EXPECT the unexpected when the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival invites next month’s audiences to peer into the looking glass.
Now in its 15th year, the summer festival will combine daring programming with an inclusive atmosphere in its fortnight run from August 13 to 26.
This year’s theme, Into The Looking Glass, takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s 1872 novel to “explore the psychology of the mind through the prism of music, conveying its various chapters with carefully curated music that takes the audience on an adventurous journey through many twists and turns”.
Having forged ahead to play to live audiences through the height of the Covid pandemic by hiring an open-sided, 5,000 sq.ft marquee, the festival retains the format this year in the grounds of Welburn Manor, near Kirkbymoorside.
In addition, a series of lunchtime concerts will be presented in North York Moors National Park churches at St Michael’s, Coxwold; St Hilda’s, Danby; St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge, and St Mary’s, Lastingham.
From his North York Moors home, the festival’s artistic director, cellist Jamie Walton, has gathered around 30 international artists, such as pianist Katya Apekisheva, French horn virtuoso Ben Goldscheider and violinists Charlotte Scott and Benjamin Baker.
Award-winning Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko and Russian-born, Luxembourg-based violinist Alena Baeva will make their festival debuts.
Works by Bach, Schubert, Strauss, Schumann, Debussy and Mendelssohn, among others, will be performed.
Walton says: “Although the festival is primarily chamber music in the classic sense, the success of last year’s appearance by folk singer Sam Lee and his band opened up our audiences to new styles and acts, while attracting Sam’s own fanbase to the world of classic music.
“This year, we’re delighted to welcome eclectic singer/violinist Alice Zawadzki and her jazz-infused trio for a concert entitled Wonderland, specially developed for the festival.
“Throughout this festival, audiences can expect the unexpected in a fantastical fortnight that showcases great talent, sublime music and spectacular locations. There’ll be loads of vitality and we’ll be pushing some boundaries.”
For the full festival programme, head to: www.northyorkmoorsfestival.com. Tickets for each main festival concert cost £15, free for under-30s. A season ticket for all 14 concerts is £150.
HENRY VIII and the murder of a York glazier take top spot in Charles Hutchinson’s pick of July highlights with outdoor cinema on its way too.
Community event of the month: York Theatre Royal in Sovereign, King’s Manor, Exhibition Square, York, July 15 to 30
YORK Theatre Royal’s large-scale community production, York playwright Mike Kenny’s adaptation of C J Sansom’s Tudor-set murder mystery Sovereign, will be staged outdoors at King’s Manor, where part of the story takes place. Henry VIII even makes an appearance.
Two professional actors, Fergus Rattigan’s disabled lawyer Matthew Shardlake and Sam Thorpe-Spinks’ assistant Jack Barak, lead the 120-strong community company of actors, singers, musicians and backstage workers. Tickets update: sold out.
Exhibition of the week: Tom Wilson, City Screen Picturehouse café bar, Coney Street, York, until July 29
YORK punk expressionist artist, designer, playwright, theatre director and tutor Tom Wilson is exhibiting his riots of colour at City Screen Picturehouse for the first time with sale proceeds going to MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians). Thirty-five works are on display, priced at £175 to £700.
“My art looks like an explosion,” says Wilson, whose dynamic abstract artwork is influenced by Kandinsky, Max Earnst, Otto Dix, Outsider art, German Expressionism and Rayonism (Russian Expressionism).
Tribute show of the week: Steve Steinman’s Anything For Love, The Meat Loaf Story, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
FOR more than 30 years, Nottingham’s Steve Steinman has toured the world with his tribute to the songs of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf (real name Marvin Lee Aday). Now he presents his new production, showcasing 25 chunks of Meat Loaf and Steinman’s prime cuts.
Anything For Love combines Steve’s humour and a ten-piece band with such rock-operatic favourites as Bat Out Of Hell, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, Dead Ringer For Love and Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Don’t miss atYork Early Music Festival: The Sixteen, York Minster, Sunday, 8pm
THE Sixteen’s 2023 Choral Pilgrimage is inspired by the influence of Renaissance composer William Byrd in an exploration of his life, works and pervading Roman Catholic faith. His legacy is marked by two new compositions by Dobrinka Tabakova, bringing his musical heritage into the modern day.
The premieres, Arise Lord Into Thy Rest and Turn Our Captivity, highlight Byrd’s influence of modern polyphony and showcase The Sixteen choir in a new light. Director Harry Christophers’ programme also features works by Van Wilder, de Monte, Clemens Non Papa and Byrd himself. Box office: 01904 658338 or tickets.ncem.co.uk.
American play of the week: Amerrycan Theatre in Our Town, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FOUNDER Bryan Bounds directs Yorkshire’s American company, Amerrycan Theatre, in the York premiere of “America’s greatest play”, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 study of mindfulness, mortality and brevity of life, Our Town.
“Wilder’s portrait of life, love and death set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century, could happen just as easily in Pocklington,” says Bounds. Tracing the romance and marriage of Emily Webb (Emily Belcher) and George Gibbs (Frankie Bounds), Our Town reveals the hidden mysteries behind the smallest details of everyday life. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Outdoor film event of the week: City Screen Picturehouse presents Movies In The Moonlight, Museum Gardens, York, July 14 to 16, doors, 7.30pm; screenings at sundown, 9.15pm approx
CITY Screen Picturehouse heads outdoors for three films in three nights, kicking off on Friday with The Super Mario Bros Movie, wherein Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world.
In Mamma Mia! The Movie, next Saturday, Greek island bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is set on finding out who her father is. In next Sunday’s film, Jaws, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss star as a police chief, marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop a gigantic great shark that has been menacing the island community of Amity. Box office: picturehouses.com/outdoor-cinema.
Pop nostalgia of the week: The Counterfeit Seventies, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 16, 7.30pm
IN the wake of The Counterfeit Sixties, here comes, you guessed it, The Counterfeit Seventies, the decade of glam rock, punk, new wave and everything in between. Revisit Slade, Sweet, T Rex, the Bay City Rollers and plenty more, aided by a light show, costumes of the period and archival footage of bands and events from the era. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Solo show of the week: Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, July 16, 7pm
AFTER her celebrations of Kate Bush (An Evening Without…) and Julie Andrews (Julie Madly Deeply), writer-performer Sarah-Louise Young returns to Theatre@41 with the highly personal true story of a singer who loses her voice and embarks on an unexpected journey of self-revelation.
Warning: The show includes themes of trauma and sexual violence. As The Stage review put it, The Silent Treatment is a “a war cry and a message of resilience and hope to anyone who has faced abuse and been made to feel guilty about it”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
AMBER Davies will play Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward opposite Oliver Savile’s businessman Edward Lewis when Pretty Woman; The Musical tours the Grand Opera House, York, next February 20 to 24.
2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba, last seen at the Cumberland Street theatre in fishnets in March 2022 as nerdy, preppy American student Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, will return to York two years later in the role of hotel manager Barnard Thompson/Happy Man. Natalie Paris will be Vivian’s wisecracking roommate Kit De Luca.
On tour in Pretty Woman from October 2023, Davies is starring at present in the West End as Lorraine Baines in Back To The Future: The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre. Previous theatre roles include Judy in the original West End cast of 9 To 5 The Musical at the Savoy Theatre and on tour and Campbell in Bring It On at London’s Southbank Centre.
In the West End, Savile’s credits include Fiyero in Wicked, Whizzer in Falsettos, The Phantom Of the Opera and Les Misérables, complemented by the UK tour of Cats and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He performed alongside alongside Sting in the American tour of erstwhile The Police frontman’s North East shipyard musical The Last Ship.
Oduba, a 2021 finalist in Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, starred in the 50th anniversary tour and West End production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, and further roles since taking to the musical theatre stage in 2019 include Aaron Fox in Curtains on tour and in the West End and Teen Angel in a UK tour of Grease.
Paris is best known as the Olivier Award-nominated original Jane Seymour in the West End production of SIX The Musical and is now on tour in North America in the role, having played her on the UK tour too.
Among her previous London stage credits are Sunday In The Park With George at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Wyndham’s Theatre, Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace and Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre and Queen’s Theatre.
In the UK and Ireland tour cast too will be: Becky Anderson; Rebekah Bryant; Josh Damer-Jennings; Ben Darcy; Andrew Davison; Lila Falce-Bass; Noah Harrison; Sydnie Hocknell; Elly Jay; Rachael Kendall Brown; Michael Kholwadia; Joshua Lear; Stuart Maciver; Victoria Rachael McCabe; Eleanor Morrison-Halliday; LJ Neilson; Annell Odartey, Curtis Patrick and Chomba Taulo.
Billed as Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when prostitute Vivian meets entrepreneur Edward and her life changes forever.
“Be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart,” say the producers.
Pretty Woman: The Musicalfeatures original music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter J.F. Lawton. Direction and choreography is by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell.
Roy Orbison and Bill Dee’s hit song Oh, Pretty Woman, the inspiration for Garry Marshall’s film, features in the show too.
The show has scenic design by David Rockwell; costumes by Tom Rogers, from the original Broadway designs by Gregg Barnes; lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Philip S. Rosenberg; sound design by John Shivers; hair design by Josh Marquette and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Will Van Dyke. 101
Pretty Woman: The Musical had its world premiere at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran at the Nederlander Theatre. The German production opened in Hamburg at the Stage Theater an der Elbe in September 2019 and an American tour opened in October 2021.
Pretty Woman: The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24 2024, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
LOVE inspire something close to religious fervour. Seeing how The Crescent’s full house of all ages responded to the closing track of Forever Changes, You Set The Scene, is now an indelible memory: music, message and audience marching as one.
Love has become the story of Arthur Lee, a protean, iconic figure who fell far before enjoying a belated blast of recognition before leukaemia cruelly stole him away. Bryan Maclean, also now dead, is less feted, but his contrasting songs are essential to Love’s ensuring appeal. One listen to Andmoreagain reveals Maclean as every bit as much of a rule breaker as Lee.
“The Love Band” as they are now known were originally called Baby Lemonade, and they toured with Lee as Love before he died. Taking up the mantle of keeping the music alive, since 2005, four have become five thanks to guitarist Johnny Echols, the other key original member coming back into the fold.
You can debate at what point a group becomes a tribute act, but this concert was about far more than nostalgia. Echols provided a key focal point for the concert, providing occasional between-song stories
Forever Changes has, decades after its release, climbed in regard to nestle among the very best albums of all time. Deservedly so. It captures a glorious burst of creativity that neither Lee and Love, nor arguably anyone else, has matched.
The tension and disharmony that surrounded its recording provided a prescient, apocalyptic but ultimately life-affirming set of songs. However transported by visions Lee may have been, the musicianship keeps pace, full of variety, twists, turns and hooks, psychedelic but still retaining the band’s LA garage roots and a disregard of the rulebook that would become the spirit of punk.
The Love Band is very familiar with the music’s twists and turns, and second guitarist Mike Randell is able to fill some of the key spaces left by the absence of strings and brass. Singer Rusty Squeezebox (born David Ramsey) was a gracious host and carried Lee’s words with skill.
The audience knew in advance this would be good – this band had previously blown the roof off the same venue in 2019. Their Sunday setlist centred on Forever Changes but also included some lesser-sung parts of Love’s catalogue. Tunes like Softly To Me weren’t as strong, but Singin’ Cowboy from Four Sail was a glorious first encore, before bowing to 7 And 7 Is (from De Capo), a powerful song about nuclear war that sounds like nothing else.
There was no way to follow that, but the crowd could certainly face the coming days with a smile after this wonderful show.
JULIE Lomas directs Helmsley Arts Centre’s resident troupe, the 1812 Theatre Company, in their first ever musical production, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s Jekyll & Hyde, from tomorrow.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s story, a devoted man of science, Dr Henry Jekyll, is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve some of mankind’s most challenging medical dilemmas. Indeed, he is trying to discover cures for what now would be recognised as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Rebuffed by the powers that be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons along with the man the world would come to know as Mr Hyde.
1812’s cast features husband and wife Joe and Amy Gregory in the lead roles of Jekyll/Hyde and Emma Carew. John Atkin is the musical director; Michaela Edens, the choreographer.
Here Julie discusses 1812 Theatre Company’s 30th anniversary production with CharlesHutchPress.
How did you land this directing gig? Were you head-hunted or did you pitch for it?
“An 1812 Theatre Company member suggested that the company should do a musical at the annual general meeting. Apparently, others had been talking about wanting to do it for some time.
“The committee discussed this and I said that if they would like to go ahead, I had experience as a director in musical theatre and would love to do it.”
What attracted you to directing Jekyll & Hyde The Musical?
“I love musicals that dramatic enough to ‘move’ an audience emotionally. There are not many of these that are available for amateurs to perform. I feel that there are several opportunities for this in Jekyll and Hyde.
“With its dramatic strengths and less choreographic content, it is a suitable choice as a first musical for this company.
“Plus, I’ve directed it before for the Grange Players in Walsall. This actually made me think very carefully as I prefer not to repeat anything, but this was a musical that I was driven to do again. My concept this time is different, a contemporary treatment but still in a Victorian setting.”
What is your directing background?
“Having performed in several plays for The Grange Theatre, Walsall, I was asked if I would like to direct. My first play was Kindertransport by Diane Samuels, and after that I never looked back.
“I directed several plays there, including Rebecca, Accrington Pals and The End Of The Affair but my favourite by a long way was Peter Schaffer’s Amadeus.
“I think it was being able to bring together my love of music, fabulous period costume, make-up and wigs plus the wonderful tragic plot line and enigmatic characters. I was fortunate enough to win a regional NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) award for that production, which I treasure.
“I moved into directing a musical there and then directed one professionally for Brownhills Musical Theatre Company, Sweet Charity.”
Do you now specialise in musical theatre?
“I’m keento embrace many types of theatrical productions. I’ve been a soloist singer since the age of eight and have been lucky enough to have had many fantastic principal roles in musical theatre. My favourites were Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street and Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
“So, although I cannot say that I specialise in musical theatre, there’s absolutely nothing that compares with the feeling of being part of a musical, as a performer, director or crew member.”
What brought you to Helmsley?
“I moved to North Yorkshire to be geographically close to my son and his wife and see more of my grandchildren. My eldest son and his family live in Sheffield, so I can commute there too.
“However, it’s a great place to live in its own right, the peaceful countryside around here is a sheer delight and Helmsley is the prettiest town in which to rehearse and perform! I was looking for a theatre company that would feel like ‘home’ to me and I felt welcomed from the start. The theatre itself is lovely, providing an intimate theatre space, modern studio bar and leafy courtyard.
“I live in Westow, a village just outside the Howardian Hills area. I now consider the Helmsley Arts Centre to be my base. In a few years, even with the lockdown, I have already performed there, worked backstage for a production and I’m also a member of the management committee.”
Any thoughts on why 1812 Theatre Company has not staged a musical in its 30 years until now?
“I would imagine it’s because when the company was set up, the idea was for members to perform plays. However, it’s so much more diverse now. In the past 12 months alone we’ve performed plays, a rehearsed reading, an indoor/outdoor production in Helmsley Walled Garden, a hugely successful pantomime and now a musical!
“We’re hoping that this variety will both entice new members, who are always welcome, and encourage retention of existing members.
“The other more sombre answer is that to produce a musical is expensive and we’re hoping to have good audiences, not only to see the amazing performances, but also from a financial perspective.”
What are the strengths of Bricusse and Wildhorn’s songs?
“As we’re repeatedly told by our musical director, John Atkin, this is not an easy musical score. However, it’s such a beautiful one with melodies that linger long after the show is over.
“It allows performers to do just that: perform the music, rather than just sing it, and we have worked hard to bring that to the stage. It provides a tour de force for the eponymous actor, Jekyll, which climaxes with him singing a duet with himself, as Hyde. Joe [Gregory] has excelled in the role and I’m sure audiences will appreciate his performance.”
Is this the first time you have worked with musical director John Atkin?
“It is, and I’m hoping it will not be the last. As soon as I met him, I knew the production was in safe hands. He’s an extremely talented musician and wonderful to work with.”
A husband and wife, Joe and Amy Gregory, will lead your cast as Jekyll/Hyde and Emma Carew. What does their personal relationship bring to their stage partnership?
“It’s rare for there to be such chemistry between the two romantic leads – even if they do happen to be married! Joe and Amy have such a special relationship, and in their case, this comes across immediately.
“They’re also both lovely people and in all my time directing, I have genuinely never met anyone more joyous to work with. They are committed, passionate performers who will work hard to deliver what you’re aiming for as a director yet also contribute actively to the creative process.”
What is the message of Jekyll & Hyde in our 21st century world, where tampering with science may well have led to Covid?
“Good question. I suppose the message is that research does not always deliver the desired results. Sometimes though, even the unexpected results can turn out to be beneficial. There are many drugs that are used for things for which they were not intended in development.
“As a hospital pharmacist by profession, I was interested in this angle of drug research in psychiatry with Dr Jekyll. Even today, we still know comparatively little about the causes of mental illness and effective drug therapy is limited.
“Also, if you consider the possible effects of hallucinogenic drugs, the concept of a ‘Dr Jekyll’ and ‘Mr Hyde’ characterisation after injection is not so far-fetched.”
What will be your next theatrical project?
“My next project for 1812 Theatre Company is to mentor a first-time director, Sarah Barker, as she directs ’The Kitchen Sink [Hull playwright Tom Wells’s tender comedy of big dreams and small changes in a Withernsea, East Yorkshire family].
“We like to encourage members to consider directing and have a few people that are interested, but it’s important that they have someone to support them through the process.
“I think the big question is, will I ever direct another musical for 1812. Who knows? This production has consumed every moment of my life for the past six months, and a fair few moments in the months before that.
“I’d like to think so. What I do know, though, is that my passion for musicals will never die, unlike a number of Jekyll’s victims!”
1812 Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 5 to 9, 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, under 18s, £7.50, from the arts centre, on 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk. Age guidance: Suitable for 13 plus.
MUSIC festivals and mystic femininity in art, comedy antics and bucket list stunts, a scary scientist and a madcap whodunit spark Charles Hutchinson’s interest.
Exhibition launch of the week: Wildish, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today until August 13
CURATED by Rogues Atelier Studios artist and interior designer Jo Walton, Wildish unites six women – five artists and a poet – through a theme based loosely on deep and sensual mystic femininity.
Taking part will be Jo Walton, Julie O’Sullivan, Christine Pike, Izzy Williamson, Zoe Catherine Kendal and York poet Nicky Kippax. Meet them at today’s 11am opening for a drink, nibbles and a chat.
Revival of the week: The 39 Steps, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until July 29
ARTISTIC director Paul Robinson revives his hit 2018 production of Patrick Barlow’s fast and frenetic stage adaptation of John Buchan’s juicy spy novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s film in tandem with the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
Barlow adds a dash of Monty Python to the winning combination of whodunit and old-fashioned romance as Mischief Theatre founder member Dave Hearn’s Richard Hannay is joined by fellow Mischief alumnus Niall Ransome, reprising his Clown role from 2018, Lucy Keirl and SJT debutante Olivia Onyehara. Cue the iconic chase on the Flying Scotsman, the first-ever theatrical biplane crash and a death-defying (well nearly) finale. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Outdoor gig of the week: Paul Heaton, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, today, gates open at 6pm
PAUL Heaton, former frontman of Hull bands The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, heads up the Yorkshire coast for a headline gig in Scarborough. Special guests supporting the self-styled “Last King Of Pop” will be Ian Broudie’s Lightning Seeds.
Busy week ahead for Scarborough OAT: Hollywood Vampires, Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen’s American rock supergroup, play a sold-out show on Wednesday, followed by The Cult on Thursday, Tom Grennan on Friday and Pulp (sold out) next Sunday. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club presents Chris Lynam, Patrick Monahan, Dean Coughlin and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm
HEADLINER Chris Lynam has been feverishly subverting the traditions of the stand-up comic for more than 30 years with his grasp of crazy antics. Patrick Monaghan holds the world record for Longest Hug at a time of 25 hours and 25 minutes, set at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Dean Coughlin has worked on the comedy circuit since 2017. Master of ceremonies and club organiser Damion Larkin will be improvising his set as ever. Further LOL Comedy nights are in place for August 5 and September 2. Box office: lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.
Musical of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Helmsley Arts Centre, Wednesday to Sunday, 7.30pm
JULIE Lomas directs Helmsley Arts Centre’s resident troupe, the 1812 Theatre Company, in their first ever musical production, Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s Jekyll & Hyde, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s story.
Marking the venue’s 30th anniversary, the show features husband and wife Joe and Amy Gregory in the lead roles of Jekyll/Hyde and Emma Carew. John Atkin is the musical director; Michaela Edens, the choreographer. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Festival of the week: York Early Music Festival 2023, Friday until July 14
THIS summer’s York Early Music Festival takes the theme of Smoke & Mirrors with a focus on William Byrd, a practising Catholic composer working for a constantly threatened Protestant queen.
The City Musick, Ensemble Jupiter & York countertenor Iestyn Davies, The Sixteen, violinist Rachel Podger, The Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston are among the week’s musicians. Full festival details and tickets: ncem.co.uk; 01904 658338.
Solo gig of the week: Tom Figgins, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Friday, 7.30pm
SINGER and songwriter Tom Figgins, programmer for At The Mill’s summer’s season of music, comedy and theatre, plays the Stillington garden for a third time this weekend. Noted for his vocal range, distinctive guitar playing and complex lyrics, he numbers radio presenter Chris Evans among his fans, appearing on his BBC Radio 2 show. Expect songs old and new at one of his favourite spots. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925897.
Stunts of the week: Steve-O, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
EVERY idea on American entertainer Steve-O’s bucket list was so ill advised, he never expected to go through with any of them. Until it was time to prepare for this tour. Not only are the stunts even more ridiculous than Steve-O pulled off on MTV’s Jackass, but now he has made a highly XXX-rated, multimedia comedy show out of them too. Not for children or the faint of heart, he warns. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Heading to the park: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, August 11 and 12
TRANSATLANTIC folk trio The Magpies have confirmed the line-up for their two-day open-air festival of music, activities, stalls and food and drink. The Friday main stage acts will be Laura Cortese & The Cards, Chris Difford and Holy Moly & The Crackers, followed by the Saturday bill of Liz Stringer, Honey & The Bear, Blair Dunlop, Rachel Sermanni, The Magpies and Edward II.
Friday acts on the Brass Castle Stage will be The Dicemen, Thorpe & Morrison, The Often Herd and New York Brass Band; Saturday will welcome Jack Harris, Megan Henwood, Tom Moore & Archie Moss, Gilmore & Roberts, and Bonfire Radicals, concluding with a Ceilidh with Archie Moss. Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk.
JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company’s summer show is restricted to only two performances. Big cast, bags of energy and enthusiasm, fun idea for a show, and it would surely have merited a longer run.
Decent house last night, and an even bigger audience is expected tonight, with all proceeds going to the JoRo Theatre, as is the case with all JRTC productions.
This one is directed by Helen ‘Bells’ Spencer, who played the lead in Hello, Dolly! in February and now pulls the strings with aplomb.
She pops up in two numbers too (Beauty And The Beast’s Tale As Old As Time with Catherine Foster and an amusing pyjama party revamp of City Of Angels’ What You Don’t Know About Women with Foster, Connie Howcroft, Nicola Strataridaki, Jennie Wogan-Wells and Tessa Ellis).
Meanwhile, her children, Tempi and Lao Singhateh, enjoy a sweet, humorous cameo in Matilda’s When I Grow Up, where adults sing the children’s lines.
The show’s concept is playful, radical too, and has the potential to be rolled out again. Imagine alternative worlds – a multiverse – where musical favourites take on a new life with a change of gender, era, key or musical style, arranged with glee, joy and flourish after flourish by musical director Matthew Peter Clare for his smart band.
The opening ensemble number Pure Imagination, from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, is an invitation for the audience to use exactly that, as songs are freed from the chains of their usual presentation.
Blood Brothers’ That Guy, without a change of lyrics, is now sung by two females, Ashley Ginter and Scarlett Rowley, who later thrives on Jennie Wogan-Wellss’ choreography in the dance number Electricity from Billy Elliot.
In His Eyes, from Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, makes the reverse switch, given to James Willstrop and Ryan Richardson in a stand-out first half duet.
Porgy & Bess’s Summertime blossoms anew in a barbershop setting, Jennifer Jones leads the dance ensemble in a swish Luck Be A Lady from Guys And Dolls, and Nicola Strataridaki has the last word in her slick duet with Chris Gibson in Lady Is A Tramp.
In a shift from major key to foreboding minor, Connie Howcroft deep-freezes Frozen’s Let It Go, the closing line, “The cold never bothered me anyway”, now so chilling.
In the oh-so-right choice of first-half climax, Rosy Rowley rivals Meat Loaf’s braggadocio in Dead Ringer For Love (from Bat Out Of Hell), while a series of men take on Cher’s swaggering responses. Always an over-the-top number, it becomes a company pile-on as everyone joins in, beer bottles in hand, and heavy metal-haired guitarist Mickey Moran strides to the front for a rock god solo. Moran, by the way, is outstanding throughout.
The second half opens in Matilda’s classroom before Jennie Wogan-Wells delivers the night’s most moving solo: transforming Les Miserables’ Bring Him Home into a mother’s prayer for her son to return safely from the First World War trenches.
Nick Sephton’s It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (from Bat Out Of Hell) is powerfully, sombrely reflective, Rachel Higgs’s Part Of Your World, from The Little Mermaid, is the second belter to benefit from the switch from major to minor; Steven Jobson and Richardson make you know I Know Him So Well in a new way and Rosy Rowley and Abi Carter likewise transform La Cage Aux Folles’ Song On The Sand.
The most impactful reinvention of all, made all the punchier by Wogan-Wells’s choreography, is Cell Block Tango, where Richard Goodall, Gibson, Richardson, Jack James Fry, Jobson and Willstrop’s murderers in toxic orange prison overalls brag about their deeds, as the dancers strut around them in familiar Chicago style.
Tessa Ellis turns Beauty And The Beast’s Evermore into a Sixties ballad in Dusty Springfield or Petula Clark style; Howcroft, superb again, and Wogan-Wells vie for centre stage in The Wild Party’s Let Me Drown, and Rosy Rowley has the audience on its feet, after some insistent cajoling, for the finale, as she deepens Frankie Valli’s lead vocal in Jersey Boys’ Who Loves You?
Musicals In The Multiverse turns out to be out of this world. A sequel will surely follow.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Musicals In The Multiverse, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight (30/6/2023) 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501395 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Coming next from Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company
JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company will present a full-scale production of the musical whodunit Curtains, from the creators of Cabaret and Chicago, Fred Ebb and John Kander, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from February 7 to 10 2024.
British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author Rupert Holmes wrote the book for this 2006 comedy mystery set in the 1950s. Ebb ebbed away (RIP September 11 2004) before its completion.
The song What Kind Of Man? attacks theatre critics. Ouch!
SEVEN Drunken Nights – The Story Of The Dubliners will return to Grand Opera House, York for two performances on March 10 2024.
In its sixth year, after a Scandinavian tour, the celebration of the Irish music of Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna, John Sheahan, Ciaran Bourke and Jim McCann will be on the road for 79 British and Irish dates.
Further Yorkshire performances on the biggest ever Seven Drunken Nights tour will be at Sheffield City Hall on March 20, Cast, Doncaster, March 21 and 22, Bridlington Spa, April 6, St George’s Hall, Bradford, April 12, and Hull City Hall, May 15.
Much more than a jukebox musical celebration of The Dubliners, the show is steered by its writer and director Ged Graham, whose narration charts the band’s path from their first gig at legendary Dublin pub O’Donoghue’s in 1962. The Irish Rover, The Leaving Of Liverpool, Belle Of Belfast City, Dirty Old Town, The Banks Of The Rose, Star Of The County Down and The Town I Love So Well and many more Irish favourites will be performed by Graham’s cast of musicians and singers, who last filled the Grand Opera House on April 23 this spring.
Graham is delighted to have received the backing of the families of The Dubliners. “It was very nerve-racking meeting their relatives, as I didn’t know how they would react,” he says. “But meeting Luke Kelly’s brother, Paddy, early on during the first tour was just brilliant.
“He and his family have been so supportive of the show. Likewise, Barney McKenna’s sister came to see the show when we toured Ireland and was very complimentary of how we told the story. Their support means so much to everyone involved with the show.”
In addition to glowing reviews, Seven Drunken Nights has also received praise from the families of The Dubliners. Ged Graham said, “It was very nerve-racking meeting relatives of The Dubliners, as I didn’t know how they would react. But meeting Luke Kelly’s brother, Paddy, early on during the first tour was just brilliant. He and his family have been so supportive of the show.
Likewise, Barney McKenna’s sister came to see the show when we toured Ireland and was very complimentary of how we told the story. Their support means so much to everyone involved with the show.”
Looking ahead, Seven Drunken Nights is set for its record year internationally, performing nearly 300 shows during 42 weeks on the road.
The show’s popularity has been a life-changing experience for Graham, who says: “I can’t quite believe it. Seven Drunken Nights seems to have touched so many people who have become real fans of the show, reigniting their love of The Dubliners.
“It’s had a massive impact on my life, giving me the confidence to write more and be involved in many other productions, including the runaway success Fairytale Of New York. It truly is a great privilege to bring the music of The Dubliners to the stage every night and keep their legacy alive.”
York tickets for the March 10 matinee and evening shows are on sale at atgtickets.com/york. Tickets for all venues on the 2024 tour can be booked at sevendrunkennights.com.
LOVELY show to finish off York Light’s 70th anniversary. Something a little different. All about love. That adds up to three reasons espoused by director Neil Wood to see the American musical comedy with the tripartite title.
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change has its place in musical history as the second longest-running off-Broadway musical revue, premiered by the American Stage Company in 1996.
Now it swaps New York for York while retaining its American accents for 20 vignettes of universal resonance, each delving into a different aspect of love and relationships, their joys and their challenges.
Those vignettes, humorous, honest, heartfelt, heartwarming and heartbreaking, are full of life, lust and love’s labours lost and found, charting the path from dating to marriage, parenthood to ageing.
Writer and lyricist Joe DiPietro and composer Jimmy Roberts bring momentum, mischief, romance, frankness, sauce, familiarity, delight, jaw-dropping awkwardness, pathos and passion, surprise and shock, to savvy, soulful, sweet, sour, salacious scenes ranging in length from five to eight minutes, diverse in style, tone and content.
Updated in 2018 to reflect changing times and fads, some take the form of dialogue or a monologue; some are songs; others combine the two. Like a taster menu, there is always another juicy morsel coming along to savour in each 55-minute half.
On an end-on stage with tables and chairs on one side, a sofa bed on the other, those vignettes are in the hands of a cast of seven – spreading the roles wider than the original production’s quartet of actors – and each of York Light’s magnificent seven takes on at least six parts, some as many as eight.
Neil Wood, directing York Light for the first time, put his company through Laban technique rehearsals to settle on characterisation and movement, giving each scene due weight with an emphasis on exposing the vulnerability in so many of the lovers’ tales.
He is rewarded with performances that are truthful and comedic, moving and candid, playing to both individual and collective strengths in a whirl of costume and character changes relished by Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Mark Simmonds and especially the chameleon Sanna Jeppsson and James Horsman.
Look out for Jeppsson’s arthritic hands when playing an old woman discussing love in a funeral parlour opposite Horsman in arguably the most affecting vignette, Funerals Are For Dating.
Emily Hardy and Monica Frost graduate from the York Light ranks to principal roles for the first time, Frost being particularly impressive, whether in the country pastiche Always A Bridesmaid or her confessional online dating monologue, The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz.
Not since Lloyd Webber and Rice’s Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat in their fledgling days has a musical pulled off so many pastiches, from country weepie to Luther Vandross soul, Ratpack smoothie to boastful rap, power balladry to Lloyd Webber and Rice themselves, demanding much of keyboardist Martin Lay’s resourceful band (with Rosie Morris on bass, Katie Maloney on reeds and Jez Smith on drums).
Billed as “riotous, rude and relevant”, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is indeed those three Rs, but it is also real, relatable and richly rewarding. We’ve all been there, done that, now watch love’s highs and woes from the safety of a ringside seat. You will laugh, you will cringe, you may well cry too.
Performances: Tonight (Thursday) and Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
LOVABLE big dog Hey Duggee is touring for the first time, bounding into York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to Sunday.
Best Family Show winner at the 2023 Olivier Awards,Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show features Duggee, the Squirrels and many more favourite characters from the CBeebies series.
Betty wants to make costumes, Happy wants to sing, Tag wants to make music, Norrie wants to dance, Roly wants jelly and they all want you to join them at the Clubhouse.
There is so much to do, but luckily Clubhouse leader Duggee has his theatre badge. Will you get yours too in a show full of puppetry and storytelling, fun, laughs, music, singing and dancing?
Produced by Cuffe & Taylorand Kenny Wax Family Entertainmentunder licence from BBC Studios, Hey Duggee – The Live Theatre Showwill be on stage in York tomorrow at 10.30am and 2pm; Friday, 1pm; Saturday, 10am, 1pm and 3.30pm, and Sunday, 10am and 1pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Here the stage show’s lead creatives, director Matthew Xia and his co-adaptor, musical supervisor and arranger Vikki Stone, discuss how they translated 156 episodes of the hit television series – 18 hours in all – into the all-new, 55-minute, interactive stage show for pre-schoolers.
“WHEN the producer, Kenny Wax, first approached me, he said: ‘I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Hey Duggee…’, and I said ‘it’s one of my favourites’,” recalls Matthew (artistic director of the Actors Touring Company, by the way).
“My daughter was born in 2014, the same year Hey Duggee started, so we’ve really grown up with the show.”
By contrast, Vikki had never seen a single episode. “I didn’t know Hey Duggee at all when I was approached. So, I spent a long time getting very closely acquainted with the show and now I love it!” she says.
“I very quickly got pulled into it and caught up in the world of Duggee, the Squirrels and their friends. It’s very funny and full of joy and laughs.
“And I very soon realised how special Hey Duggee is, that it sits in the realm of co-viewing; the adults are watching it with their children, not just putting it on to entertain them while they’re doing something else.”
How did they tackle creating Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show? “The first day, Matthew and I sat in an office and had our own lists of our favourite bits – and we had chosen a lot of the same things,” Vikki explains.
“Kenny had given us pretty much free rein,” says Matthew. “That also made the challenge even greater. Taking 156 episodes, each one seven minutes long, and turning them into a complete theatrical experience for children.
“Series one and two I knew really well – I’d seen those episodes a lot. Any parent knows what it’s like! So, I kind of knew where the hits were.
“We had to keep the big format of the show, you know – where the Narrator says to the Squirrels ‘Do you know what time it is?’. That’s the start of the adventure, and that had to be the same on stage.”
Matthew and Vikki have a wealth of experience between them as co-adaptors. As well as working in theatre, Matthew was known as DJ Excalibah and was in the original line-up on BBC Radio 1Xtra, as well as DJing for the London Paralympic Games opening ceremony.
Alongside her work as a composer and musician, Vikki is a stand-up comedian. She made history last year as the first female musical director of a house band on British television in more than 20 years with her appearance on ITV’s Romeo And Duet.
Matthew and Vikki have worked closely with the CBeebies show’s creator, Grant Orchard, and the rest of the team behind Hey Duggee at Studio AKA, to create the live experience.
“It has been really interesting working alongside the Hey Duggee TV team,” says Vikki. “Duggee is effectively Grant’s baby. They are new to theatre and are amazed at what we can do that TV can’t, or how we translate things from TV into a live setting.
“With the animated series, the script has to be locked in and cannot be altered from that point. The dialogue is recorded, and then it’s animated to fit. Whereas, in theatre it’s almost the opposite – we can tweak the script all the way through the process.”
What can fans of Hey Duggee expect from the live theatre show? “We had to think about what an audience member would want and expect to see from Hey Duggee on stage. Badges, songs, jokes, in-gags. It’s all there,” says Vikki.
“Essentially, we have created a big quest story,” adds Matthew. “The Narrator’s voice has been really important, it’s that big question setting up each episode: ‘Hey, Duggee, what are you doing?’.
“Without spoiling it, the Squirrels have never been to a show before, and they set out to learn about all the things that go into making a show and earn the relevant badges.
“We’ve brought in some of our favourite Hey Duggee stars to help the Squirrels – Mrs Weaver, Hennie and Chew Chew, who I can mention, as well as several more that I can’t…
“And the children and families in the audience are very much going to be part of the Squirrel gang. They will have important things to do!”
Some of the biggest moments in Hey Duggee have been marked by music. “We were spoilt for choice with the songs!” says Vikki. “I wanted to treat Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show as a musical, where the songs could move the story along – and the songs we’ve pulled from the TV series do that brilliantly.
“We’ve taken those songs, added harmonies and dance breaks, made them longer, done all the things which would make them work for stage rather than TV. And there is a brand-new song, unique to the stage show, which is just fantastic.”
Since the tour was first announced in June 2022, a further 13 venues – and more than 100 shows – have been added to the schedule, such is the popularity of the CBeebies show.
What makes Hey Duggee so popular, Matthew? “There are so many brilliant references in it, for the adults, and then this exceptionally strong look and style that’s so instantly recognisable,” he says.
“When adults enjoy a kids’ programme, that’s a very sweet spot to hit. Hey Duggee as a TV show is just so playful. It’s really non-judgemental in a most beautiful way – just as children are.”
Vikki adds: “There’s a lot of activity in the Duggee world that just exists, with the wonderfully subtle light touch. You know, Happy is a crocodile and his parents are elephants.
“You see that in the show’s titles, and straight from the off it is subtly stating that families come in all shapes. But there’s never any question or issue made of it.
“There’s so much social commentary within the show, but it all just ‘is’. The modes of transport that the Squirrels come to the Clubhouse in, where they travel from, it’s all there but without any fuss.
“The TV show is just so brilliantly inclusive, without being virtue signalling – and that’s a beautiful thing for children and families.”
Have they felt pressure in re-creating such a well-loved TV show? “I do feel slightly petrified of letting people down as Hey Duggee is such a very special TV programme,” says Matthew. “It’s a huge responsibility to take such well-known characters and to meet all the expectations.
“Added to that, for many of the children coming to Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, it will be their first theatrical experience. How exciting is that? I can’t wait to see the children’s responses – that’s why I make theatre, to see the effect it has on audiences.
“The biggest thing I want to achieve, though, is that children leave the theatre and say ‘I can’t wait to go back’.”
Quickfire questions for Matthew Xia and Vikki Stone
What is your favourite Hey Duggee moment?
Matthew: “In The Super Squirrel Badge, the Squirrels are naming their superhero characters. Norrie says something like ‘Super Mouse’ or ‘Fast Mouse’, and the Squirrels all look to Roly, who doesn’t quite get it (as he often doesn’t), and say ‘What’s yours, Roly?’.
“He says ‘Roly’, and they say ‘No, you need a different name’. Roly punches the air and shouts ‘Steven’! It’s just so simple, so typical of the character, and so funny.”
Vikki: “I love eggs, so The Omelette Badge and The Egg Badge both really hit the mark for me. And you might find some reference to them in the stage show…”
Who is your favourite Hey Duggee character?
Matthew: “I love Roly. He’s a lot of fun, full of energy and slightly louder than everyone else.”
Vikki: “A lot of the secondary characters. Mrs Weaver, Hennie and Chew Chew are brilliant, so I’ve loved working them into the show. And then there are characters like Mr and Mr Crab just woven into it and existing with no commentary that they are two males.”
Which Hey Duggee character are you most like?
Matthew: “I’m torn between Roly and Betty. Roly reminds me of myself. At the same time, I can be quite like Betty too, in my introverted side, with my head in a book trying to understand the universe.”
Vikki: “Roly. I get easily excited and I like to shout.”
Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show also plays Leeds Grand Theatre, July 19 to 22, 10am and 1pm. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.