THE 24 has grown. When first taken over by Robert Hollingworth, it was largely a choir of graduate students. It has since been amalgamated with the university’s chamber choir and grown to its present 33 members, a size that arguably takes it beyond the usual ‘chamber’ dimensions.
It appeared here with strong support from Ampleforth College Chamber Choir and Huntington School Secret Choir. The menu, served to a full house, was a nourishing pot-pourri ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, all a cappella.
Johann Christoph Bach belonged to the generation before JSB and is widely considered to be the great man’s most talented forebear. The double choir motet Lieber Herr Gott, dating from 1672, has a continuo part but was given here unaccompanied.
Its opening phrase says “wecken uns auf” (wake us up), an apt injunction given that the start was something of a scramble. But it settled into a comfortable stride after its central tempo-change.
In contrast, Alonso Lobo’s penitent motet Versa In Luctum (Turned To Mourning) was much more shapely. For Alma Redemptoris Mater, by his Spanish compatriot and almost exact contemporary Victoria, the school choirs joined the fray, bringing the total to more than 70 voices. Yet the blend was excellent and Hollingworth had the singers in the palm of his hand.
In two madrigals by Thomas Tomkins, we heard the 11 members of the UK’s only MA course in solo-voice ensemble singing, a vivid sextet in Oft Did I Marle (marvel) and a gorgeously mournful quintet in Too Much I Once Lamented.
Either side of the interval, The 24 was back at full strength. It revelled in the lush harmonies of three of Schumann’s double-choir songs, Op 141. The last two had elements of prayer, both ending with ‘Amen’ cadences, but the last – a setting of Goethe’s Talismane – was much the most effective, delivered crisply but with a tender final plea.
There was exciting propulsion in Gibbons’s O Clap Your Hands and transparency in Tavener’s Hymn To The Mother Of God. Less telling were motets by Kenneth Leighton and Joanna Marsh, although the latter – a setting of Julian of Norwich’s All Shall Be Well – had a welcome sense of triumphal love at its close.
In this exalted company it came as a surprise to hear the calmly confident account of Stanford’s Justorum Animae (The Souls Of The Righteous) delivered by the Ampleforth choir under Roger Muttitt, with ‘non tanget illos’ – the torment of death ‘shall not touch them’ – given special emphasis and the peaceful ending beautifully floated.
With the combined forces reassembled, Elgar’s orchestral Go, Song Of Mine was never going to emerge with much clarity, although its ending was forceful enough. Will(iam) Campbell’s take on Vaughan Williams’s much-loved hymn-tune to Come Down, O Love Divine, however, was lovingly handled, starting out in left field and gradually moving towards more traditional harmonies, as the tune gained shape: a variation in reverse. It made an amusing end to a thoroughly invigorating evening.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy the elf and Steve Tearle’s Santa in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
STEVE Tearle knows how to sell a show, this time promising audiences “an opportunity to see Elf like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects”.
The result? A sold-out run of six performances at the JoRo, where your reviewer was accommodated at the last minute in the only remaining house seat. Thank you, JoRo management, for being so helpful.
Elf The Musical was last staged in York in the equivalent week three years ago by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, where director-designer Nik Briggs dressed his stage with big snowflakes, open North Pole skyline, bustling Macy’s store, finale snow machine et al, as he drew inspiration from Radio City Music Hall.
Tearle instead put his trust in technology and human/elf chemistry, utilising video backdrops of constantly changing snowscapes, spinning festive candy canes and the interiors of Macy’s Department Store and Greenway Press, a children’s book publishing company in New York City’s Empire State Building, first seen in all its towering, vertigo-inducing magnificence.
Family discussions in the Hobbs household: Perri Ann Barley’s Emily, James O’Neill’s Walter and James Roberts’s Michael
It would spoil the visual delights in store to mention more than that, but Tearle uses the tools with a showman’s flourish, tapping into his inner PT Barnum that never lies far beneath the surface.
But is it really theatre, you ask? Is it in some way cheating to let the science, rather than the art, do the work? Not today when theatre embraces all possibilities to modernise the artform while sustaining the magic.
What’s more, everything else about Tearle’s community theatre-making is rooted in old-fashioned theatre values: a glossy programme, a big cast, with children aplenty cutting their teeth; 15 players, yes, 15, in Joe Allen’s orchestra; costumes galore, and Tearle himself in actor-manager mode, overseeing his production in the genial guise of storyteller Santa. Scatting extra lines like a jazz singer, he gives resurgent York City an unexpected mention far from the North Pole.
He is not the santa of attention, however! That central figure is Finlay Butler’s skateboarding Buddy, with Butler’s enthusiasm for playing Buddy – “one of the greatest experiences of my life!” he says – being a match for Buddy’s ebullience for life.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy enthuses in his unconventional way over Maia Stroud’s Jovie in Elf The Musical
Elf The Musical retains the jokes and the naïve charm of the 2003 Will Ferrell film in its playful, New York-witty, even wise book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, then adds all the song-and-dance razzmatazz of a Broadway musical, with music by Matthew Sklar big on winter brass and lyrics by Chad Beguelin full of smart humour, bold statements and big sentiments.
Tearle’s green-coated Santa introduces the story of how orphan boy Buddy crawls into Santa’s sack and ends up being brought up among all the elf toy makers on a sugar-rich diet with two visits a day to the North Pole dentist.
When Buddy learns that he is not an elf after all, despite being so elfish in his thinking, off to New York he must go – in Tearle’s video variation of a pantomime transformation scene – to try to find his real father, children’s publishing-house manager Walter Hobbs (James O’Neill), who never knew he had a son from a long-ago relationship.
Stressed-out Walter is now married to long-suffering Emily (Perri Ann Barley), with a son, Michael (James Roberts, sharing the role with Zachary Stoney). In their house, no-one believes in Santa but Buddy will work his way into their lives – work, not worm – with his idiot-savant gentle air, kindness and positivity.
The hills are alive with candy canes as Finlay Butler’s Buddy makes his journey from the North Pole to New York via NE Theatre York’s video projections
Butler’s performance is as buoyant as a bubble, as bouncy as Tigger, as cheerful as a robin’s hop on a Christmas card. Who could not love him, this bundle of joy, love, cheek and unguarded desire to please? After Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Up Theatre’s ongoing Nativity! The Musical at the Grand Opera House, here is another agile comedic actor who would be wholly suited to turning his hand to daft-lad duty in panto. He sings expressively too, especially in World’s Greatest Dad and The Story Of Buddy The Elf.
Barley’s warm-hearted Emily and Roberts’s excitable Michael have two lovely duets, I’ll Believe In You and There Is A Santa Claus, while O’Neill impresses in his transformative role, gradually defrosting from treasonable to reasonable.
Ali-Butler-Hind’s scatty receptionist Deb and Kit Stroud’s hyperactive Manager maximise their cameos, topped by Stephen Perry’s intemperate publishing boss Mr Greenway with his preposterous suggestions for book changes.
Maia Beatrice, or Maia Stroud as she is now called in the programme, is well cast as Macy’s store worker Jovie, Buddy’s slow-burn love interest, whose initial New York cynicism is chipped away by his persistent enthusiasm as he corrects everyone’s misconceptions over Santa, the North Pole and Christmas.
It’ll be all white on the night (apart from the Santas!) in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
A rising talent of the York stage with a cracking singing voice, full of emotion and range, and a sense of stillness in the moment not always present in an actor’s skill set, her performance has depth, standing out amid the amusing caricatures. No song is better sung than her Never Fall In Love.
Joe Allen’s well-drilled orchestra brings out the fizz and the fun in Sklar’s emotive songs, and if the dancing is less precise, it has all the sugar-rush energy of Buddy in Melissa Boyd’s choreography. Her best routine is for the Santa setpiece Nobody Cares About Santa, where the jaded, boozed-up post-shift Santas leap up and down in turn, topped off by a burst of tap-dancing.
Tearle has decked the stage front with twinkling foliage: a typical touch from NETheatre’s creative director with a designer’s flair who embraces the “true joy of Christmas” as heartily as Buddy and his one-man national elf service.
His stage bursts with colour and life, regulation reds and greens aplenty and one scene where everyone is dressed in white. What a spectacle. Buddy has a word for it: Sparklejollytwinklejingley.
NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.
THIS excellent York Concerts series continued with a really attractive programme of Mendelssohn, Busoni and Richard Strauss.
It opened with Mel Bonis’s Le Songe de Cléopâtre, op. 180. To be honest, the only thing I knew about the composer was that her actual name was Mélanie, publishing her works under the gender-neutral name of Mel Bonis in an attempt to avoid the inevitable prejudice against women composers.
But the performance of this wonderful crafted miniature clearly revealed a composer of real stature and individuality. As the title implies, the work is inspired by the influential Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. And there did seem to be a programmatic element, a response to the strong, seductive qualities associated with this historic femme fatale.
I could clearly hear the impressionistic influence of Debussy, although the rich orchestral swells suggested the music of Wagner. Maybe. The string tuning was not always on the money (the auditorium was pretty warm), but lovely flute and clarinet playing stood out and the overall performance convinced.
Taking centre stage for Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op. 25 was third-year university music student Alexa MacLaren. Not surprisingly, there were some early signs of nerves but the introduction was nevertheless simply exhilarating.
I loved the overall charm of the playing, the sparkling passagework dispensing with the unnecessary dramatic showmanship. Attention to detail was ever present. The playful nature of the Presto finale was instinctively captured by Ms MacLaren, as in the rhythmically crisp articulation – far from easy at this very lively tempo and sparkling scale passages.
But it was the lyrical passages, the singing melodies, particularly in the tonally radiant E major Andante, which stayed with me. The phrasing, expression and avoidance of sentimentality worked beautifully. The rapturous response from the capacity audience was genuinely touching.
Ferruccio Busoni is a towering figure in ‘modern’ music. His music breathes the contrapuntal sound world of J S Bach – the great Fantasia Contrappuntistica on an unfinished fugue by Bach is a remarkable homage to the great man, just as much as it breathes the “air from another planet”.
Busoni was a friend of Arnold Schoenberg. He also had a close relationship, both personally and professionally, with Gustav Mahler. And it was Mahler and the New York Philharmonic who gave the first performance of Busoni’s short Berceuse élégiaque for orchestra, op.42 in 1911.
The Berceuse is an atmospheric, contemplative work and John Stringer’s insightful reading allowed it the space to gradually unfold. I was struck by the subtlety of the instrumental timbres and gently jarring (major and minor) tonalities and harmonic patterns.
The performance created a dream-like world, drifting through a quite unique musical landscape. The dark, elegiac intimacy surely was a response to the death of his mother. Indeed, the score itself is headed by the enigmatic words “A man’s cradle-song at his mother’s bier”. A bier is the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed (I had to look this one up).
A slight whinge before turning to the Strauss: the slightly surreal amplified call to refrain from taking photos is a good thing, but then having a photographer taking shots from the rear of the auditorium with a camera the size of a mini Hubble telescope ain’t – it’s distracting.
So, from one master of atmospheric orchestration and colour to another, Richard Strauss’s tone poem Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration). The musical narrative depicts the death of an artist.
As the man lies on his death bed, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his earthly goals and finally the mother of all transfigurations “from the infinite reaches of heaven”. A bit like Elgar’s Dream Of Gerontius composed 11 years later – both 19th-century Europeans and Victorians were obsessed with death and mysticism.
The work opens with quiet pulsing strings and timpani suggesting life, the living, but its irregularity of beat suggests a slowly failing heartbeat and the imminence of death. John Stringer’s orchestral instincts were well served here, generating a quiet, unsettling musical moment of unwanted familiarity. There were telling flute, oboe and string contributions.
The second movement was absorbing, with the heartbeat theme threading the musical narrative together, culminating in a brilliant full orchestral manifestation with the brass (trumpets and trombones) articulating a new idea. The ending was quiet and bleak.
I found the third movement really engaging as the dying man’s life is played out: aims, aspirations and failure to achieve them. The performance became appropriately agitated, tormented and explosive.
The moment of death and transfiguration was effectively evoked; a climax of dramatic glissando strings followed to an eerie, unearthly quiet gong calls and a low sustained C in the bowels of the orchestra itself.
The transfiguration begins with the whole orchestra pianissimo, fine horn and (celestial, what else?) harp playing leading to the “true and ultimate heavenly paradise”.
Another really fine outing for the University Symphony Orchestra, admirably directed once again by John Stringer. On a personal note, I hope to see the day when Mr Stringer decides to include some of his own impressive compositions into these programmes.
But the final word belongs with final-year student Alexa MacLaren; an exceptional young pianist at the start of a clearly promising career. We wish her well.
Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom and Daisy Brown at Tytania with the children of A Midsummer Night’s Dream cast as Fairies. Picture: Richard H Smith
THIS is the second revival of Martin Duncan’s 2008 production. It was seen again five years later and now, 16 years on from its genesis, it reappears under the supervision of Matthew Eberhardt, who is building an impressive portfolio as an assistant director in Leeds. So it can be said to have stood the test of time.
The magic behind its success is not hard to find. Large-cast productions have become a speciality at Leeds, where chorus-members regularly step up into smaller roles. But Duncan has also looked back at 1960, when A Midsummer Night’s Dream was premiered, and built on a legitimate modernity behind it.
It is not merely night music, but dream music, drug-induced at that. Ashley Martin-Davis’s pseudo- psychedelic costumes for the lovers reveal them to be flower children. The child-fairies are identically clothed in white, with black wings and blonde, fringed wigs, the product of a dream-world, flitting around like bees seeking pollen. Oberon and Tytania gleam in shiny metal discs, like sci-fi chain mail.
Camilla Harris’s Helena and James Newby’s Demetrius. Picture: Richard H Smith
Reinforcing the otherworldly theme are the tall ‘trees’ of translucent Perspex surmounted by oval ‘clouds’, all brought to life by Bruno Poet’s lighting. Not quite your traditional dream, in other words.
Equally transparent is Garry Walker’s exceptionally delicate treatment of the score. He conjures from his players an intimacy that exactly complements the goings-on above, sometimes to an almost erotic degree. Naturally this dissipates into something more earthy when the artisans are at play.
These two worlds, alongside the high voices of the fairies’ realm, offer clear differentiation between the drama’s three groups, just as Britten intended, with Daniel Abelson’s lively Puck as go-between, his trumpet-and-drum motif sectionalising the score. Such clarity is magical indeed. James Laing’s commanding Oberon, a stalwart from 2008, is well matched by Daisy Brown’s yearning Tytania.
The outstanding performance of the evening comes from Henry Waddington as a blustering Bottom, the other veteran holdover from the production’s start; he is positively Falstaffian in his donkeydisguise.
Daniel Abelson as Puck in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith
Colin Judson, the original Flute, reappears as Snout here, alongside Dean Robinson as Quince, Nicholas Watts as Flute, Frazer Scott’s Snug and Nicholas Butterfield’s Starveling, an excellent team.
There is also exceptional teamwork – and beautiful singing – from the dozen children as fairies, who are spearheaded by Kitty Moore, Dougie Sadgrove, Lucy Eatock and Jessie Thomas as Peaseblossom, Moth, Mustardseed and Cobweb respectively.
Nor is there is any shortage of passion from the four lovers. They are distinct personalities, Camilla Harris a flighty Helena as opposed to Sian Griffiths’s determined Hermia, with Peter Kirk’s Lysander and James Newby’s Demetrius more like rutting stags when they clash. All bar Griffiths are making their company debuts. The aristocrats, Theseus and Hippolyta, are given due gravitas by Andri Björn Róbertsson and Molly Barker.
The wit and wisdom we had first enjoyed in 2008 is resuscitated in spades.
Review by Martin Dreyer
Nicholas Butterfield as Robin Starveling, Frazer Scott as Snug, Nicholas Watts as Francis Flute, Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom, Colin Judson as Tom Snout and Dean Robinson as Peter Quince in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith
Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd (seated) with Chorus of Opera North members as the ghosts of Ruddigore in Ruddigore. Picture: Richard H Smith
ANYONE sniffing at the idea of a professional company devoting time to Gilbert & Sullivan will experience a tasty riposte in this Jo Davies production, revived here by James Hurley.
Unveiled nearly 15 years ago, it was originally (1887) billed as “entirely original supernatural opera”. That seems to have intimidated Victorian audiences more than modern ones and Davies/Hurley really go to town in this escapist revival, unabashed at any idea that Ruddigore is somehow outside the mainstream.
The show ticks two other boxes as well. It fits neatly into the autumnal charm offensive under the company’s new regime: witness the pre-curtain pep-talks at all three productions.
Xavier Hetherington as Richard Dauntless with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith
In these straitened times – when are they not so? – it also makes sense to schedule a show dependent on teamwork. With no major lead roles, many could be taken by members of the company’s versatile chorus. So we have Amy Freston returning as Rose Maybud, just as naïve and gullible as before but vocally more flexible too.
Similarly, Claire Pascoe steps into the redoubtable shoes of Anne-Marie Owens as Dame Hannah and makes them her own, not least when greeting her old flame Sir Roderic as “Roddy Doddy”. He is the other returnee – a regular here, although not a chorus member – Steven Page, even more proudly military and stentorian than before.
Updating the action from the 18th century to the 1920s means that the cloaks swirled and the moustaches sprouted, in true silent cinema fashion, which plays right into the hands of John Savournin’s dastardly Sir Despard. Never one to downplay comic opportunities, Savournin is in his element – and making every word count in a firm baritone.
Helen Évora as Mad Margaret with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith
This means even more when he meets his match in Helen Évora’s delightfully capricious Mad Margaret, reacting compliantly to his ‘Basingstoke’ commands; they play off each other superbly.
They also combine winningly with Dominic Sedgwick’s Robin – now Sir Ruthven – in Act 2’s unique patter song. This marks the point at which Sedgwick returns to the comfort zone he inhabited as a genial Robin, a transition as tricky as any in the Savoy operas.
Xavier Hetherington brings a bright tenor and boundless gusto to the role of Dick Dauntless, while Henry Waddington’s Old Adam is both gruff and bumbling, notably as ‘valet de chambre’. Gillene Butterfield adds a neat cameo as Zorah.
Henry Waddington as Old Adam Goodheart and Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith
Anthony Kraus contributes a vigour and determination that not only inspires his orchestra but enlivens the singers into the bargain. He shows an unerring instinct for colour, mining Sullivan’s orchestration at every turn and making When The Night Wind Howls a highlight.
Special mention must also go to Kay Shepherd’s choreography and the way it is so crisply delivered, despite the addition of only three professional dancers. Dance has had a thin time of it in opera recently and this is a welcome return of an essential ingredient in the G & S recipe.
The chorus revels in its opportunities, the ladies as professional bridesmaids, the men as Murgatroyds from the past. Richard Hudson’s set for the castle picture gallery, allied to Anna Watson’s darkly evocative lighting, makes Act 2 memorable – proving Sullivan’s ability not merely to parody, but to create, real opera.
Review by Martin Dreyer
Dominic Sedgwick as Robin Oakapple and Amy Freston as Rose Maybud in Opera North’s Ruddigore.Picture: Richard H Smith
BaritoneRoderick Williams: Revelled in the full house at the Lyons
IT IS rare for a song recital to contain only songs in English, still rarer for all the composers involved to hail from the British Isles. But then a recital by baritone Roderick Williams is never going to be run-of-the-mill, still less when a pianist of Christopher Glynn’s talents is at his side.
The occasion was enhanced by the presence of the highly promising young soprano Caroline Blair, who took part in six numbers.
From the moment he appears, Williams gives the impression that there is nowhere else in the entire universe he would rather be, such is his charisma. Before he has even opened his mouth, the audience is at ease and eager. Needless to say, he faced a full house at the Lyons and clearly revelled in that fact.
Six John Ireland songs formed his opening set and included two of the composer’s three settings of Masefield, the incomparable Sea Fever and the vernacular Vagabond (it has no definite article). The former was truly noble, delivered almost as recitative, with deliberately uneven pacing but never losing momentum.
Soprano Caroline Blair: Took part in six numbers
Glynn, as so often elsewhere, seemed to follow him instinctively: they were a tight duo. Vagabond might have been a touch more carefree, in the manner of Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel, which appeared later here.
But the finest song of the Ireland set was Youth’s Spring Tribute, the barely suppressed ecstasy of its opening blossoming into a huge climax with April’s sun, before petering into a serene conclusion. It was a good counterbalance to Housman’s sombre, autumnal We’ll To The Woods No More, heard earlier.
Masefield was also the creator of The Seal Man, which brought forth arguably the finest ofRebecca Clarke’s many songs, now thankfully enjoying something of a revival. Williams treated it as an operatic scena, generating terrifying resonance at its climax, before the tragic drowning of the young girl. It was powerful indeed.
Blair had opened her account with Clarke’s setting of Yeats’s The Cloths Of Heaven, giving it firm, intelligent focus.
Two songs each from Ina Boyle and Joan Trimble contributed an Irish flavour, with folksong never too far from the surface, even in Boyle’s Straussian setting of George Russell’s The Joy Of Earth. Another Ulsterman, Charles Wood, known almost exclusively for his church music, in fact wrote many settings of Irish Folksongs, here well represented by I’d Roam The World Over With You, a strophic song with attractively varied accompaniments in each verse.
Pianist Christopher Glynn: Delivered handsomely. Picture: Gerard Collett
Both the Irish ladies had also shown a flair for piano writing, which Glynn delivered handsomely. Our duo’s bold, exciting approach to Tewkesbury Road gave the lie to Michael Head’s reputation as a composer of delicate miniatures.
Williams’s superb ability to deliver a smooth legato underlined Vaughan Williams’s talent as a melodist in his Songs of Travel, never more so than in Whither Must I Wander?. The vagabond emerged as a character in his own right, if perhaps not quite as overawed by the “infinite shining heavens” as he might have been. But the contrast between the two verses of Bright Is The Ring Of Words was truly intense, the one strong and confident, the other gently wistful.
The evening ended with four songs by Williams himself. The first, the duet Prima Materia, uses single Latin words “derived by Catherine Wilson from the Jungian concept of alchemical diagnosis”. Here the patient (Blair) and the therapist (Williams) were at comical cross-purposes, neither seemingly listening to the other until subsiding into suspicious ‘conjunctio’. It required considerable facility from Glynn’spiano.
Two Wendy Cope poems, both fanciful and parodistic, made an amusing intro to the cleverest setting of the four, the duet Sigh No More, Ladies. As a composer, Williams has as much of a feel for the piano as he does for voices, if not more. Blair showed remarkable composure and a mezzo-like timbre that is extremely appealing.
We had also heard several settings of The Salley Gardens – by Ireland, Clarke and Gurney – but they were outclassed by Britten’s setting with its rueful postlude, heard as an encore. It rounded off a thoroughly rewarding evening, all of it crisply conveyed in our own language.
No word of a lie: 1812 Theatre Company will be staging Pinocchio from December 7
CHRISTMAS is in the air, promising brass concerts, pantomime, ukuleles and a festive singalong, as Charles Hutchinson highlights.
1812 pantomime for 2024: 1812 Theatre Company in Pinocchio, Helmsley Arts Centre, 2.30pm matinees, December 7, 8, 14 and 15; evenings, December 7, 10 to 14
HELMSLEY Arts Centre artistic director Natasha Jones directs resident troupe 1812 Theatre Company in Tom Whalley’s version of Pinocchio, “a pantomime with no strings attached”. Geppetto (Oliver Clive), an old toy maker, always longed for a son of his own. One starry night, helped by the Blue Fairy (Nicky Hollins) and a cheeky little Jiminy Cricket (Millie Neighbour), his wish comes true and his latest puppet, Pinocchio (Esme Schofield), comes to life.
However, the magical puppet catches the eye of evil showman Stromboli (Ben Coughlan), who will stop at nothing to grab the enchanted toy. Aided by Dame Mamma Mia (Martin Vander Weyer) and her hapless son Lampwick (Joe Gregory) from the pizzeria, will Pinocchio learn in time what it takes to be a “real boy”? Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Mitch Laddie Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, tonight, 8pm
PREPARE to be blown away by a superstar in the making when award-winning blues guitar virtuoso Mitch Laddie leads his band (bass and drums) in Malton. Walter Trout, no less, says: “Mitch is one of the best guitarists in the world.”
Born in Shotley Bridge, County Durham, Laddie, 34, is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer and tutor, now living in Consett. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Sally Parkin and Lyn Bailey: Living Landscapes on show at Helmsley Arts Centre
Exhibition of the week: Sally Parkin and Lyn Bailey, Living Landscapes, Helmsley Arts Centre, until February 28 2025
SALLY Parkin and Lyn Bailey work from their studios on the North York Moors, finding inspiration every day from the vast landscapes and varied wildlife on their doorstep, then transforming them into paintings and lino prints.
Sally trained at Leeds College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London in Fine Art and Printmaking, moved back to Yorkshire and worked as a designer for Liberty of London while teaching in colleges and schools Since retiring, she spends more time producing paintings and prints, drawn from music and literature and woven together with images from the landscape.
Lyn’s training as a graphic designer has allowed her to transfer the skills of using simple block colour and shapes to the more tactile process of printmaking. Fundamentally each print begins with a simple walk, observing and connecting with her surroundings from the heart of the landscape.
Steve Day: Headlining the Hilarity Bites bill at Milton Rooms, Malton
Comedy gig of the week: Hilarity Bites presents Steve Day, Becky Umbers and Aaron Twitchen, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
STEVE Day describes himself as Britain’s only deaf comedian – and if there are any others then he hasn’t heard of them Actually, a couple of others have started since he wrote that joke, he says.
Becky Umbers, a multi-award-winning New Zealander, offers her “unique take on life with a voice to match and a sly grin”, combining quirky storytelling and cheeky observations. Aaron Twitchen describes himself as “a stand-up, actor, improviser, aerialist and living stereotype”, having trained as a circus trapeze act. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Merry And Bright: Swinton & Excelsior Band’s poster for Sunday’s concert, A Brass Christmas, at Milton Rooms, Malton
Free Christmas concert of the week: Swinton & District Excelsior Band, Merry And Bright, A Brass Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 2pm
SWINTON & District Excelsior Band invites the community to a Christmas concert, also featuring the Swinton Training Band and Swinton Beginners group. Merry and Bright: A Brass Christmas is filled with the joyous sounds of brass in an afternoon of carols, cheerful tunes and heart-warming melodies. Tickets are free but must be booked through ticketsource.co.uk.
Malton White Star Band: Celebrating Christmas with a brass flourish at Milton Rooms, Malton
Brass concert number two of the week: Malton White Star Band, Brass At Christmas, Milton Rooms, Malton, December 5, 7pm
NOW under the direction of Iain Fell, Malton White Star Band has been serving the community for more than 100 years, these days playing Malton Food Markets, charity events and summer seasons on bandstands at Filey and Peasholm Park, Scarborough.
Joined by the Community Training Band and guests, this will be band’s fourth Christmas concert in the Milton Rooms. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster for Brit Rock Films 2024 at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Film event of the week: Brit Rock Films 2024, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm, doors 6.30pm
BRIT Rock Films 2024 promises a night of adrenaline and inspiration featuring the United Kingdom’s best climbing and adventure films. Three exhilarating films, Alex Waterhouse and Billy Ridal’s Nose Job, Jesse Dufton’s Climbing Blind II and Freja Shannon’s Freja’s Back “capture an array of hardcore action, pioneering spirit and proper, adrenaline-fuelled madness”.
Profits go to event hosts Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team, who will give attendees the chance to learn more about the team’s vital work and how they support people in need across the North York Moors. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Thornton Le Dale Ukuleles: Strumming for Christmas at Kirk Theatre, Pickering
Festive singalong of the week: Thornton Le Dale Ukuleles’ Christmas Singalong, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, December 5, 7.30pm
THIS Christmas Singalong will be in two parts: Scoble, Swann and Friends, a small group of talented singers and musicians, followed by Thornton Dale Ukuleles, filling the stage with 40 players. Audience participation is their speciality.
The group is the brainchild of leader John Scoble, who provides tuition free of charge, and is indebted to singer-songwriter David Swann, who gives tuition too. Expect all genres of music, but virtually no George Formby. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Finlay Butler’s Buddy in NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical
NE Theatre York’s production of Elf the Musical opens tonight at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, with all six performances sold out already.
In the wake of staging Fiddler On The Roof and West Side Story, the York company will present a full ensemble with the promise of “favourite performers and a few surprises along the way.”
Director Steve Tearle says: “We wanted to bring the true joy of Christmas to everyone in York with amazing songs in this much-loved story for the whole family. It’s a heart-warming tale filled with Christmas joy and will definitely get you in the festive spirit.”
Featuring book, music and lyrics by Thomas Meehan & Bob Martin and Matthew Solar & Chad Beguelin, Elf The Musical is based on the 2003 Christmas film starring Will Ferrell, telling the story of orphan Buddy (played by Finlay Butler), who mistakenly crawls into Santa Claus’s (Steve Tearle) bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole.
Sold out: No tickets left for NE Theatre York’s Elf The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre
After years of growing up as an elf, he discovers his true identity and embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father (James O’Neil) and learn his true identity.
Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and, worse still, his stepbrother (James Roberts/Zachary Stone) and their mother ( Perri Ann Barley) do not even believe in Father Christmas, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. Along the way he falls in love with Jovie (Maia Stroud).
Summing up the show, Steve says: “Elf The Musical is a fantastic holiday season favourite that really embraces the spirit of Christmas. This week we aim to give audiences an opportunity to see this show like never before with a fantastic video wall and lots of amazing special effects.”
After Saturday’s 2.30pm matinee, the audience will have the chance to meet Santa and Buddy (Tearle and Butler).
NE Theatre York in Elf The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. SOLD OUT. Tickets update: for returns only, ring 01904 501935.
Pick Me Up Theatre in an ensemble scene in Nativity! The Musical
WHY revive Nativity! The Musical only two years after Pick Me Up Theatre first staged Debbie Issit’s cheery, nicely cheesy family show at the Grand Opera House?
“It was such a success last time that I secured the rights the day after we closed in 2022! I just love the show so much,” reasons producer Robert Readman.
This time he hands the directorial reins to Lesley Lettin, from the Attitude Dance Club, who handles the choreography too (as she did in 2022 under the name Lesley Hill).
All but two of the adult cast are new, Alison Taylor serving another term as enervated St Bernadette’s Roman Catholic School head teacher Mrs Bevan and Jonny Holbek switching from flouncing local theatre critic Patrick Burns to supercilious Gordon Shakespeare, the pretentious theatre director from posh rival school Oakmoor Prep.
Every one of the 48 children is a debutant too, divided into St Bernadette’s Team Maddens and Team Poppy and Oakmoor Prep’s Team Shake and Team Speare. Adam Tomlinson is on musical director duty (Sam Johnson in 2022).
‘Tis the Nativity! season, the climax to the Michaelmas term, in Debbie Isitt and Nicky Ager’s musical adaptation of their hit 2009 British comedy, the first in a frantic franchise of four festive films.
Alex Hogg’s Mr Maddens . left, and Adam Sowter’s Mr Poppy in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
Producer Readman sums up this comforting show’s appeal as a combination of “British humour, children being themselves, pathos and daftness, and a romantic, happy end”. Lettin promised “more lights and more sparkle” for 2024, and shining performances duly abound.
BAFTA Award-winning Isitt’s musical takes the form of a Nativity play within a play, framing her stage adaptation around her original story of flustered, by-the-book teacher Mr Maddens (Alex Hogg) and his unconventional, idiot savant new assistant Mr Poppy (Adam Sowter) struggling with unpredictable children, unruly animals and an underwhelmed head mistress, Taylor’s Mrs Bevan, when striving to stage St Bernadette’s musical version of the Nativity in Coventry.
As ever seeking to outdo the cutting-edge, arty, costly show mounted at the neighbouring Oakmoor Prep by his scornful, ex-childhood friend, Holbek’s smug Gordon Shakespeare, Maddens ups the ante by boasting that Jennifer Lore (Alexandra Mather), his still-missed ex-girlfriend, now working as a Hollywood producer, will be coming to the show with a view to turning it into a film.
Unfortunately, Maddens is lying: he and Jennifer don’t talk any more (and so might she be lying too?!). Doubly unfortunately, Mr Poppy, Mrs Bevan and the local media’s enthusiasm only makes matters worse.
Hogg’s hangdog Mr Maddens is weary, self-destructively driven, to the point of being harsh on the children, but beneath the cold front, he is caring too, and a romantic at heart, although a deflated one. In Holbek’s hands, beastly bête noir Gordon Shakespeare has become even more priggish, self-satisfied, preening and dangerously obsessive. You will love his loathsome air, and his clash of personality and theatre styles with Hogg’s more prosaic Mr Maddens is the stuff of theatrical civil wars across the land.
Lesley Lettin: Director and choreographer of Pick Me Up Theatre’s Nativity! The Musical
Adam Sowter, one half of York musical duo Fladam with Flo Poskitt, is the very definition of irrepressible as Mr Poppy with his Midlands accent, spiky hair and daft lad enthusiasm. His Mr Poppy snaps, crackles and pops, and he plays keyboards flamboyantly to boot.
You would not be surprised to see him turn up as the silly-billy cheeky-chappie in a pantomime, such is his bond with younger and older audience members alike.
Crucially too, the exuberance of Sowter’s Mr Poppy rubs off on St Bernadette’s suddenly excited and motivated pupils, stirring their imaginations with his own inner child, while playing puppy to Cracker the dog (Branwell) too.
Just as the new Wicked film calls for an acknowledgement of the right to be different, individual and expressive, so Mr Poppy’s positivity makes the case for why the arts, forever undervalued, should matter more in schools, championing the unconventional among the conventional, as much among teachers as pupils. Taylor’s Mrs Bevan comes around to that way of thinking at the very last, just as retirement beckons.
Hot on the heels of appearing in York Stage’s Company earlier this month, Alexandra Mather is a spot-on choice to play Jennifer Lore, who foregoes love to pursue the Hollywood dream, only for that dream, spoiler alert, to be dashed by endless compromise in the one darker side to Isitt’s story.
Hollywood dream performance: Alexandra Mather’s Jennifer Lore
Possessor of an operatic mezzo-soprano voice often in demand from York Opera, Mather sings splendidly and dramatically in a show that revels in such film favourites as One Night One Moment and She’s The Brightest Star, bolstered by extra Christmas-spirited Isitt-Nicky Ager compositions for the stage version.
Lettin’s direction is assured, strong on humour and pathos too, while her choreography is exemplified by the ensemble setpiece Sparkle And Shine, the dancing always full of character with plenty of scope for individual highlights as well as teamwork in Nativity play tradition.
The teams of children throw themselves wholeheartedly into Isitt’s theatrical fun and games, school tropes and the climactic bonkers Nativity play in the Coventry cathedral ruin Look out for the Stars (Eliza Clarke and Ellen Dickson) , Ollies (Taylor Carlyle and Hughie Clelland) and Angel Gabriels (Finlay Walter and Dan Tomlin, flying high above the stage).
Adam Tomlinson leads his band with customary flair, precision and Weetabix energy through George Dyer’s orchestrations, and although your reviewer may be biased, who could not delight in James Willstrop’s acerbic local paper theatre critic, Coventry’s answer to Frank Rich, one of a series of scene-stealing cameos from the former squash champ in an ultimately superior show to 2022.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Nativity! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Performances: 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Note of disappointment: James Willstrop’s local theatre critic, Patrick Burns, puts poison pen to paper
NORTH London alt-indie duo Blue Violet support Echobelly at The Crescent, York, tonight on their 16-date tour that also visits Leeds Brudenell Social Club on December 3 and Network 2, Sheffield, on December 4.
In the wake of releasing latest single Barefoot On The Seine, they will be showcasing their imminent new album, Faux Animaux, out on Me & My Records via High Head Recordings on January 24 2025.
Barefoot On The Seine – inspired by witnessing protests in Chicago and Europe – is a “schizophrenic dispatch from the edges of a Parisian riot: its verses lost in graceful Gallic romance; its choruses all grunge rock eruptions; its whole a righteous call to arms in support of essential personal freedoms”.
Singer Sarah McGrigor says: “It’s a protest song that promotes the message that love conquers all. It is about freedom; the freedom to make the world you want to live in a reality.
The cover artwork for Blue Violet’s Faux Animaux
“The freedom to make choices about how you wish to live your life – who you are, who you want to be, what clothes you want to wear – and, most importantly, that no-one has the right to tell you otherwise. It’s a kickback at anyone who thinks it is their right to try and make anyone feel small or insignificant.”
Guitarist Sam Gotley adds: “We weren’t going to release this song as a single, but in the midst of so much political unrest this year when many feel so vulnerable, it felt like this song might speak to people and remind them that love and acceptance is always the way forward.”
In April, Blue Violet – Blue for their melancholic element; Violet for the vividness – shared lead single Boogie Shoes, a grainy glam stomp aimed midway between Queens Of The Stone Age and St Vincent.
This was followed by Imagine Me, where, amid dark 1980s’ electro-rock tones akin to a more seductive Depeche Mode, the song portrays a lustful temptress (be she a groupie, cougar, stalker or lovelorn loner) frustrated that the sexual encounter she so meticulously plots is over in a flash. The most recent single, Survival, is a gentle paean that channels Metric, Mazzy Star, Cigarettes After Sex and Julee Cruise.
The poster for Echobelly’s November and December tour with Blue Violet in support
On Faux Animaux, Blue Violet continue their exploration of rich electronic avenues inspired by Anna Calvi, St Vincent, Radiohead, David Bowie and Twin Peaks. Recorded in J&J Studios in Bristol with Bat For Lashes and Hannah Peel mixer and producer TJ Allen, the album promises “a unified and sophisticated update of modern British alt-pop, drifting from sizzling space disco to stunning, cinematic vistas”.
The duo’s songs spotlight not only failings of humankind but also those of its leaders. As Gotley says: “The fake animals could be seen as the powers that be, leading us down paths that result in us ignoring our more natural instincts, often making decisions without our permission.”
The track listing will be: Sweet Success; Imagine Me; Survival; Talking To You; The Librarian; Cold Hearts; Boogie Shoes; Fire; Teeth Out; Barefoot On The Seine and Faux Animaux.
