Category: Music

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 44, from Gazette & Herald

Alex Keenan’s Chris and Charlie Brooks’s Judy, her mum, in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, staged by Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep. Picture: Johan Persson

FROM a new female spin on ‘Curious Incident’ to Ricky Gervais’s “most personal” tour, Halloween shows to Leo Sayer’s last tour, Charles Hutchinson finds ways to brighten up darker nights.  

Reboot of the week: Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

MELTING Pot and Birmingham Rep are touring a gender-swap reboot of Simon Stephens’s inventive adaptation of Mark Haddon’s compassionate novel, in which neurodivergent 15-year-old Chris Boone is now a female role, played by Alex Keenan and matinee alternate Imi Price.

Ned Bennett’s cast features Joe McFadden as dad Ed and Charlie Brooks as absentee mum Judy in the story of Chris becoming both detective and suspect when a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, drawing her into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered. Box office: atgtickets.co.uk/york.

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Halloween family entertainment of the week: Wharfemede Productions in The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

COMPANY co-founder Helen Spencer directs North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions in Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s devilishly funny, deeply kooky comedy The Addams Family Musical.

When Wednesday Addams falls in love with a “normal” young man and invites his respectable parents to dinner, chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in this spooky celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird, replete with sharp comedy, dazzling dance numbers, a witty score and a nine-piece band. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nairn’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox

Struggle for survival of the week: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, tomorrow, 2.30pm & 7.45pm, Friday, 7.45pm, and Saturday, 2pm

YORK Actors Collective presents Stephanie Jacob’s study of freedom and control, The Strongbox,  in which a mother (Beryl Nairn’s Ma) and her daughter (Victoria Delaney’s Kat) keep a homeless woman (Clare Halliday’s Maudie) as a slave in their London home. Power shifts, however, when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.

“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” asks director Angie Millard. “As Ma says, ‘ If you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

New York Brass Band: Having a blast at Malton’s Milton Rooms for the fourth time

Ryedale gig of the week: New York Brass Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7pm

NEW York Brass Band return to the Milton Rooms for a fourth party night of big tunes, huge brass sounds and plenty of dancing. York-born, New Orleans-inspired and Glastonbury festival fixtures for eight years, they have performed for Kylie Minogue, Liam Gallagher, Ellie Goulding and Jamie Oliver with their trademark infectious energy. Tickets: 07813 889085 (Ali) or newyorkbrassband.co.uk.

Leo Sayer: Playing York Barbican on “what could well be his final full UK tour”

The show must go on…for one last tour: Leo Sayer, Can’t Stop Loving You, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

AFTER almost 60 years on the road, Leo Sayer, now 78, returns to the UK stage for “what could well be his final full UK tour”. “I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country. I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” clarifies Sayer, in a year when he is releasing his autobiography and a career-spanning box set.

Meanwhile, Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have sold out tomorrow’s return to York Barbican. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Fladam Theatre’s Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter cooking up their Halloween show Hallowbean

Children’s Halloween show of the week: Fladam Theatre in Hallowbean, Acomb Explore, Front Street, Acomb, York today, 3pm, and Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 2.30pm

FLADAM Theatre, the madcap York musical comedy duo of Florence Poskitt and Adam Sowter, head to Acomb and Helmsley with their spooktastic musical comedy Hallowbean. In the town of Ghooul, Dr Frankenheinz is rustling up his Hallowbean for the annual Halloween cooking competition, hoping his tomatoey terror will dazzle Scary Berry, the most frightful food critic of them all.

However, his ‘eeny beany’ lacks scariness. Instead she is downright lovable. Problem! “Will Halloween have to be cancelled? Or can the Hallowbean find her scare in time?” ask Fladam. Find out in this hour-long, pun and puppet-packed Halloween treat for three to ten years olds. Box office: York, https://www.tickettailor.com/events/exploreyorklibrariesandarchives/2432836; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Clare (Isabel Azar) helps Francis (PJ Gregan) to straighten himself out in rehearsal for Black Treacle Theatre’s Poor Clare. Picture: Jim Paterson

Life-changing story of the week: Black Treacle Theatre in Poor Clare, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 3 to 7, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

THE lives of the young St Clare and St Francis of Assisi are the subject of American playwright Chiara Atik’s comedy Poor Clare, presented in York for the first time by Black Treacle Theatre, directed by Jim Paterson.

Noblewoman Clare (Isabel Azar) is set for marriage to a rich aristocrat and a life of wealth and privilege in 13th century Assisi, but then she meets Francis (PJ Gregan), whose strong faith and commitment to rejecting the established order and serving the poor makes her look at her life in a new way. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ricky Gervais: Returning to York Barbican next February, this time in his Legend show

Gig announcement of the week: Ricky Gervais, Legend, York Barbican, February 15 2027

COMEDIAN Ricky Gervais will return to York Barbican as one of the newly added 2027 dates on his 2026-2027 tour after all this year’s shows sold out. Already Legend has been acquired for streaming on Netflix.

“This is my most personal show so far and because both cancel culture, and most people I knew growing up, are dead, I can really say what the **** I want now,” promises Gervais, who once again will donate a portion of the ticket-sale proceeds to charity after giving £2.43 million to worldwide animal charities from his Mortality tour in 2025. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at: https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/ricky-gervais-legend.

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Levellers mark 35th anniversary of groundbreaking Levelling The Land album at sold-out York Barbican on Thursday

Levellers: Returning to York Barbican on Thursday. Picture: Steve Gullick

BRIGHTON folk-rockers Levellers are celebrating the 35th anniversary of landmark second album Levelling The Land with an 11-date autumn tour that visits the sold-out York Barbican on Thursday (29/10/2026).

Playing songs from the platinum seller, alongside further fan-favourites from their extensive catalogue, Levellers opened their travels in Köln, Germany, on October 16, coinciding with the original release date of 16/10/1991.

On the road until November 21, Levellers will be sure to perform the hit singles One Way, Fifteen Years and Far From Home, plus the incendiary Battle Of The Beanfield.

In fact, the set list for Holmfirth Picturedrome on October 21 featured all 11 Levelling The Land songs in track order, taking in The Game, Liberty Song, Riverflow, The Boatman, Sell Out, Another Man’s Cause and The Road, complemented by Hope St., a cover of The Devil Went Down To Georgia and Beautiful Day.

“We’re playing the album from start to finish, then coming back after a break to play some greatest hits,” says bass player Jeremy Cunningham. “That’s what people are expecting. I just think it’s the best way: give people what they want. It’s not rocket science! Come and see us again next year and it’ll be a different set.

“Usually we’re used to building things up, slowing things down, with peaks and troughs in a live show, but when you’re playing the whole album you can’t do smoke and mirrors because the audience know what’s coming next and they’re excited by that.

“On some of these shows, we’re also going to have a string section playing with us to beef up the really big tunes.” It is not known whether York Barbican will be one of those nights.

“I didn’t realise Levelling The Land would go on to have such significance as our most recognisable album,” says Levellers bassist Jeremy Cunningham (third from left). Picture: Steve Gullick

Looking back to the gestation of Levelling The Land, Jeremy says: “It was quite easy to make. We started writing it almost immediately after the first album [A Weapon Called The Word]. We wrote the first song, Liberty Song, then Alan [original bassist and mandolin player Alan Miles] left and Simon Friend joined, bringing some songs with him, like Battle Of The Beanfield, which was a particularly important to us.

“The album came quite quickly to us, which was remarkable since we were touring so much. In a couple of years’ time, in our 40th anniversary year, we’ll be doing 40 shows, but back in the day we were doing 100 shows a year.”

Jeremy recalls riding down to the sea front, listening to Levelling The Land as he cycled. “I thought , ‘wow, we’ve made a better album than the first one’, but I didn’t realise it would go on to have such significance as our most recognisable album,” he says.

During that summer of 1991, Levelling The Land redefined the UK’s musical landscape by providing the counter-cultural soundtrack for a society fed up with Thatcherite politics and the post-1980s, pre-grunge music scene. 

“I think it was a certain time and a certain place. It captured the zeitgeist of that time and place very well,” says Jeremy. “That’s why it did well, but now it sustains because it’s full of banging tunes  and the lyrics unfortunately still resonate as much as they did back then. If you write great tunes, they will last forever.”

Levellers took their name from a radical political movement in the English Civil War. “Back in Thatcher’s Britain, they were political times when you could still get a political song to number one,” says Jeremy. “People weren’t afraid to wear their heart on their sleeves and to declare their beliefs, whereas now they’re more timid.”

Levellers’ legacy runs deep, whether in contemporary folk music, grassroots political movements or the evolution of British festival culture, encapsulated in their Beautiful Days Festival, whose 23rd instalment in Escot Park, Devon featured Madness, Super Furry Animals and Levellers in August.

Two thirds of the band still live in Brighton, including Jeremy. “It’s hard to leave,” he says. “I moved here at 19 to go to art college and I never left.

Jeremy Cunningham’s artwork for Levellers’ frontman Mark Chadwick’s 2026 solo album Ouse Dragon

“I do all the band’s artwork; since the start I’ve done all the record covers and T-shirts – I’m doing some T-shirts for the tour. I’ve also done the cover for Mark’s solo album [Mark Chadwick’s Ouse Dragon, released on August 21]. The River Ouse runs through Lewes, where Mark lives, so it’s an album about his adopted home.”

This year too, Jeremy held an exhibition in Lewes, at the Star Brewery Gallery, where he showcased a year’s collection of artworks in Edge Of No Control, reflecting a journey back to health after a mental breakdown in September 2025, moving away from his gig posters and album sleeves for Levellers.

Now his focus is on the Levelling The Land tour, where Battle Of The Beanfield will ring out loudest once more. “That song tells of a piece of underground British history, which we told six years after it happened and were amazed that no-one had written about it in those six years, especially some of the underground punk and political groups that hadn’t touched it,” says Jeremy.

“But we did write it and got to commemorate the event as part of the underground folk history, and now it’s above ground as one of the big events of 1985.”  

Levellers, Levelling The Land 35th Anniversary Tour, at York Barbican, October 29, supported by Essex punk duo The Meffs; doors 7pm. SOLD OUT.

Did you know?

LEVELLERS last played York Barbican on March 9 2025 as the only Yorkshire date of their 17-date Levellers Collective acoustic tour with a ten-piece line-up.

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Shed Seven sell out 14,000-capacity York LNER Community Stadium show on May 29

Lead singer Rick Witter in Shed 7 York City home shirt on the halfway line at York LNER Community Stadium

SHED Seven’s biggest-ever headline show at the York LNER Community Stadium on May 29 2027 has sold out.

The news of the 14,000 full house at the home of York City and York Knights breaks on the day York’s premier band share new single Let The Good Times Roll, the third to be lifted from their self-titled seventh studio album, set to arrive on January 8 2027 through Cooking Vinyl.

Released amid a sold-out run of UK tour dates in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their definitive Britpop album, 1996’s A Maximum High, the latest single shows yet another side to what the new album, Shed Seven, has to offer.

Where lead single Stand Together heralded a muscular and sky-scraping sound and its follow-up, The Centre Of My Everything, paraded sweeping strings and a rousing chorus, Let The Good Times Roll is “as epic as the band come”.

Shed Seven’s Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield, left, Paul Banks, Tom Gladwin, Rick Witter and Tim Wills in the seating at York LNER Community Stadium. Picture: Tom Oxley

Lead singer Rick Witter says of the new single: “Eyes on the prize, watch silver turn to gold. Winning in life, a time to be positive and enjoy the things happening around you. Forget the negativity and Let The Good Times Roll.”

Meanwhile, in conjunction with the LNER Community Stadium show, a special York City card wallet edition of next January’s album is on pre-sale now at https://store.shedseven.com/product/shed-seven-york-city-edition-cd.

It will feature unique artwork and three bonus tracks – Let’s Go Dancing, Talk Of The Town and Chasing Rainbows, all live recordings from the Sheds’ concert at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 6 2026 – and £1 from every York Edition sale will go to the York City Foundation to support the charity’s work with communities across York. 

Keen to use the stadium occasion to support York’s next generation of musicians, Shed Seven will provide a fan zone stage ahead of the main stadium show to showcase up-and-coming artists from the city.

The cover artwork for Shed Seven’s seventh studio album, next January’s Shed Seven

Rick comments on the sold-out stadium show: “Our ambition, even as school kids, was to one day play our own stadium show. What kid who dreams of being in a rock’n’roll band doesn’t want to do that? Now, almost 40 years later, we’ve reached the point where we thought… it’s now or never. And if we were going to do it, it had to be York.

“What will make it even more special is that the stadium is a stone’s throw from where we met, went to school and where we first formed a band. We’re coming back to pretty much where it all began to play the biggest show of our career and that is a proper full-circle moment.”

The Sheds will conclude their Shedcember X tour with two nights at Leeds O2 Academy. December 12 has sold out but tickets are still available for December 13 at https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/shed-seven-leeds-13-12-2026/event/.

New album Shed Seven can be pre-ordered/pre-saved at https://s7.lnk.to/shedseven. The track listing will be: Stand Together; The Fifth Amendment; The Centre Of My Everything; Lost In Space (featuring Lotte Witter); Winter; We Got The Love (featuring Elles Bailey); What Becomes Of The Ones Left Behind; Can’t Help It; Let The Good Times Roll and Drifting.

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Kings Of Leon to play Scarborough Open Air Theatre on June 27 2027 after releasing tenth album O My Beloved on November 6

Kings Of Leon: Heading to the Yorkshire coast next summer

KINGS Of Leon will play Scarborough Open Air Theatre on June 27 next summer on a tour promoting their tenth studio album.

O My Beloved will be released on November 6 on standard CD, standard vinyl, deluxe signed vinyl and cassette on LoveTap Records.

Tickets will go on general sale at 9am on Friday via ticketmaster.co.uk and scarboroughopenairtheatre.com. O My Beloved can be pre-ordered at https://uk.kingsofleonshop.com/ to receive special pre-sale access today (27/10/2026), ahead of general sales.

The Scarborough gig will be one of only two northern UK shows next summer for the Tennessee band, who will play Lytham Festival on June 30 as well as two sold-out nights at London’s The O2 on July 2 and 3 and a headline appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival on June 20.

Brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill, from Mount Juliet, Tennessee, formed Kings Of Leon in 1999, since when they have headlined the world’s most prestigious festivals, such as Glastonbury, Coachella, Lollapalooza numerous times and Reading and Leeds Festival on three occasions, as well as a record-equalling five nights at London’s Hyde Park.

The cover artwork for Kings Of Leon’s tenth studio album, O My Beloved, to be released on November 6

Julian Murray, of Scarborough Open Air Theatre promoters and programmers Cuffe and Taylor, says: “Kings Of Leon are one of the world’s biggest rock bands, with an incredible catalogue of hits and a live reputation built over more than two decades.

“We’re absolutely delighted to welcome them to the Open Air Theatre next summer. This is a huge addition to our 2027 programme and promises to be a really special night on the Yorkshire coast.”

Scarborough OAT will stage 2027 headline shows by Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, Bananarama, Alex Warren, Kaiser Chiefs, Alfie Boe, Ronan Keating, Jack Savoretti and James Morrison and Simply Red. For more information and to book tickets, go to: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

SCARBOROUGH OPEN AIR THEATRE 2027

JUNE 11              KAISER CHIEFS + WHITE LIES

JUNE 27              KINGS OF LEON

JUNE 30              ALEX WARREN

JULY 1                  SLASH FT. MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS

JULY 9                  JACK SAVORETTI & JAMES MORRISON

JULY 17               BANANARAMA + JASON DONOVAN + ALTERED IMAGES 

JULY 18               RONAN KEATING + BLUE + GERMEIN SISTERS  
JULY 25               ALFIE BOE + GRAVITY

AUG 17             SIMPLY RED + SOUL II SOUL

*More dates and artists to be confirmed 

The poster artwork for Kings Of Leon’s June 27 2027 concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

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More Things To Do in York and beyond the spooks and ghouls of Halloween. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 43, from The York Press

York drag diva Velma Celli adding vocal oomph to oompah band The Bavarian Strollers in Yorktoberfest’s big top at York Racecourse

FROM a new female spin on ‘Curious Incident’ to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top, Halloween shows to Leo Sayer’s last tour, Charles Hutchinson finds ways to brighten up darker nights.  

Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, today, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm

FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop. 

Look out today for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display, complemented by oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.

Troy Hawke: “Navigating conversational minefields” at York Barbican tonight

Comedy gig of the week: Troy Hawke, Never Stop, Never Change!, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

TROY Hawke is the internet sensation creation of Michael Patrick “Milo” McCabe, the British television presenter, actor and stand-up character comedian. In Never Stop, Never Change!, angry security guards, barked compliments and crossed wires abound as Hawke navigates various conversational minefields, both online and in real life. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Freedom versus control : Sarah Belcher’s Deborah and Phil Corbitt’s Colin in the shifting sands of Alison Carr’s All At Sea at the SJT

Claustrophobic couple of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31

MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s. Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Alex Keenan’s Chris Boone and her dad, Joe McFadden’s Ed, in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson

Reboot of the week: Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

MELTING Pot and Birmingham Rep are touring a gender-swap reboot of Simon Stephens’s inventive adaptation of Mark Haddon’s compassionate novel, in which neurodivergent 15-year-old Chris Boone is now a female role, played by Alex Keenan and matinee alternate Imi Price.

Ned Bennett’s cast features Joe McFadden as dad Ed and Charlie Brooks as absentee mum Judy in the story of Chris becoming both detective and suspect when a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, drawing her into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered. Box office: atgtickets.co.uk/york.

Playing by the ghouls: Halloween In Concert at York Barbican

Graveyard smash of the week: Halloween In Concert, York Barbican, October 27, 7.30pm

IN a frighteningly good night of raves from beyond the grave, Halloween In Concert’s cast and band unleash a thrilling crescendo of all things Halloween. Expect big vocals and killer moves as the greatest spooky hits are resurrected, from Monster Mash, Highway To Hell, The Time Warp and Running Up That Hill to Hungry Like The Wolf, Maneater, Bat Out of Hell, She Wolf and Thriller. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Simon Trow

Halloween family entertainment of the week: Wharfemede Productions in The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

COMPANY co-founder Helen Spencer directs North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions in  Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s devilishly funny, deeply kooky comedy The Addams Family Musical.

When Wednesday Addams falls in love with a “normal” young man and invites his respectable parents to dinner, chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in this spooky celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird, replete with sharp comedy, dazzling dance numbers, a witty score and a nine-piece band. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Christopher Leslie in his haunting one-man adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound at York Medical Society

Halloween solo show of the week: Christopher Leslie in Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 27 to 30, 7.30pm

YORK writer, performer and Pop Yer Clogs Theatre company member Christopher Leslie presents his haunting one-man adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “bogey tale”, here re-titled Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound.

Lawyer Gabriel John Utterson, now living a sheltered, haunted  life, invites you into the Soho house once occupied by his former client, Doctor Henry Jekyll. Tonight, Utterson will speak at last, looking into the darkness of the human psyche and asking are we really who we appear to be? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nain’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox

York premiere of the week: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29, 2.30pm & 7.45pm, October 30, 7.45pm, and October 31, 2pm

YORK Actors Collective presents Stephanie Jacob’s study of freedom and control The Strongbox,   in which a mother (Beryl Nairn’s Ma) and her daughter (Victoria Delaney’s Kat) keep a homeless woman (Clare Halliday’s Maudie) as a slave in their London home. Power shifts, however,  when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.

“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” asks director Angie Millard. “As Ma says, ‘ If you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

“I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” says Leo Sayer

The show must go on…for one last tour: Leo Sayer, Can’t Stop Loving You, York Barbican, October 30, 7.30pm

AFTER almost 60 years on the road, Leo Sayer, now 78, returns to the UK stage for “what could well be his final full UK tour”. “I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country. I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” clarifies Sayer, in a year when he is releasing his autobiography and a career-spanning box set.

Cue The Show Must Go On, Thunder In My Heart, Moonlighting, One Man Band, When I Need You,  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing et al. Meanwhile, Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have sold out October 29’s York Barbican gig. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. 

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Wharfemede Productions mark Halloween week with deeply kooky The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Henrietta Linnemann‘s Morticia and Zander Fick’s Gomez Addams in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

WHAT better way for North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions to mark Halloween week than by staging The Addams Family Musical.

Running at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from October 27 to 31, artistic director Helen “Bells” Spencer’s production of this deeply kooky, definitely spooky American musical comedy follows award-winning productions of Little Women and A Little Night Music. “We look forward to seeing you at Halloween – if you dare!” she says.

Combining music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, The Addams Family Musical opens with Wednesday Addams (played by Abbie Law) falling in love with a “normal” young man and inviting his respectable parents to dinner, whereupon chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in a celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird.

“We are thrilled to return with a show full of heart, humour and Halloween spirit, performed during Halloween week itself, when audiences can expect the perfect seasonal treat packed with gothic glamour, mischievous fun and spectacular entertainment,” says Bells. 

Director Helen “Bells” Spencer” holding two of Nick Sephton’s 3D-printed masks for the Ancestors in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

“The Addams Family is darkly delightful, gloriously gothic and wickedly entertaining. Whether you’re a life-long fan of the Addams clan or discovering them for the first time, this is one family reunion you won’t want to miss!”

The success of the Netflix series Wednesday has stimulated renewed cultural interest in The Addams Family. “It had got into a nostalgic space, but by making it relevant to modern audiences, it’s led to the musical coming to the fore again,” says Bells.

Zander Fick, who will play Gomez Addams, concurs. “Wednesday has almost ground the family in more reality, whereas the old family was more of a caricature,” he says. “Now they seem to have a feeling of being eccentric but relatable.”

Helen first encountered the musical two years ago when her fiance, Nick Sephton, was cast as  Fester Addams in a production in Wetherby. Her early expectations of a “very panto show – and I hate panto” were confounded. “I thought I’d just be going along as the devoted partner, but I absolutely loved it. It was a really good musical,” she says.

Nick Sephton’s Uncle Fester in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

“Unfortunately, Nick tore the cruciate ligament in his knee when dancing on the graves of the Ancestors on the first night, and for the rest of the run he had to deliver his Uncle Fester from a large armchair at the side of the stage. He was gutted that he didn’t get the chance to do the part properly, but I thought, ‘actually I think we can make this show work.”

Now Nick will reprise his Uncle Fester in Wharfemede’s production. “People will be surprised by his Fester as he usually plays authority figures, like generals, but with Nick you’re genuinely moved by Fester’s ‘oddness’, and with Nick being autistic he’s identified with that, having felt different from other people through his autism.”

Zander comments: “A key message in the show is that it’s OK to be different, so Fester is really loved by his family, The show has more depth than just having kooky characters, so you can really empathise with them. The story presents a conflict with outsiders who are uncomfortable with them, but  the show celebrates that difference, celebrating what makes you you.”

The masked Ancestors in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical. Picture: Simon Trow

Helen rejoins: “The show says we are all unique. We’re all happier as human beings if we embrace our differences. Wharfemede was created by our wish to create a space where people can be themselves to make high-quality work. We have multiple people in the cast who are autistic or neurodivergent, and we always start rehearsal sessions with a check-in, asking if everyone feels comfortable in the space. That seems to work well.”

Zander, who moved to York from South Africa in 2023, is enjoying those rehearsals as he prepares to play Gomez, the father of the family. “I’m loving him so much,” he says. “He’s so comfortable in who he is, so unapologetic about who he is, when quite often male characters in theatre tend to be moulded as reserved, guarded and always holding back, but Gomez is not like that at all. I can relate that to when I feel in a comfortable place, striving to be myself in that place. I always leave rehearsals feeling energised.

“We’ve had discussions about who Gomez is, as this naive, aloof child in a man’s body, but with a very healthy relationship with his wife, Morticia, so that’s been really interesting to explore.”

Helen has handled the design brief for this Gothic tale. “I want it to be as realistic and gritty as it can be within the realms of the Addams Family,” she says. “I didn’t want everything to be Halloween costumes, but instead with every character having an individual sense of themselves. So we discussed it with the actors, like Abbie Law wanting to wear a black velvet dress for Wednesday: a classic Wednesday look, but in velvet, which is something Abbie really wanted.”

The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical: Abbie Law’s Wednesday, left, Matthew Warry’s Pugsley, Henrietta Linnemann‘s Morticia, Chris Gibson’s Lurch, Zander Fick’s Gomez, Nick Sephton’s Uncle Fester and Rosy Rowley’s Grandma. Picture: Simon Trow

Bells is particularly excited to be bringing elements of commedia dell’arte into Wharfemede’s interpretation of the show, not least in putting all the Ancestors in masks, created in 3D-printed form by Nick Sephton, to make them imposing in unison. 

“Having had the privilege of working with commedia companies in Trieste and Venice, I have long admired the genre’s physical storytelling, heightened characters and joyful theatricality,” she reasons.

“Those influences feel perfectly suited to the world of The Addams Family, and I look forward to blending them with the musical’s unique humour to create something that is both fresh and deeply entertaining.”

Wharfemede Productions presents The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 27 to 31, 7:30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: www.tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on An Evening With Kristin Hersh, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 17

Kristin Hersh on stage at St Margaret’s Church, the home of the National Centre for Early Music in York. Picture: Paul Rhodes

IT was a night of contrasts under a warm and still October sky. Outside, York city centre seemed intent on consuming itself. Inside the wonderful, sacred space of the National Centre for Early Music, a full house sat rapt, listening to Kristin Hersh perform her extraordinary songs.

Hersh has always occupied a musical world of her own. Drawing mostly on her two most recent albums, 2023’s Clear Pond Road and the newly released Sugar on Blackstone, alongside older solo and Throwing Muses material, she showed why she doesn’t need a band, even if you could imagine some songs gaining still greater power with a fuller sound.

This reviewer first saw Hersh in the late Noughties, heavily made up and seemingly gripped by stage fright. The contrast couldn’t have been greater. Playing solo, she has the wiry, lean frame of a runner, and she was relaxed, comfortable and wonderfully engaging.

Living a colourful life has always been an asset for Hersh. Her life becomes her songs. From her children catching fireflies in jars with Amish children to stepping on cockroaches, Hersh has a very distinctive way of turning experience into something unique.

Kristin Hersh acknowledging the crowd’s response at the NCEM. Picture: Paul Rhodes

Her stories between songs were funny, sometimes surreal, and added enormously to the evening. The rapport between audience and performer never felt forced.

With only an acoustic and electric guitar, Hersh coaxed a remarkable variety of sounds from her instruments so the tunes were never samey. Strumming, thrumming, buzzing and delicate fingerpicking sat alongside moments of lovely, spaghetti Western sparseness. Her distinctive voice could be fragile one moment, fierce and unsettling the next.

There were plenty of highlights, with Samson (from Sugar On Blackstone) the standout. The songs moved between quiet beauty and unpredictability, with the older material offering a reminder of Hersh’s longevity.

For all the power a full band might bring, there was something special about hearing these songs stripped back to their essentials, creating memories that will last far longer than a night on the tiles.

Review by Paul Rhodes

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, Oct 11

James Fountain: Soloist for Malcolm Arnold’s Trumpet Concerto

SUNDAY afternoon’s concert, the first of York Guildhall Orchestra’s new season, was dedicated to the memory of John Wallace, OBE and trumpeter extraordinaire, who died in January at the age of 76. His widow and daughter were in the audience.

The first half ended with Malcolm Arnold’s Trumpet Concerto, which Wallace had premiered in 1982, played here by James Fountain. The work is extremely compact. The opening fanfares of its Allegro energico lead into some very rapid passages which Fountain delivered with panache, while finding a comfortable legato for the second theme.

In this context, the slow movement took on a powerfully elegiac feel, the muted trumpet eerily supernatural. All that was blown away by the finale, which was exuberant and joyous, truly an evocation of the personality whose memory was being honoured.

The programme had opened with Walton’s Crown Imperial march, a homage to Elgar if ever there were. The orchestra, under its permanent conductor Simon Wright, took a mildly cautious approach, with the contrasting trio theme lacking quite the breadth its sweep implies,  but it concluded keenly enough.

Much Spanish music demands a special passion and the second of Falla’s two suites from his ballet The Three-Cornered Hat is no exception. The orchestra took the first dance to find its Iberian feet.

The second dance saw a profound change, perhaps inspired by the cor anglais’s little cadenza. The down-bowed syncopations were fiery and the concluding accelerando superbly taut. Tempo and rhythm in the frenetic finale received exactly the focus they needed, and its ending was properly strident.

The first movement of Walton’s First Symphony, Op 125 in B flat minor, opens and closes with a drum roll, which was a touch self-effacing at first here. Woodwinds predominated where we might have heard more from the strings, but it finished in grand style.

The ‘malicious’ scherzo (presto con malizia) was much edgier, largely due to its fearless syncopations introducing an element of the macabre which Wright seemed to relish.

Simmering anger underpinned the melancholy Andante at first, before it became more tranquil, leaving a need for resolution in the finale. This was primarily exciting for the brilliant focus in its two fugal passages, which emerged with the utmost clarity, spearheaded by the strings. This was YGO at its most determined: the best had been kept to the last.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 43, from Gazette & Herald

Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton), left, and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

FROM a couple all at sea at the SJT to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top,  a piratical twist on The Comedy Of Errors to Bison Hip’s blues, Charles Hutchinson recommends ways to stay cheerful.

Bold and unapologetic musical of the week: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

TOM MacRae and Dan Gillespie’s Sheffield musical plays the Grand Opera House for the first time in Nik Briggs’s production for York Stage that restores the grit to both complement and counter the glitz in the uplifting underdog story of Jamie New (Frankie Bounds), a 16-year-old schoolboy from a Steel City council estate with big dreams and the courage to stand out when it would be easier to stay quiet.

Equipped with the strength to face the world head on, Jamie fights prejudice, finds his voice and discovers the freedom of stepping into the spotlight on his own terms. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Over-reaching strategy: Phil Corbitt’s Colin puts yet another plan to Sarah Belcher’s exhausted Deborah in Alison Carr’s All At Sea

Premiere of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31

MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the real-life escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s.

Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Amelia Bullmore’s Penelope comes face to face with Charlie Russell’s Odysseus in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Greek tragedy twist of the week: Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, Odyssey: Her Story, York Theatre Royal, until October 31

BOOKER Prize winner Margaret Atwood revisits Homer’s The Odyssey in an exuberantly irreverent and darkly humorous retelling where she gives voice to Odysseus’s silenced wife, Penelope – still awaiting his return 20 years after the Trojan War – and her chorus of maids in a tale of injustice, betrayal and revenge that exposes the truth behind the myth. Creative director Juliet Forster’s cast is led by Happy Valley and Riot Women star Amelia Bullmore. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Ben Reeves-Rowley and Harry Summers in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Company’s piratical The Comedy Of Errors

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

KATIE Leckey and Emily Carhart co-direct York Shakespeare Project in “ an exciting take on Shakespeare’s shortest and possibly funniest play”, giving a piratical, gender-swapping twist to The Comedy Of Errors in a convergence of the original text with slapstick, farce and physical comedy and a “celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic”.

“The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many (if not all) of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical anti-heroes,” they say. “We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster for The Amy Winehouse Band’s Back To Black 20th Anniversary Tour

Going back to Back To Black: The Amy Winehouse Band, York Barbican, tomorrow, 7.30pm

AMY Winehouse’s original band, who played with her from the very start, are marking the 20th anniversary of her iconic second album, Back To Black, the one that brought her five awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Performing with Amy that evening, as these musicians had done since her earliest gigs in London pubs, was her band. 

Led by Amy’s long-time musical director and bass player, The Amy Winehouse Band features members who both toured and recorded with her throughout her career. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Hudson & Hudson: Combining the magical and the marital at Helmsley Arts Centre

Magic show of the week: Hudson & Hudson Magicians: Married At First Sleight, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

ORIGINALLY from Hull, husband-and-wife magicians Alan and Kat Hudson appeared separately on Britain’s Got Talent before eventually forming a double act. Ant & Dec had suggested they should work together while they were on the show, but they both said no at the time. Between them, they have appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, ITV’s The Next Great Magician and in the West End production Wonderville.

Married At First Sleight mixes magic, mind-reading, comedy and audience participation with the realities of being married to the person with whom you also rehearse, tour and perform. Cue marital banter alongside the tricks. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

York drag diva Velma Celli leading the Yorktoberfest celebrations in the Big Top with The Bavarian Strollers at York Racecourse

Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Friday, 7pm to 1pm; Saturday, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm

FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop. 

Look out on Friday and Saturday for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display and oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. The Bavarian Bar and the Dog Haus serve up drinks and German-inspired food. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.

Bison Hip: A dose of the Glasgow blues at Ryedale Blues Club

Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents Bison Hip, Milton Rooms, Malton, October 29, 8pm

BISON Hip were formed by long-time friends Paul Sloway, Malcolm Button, Steven Radziwonik, John Gilmour Smith and Graeme Carswell during a lockdown Zoom call in 2020. “Maybe it was the mid-life crisis at play,” says vocalist Sloway.

“We wanted to take our love of blues and rock and mix it up with our experiences of life. Between us, we’ve been through so many things in life, ups and downs, some successes and plenty of failures, we wanted all that in the music. We needed to wrap it up in the DNA of our hometown, Glasgow, and hopefully that’s what we’ve achieved.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

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REVIEW: York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, grit and polish until Saturday *****

Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

THIRD time, even luckier. After York Stage’s Teen Version at Theatre@41 in June 2023 and Pick Me Up Theatre’s Joseph Rowntree  Theatre run in July 2025, Sheffield musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is being re-made in York for the third time.

This one is the best yet, wholly justifying Nik Briggs’s decision to revisit Tom MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells’ musical after directing the York premiere in 2023. “When the full version became available I knew I had to bring it to the Grand Opera House,” he said, promising a “truly beautiful, bold and gritty new production, capturing the electricity, humour and heart that has made ‘Jamie’ a modern British classic”.

Electricity. Tick. Humour. Tick. Heart. Tick, tick, ticker. They are all here in abundance in a production driven by Briggs’s thrilling direction, bold and beautiful performances and A J Powell’s choreography, full of punch and panache. What lifts it even higher, to five- star status, is Briggs’s costume and especially set design.

In a story so fast moving, where Jamie’s life is always on the edge of being out of control, where he wants to run before he can strut in heels, Briggs’s revolving stage is the perfect way to encapsulate the commotion. It enables the next scene to be set up out of sight, in transitions from Mayfield School classroom to Jamie’s house; classroom to Victor’s Secret clothes shop; a street bench to Jamie’s house; outside Legs Eleven nightclub to inside.

Nik Briggs: Director-designer of York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

There is no need for stage hands to be in view, save to push the merry-go-round for the next triangular stage to lock into place. It is so quick and efficient that the only things not to be on the move are the hands of the classroom clock. Then again, time waits for no man, or rather teenage boy in this case.

After Ryan Addyman, at the age of 17 in 2023, and Harvey Stephens, at 15 in 2025, now 16-year-old Sheffield council estate schoolboy Jamie New is played by Huby professional actor Frankie Bounds, who is fully ten years older than Harvey at 25, but still boyish of frame, cherubic in his cheekiness and lithe of limb to complement boundless mischievous energy and singing skills honed by his training in both opera and musical theatre.

Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Gillespie Sells (from Horsham pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist MacRae draw on an original idea by co-writer Jonathan Butterell for the unapologetic story of the boy who sometimes wants to be a girl, wear a dress to the school prom and be a drag queen in this classic teen rebel story.

Withering wit, northern nous and sassy social awareness all pepper their unflinching account of societal and classroom attitudes towards gender, bigotry, bullying, homophobia, absentee fathers and the right to self-expression. Nine years on from the Sheffield Crucible premiere, post-Covid strictures and the rise of right-wing intolerance, ‘Jamie’ hits home all the harder.

Mum Margaret New (Joanne Theaker), left, and friend Ray (Julie-Ann Smith) organising the 16th birthday party for Jamie (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Significantly, every Jamie putdown of loathsome, self-loathing school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) is met with cheers, cheers that grew even louder to greet Bounds’ exit from the Stage Door after Saturday’s matinee. Likewise, Jamie’s best friend, assured York Stage debutante Roxanne Hall’s Priti Pasha, the Muslim student destined to study Medicine at Cambridge, puts dunderhead Dean in his place too. This bravura musical not only celebrates difference but what a difference for the better it makes too.

Among the Year 11 pupils of Mayfield School, a typical northern comprehensive classroom of hope-filled, yet cynical and unruly 16-year-olds, Bounds’ Jamie is a restless Yorkshire dreamer in need of escape. He wants to be a performer, not the fork lift driver his  career advisor suggests.

Breaking rules and hearts alike, this lippy kid in lip gloss is outwardly confident but he is naive and vulnerable too, wounded by the barbs of  his stay-away father (Adam Thompson) and discouraged by his narrow-minded  teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer).

The grit promised by Briggs is delivered through the kitchen-sink drama frankness not only of blinkered teacher and bigoted father but also of Jamie’s world-weary, self-sacrificial, ever-supportive mum Margaret (Joanne Theaker, whose rendition of heartfelt ballad He’s My Boy is the Act Two show-stopper).

Class act: Frankie Bounds in his glittering yet shattering performance as teenager Jamie New at the heart of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

High quality is guaranteed by the presence of both Theaker and Julie-Ann Smith’s Ray, who brings a sharp tongue and kind heart to every domestic drama. Together they form a formidably forthright duo taking on both authority and convention.

To go with the grit, here comes the glitz and bravado of dress-shop boss Hugo/veteran drag act Loco Chanelle (Grant McIntyre) and the drag-queen veterans Sandra Bollock (Thompson’s second role),  Tray Sophisticay (George Cornell, reprising his Teen Version role) and Laika Virgin (the thoroughly fabulous Stu Hutchinson), in Sheffield’s answer to The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.

Supporting roles and ensemble cast are in fine form too, as is Jessica Viner’s band, where James Lolley’s trumpet is particularly potent. Briggs has hit new heights in his director-designer double whammy, bringing out the best in his cast, boosted by Powell’s fabulous choreography, where even the cans on a schoolroom table dance in rhythm.

York Stage presents Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus  2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Year 11 pupils, led by Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New in red nail varnish, turn the classroom into a dancefloor of defiance in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

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