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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flies into Grand Opera House with York Stage at the wheel

Alex Papachristou’s Baron Bomburst and Jackie Cox’s Baroness in York Stage’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

THE Sherman brothers’ fantasmagorical musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, takes to the air at the Grand Opera House, York, from tonight.

Produced and directed by Nik Briggs, with musical direction by Adam Tomlison and choreography by Damien Poole, York Stage’s production of Ian Fleming’s story of madness, mayhem and magic features not only a big cast but a quartet of cars too.

“One of them is parked in the en-suite! That’s Baron Bomburst’s car, more of a vintage, turn-of-the-century car than Chitty, slightly more primitive, that we’ve brought here from Brighton,” says Nik. “The Baron wants inventor Caractacus Potts to fit it with a ‘float and fly’ features.

“There’s the battered old Chitty that the children find in a junkyard, and the Chitty with the title role, the 16ft long, 6ft wide, four-fendered Chitty, weighing 1,000kg, that magically flies over the Grand Opera House stage. We’ve hired that car from a company down south that built it specially for stage productions.

“We also have a smaller version of Chitty that was created for a production in Malton five or six years ago.”

Adapted from James Bond novelist Fleming’s story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car, written for his son in 1962 and published as three books in 1964, the musical tells the tale of whacky inventor Caractacus Potts (played by Ned Sproston), his two children and the gorgeous Truly Scrumptious (Carly Morton).

Can they outwit bombastic Baron Bomburst (Alex Papachristou), who has decreed that all children be banished from his kingdom? Watch out, here comes the evil Childcatcher (Richard Barker), who will be “popping up, here, there and everywhere, you never know where next”, Nik promises.

Nik Briggs: Producer-director for York Stage’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

“Yes, we have the flying car, but at its heart, it’s a really lovely story of Caractacus and his children, who are so imaginative. Even though Chitty is burnt out when they find her, they see designs of the car and that leads them off into a fantasy world, where the Baron is desperate to have the car.

“His wife, the Baroness (Jackie Cox), will do anything to please him and so she sends spies Boris and Goran (Jack Hooper and James Robert Ball) – obviously not the most intelligent of spies – from Vulgaria to retrieve the car from England.

“We have a broad style of playing these characters, with various Germanic and Vulgarian accents rather than a uniform one,” says Nik. “We’ve deliberately allowed everyone to find the fun in their character, so they all have their different styles. It’s almost comedy in the ’Allo ’Allo! style.

“Traditionally you have a fall guy to set up the gag, but with the Baron and Baroness and the spies too, it’s more like being on a see-saw; they’re the fall guy for each other, so anything goes.”

Barlby-raised Alex Papachristou is returning to the York stage, where he first caught the eye,  to take over the role of Baron Bomburst at short notice, heading up from London over the past fortnight for weekend rehearsals, to be followed by tech week.

“They’re ridiculous characters, like a parody of themselves, but it’s also good to see the consequences of the Baron and Baroness’s greed. He’s like a 1910 version of Donald Trump, saying he’s going to make Vulgaria great again!” he says.

“The villains do have a Bond villain quality about them. The Baron doesn’t have a cat but he does have a teddy bear.”

York Stage’s poster artwork for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Chitty takes to the sky over York

Nik adds: “The Jeremy Sams version of the musical that we’re using does feature the Baron and the Baroness and the two spies a lot more than the 1968 film, so you get the story of Caractacus Potts, his children and Truly Scrumptious, but more of the baddies too.

“It’s also interesting to have a story about a single father. Caractacus is this loving character who will do anything for his children, giving them their creative outlets and liberating them to do whatever they want. When the romance with Truly Scrumptious comes along, they are from two different worlds, but they find love.”

Alex’s Baron will differ from the screen version. “I don’t play him like in the film. I play him as a 33-year-old spoilt young Baron, not a baron in his sixties. Of the roles I’ve played before, he’s quite similar in that way to Herod [performed as a white-faced, cross-dressing vaudeville act in York Stage Musicals’ Jesus Christ Superstar in 2011, when Briggs was Pontius Pilate], but not similar to anyone else,” he says.

“I’ve had to work really hard at this role as he wasn’t a natural fit. I even had Brian Blessed in my head for a while! The humour is more dry, more subtle, than in the film, and these characters are so well written that there’s a lot of elasticity to play around with them: you could really do it 100 ways, but as long as the children in the audience hate you and the adults love you, that’s all that matters!

“On the surface, the Baron and Baroness love each other, but underneath, they can’t stand each other, and it’s good to play someone who has more than one level to their character. These are the parts that are a joy to do and it’s always fun to be the villain.”

York Stage in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Grand Opera House, York, today to April 15, 7.30pm nightly except April 9, plus 2.30pm matinees, tomorrow, Saturday, April 12 and 15. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Copyright of The Press, York

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oh! What A Lovely War, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ***

Ian Giles, front, leading Adam Price and Joy Warner in Adieu La Vie in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oh! What A Lovely War at Theatre@41, Monkgate

PICK Me Up Theatre are staging Oh! What A Lovely War to mark the 60th anniversary of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop premiere at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East.

Why else Robert Readman and co-director Johnny Holbek are reviving this old stager is not so clear on encountering the veteran work of Sixties’ agit-prop; rather like the surfeit of voices that are sometimes a struggle to comprehend in the absence of head microphones.

Body mics do the hard-working company no favours, especially Ian Giles’s all-important master of ceremonies, whose deadpan punchlines fall flat when dying in the muffled air. In contrast, the regular toots on his whistle could not have been shriller.

Ironically, when your reviewer – seated up on the mezzanine level – couldn’t decipher what the drill sergeant was shouting, it turns out it was supposed to be gibberish, but the joke was lost after the uncertainty caused by the earlier encounters with the lack of clarity.

Alison Taylor, front left, and Beryl Nairn performing En Avant!

Oh! What A Lovely War, constructed as a searing satirical chronicle of the First World War, as told through songs and documents in the form of a seaside Pierrot entertainment, was a landmark in British theatre history, prompting the intrigue surrounding Pick Me Up’s revival.

Likewise, Richard Attenborough’s 1969 film account of the working-class Smith lads, Jack, Freddie, Harry and George, seeing initial hope swallowed up by the mud and stench of the trenches, resonated amid the Sixties’ vibe of Make Love, Not War.

From Blackadder Goes Forth to Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse and Private Peaceful, Sam Mendes’s 1917 to this year’s BAFTA-winning All Quiet On The Western Front, the Great War continues to provoke eloquent, elegiac reflection across the arts and literature.  

Oh! What A Lovely War is closest in spirit to Blackadder in the trenches, in its sense of futility, chiming with Winston Churchill’s maxim in favour of dialogue over destruction. “Jaw Jaw is better than War War,” he forewarned, and in turn Oh! What A Lovely War has plenty of jaw jaw about war war, while making a song and dance of it with familiar music-hall songs from the Great War period and hymns fitted out with new lyrics to give them a satirical snap.

Florence Poskitt, left, Maggie Smales and Marlena Kelli in the Kamerad! Kamerad! vignette in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oh! What A Lovely War

Against the John Cooper Studio’s back wall, ever more damning statistics of the body count are typed out across the screen, the factual counter to the officers’ cavalier attitude to so many wasteful deaths of the working-class cannon fodder.

They have the show’s most shuddering impact, ensuring that a sense of righteous anger prevails, as does a haunting sorrow, further enhanced by the presence of a junior ensemble.

However, the strident tones of surrealism, in part set by the Pierrot costumes with their out-of-period elasticated waists, always feels one step removed from connecting. Likewise, you can see the ever-willing cast having to push too hard to make the satire amusing in a show that starts to drag on, like the war itself.

Readman and Holbek’s period-piece production seeks to break down theatre’s fourth wall, often through Giles’s conspiratorial asides, sometimes through music-hall repartee, but the best scenes are self-contained, most notably for the Christmas Day exchange of gifts in No Man’s Land and the grotesque grouse moor shooting-party bluster among those making money out of the war (in a haunting forerunner of Covic contracts).

James Willstrop and Sanna Jeppsson, front, with the Pick Me Up Theatre ensemble performing Row Row Row

Inspired by Charles Chiltern’s radio series that combined First World war statistics with songs, Littlewood’s piece was constructed through improvisation and credited to the company of performers. In the spirit of that gestation, Pick Me Up’s multi role-playing troupe of troops is credited by a list of cast names and not by character, and it is very much an ensemble piece, teamwork to the fore, although James Willstrop, Florence Poskett, Alison Taylor and in particular Craig Kirby stand out.

Accompanied by Natalie Walker’s piano-led band, the songs transition from hope to despair, from perky to poignant, from Belgium Put The Kibosh On The Kaiser to I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier.

Reviving Oh! What A Lovely War does not evoke nostalgia and nor should it. Instead, it feels and looks out of its time, like Richard Lester’s 1967 film How I Won The War. Some vignettes still work, elsewhere the satire has tired or lost coherence over 60 years.

What hasn’t changed? War, huh, yeah, what is good for? Absolutely nothing. Except anti-war songs.  

Pick Me Up Theatre in Oh! What A Lovely War, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight (6/4/2023) and tomorrow, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster artwork for Oh! What A Lovely War
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Late Music: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, York

Ian Pace: Tireless campaigner for composers of the past 100 years

Late Music: Ian Pace, Xenakis Centenary Concert, Composers With A Side Hustle, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel York, 1/4/2023

OSTENSIBLY a Xenakis centenary celebration, this recital had an intriguing sub-title: Composers With A Side Hustle. All six of the composers involved had day jobs until music took over. Xenakis himself was a professional architect working with Le Corbusier in Paris.

Ian Pace has been a tireless campaigner for composers of the past hundred years, including music that is barely dry on the page. He has appeared regularly in the Late Music series in York for over two decades.

He opened with Xenakis’s Mists (1980), a collection of cameos in which his staccato touch maintained immense clarity, even amongst the busiest of textures, often at the top of the keyboard.

A much earlier work, Chansons I-VI (1950-1), written when music was still a sideline for him, found Xenakis in lyrical vein and still strongly influenced by music of his Romanian childhood and Greek parentage. All the songs had a French tinge, boasting a certain joie de vivre when not reflective. Pace invested their melodies with pleasing immediacy.

Completing his Xenakis tribute, Pace gave the composer’s homage to Ravel, À.r. (1987), a virtuoso flourish to end a stimulating evening.

In between, we visited four American composers as well as our own James Williamson. Philip Glass (cab driver and plumber) wrote Knee Play 4 as a piano transcription of one of the five linking intermezzos from his opera Einstein On The Beach. It was both tonal and minimal, but Pace found a way to bring out its inner voices.

Morton Feldman’s (clothes manufacturer) Extensions 3 was extremely delicate, toying with the limits of audibility until its crashing closing chords.

Minimalism is also a stimulus in the work of Williamson (insurance claims handler), as heard here in his new Neon (2023). Tiny changes in repeating motifs in the centre of the piano were mesmeric, until twice interrupted by loud, separated chords which were like blobs of colour on the canvas. Each time the opening recurred, it brought illumination, although it was more like moonlight than anything gassy like neon. What’s a title anyway?

Pace filled out his programme with an amusing potpourri of Charles Ives (insurance agent), arguably the forefather of all the Americans here. It included a Bach-style invention, a solemn chorale and a parody of salon music, all given nicely tongue-in-cheek.

Finally, there was John Cage (graphic designer and mycologist). In his minimalist Satie-inspired In A Landscape (1948), Pace picked out its two melodies from the subtly shifting accents. Yet again he had proved an invaluable missionary for music that might otherwise be forgotten.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Elizabeth Llewellyn & Simon Lepper, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, March 28

Elizabeth Llewellyn: Bringing her radiant soprano to more intimate surroundings

HARD on the heels of her triumphant Opera North run in the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos, Elizabeth Llewellyn brought her radiant soprano to more intimate surroundings in a recital celebrating the late Dr Keith Howard, the most generous benefactor in Opera North’s history. Simon Lepper’s piano was her deft partner.

Her programme was an eclectic mix of Verdi and Puccini songs that played to her operatic strengths, lieder of Brahms and Strauss, and songs by two English composers, Coleridge-Taylor and Stanford.

Llewellyn’s debut recording, Heart And Hereafter in 2021, was devoted to songs by Coleridge-Taylor, eight of which she offered here, opening each half of the evening with them. She clearly has a special feel for this music. The best of three from 1896 was a setting of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet Tears, an intimate view of grief.

Even more affecting were four settings of Christina Rossetti from Sorrow Songs, Op 57 (1904), with a passionate “Let me be” in Oh What Comes Over The Sea?.

There is often a touch of Brahms in the music of Stanford, Coleridge-Taylor’s teacher, even when he is trying to be Irish, as in A Sheaf Of Songs From Leinster. Llewellyn gave a spirited account of The Bold Unbiddable Child. In three lieder by Brahms himself, she tried to keep her tone intimate and succeeded best with Auf dem Kirchhofe (In The churchyard), with its telling rhymes, ‘Gewesen’ (deceased) and ‘Genesen’ (released).

She was wise to keep her Italian songs and her Strauss to the end of each half: they allowed her to open out her naturally rich tone. She found it easy to convey the adoration of Du Meines Herzens Krönelein (You My Heart’s Little Crown) and the rapture of the evergreen Ständchen (Serenade). They also allowed Lepper to break out more and he took full advantage of Strauss’s lush accompaniments, highlighting pianistic details.

Llewellyn’s Italian projection was even smoother still. The lullaby Sogno d’or (Sweet Dream, 1912) reappeared in the opera La Rondine; she covered her tone beautifully at its close. She cleverly paired it with another ‘ninna-nanna’ (lullaby), E l’uccellino, an amusing little bird. The remainder of the Puccini songs were stand-alone numbers, which rarely get a recital airing.

In three Verdi songs at the close, she really cut loose, finishing with a vivaciously carefree gypsy girl in La Zingara. As she spends more time in recital halls, she will perhaps not feel the need to fall back on operatic styles so much and she will tailor the intimate side of her tone accordingly.

She has all the charm and charisma you could ask for. For the time being, however, she will do herself – and her audiences – an immense favour by dispensing with her music stand and learning the songs as she would an operatic role. Only then will she establish that direct communication with her listeners that is so crucial to the full success of a song recital.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Elizabeth Llewellyn & Simon Lepper’s CD of songs by Coleridge-Taylor is on Orchid Classics ORC 100164.

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Country twins Ward Thomas seek out hope and love in music made in the madness

Catherine, left, and Lizzy Ward Thomas: Returning to York Barbican for the first time since 2019. Picture: Marek Puc

HAMPSHIRE country twins Lizzy and Catherine Ward Thomas play York Barbican on April 4 as the only Yorkshire show of their 13-date spring tour.

“We love York,” says Lizzy. “I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the country. It’s like finding a hidden treasure. We love the audiences there. We always get such a lovely response at the Barbican.”

Ward Thomas made their York debut at Fibbers in March 2015 and have since performed at York Barbican in May 2017 and February 2019, as well as stopping off in the city on their Busking For Our Planet travels in 2021, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, to raise money for the TreeSisters, Ocean Clean Up, Arctic Ice Project, Jane Goodall Institute and Client Earth charities.

Next week’s return follows the March 10 release of the sisters’ fifth studio album, Music In The Madness, billed as “a harmony-soaked balm for shattered souls and an uplifting reminder of what really matters”.

Love, family, unity and the healing power of music are recurrent themes of songs that emerged from song-writing sessions that began as war broke out in Ukraine and the world went into a post-Covid tailspin.

“The ‘madness’ is the world around us that we make our music in and we put that experience into our music,” says Lizzy.

“The reason we wanted to use that title is we were writing this album in Nashville when Ukraine had been invaded and Australia had suffered those terrible bush fires, but there’s also much beauty in a world that can be such a dangerous place and human beings really connect to each other in these situations. We see the gestures of people bringing vulnerable people into their homes.

“These incredible stories of hope and love shine so brightly, and that’s why wanted to write an album of songs bringing hope as our next album. Music really is a powerful tool, that’s so important, whether it’s coming together at concerts or bringing back memories at home.”

Ward Thomas topped the charts with their sophomore album, Cartwheels, in September 2016 but after leaving major label Warner following 2020’s Invitation, the sisters find themselves back on their own independent label, WTW Music, originally launched in 2014.

“We kept that label going while we had major label deals, and now we’ve released this latest album independently, which has been an interesting, insightful and incredible experience for us,” says Lizzy. “We’re lucky with the team we’ve got around us, with amazing marketing, radio and TV support.”

Country twins: Lizzy, left, and Catherine Ward Thomas

Music In The Madness entered the Official UK Album Chart at number 31 and has topped the UK country charts, as Ward Thomas seek to retain both their creative and commercial momentum.

“It’s important to continually learn from different people and at the same time appreciate the people who have supported us from the get-go, when we made our first album in Nashville as doe-eyed young girls of 17-18, working with these incredible musicians we were in awe of, having just done our A-levels, writing those songs at school,” says artist’s daughter Lizzy, who was brought up on a Petersfield farm and educated with Catherine at Alton Convent, a Roman Catholic day school.

“The biggest thing we’ve learned since 2014 is just how much things change so quickly in the music industry, how you need to change but work with the right people. If it feels authentic, then go that way; if it doesn’t, have the confidence to say ‘No’.

“It’s important to keep your head screwed on. You’re never in control as things change all the time and you just have to be open to that.”

Through the steady stream of five albums in nine years, the sisters’ love of song-writing has been the key. “We like to see ourselves as album artists, and when the music industry is so difficult these days, we’re lucky we have a fanbase that loves the album format,” says Lizzy. “We’re always wanting to think ahead when we’re working on the current project, to keep the momentum going.”

The gestation of Music In The Madness combined writing sessions in Texas in February 2022 with further writing and recording in the UK. “We had a guy in Nashville who set up sessions for us with Aaran Eshuis, and we wrote a couple of songs with him, and we worked again with Rebecca Powell, who we formed a great personal and creative relationship with when she wrote lots of the Cartwheels album with us.”

Back home, the sisters arranged a song-writing day at singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt’s home studio in Oxford, resulting in the song Joan Of Arc. “Our management and his management were in discussion about Ed producing the album, and after that song we felt on the same page,” says Lizzy.

“What I enjoyed about working with Ed was he was so collaborative and suggested we should bring in our live band for the recordings, when so often producers want to use their own musicians. We have that chemistry with our band, and it was really good fun having them work on the album with us.

“Ed also quietly introduced random instruments, like making a beat by tapping on his desk, and he’s old-school in his approach. You can still hear the creaking of his piano pedal when he played on Loved By You!”

The twins, who turned 29 on Tuesday, already are working on their sixth album with plans for a release to mark hitting 30. “There’ll be lots of stuff about that,” says Lizzy. “Catherine is starting a family; her first baby is due in May. I might be thinking about getting married…”

Ward Thomas play York Barbican on April 4; auditorium doors open at 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The cover artwork for Ward Thomas’s fifth studio album, Music In The Madness
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on English Touring Opera’s Lucrezia Borgia and Il Viaggio a Reims, York Theatre Royal

Paula Sides’s Lucrezia in English Touring Opera’s Lucrezia Borgia

English Touring Opera, York Theatre Royal, Lucrezia Borgia, March 24, and Il Viaggio a Reims, March 25

IT is always good to have English Touring Opera (ETO) back in York, especially when it is offering repertory off the beaten ‘BBC’ track – Butterfly, Bohème and Carmen, as they are known on the street.

Best of all, it is some time since we have enjoyed bel canto here, the style that prizes lightness and flexibility over weighty declamation.

Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia of 1833 is based on a play written the previous year by Victor Hugo. It has tended to underline the notoriety of the historical figure of its title, although more recently historians have been kinder to her, dissociating her from the machinations and debaucheries of her father and brothers.

Certainly that was the approach taken by Eloise Lally’s new production. Adam Wiltshire’s clever permanent set offered a colonnaded courtyard which became the Borgia residence when cast-iron gates were added and even a stateroom with handsome stained-glass windows.

Paula Sides made an appealing Lucrezia, not least because she had the flexibility to handle Donizetti’s coloratura with ease. It was good to be reminded that bel canto techniques still flourish in this country and are particularly well suited to the mainly smaller venues that a touring company must encounter.  

She reserved her finest singing for the last act, in which her initially acid tone dissolved into smoother motherly love, as she begged her dying son in vain to drink the antidote to his poison. This gave a riveting close to what had otherwise been a less gripping evening.

As her son Gennaro, Thomas Elwin’s neatly Italianate tenor was consistently passionate throughout its well-focused range, making more of his character than the slightly wimpish fellow that Donizetti offers. His closing arioso was moving.

Aidan Edwards pressed his fine bass-baritone into excellent service, making the most of his limited opportunities as Duke Alfonso. In the mezzo trouser role of Maffio Orsini, Katie Coventry made a loveable rogue, definitely one of the lads and revelling in his famous drinking-song. She is an engaging actress.

Gerry Cornelius conducted the period-style Old Street Band with stylish control, encouraging his woodwinds to supply a good deal of colour. The various minor roles also supplied the chorus of maskers, spies, guards and nobles.

Valentina Ceschi’s production of Rossini’s last Italian opera, Il Viaggio a Reims (The Journey To Reims), was a merry romp. The journey, of course, never takes place and the comedy is built around the many setbacks that prevent it.

This is very much an ensemble opera, with a dozen international clients holed up at the Inn of the Golden Lily, each of whom Ceschi differentiated skilfully, all waiting to attend the imminent coronation of Charles X. The name and the event could hardly be more timely.

If there is one central figure it is the Roman poetess Corinna, who is known and admired by all her fellow guests. Susanna Hurrell (Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, which was given elsewhere on tour but not in York) sang her with admirable composure, notably in her delectable aria with harp (played from a box).

She was the one oasis of calm amongst a rowdy esoteric bunch. The colonnade from Lucrezia now decorated the courtyard of the hotel, looking out over the French countryside (until a coup de théâtre transformed the backdrop to blue skies).

All the guests enjoyed their moment in their sun, with at least one aria each, while also bringing a snippet of their own national music to the finale. Notable among a cast with not a single weak link were Luci Briginshaw’s French countess, lamenting the loss of her haute couture, Jean-Kristof Bouton’s pompous Spanish admiral, and the English peer of Edward Hawkins, whose aria was much enhanced by its flute obbligato.

Lucy Hall as the innkeeper maintained an appropriately tenuous hold on the proceedings and détente was satisfyingly achieved by the end. It was all delightfully frothy, kept so by the whirligig of a conductor Jonathan Peter Kenny, although the Old Street Band wisely treated some of his more outrageous gyrations with a certain scepticism.

But a word is in order for the rollicking accompaniments to the recitatives, provided only by Gavin Kibble’s cello and Carina Cosgrave’s double bass, right in style.

ETO has justly survived the Arts Council cuts that are wreaking havoc elsewhere. We should be immensely grateful for their regular visits. Long may they continue.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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The Cult return home to Yorkshire for Halifax and Scarborough outdoor shows

The Cult’s Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy: Yorkshire return

THE Cult are bringing their Under The Midnight Sun European Tour home to Yorkshire for outdoor shows at The Piece Hall, Halifax, on July 5 and Scarborough Open Air Theatre the next night. Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday (31/3/2023) via ticketmaster.co.uk.

Formed in Bradford in 1983, originally as Death Cult before settling on The Cult in January 1984, they hit the mainstream from the mid-1980s with She Sells Sanctuary, Rain, Revolution, Love Removal Machine, Lil’ Devil, Wild Flower and Fire Woman.

Platinum-selling albums Love (1985), Electric (1987), Sonic Temple (1985) and Ceremony (1991) cemented the post-punk shakers’ place at rock’s top table.

Frontman Ian Astbury, 60, and guitarist and song-writing partner Billy Duffy, 61, continue to be The Cult’s creative driving force. Last October’s Under The Midnight Sun brought them their seventh Top 20 album chart placing, peaking at number 15.

The artwork for The Cult’s 2022 studio album, Under The Midnight Sun

Under The Midnight Sun’s recording sessions brought Astbury and Duff full circle,  taking them back to  Rockfield, the fabled Welsh studios where they had made their 1984 debut, Dreamtime.

The Cult’s 13-date European Tour starts in June, taking in a third British date at Cardiff Castle on July 4 when they play on UK soil for the first time since last year’s six-date co-headline arena tour with Alice Cooper.

The Cult join The Charlatans & Johnny Marr, Sting, Madness, James, boygenius, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, The War On Drugs, The Jacksons with Sister Sledge & The Real Thing, Embrace , The Lumineers and Ministry Of Sound Classical as the headliners for the 2023 Live At The Piece Hall season.

Scarborough Open Air Theatre welcomes Sting, Blondie, Pulp, Hollywood Vampires, N-Dubz, Olly Murs, Rag’n’Bone Man, Tom Grennan, Pete Tong and The Essential Orchestra Ibiza Classics and the International Tour of Mamma Mia! this summer.

For more information, go to thepiecehall.co.uk or scarboroughopenairtheatre.com 

Ian Astbury: Playing Halifax and Scarborough in July
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What her grandad did in the Great War, now singer Marlena Kellie is re-creating in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oh! What A Lovely War

Marlena Kellie, left, going through her Oh! What A Lovely War solo with Pick Me Up Theatre musical director Natalie Walker

ART is imitating life for singer Marlena Kellie, who has joined Pick Me Up Theatre’s 60th anniversary production of Oh! What A Lovely War.

From March 31 to April 8, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, she will play her part in re-creating the shows her grandfather would have performed in during the First World War, singing the lead on Now You’ve Got Yer Khaki On.

Devised and presented by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in 1963 before being turned into a film by Richard Attenborough in 1969, Oh! What A Lovely War is a satirical chronicle of the Great War, told through songs and documents in the form of a seaside Pierrot entertainment.

This photograph of a First World War entertainment troupe shows Marlena Kellie’s grandfather, Richard Palmer, centre, with his first wife, Marion Williams, next to him in the nurse’s uniform

While rehearsing, Leeds jazz singer and actress Marlena realised the costumes and songs from Robert Readman’s production were reminiscent of her own family’s acting career.

“My grandfather, his first wife and my grandmother were all in entertainment troupes during the First World War,” she says. “I found some wonderful old photos of them all – and they are the real-life versions of what we’re doing on stage.”

Marlena’s Romany grandfather, Richard Palmer, had an act he would perform at travelling fairs and later in the music hall, and he was part of Fred Karno’s circus too.

This troupe of Pierrots – dressed exactly as the original cast of Oh! What A Lovely War would have been – features Marlena’s grandfather, Richard Palmer, and her grandmother, Greta Palmer

Marlena’s parents, Eddie Palmer and Shirley Kellie, travelled the country with their own club act, settling down when Marlena was three years old.

Carrying on the Romany tradition, Marlena can sometimes be found telling fortunes but concentrates on club singing and acting. She was one of the trifle-bearing women seen charging joyfully along in last winter’s Argos Christmas advert!

“I used to be embarrassed by my ‘otherness’ in school, but now I embrace it,” she says. “I live with two fabulous drag queens and a lovely little dog called Whoopie.

Marlena Kellie’s parents, Eddie Palmer and Shirley Kellie, who toured their cabaret act for many years

“I can’t quite believe how life has led me to Oh! What A Lovely War but it feels like it was meant to be.  My parents are sadly no longer with me, but I very much feel I am carrying on the family tradition.”

Meanwhile, York actor Ian Giles, who will play the Master of Ceremonies in Pick Me Up’s production, has found an image of his paternal grandfather, Sergeant William Giles, from Christmas Day 1915.

It shows his grandfather with men of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at Fleurbaix, near Béthune, northern France. “He is the sergeant standing upright pretty well at the
centre of the photograph,” says Ian.

“I can’t quite believe how life has led me to Oh! What A Lovely War but it feels like it was meant to be,” says singer and actress Marlena Kellie

” It was found in my nan’s purse when she died in the mid-1970s. She had carried it with her everywhere. Gramp survived the war and lived well into his eighties.”

In a moving scene in the play, British and German soldiers sing carols and have a drink together over the barbed wire of No Man’s Land.

Ian, by the way, directed Oh! What A Lovely War in September 1972 in Newcastle at what is now the home of Northern Stage. “The late Freddie Jones, who was rehearsing Peer Gynt at the time, used to sneak in every night to watch my ending, which he found profoundly moving,” he recalls.

Pick Me Up Theatre in Oh! What A Lovely War, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, March 31 to April 8, 7.30pm, except April 2 and 3; 2.30pm, April 1, 2 and 8. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

York actor Ian Giles’s paternal grandfather, Sergeant William Giles, with men of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry on Christmas Day 1915 at Fleurbaix, near Béthune

Did you know?

MARLENA Kellie played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar in her debut for York Musical Theatre Company at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, in November 2019.

Here’s Jonny Holbek, adding directing and sketch comedy to his theatrical portfolio

Jonny Holbek: Actor, director, sketch comedy performer

YORK actor Jonny Holbek is stepping out of the ranks to co-direct Pick Me Up Theatre’s 60th anniversary production of Oh! What A Lovely War.

Last seen on stage as the emotionally damaged Tobias Ragg in York Light Opera Company’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street at York Theatre Royal in February and early March, he is working alongside artistic director Robert Readman at Theatre@41, Monkgate.

“I’ve not done much directing before,” he says. “I directed a concert/show for York Light, A Night With The Light, at Friargate Theatre in June last year and also did some assistant directing for Nik Briggs for York Stage Musicals’ The Flint Street Nativity in 2019.

“This time it’s in between assistant directing and directing. It’s co-directing, which is the toughest form of directing in terms of presenting a coherent production.”

How has the partnership worked out with Robert? “I missed some of the early rehearsals because of doing Sweeney Todd, with Robert doing a lot of the early blocking. Then we worked on scenes in separate rooms, and for the last two weeks it’s been entirely me, while Robert has been busy building the set.”

The collaboration emerged through Jonny expressing an interest in co-directing. “Robert suggested working on Oh! What A Lovely War, a piece that I didn’t know, but I know very well now,” he says.

“I’m really glad I said yes. What a great show it is. I’m so pleased to get to know its full cycle, its humour and its darkness.”

Devised and premiered by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London in 1963 before being turned into a film by Richard Attenborough in 1969, this satirical chronicle of the Great War is told through music-hall songs, hymns with rewritten verses and vignettes in the form of a seaside Pierrot entertainment, accompanied by statistics of the growing body count on the war front.

Jonny Holbek, fourth from right, leading the singing in God, That’s Good! in York Light Opera Company’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street at York Theatre Royal

“The first thing to say is that so many people died absolutely needlessly, and this show gives us the chance to explore that situation and find the absurd comedy in it, or in this case the careful juxtaposition of comedy and the horror of war,” says Jonny.

“One minute, the audience will be laughing at something; the next, they will be bulldozed by a harrowing image, a shocking fact – and when you make them feel an emotion, they feel it even more.

“The songs have a powerful impact too. A lot of the audience will know most of them, certainly the music-hall ones that provide the sense of pride and excitement the soldiers would have been feeling at first. That gives the show its energy, and then the other side of warfare comes through: the wistful songs that become gut-wrenchingly haunting.”

Contrasting directing with acting, Jonny says: “Firstly, they’re obviously very different disciplines, although they do overlap. In terms of performance, in both roles, you look for the comedy, the drama, and the nuances in the piece.

“Directing, I find it more rewarding helping others to find and highlight the various levels of light and dark to keep the audience interested; whether a scene needs to be reined in or played bolder.

“You also have that tricky balancing act of trying to encourage the best performances, without causing stress or knocking morale.”

Jonny’s daytimes find him working for the Rural Payments Agency, part of DEFRA. By night, he is a regular on the York stage, adding another string to his bow with The Dead Ducks, the sketch comedy troupe he has joined, made up mostly of University of York post-grads, such as Tommy Harris and Eloise Ward.

“We do little shows every few weeks,” he says. “The last one was in a big lecture room at the university, and we’ve also played The Den at Micklegate Social. This summer we’ll be playing the Edinburgh Fringe at one of ‘theSpace’ venues. No show title yet.”

Summing up his love of performing (and directing too), Jonny says: “It’s the camaraderie you build, putting together something in such a tight time frame. I haven’t found anything like it outside the arts. That buzz.”

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REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Brigid Mae Power, Black Swan Folk Club, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, March 23

Brigid Mae Power: “Beautiful vocals and ability to cast a spell”. Picture: Eva Carolan

BRIGID Mae Power had been through a difficult week. Alluding to trials on Twitter, she then had car problems on her way up from London. Flustered but here, and very welcome.

Power is a critically acclaimed Irish singer-songwriter who doesn’t really fit neatly into any conventional musical box. Most of her music could not be described as folk.

Her beautiful vocals and ability to cast a spell have drawn favourable comparisons with the likes of Van Morrison or Tim Buckley. While Power has none of Morrison’s poetry, Buckley’s jazz folk sulk mid-period is a better match. Both trade in heart music.

Power was performing solo. The (metaphorically) naked presentation underlined how spun throughout with her characteristic wordless ululations, Left open-ended and spun throughout with her characteristic wordless ululations, the tunes showed their simplicity and sameness too, as well as, by their absence, highlighting how clever her album productions are.

The first half was somewhat underwhelming. A new number, Ashling – a tribute to primary school teacher and traditional Irish musician Ashling Murphy, who was attacked and killed while jogging – lacked the expected emotional heft. Her piano proved a better servant than the guitar, leaving more space for her voice to roam.

Power grew up in an extended Irish family near Wembley, surrounded by music. Her aunt, her earliest musical inspiration, was three rows back, which led to a touching moment.

Playing to a packed folk club, Power wisely leaned more on the traditional elements of her repertoire. The (once rebellious) Down By The Glenside (covered by Mary O’Hara and others) was wonderful and our one chance to sing along. Her cover of May Morning Dew was also spot on (from her excellent covers EP from 2021).

Having recovered from the trip, and one too many chilli peanuts before the start, the second half was a big improvement. In good spirits, the song selection was stronger, showcasing her more melodic side in City Nights. Wedding Of A Friend’s tune belied the startling subject matter, as ever unresolved and left hanging in the air.

The 20-song set list touched on different corners of her back catalogue, but what would the new material sound like? Dream From The Deep Well is due for release in June. Power, however, has been living with the material for some time.

Counting Down (“a sappy one”, said its writer) was full of yearning for home, while Some Life You’ve Known rang true. It will be interesting to see what the songs sound like in sequence with their fur coats on (to quote Sandy Denny).

Power’s quiet power comes from her ability to cast wordless spells. Performed eyes closed, one foot swirling to the music, it looks like the tunes transport her. She doesn’t overuse this feature of her performance or over-sing. It is mood music of the best kind, but it does require you to be in the right, or wrong, frame of mind.

On balance, Power turned the concert around enough to pull us into her world.

Review by Paul Rhodes