her birthday falls on February 18, part-way through the 34-date run)

THE Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith’s debut tour, Nothing In Moderation, is in the 2023 diary for March 2 at the Grand Opera House, York.

Running from February 1 to an April 6 finale at the London Palladium, the 34-date UK and Irish itinerary by the restaurateur, chef, cookery school supremo and doyenne of food writers also takes in Sheffield Memorial Hall on February 28.

Tour tickets will go on sale from 10am on Thursday (29/9/2022) at Mickperrin.com; for York, on 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Nothing is off the menu in this frank, funny show, wherein Dame Prue will share anecdotes about her life: taking audiences through the ups and downs of being a restaurateur, novelist, businesswoman and Bake Off judge; how she has fed the rich and famous; cooked for royalty and even poisoned her clients – all to be told for the first time.

In the second half, she will be joined on stage by Clive Tulloh, who will take questions for Dame Prue from the audience “that they’ve always wanted to ask”.

Dame Prue Leith will be “singing the praises of food, love and life”

Dame Prue says: “I’ve never done a stage show before and at 82 [83 by the time she plays York] I’m probably nuts to try it, but it’s huge fun, makes the audience laugh and lets me rant away about the restaurant trade, publishers, TV and writing, and sing the praises of food, love and life.”

Baking guru Dame Prue Leith has been a judge on the world’s biggest baking TV show, The Great British Bake Off, since when 2017, when she joined Paul Hollywood after the switch to Channel 4.

Before Bake Off, South African-born Dame Prue had long enjoyed success in her career as a restaurateur, chef, writer and journalist. In the 1960s and ’70s, she ran her own party and event catering business and then set up Leith’s Food and Wine to train professional chefs and amateur cooks.

Dame Prue has written multiple cookery books and many features on food for publications such as The Guardian. She has appeared on TV shows aplenty, including Great British Menu and My Kitchen Rules.

The poster for Dame Prue Leith’s Nothing In Moderation tour, visiting York and Sheffield

Two quick questions for Dame Prue Leith on cooking for Christmas Day

Which do you prefer, goose or turkey, Prue?

“Either. We sometimes have goose; sometimes turkey. Turkey is much cheaper and it can be absolutely delicious, but do get the full bird. Just the turkey crown doesn’t have the full flavour. Turkey also gives you the best gravy.”

How do you make sprouts more exciting?

“I note that in America, at the moment, sprouts are the most fashionable vegetable, toasted and roasted in oil in a hot oven.

“But I prepare them the day before, then very briefly roughly chop them up in a liquidiser, mixing in cream, garlic, salt and pepper, sometimes bits of bacon, then bung them in the microwave for a couple of minutes – and you have sprouts for sprouts haters!”

Kevin Kennedy returns to Grand Opera House as LA rock guru in Rock Of Ages

Kevin Kennedy, centre, as bar owner and rock guru Dennis Dupree in Rock Of Ages; Picture: The Other Richard

CORONATION Street legend and musician Kevin Kennedy returns to the Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow, to reprise his role as bar owner Dennis Dupree in Rock Of Ages.

He previously appeared there in April 2019 in a musical giddy with Eighties’ rock classics, arranged and orchestrated by Ethan Popp, and now he will be joined by Cameron Sharp as demigod Stacee Jaxx in Nick Winston’s latest touring production.

“It’s incredible to be able to put your two passions together – one being of course acting and the spoken word and the other being music, which is something I’ve loved throughout my life,” says Kevin, 61, who found TV fame as Curly Watts in Corrie and has played in bands too, such as Bunch Of Thieves and The Paris Valentinos with Johnny Marr, no less.

“To put those [passions] together is a perfect marriage, and in a vehicle such as Rock Of Ages, it’s a whole lot of fun as well.”

Outlining the show’s story, set in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s with a book by Chris D’Arienzo, Kevin says: “It’s about a rock club called The Bourbon Room, which is absolutely legendary; every single band you could think of has played there.

“It’s an icon of rock’n’roll and absolutely the place to be, but the local council are attempting to close it down, so we’re fighting them. Alongside all of that, there’s a beautiful love story, lots and lots of jokes and, of course, some of the most incredible music from the Eighties like Here I Go Again, The Final Countdown and I Want To Know What Love Is.”

Those songs are played loud and proud by a live band in a show that invites audiences to “leave it all behind and lose yourself in a city and a time where the dreams are as big as the hair, and yes, they can come true”.

Within that world, Kevin’s character, The Bourbon Room owner Dennis Dupree, is “an absolute rock guru”. “He’s given all these now legendary bands their stars and he’s been in bands himself,” he says. “He’s also embraced the drug culture and intense sexuality of the 1980s with much enthusiasm and regularity!

“He’s a very interesting man to play: he’s got a good heart at his core, but he’s a child of his culture and loves his sex, drugs and rock’n’roll! He’s a lot of fun to play.”

“It requires a lot of energy,” says Kevin Kennedy of appearing in Rock Of Ages

Assessing the biggest differences between working in TV and the theatre world, Kevin says: “TV is a totally different skill and technique to theatre. Not least because you may put something in the can after filming and not get the payback of that for months or even years. You can almost film it and then forget about it.

“With theatre, however, it’s obviously live and live theatre is one of the last true shared experiences you can have – along with football! In the theatre, you’re all together and sharing one experience, which is happening live, right in front of you, and there’s not a lot of that left.

“That generates its own energy and excitement as no two shows are the same. The show that you come and see will never be exactly the same as that ever again, which is quite an exciting thought.”

Kevin happened to love Eighties’ rock already before doing the show. “I was a youngish man in the 1980s and not a huge fan of some dance music, so the last refuge of guitar music, to a certain extent, was that brilliant American glam rock that we showcase in Rock Of Ages. They played their own instruments and performed live on stage, so I had a huge respect for that.”

Does Kevin draw on his own experiences as a musician when faced by the challenges of performing this full-on style of music on stage? “It requires a lot of energy,” he says. “However, once the show gets going, it’s so much fun and no longer feels like work.

“Once you’ve done the hard work of learning the lines and where to stand, we’ve been allowed to just have so much fun with it. Audiences are absolutely loving it because it’s just bonkers.”

Ask him to pick a favourite moment or number in the show, and Kevin proffers: “Numerous moments! Although what I really enjoy is watching the other members of the cast doing their big solo numbers because they’re all so incredibly talented and it’s great to watch and learn from them. It’s been so lovely to see them grow into their characters from the first rehearsal through to our performances on tour now, where it all comes to fruition.”

Pressing him to name a favourite song, he decides: “Oh, the entire finale is my favourite as it’s just one big fat rock’n’roll number.”

As he heads to York, Kevin as always will be carrying a cafetière, some coffee (“obviously,” he says), his Manchester City mug and, most important of all to him, a PlayStation.

This week’s Grand Opera House audiences are in for a great time, he promises. “Whether you’re a seasoned theatregoer or you’ve never been to a show before, you’ll have a lot of fun. If you want to come dressed in your leather trousers and embrace your inner Eighties’ rock star, then do that! Even bring along an inflatable guitar if you want,” he says. “Everything is just a whole lot of fun.”

Rock Of Ages rocks out at Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Kenny Kennedy: Actor, soap star and musician

Kevin Kennedy profile:

Born: Wythenshawe, Manchester, September 4 1961. Member of Manchester Youth Theatre; studied drama at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre. Made professional debut in 1982 at Greenwich Theatre, London.

Best known for soap-opera role as Norman “Curly” Watts, paperboy, dustman and supermarket assistant manager, in 1,563 episodes of Coronation Street, 1983 to 2003. Filmed scenes for 50th anniversary DVD in 2010.

West End theatre credits include: Amos in Chicago, Adelphi Theatre; ageing hippie Pop in Queen & Ben Elton musical We Will Rock You, Dominion Theatre.

Played both Caractacus Potts and The Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang musical, becoming first actor to have done so.

Played Dennis Dupree in 2018-2019 UK tour of Rock Of Ages, including at Grand Opera House, York, in April 2019. Appeared in national tours of The Rocky Horror Show, The Commitments and Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends.

Popped up as an Angel in guest role in Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special on BBC One in 2019.

Played Detective Banks in Billy Zane film Rupture in 2020.

Played bass in the band The Paris Valentinos with Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke, of The Smiths fame.

Signed by pop impresario Simon Cowell to BMG Records, released Present Kennedy album in 2002.

REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Chamber Music Festival: Day 3, Merchant Taylors’ Hall, York, September 18

Jonathan Stone: “Violin found a beautifully lyrical legato for the outer sections”

THE final day of this tightly compressed festival took place in a venue rarely associated with music-making but which worked out well.

Chamber music is not designed for large halls and the intimacy of a smaller arena lends itself to better understanding of the music’s components. The menu for this mid-afternoon event offered the resident strings in Richard Strauss’s sextet from his opera Capriccio and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, for the same forces.

Strauss wrote virtually no chamber music beyond the age of 30, so this sextet (1942) is a rarity for him. It forms the prologue to the opera, supposedly the latest piece from the pen of the composer who vies with the poet for a young countess’s attention.

It opens and closes serenely, the gentleness broken only by a passionate outpouring marked by tremolos. The ensemble was led by Jonathan Stone, whose violin found a beautifully lyrical legato for the outer sections. There was plenty of heartthrob in the middle.

Tristan Gurney took the leader’s chair for the Tchaikovsky, which was sketched in Moscow on return from the composer’s last holiday in Florence. He finished it in 1892, two years later. He confessed to difficulty in writing for this combination and it is not an easy work to bring off. But you wouldn’t have known it here.

There was a magical ebb and flow to the opening rondo, with intriguing dialogue permeating its pizzicato moments. The coda was pure excitement. Gurney’s violin lit up the opening of the Andante, with Tim Lowe’s cello responding with equal ardour, as they became at first a duo and then a trio, joined by Scott Dickinson’s viola, over a featherbed of pizzicato from the others. In between there was some rich chording.

The song-like third movement was given an amusing trio, led by the first viola. Although Tchaikovsky left no clues, the finale sounded as if based on folk-dances, its two stomping themes eventually coalescing into a fugue that was played with immense emphasis here. The ensemble threw all caution to the winds and poured its soul into a breath-taking coda.

There is no doubt that the intensity of a few days working together, over several events, lends itself to an intimate understanding between the players. When talents such as these submerge themselves, the whole becomes much greater than the sum of the parts. It is – and was – exhilarating.

Review by Martin Dreyer

REVIEW: Charles Hutchinson’s verdict on Gaslight at Harrogate Theatre ****

Giving him back a taste of his own medicine: Bella Manningham (Faye Weerasinghe) turns on husband Jack (Robin Simpson) in HT Rep’s Gaslight

HT Rep in Gaslight, Harrogate Theatre/Phil & Ben Productions, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk

THREE Plays, Three Weeks, One Cast, the HT Rep 2022 season at Harrogate Theatre, is in week two.

First up was Mike Leigh’s riotous Seventies’ comedy of bad manners, Abigail’s Party. Next week, John Godber’s bus drivers are at the wheel of Men Of The World.

The meat in the HT Rep sandwich is Gaslight, Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller that gave rise to the now familiar term of “gaslighting”, used in British law and endless accusatory domestic arguments alike.

Written in 1938 and suffused with Freudian psychology, this “Hamilton horror” carries the framework of a Victorian melodrama, realised so evocatively in Geoff Gilder’s dark, stifling furniture design, Stephanie Newall’s gloomy, foreboding lighting and Marcus Hutton’s spooky sound design.

Faye Weerasinghe’s Bella in Gaslight: “On edge, fragile, enervated…and abused, a victim of mental torment”

As the HT Rep flyer puts it: “It’s London in 1880. Bella Manningham (Faye Weerasinghe) is rich with a nice home and servants – yet she’s lonely. She lives far from her family with her husband, Jack (Robin Simpson), who is stern and overbearing. Before long Bella thinks she may be losing her mind. Or is she?”

Couldn’t have put it better. Who doesn’t love a psychodrama, one that is all the more enjoyable for seeing last week’s company in such contrasting roles?! Weerasinghe’s accent has gone from love-a-duck Essex to Received Pronunciation (RP), and if her fidgety neighbour Angela was overawed, overimpressed and overexcited in Abigail’s Party, now her Bella is even more on edge, fragile, enervated…and abused, a victim of mental torment.

Simpson has transformed from put-upon, belittled husband Lawrence to being the one doing the putting down, the humiliating, as the suffocating, controlling, cruel husband, Jack Manningham. If you have seen Simpson in dame or Ugly Sister mode at York Theatre Royal, then the contrast is even more of a treat.

Dig by dig, drip by drip, Jack is driving Bella towards madness with his combination of staying out every night, maligning her in front of the maid, fancy Nancy, and quizzing her about missing pictures, jewellery and lists.

Ian Kirkby’s dapper inspector, looking to administer his brand of Rough justice in Gaslight

Katy Dean, boastful but empty hostess Beverley last week, is the saucy young maid this week, while Janine Mellor has switched from timorous neighbour Sue to assured, reassuring, unflappable housekeeper Elizabeth.

The new face in the company is Ian Kirkby, in his one appearance this season as retired detective Rough, who arrives out of thin air, with Jack out on yet another of his secretive errands. Rough by name, but something of a dapper dandy by nature, he is anxious to finally crack a long-unsolved crime in the house.

Kirkby plays Rough with a magician’s flourish, a stern yet kindly air towards Bella and a feather-light comic touch. He carries an air of mystery too, combined with unbreakable investigative purpose as he seeks to bring Rough justice.

Ben Roddy, one half of the HT Rep co-producers Phil & Ben Productions, directs Hamilton’s dark delight with a Rough-like eye for detail, his Gaslight turned up to full effect, replete with Victoriana, suspense and just the right weight of humour.

Nancy (Kate Dean) adjusts the gaslight in Gaslight, amid the gloom of Jack (Robin Simpson) and Bella (Faye Weerasinghe) Manningham’s domestic blister

More Things To Do in and around York: when the love of music and food combine, plan on. List No. 99, courtesy of The Press

Over the Moon: Chef Stephanie Moon, delighted to be cooking in the York Food and Drink Festival demonstration kitchen on Wednesday at 1pm

FOOD for thought from Charles Hutchinson as he contemplates what’s on the menu for autumn days and nights out. 

Festival of the week: York Food and Drink Festival, Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square, York, packed with flavour until October 2

IN its 26th year, York Food and Drink Festival offers demonstrations and hands-on participation, taste trails and wine tastings, markets and street food, with two marquees and live music until 9pm.

Look out for the free Food Factory cookery classes in the Museum Gardens and the Coppergate Centre; trails through the doors of artisan food producers, delicatessens and restaurants; Bedern Hall crowning York’s finest pork pie at its York Pork Pie competition and York Mansion House hosting a week-long tea exhibition and tasting. Head to yorkfoodfestival.com/programme for the full five-course details.  

For the love of Nina Simone: Apphia Campbell in Black Is The Colour Of My Voice, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 7.30pm

Apphia Campbell: Brings her play to York on Monday

INSPIRED by the life of Nina Simone, writer, director and performer Apphia Campbell’s play follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. 

Complemented by many of Simone’s most iconic songs sung live, she reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy, destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Cameron Sharp: Confirmed for Stacee Jaxx role in Rock Of Ages

Musical of the week: Rock Of Ages, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; 2.30pm Saturday matinee

CAMERON Sharp returns to the rock demi-god role of Stacee Jaxx on the latest tour on Rock Of Ages after earlier appearances in the West End and on the road. He joins Coronation Street legend Kevin Kennedy, playing ornery Bourbon Room owner Dennis Dupree once more in this tongue-in-cheek musical comedy kitted out with classic rock anthems galore, from The Final Countdown to We Built This City, all played loud and proud.

The storyline invites you to “leave it all behind and lose yourself in a city and a time where the dreams are as big as the hair, and yes, they can come true.” Box office:0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/york.

Lucy Worsley: Uncovering the real, revolutionary, thoroughly modern Agatha Christie

History meets mystery: An Evening With Lucy Worsley On Agatha Christie, York Theatre Royal, Monday, 7.30pm

THE Queen of History will investigate the Queen of Crime in an illustrated talk that delves into the life of such an elusive, enigmatic 20th century figure.

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was just an ordinary housewife, a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure, when clearly she wasn’t? Agatha went surfing in Hawaii, loved fast cars and was intrigued by psychology, the new science that helped her through mental illness. 

Sharing her research of the storyteller’s personal letters and papers, writer, broadcaster, speaker and Historic Royal Palaces chief curator Lucy Worsley will uncover the real, revolutionary, thoroughly modern Christie. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Steve Hackett: Revisiting his Genesis past in Foxtrot At Fifty at York Barbican

Golden celebrations of the week: Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited – Foxtrot At Fifty + Hackett Highlights, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm; Don McLean, 50th Anniversary of American Pie, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

GUITARIST Steve Hackett, 72, revisits Genesis’s landmark 1972 prog rock album Foxtrot, the one with the 23-minute Supper’s Ready, preceded by an hour of highlights from his six years in the band and his solo career.

New Rochelle troubadour Don McLean, 76, marks the 50th anniversary of his 1971 album American Pie and its 1972 top two single, the poetic 8 minute 36 sec title track, a double A-side that had to be split over two sides of the vinyl with its mysterious, mystical tale of lost innocence “the day the music died”. Expect Vincent, Castles In The Air and  And I Love You So too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Missus in action: Katherine Ryan mulls over life, love, marriage and motherhood at York Barbican

Comedy gig of the week, Katherine Ryan, Missus, York Barbican, Thursday, 8pm

AFTER previously denouncing partnerships, Canadian-born comedian, writer, presenter, podcaster and actress Ryan has since married her first love…accidentally.

“A lot has changed for everyone,” says the creator and star of Netflix series The Duchess and host of BBC Two’s jewellery-making competition All That Glitters, who looks forward to discussing her new perspectives on life, love and what it means to be Missus. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Budge up! Everyone tries to find Room On The Broom in Tall Stories’ staging of Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler’s picture book. Picture: Mark Senior

Children’s show of the week: Tall Stories Theatre Company in Room On The Broom, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday, 1.30pm and 4.30pm; Wednesday, 10.30am and 1.30pm

IGGETY Ziggety Zaggety Boom! Jump on board the broom with the witch and her cat in Tall Stories’ adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book.

When they pick up some hitch-hikers – a friendly dog, a beautiful green bird and a frantic frog – alas the broomstick is not meant for five. Crack, it snaps in two  just as the hungry dragon appears.

Will there ever be room on the broom for everyone? Find out in this 60-minute, magical, Olivier Award-nominated show for everyone aged three upwards. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Wild Murphys, wild times: Tribute band revel in Irish bar favourites in One Night In Dublin

Irish craic of the week: One Night In Dublin, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

IRISH tribute band The Wild Murphys roll out the Irish classics, Galway Girl, Tell Me Ma, Dirty Old Town, The Irish Rover, Brown Eyed Girl, Seven Drunken Nights, Whiskey In The Jar, Wild Rover and Molly Malone.

Kick back in Murphy’s Pub, sing along and imagine being back in Temple Bar as Middi and his band roar into York. “Ah, go on, go on, go on!” they say. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Tom Robinson at 72: Sing if you’re glad to be grey at The Crescent

2-4-6-8, don’t be late: Tom Robinson Band and TV Smith (solo), The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm

PUNK veteran, LGBTQ rights activist and BBC 6 Music presenter Tom Robinson returns to The Crescent with his band to reactivate 2-4-6-8 Motorway, Glad To Be Gay, Up Against The Wall, The Winter Of ’79 and the cream of his early albums, 1978’s Power In The Darkness, 1979’s TRB Two, and beyond, maybe War Baby.

Support comes from  TV Smith, once part of Seventies’ punks The Adverts, of  Gary Gilmore’s Eyes notoriety. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Don McLean: Marking American Pie’s golden landmark at York Barbican on Wednesday

Who was ‘the man who captured sunlight’? New play tells Victorian industrialist Samson Fox’s story at Harrogate Royal Hall

 Samson Fox: Victorian inventor, civil engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist, philanthropist and Harrogate mayor

AMID the cost of living crisis, the environmental crisis, the endless political upheavals, Britain needs a modern-day equivalent of Samson Fox.

Who, you ask. Spot the fox weather vane at Grove House when struggling along the traffic light-choked Skipton Road in Harrogate, and you will have found the former family abode of this Victorian inventor, civil engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist, philanthropist and Mayor of Harrogate with grander political ambitions – until the scandal of a damaging legal battle with author Jerome K. Jerome stopped him in his tracks.

His acting-dynasty descendants – great grandson Edward, Freddie and Emilia Fox – have been the ones to acquire fame, but now playwright and Dr Who writer Gavin Collinson will resurrect the life and deeds of a pioneer lost from the history books with today’s world premiere of The Man Who Captured Sunlight at the Royal Hall, Harrogate.

Such a play is long overdue, reckons Freddie. “Maybe I’m being a little over the top here, but there’s a sort of Elon Musk quality to him. Somebody who is a totally self-made man. Who has used his money not just for the wider community, but the world.

“No-one would really know who Samson was, and yet if you trace the history of his inventions and the legacy of what they created now, he is probably one of the most important names in industry for this country. So yes, a bit of celebration of Samson’s genius is long overdue.”

Freddie Fox: Actor and great-great grandson of Samson Fox

The Fox-Jerome court case will take centre stage in Collinson’s play, but above all it champions a forgotten English inventor who generated huge wealth and spearheaded the Industrial Revolution, while also supporting the poor and investing in the arts. Not least he explored green energy with his Water Gas plant, Europe’s first, in Harrogate’s Parliament Street.

Born into poverty in Bowling, Bradford, on July 11 1838, Samson worked in the mills from the age of nine, became an apprentice toolmaker, then set up his own toolmaking business.

He revolutionised train travel, engine construction and street lighting and, after moving to Harrogate, he was elected the town’s mayor three times. He co-founded the Royal College of Music in London and was instrumental in building Harrogate’s Royal Hall.

His greatest invention was probably the corrugated boiler flue used in steam ships. Fox found that by corrugating flues, the same amount of metal became far stronger, reducing accidents and failures, and increasing efficiency. It saved countless lives at sea.

The name of Collinson’s new play, The Man Who Captured Sunlight, refers to how Fox had “bottled the sun” with his hydrogen Water Gas that provided some of the world’s first street lighting. At the time, visitors travelled far and wide to witness this wonder.

“Samson was the early forerunner of hydrogen power, which is what everyone is turning cars into now,” says Freddie. “It’s quite remarkable how ahead of the curve he was.

Gavin Collinson: Playwright, crime novelist and Dr Who writer

“If you look at the legacy of an idea like Water Gas or the boiler flue, these are things that have benefited millions of people over the course of history.”

Writer Gavin Collinson has “only sentimental” connections with Harrogate. “I’m originally from Blackpool, in Lancashire, and I used to come over to Harrogate for the second-hand bookshops and to go to Bettys, before it became a carnival!” he says.

“But Harrogate genuinely has a special place in my heart. Each year I go up to the crime festival [the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival], as my other job is writing thrillers, so I go there to see what the opposition are up to!”

Did he know of Samson Fox? “To be honest, I’d kind of heard of him vaguely but didn’t know of his achievements, but I was only aware of the figure, and not his footprints on Harrogate, until I watched the programme where Emilia Fox retraced her family history,” says Gavin.

“Once I was on board for the play, I started reading old newspaper articles and that was the beginning of the route I took.”

“100 per cent, Samson Fox’s story should have been told before now,” reckons playwright Gavin Collinson

Gavin agrees “100 per cent” that Samson Fox’s story should have been told before now. “But I think the reason that’s not happened is because lots of what we know about Samson are just anecdotes,” he says.

“There’s nothing wrong with that but when you look more deeply into his story, the loyalty of his brother, and how people were either ‘Team Jerome’ or ‘Team Samson’, you find there are so many stories to tell.

“He was 65 when he died and he’d succeeded in everything he’d done. He was seeking to go into politics [planning to stand for election as an Walsall] and if he’d succeeded in that, he could have brought green energy to the nation. Imagine what would have happened to his Water Gas, which was so much cleaner than coal or coke or crude oil.

“The boiler flue was not important in itself but in how many lives it saved. That story has not been told in that way until now.”

What does Gavin make of the court case that Fox brought against Jerome? “Jerome K Jerome, most famous for Three Men In A Boat, was also a newspaper editor, described as a ‘grating spokesperson for no-one but himself’,” he says.

Joe Standerline’s Samson Fox, right, having his day in court, or rather more than one day, in his very long case, in a scene from The Man Who Captured Sunlight

“Jerome took umbrage at Samson Fox’s business dealings and called him out as a fraud, even though he’d funded the Royal College of Music. It’s fascinating to look at the letters of the college director, praising his generosity, but Jerome said he’d made his money out of false means and should be denigrated, not celebrated.

“Jerome contested that Samson Fox was looking for investment in companies that he knew would fail, but I would contend that despite Samson’s reputation as a businessman, as soon as he had to get down to business, he would run away from it.

“But did Samson know they would fail, or was he raising money honourably by investment? , That was the big question of the trial that he brought against Jerome that became pivotal to his life?”

Gavin’s research unearthed a “fascinating” coincidence. “I’ve not seen it mentioned before, but Jerome K Jerome’s lawyer was Lockwood [England’s top prosecutor, Solicitor-General Sir Frank Lockwood], the lawyer who brought down Oscar Wilde,” he reveals.

“Lockwood was known for his wit, and Samson was heard to say, ‘I should have employed him’. Samson won the trial but he was haunted by it; the damages he received were perfunctory. Jerome K Jerome was ruined by it. For him, it was disastrous, whereas Fox was wealthy and could afford his lawyer.”

The poster for The Man Who Captured Sunlight at Royal Hall, Harrogate, designed by Christian Alexander Bailey

What would Gavin want today’s audiences to take from The Man Who Captured Sunlight? “On one level, and this is going to sound trite and shallow, I just hope people will enjoy it. I’ve seen historical plays that feel like wading through treacle, but with this play, there’s romance, there’s humour, suspense, jeopardy,” he says.

“We’re telling the story of ‘a guy who died years ago that no-one remembers’, but in this case everyone who’s taking part is really enjoying telling that story and if it helps to shed light on Samson Fox, the man, not the historical figure, then great.

“We’re trying to explore the man behind the achievements, seeing his resonance now, what he did for engineering and rail rolling stock that we still use today, whether it’s a train in the Scottish Highlands or a bullet train in Japan.

“His sense of family is important too, where he is ‘the star’, but he has a good lieutenant by his side in his brother William.

“Ultimately, with the fuel crisis at the moment, it makes telling his story now really interesting.”

The final word and recommendation to see Collinson’s play goes to Freddie Fox: “Having just put the script down, I can honestly say I thought it was brilliantly written. Insightful, moving, funny, poignant,” he says.

“I think it’s a really terrific portrayal of its subject and characters. Gavin has woven the poetry and theatre of the Fox family of today into the fabric of the lives of our industrialist predecessors – a beautiful touch. In short, I loved it!”

The Man Who Captured Sunlight, performed by North Of Watford, at Royal Hall, Harrogate, today (23/9/2022), 2.30pm and 7pm. Box office: harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

What Did Samson Fox Ever Do For Us?

Samson Fox, portrait by Bukovac

Putting transport on the right track

Fox realised that the lighter you could make a train, whilst keeping it safe, then the more economically it would travel. He invented lightweight structures and components for rail transportation and influenced the way the train design industry (and arguably other similar industries) progressed.

From the sleepy sleeper to Edinburgh and the overcrowded train you take into London, to the fastest trains in the world that blur along the rails in China, their design is all predicated on Samson’s realisation and early inventions.

His pioneering work on railways helped to ensure that train transport remained affordable to the average woman and man wanting to travel.

Taking the pressure

No-one cares about the corrugated boiler flue as such, even though it is arguably Fox’s greatest invention. What did it do? It made engines more powerful and much safer.

Boring? Maybe, but before his invention, thousands of people had perished at sea when engines blew up and their vessels sank. His invention allowed greater pressure within an engine, making maritime transport for the public faster and safer and industrial plants more productive.

Thousands of lives were saved and engine construction was revolutionised. Check out the engine of any car fuelled by petrol and you will find pressure distribution systems – Samson invented their antecedent.

Thank him for the music

Fox did not invent the Royal College of Music, in London, but his money made it possible. Every year a diverse intake further their art and their trade there, later to entertain audiences around the world. College alumni include Alfie Boe, Rick Wakeman, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who in abandoned his History degree at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1965 to study at the RCM and pursue his interest in musical theatre.

Samson Fox ands his family