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Ryedale Festival celebrates joy of Mystical Songs in Williams and Maxwells pairing

Baritone Roderick Williams: 2022 Ryedale Festival artist in residence

THE 2022 Ryedale Festival is under way, embracing 300 performers in 52 concerts from this week to July 31.

Under Christopher Glynn’s artistic directorship, the festival will find a special place for Handel and Vaughan Williams’s music; six world premieres will be performed and the 50th anniversary of Swedish supergroup Abba will be celebrated.

A strong line-up of artists in residence will be in Ryedale for the festival. Baritone Roderick Williams will lead two of the four concerts marking the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s birth, accompanied by pianist Glynn and fellow artists in residence the Maxwell Quartet.

At their heart of the festival will be Mystical Songs on July 20, when Williams and the Maxwell Quartet end their residencies by joining Glynn at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering, for an hour-long 8pm programme that brings together two spiritual high points of early 20th century British music.

Edward Elgar’s mysterious and deeply personal Piano Quintet in A minor will be performed alongside Vaughan Williams’s visionary Five Mystical Songs, complemented by Roderick Williams’s new arrangements of Vaughan Williams’s folk-song settings of Captain Grant, She’s Like The Swallow, Proud Nancy, O Who Is That Raps At My Window? and Harry The Tailor.

Christopher Glynn: Ryedale Festival director, pianist and “matchmaker”

“I’ve wanted to bring both Roddy and the Maxwells to the festival for a long time, not for one concert but for residencies, and having got them both signed up, I thought it would be nice for them to do a collaboration,” says Christopher.

“Then I thought about what the music should be, and I was drawn to this amazing moment in Elgar’s career: his incredible late-chamber works, his Indian summer.

“To go with that, you have Vaughan Williams going into the British Library, burying himself in Elgar’s score and coming up with his Mystical Songs. Putting these spiritual high points together will be so uplifting.”

Christopher talks of the Maxwell Quartet’s “fresh” impact on Vaughan Williams’s works. “That’s great because the Maxwells have a special relationship with folk music that they’ve brought to arranging these folk pieces,” he says.

“We’ll have a couple of days together and it’ll be an interesting time because both Roddy and the Maxwells are wonderful storytellers.”

The Maxwell Quartet: Ryedale Festival artists in residence, teaming up with Roderick Williams for Mystical Songs

Welcoming this summer’s residencies, Christopher says: “They’re really important because they allow for the audiences to develop something deeper with the musicians, finding they have a connection with the artists that grows when they see them several times.

“It’ll be exciting to see what comes out of the partnership, and it’s all about creating things that are entirely unique: a one-off chance to hear these artists performing together. It’s a moment in time and no-one knows if the chemistry will work but…”

…This is where Glynn, the pianist as much as artistic director, comes into play as “the matchmaker” when he sees the potential for an affinity between musicians on the concert platform. Roll on July 20 to find out what fireworks flare up when the Maxwells meet Roddy!

In a further festival residency, the National Youth Choir will be performing a 1pm programme on the theme of the environment, the coast and the north-eastern fishing industry at the Church of St Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough, on July 22, taking in works by Vaughan Williams, Bob Chilcott’s Weather Report, the Yorkshire premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s 40-part When The Wet Wind Sings and the uplifting finale of Joanna and Alexander Forbes L’Estrange’s Green Love.

“This will be a completely contrasting residency with a very different energy, leading to the performance in Scarborough,” says Christopher. “We’re also setting the National Youth Chamber Choir up to perform with Philharmonia Baroque in a programme of Handel works at Hovingham Hall [July 25, 2pm], and it’ll be interesting to see if sparks fly there, especially because director Richard Egarr started his career in the National Youth Choir.”

Roberts Balanas: Premiering Abba medley on electric violin at Come And Sing Abba!

San Francisco period instrument orchestra Philharmonia Baroque (and their British director Egarr) will be making their Ryedale Festival debut. “This is the first time they’ve toured the UK and they’re a fantastic group,” says Christopher. “We managed to get some backing to bring them over after their management came over to scout out the festival – and they loved it!”

Members of the National Youth Orchestra also will join guest electric violinist Roberts Balanas and conductor/choral leader Ben Parry at the Milton Rooms, Malton, from 3pm to 5pm on July 23 for Come And Sing Abba!. You can take part too, rehearsing and then performing Abba’s greatest hits, featuring Balanas’s world premiere of his Abba medley.

Abba at Ryedale Festival, Christopher…how come?  “I spotted there was a significant Abba anniversary this year, and though I was appointed to run a classical festival, the question is: what constitutes classical music,” he says.

“If music is 50 years old, is that not classical music?! We’ve come up with a concert that nods to Abba and classical music all in one.”

For full festival details, go to: ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777; ryedalefestival.com; in person from Memorial Hall, Potter Hill, Pickering, second floor, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 9.30am to 2.30pm.

Mystical Songs will be among the concerts to be recorded for broadcast on RyeStream in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Society.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond on not only Bob Dylan’s rough and rowdy days. List No. 91, courtesy of The Press, York

NE Musicals York cast members climb aboard a City Sightseeing bus to publicise their upcoming production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert

AS Madness and Sugababes canter up to York Racecourse, Charles Hutchinson picks his favourites from the upcoming entertainment runners and riders  

Musical of the week: NE Musicals York in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 20 to 24, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees

CREATIVE director Steve Tearle’s cast of 30 features Finley Butler, Tom Henshaw and Tearle himself as three drag queens who take an epic journey from Sydney to Alice Springs across the Australian outback in their bus Priscilla.

“The journey is full of drama and dance routines but also so many laugh-out-loud moments,” says Tearle. “There’ll be costumes – 300 in total – that have never been seen before in York and the star of the show, the bus, will take your breath away.”  Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

John Cale: Rearranging his gig date at York Barbican

Underground movement of the week: John Cale, York Barbican, from July 19 to October 24, 8pm

VELVET Underground icon John Cale, now 80, is moving his first British itinerary in a decade to the autumn. Tickets for Tuesday – the only Yorkshire gig of his seven-date tour – remain valid for the new date in October.

The Welsh multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer will be performing songs from a pioneering six-decade career that began in classical and avant-garde music before he formed The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed in New York in 1965. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Bob Dylan’s poster for his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, visiting Hull Bonus Arena

Gig announcement of the week: Bob Dylan, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27

BOB Dylan will play Hull Bonus Arena as the only Yorkshire gig of his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021-2024 this autumn.

The Nobel Prize-winning American singer, songwriter and cultural icon last visited Britain in 2017 on his Never Ending Tour. This time the focus will be on his 39th studio album, June 2020’s chart-topping Rough And Rowdy Ways, his first set of original songs since 2012’s Tempest. Box office: hurry, hurry, to ticketmaster.co.uk.

Resting up: Tears For Fears’ Scarborough concert is cancelled due to Curt Smith’s rib injury

One on, one off, tonight: cheers for Richard Ashcroft, Sounds Of The City, Leeds Millennium Square; tears for Tears For Fears, Scarborough Open Air Theatre

IN the Leeds outdoors tonight, Richard Ashcroft, frontman of Wigan’s Nineties’ rock gods The Verve, performs songs from his chart-topping band days and solo career in the wake of re-recording his prime work for 2021’s Acoustic Hymns Vol 1. Gates open at 6pm; support slots go to DJ Wayne and Cast. Last few tickets: millsqleeds.com .

Shout, shout, let it all out, these are the things they could do without: Curt Smith’s rib injury has forced Tears For Fears to call off tonight’s gig in Scarborough.

Jane McDonald: Letting the light in at York Barbican

Yorkshire favourite of the week: Jane McDonald: Let The Light In, York Barbican, July 22, 7.30pm

WAKEFIELD singer and television star Jane McDonald plays her long-awaited Let The Light In Show in York, rearranged from the lockdown gloom of 2020.

The BAFTA award-winner, Cruising With presenter and Loose Women panellist  will be joined by her band and backing singers for a night of cabaret song, laughter and fabulous dresses. Box office for last few tickets: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Madness this way lies: The Nutty Boys are returning to York Racecourse next Friday

On course for race days: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Madness, July 22; Sugababes, July 23

CAMDEN’S Nutty Boys, Madness, return to the Knavesmire track next Friday, having first gone One Step Beyond there in July 2010. Once more Suggs and co will roll out such ska-flavoured music-hall hits as Our House, Baggy Trousers, House Of Fun, Wings Of A Dove, My Girl and Driving In My Car after the evening race card.

The re-formed original Sugababes line-up of Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy are next Saturday afternoon’s act. The London girl group last appeared in York as long ago as 2003 with a line-up of Buchanan, Buena and Heidi Range at the Barbican Centre, as was.

Here come Freak Like Me, Round Round, Hole In The Head, Push The Button, Walk This Way and About You Now et al. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Low-key festival of the week: Crawfest, Partings Lane, Ebberston, YO13 9PA, off A170, July 22 and 23, noon to midnight

THE line-up is in place for Crawfest, the family-friendly music festival held on farmland near Pickering, in memory of Alan Crawford, a friend of the organisers, who lost his life to Covid in 2020.

Next Friday will be headlined by The House We Built (9.40pm), preceded by Edwina Hayes (2pm); Paint Me In Colour (3.20pm); Nalgo Bay (4.20pm); Sean Taylor (5.30pm); Breeze (6.50pm) and Friday Street (8.10pm).

Next Saturday’s bill toppers will be Big Me (9.40pm), preceded by Kelsey Bovey (12 noon); Bongoman & The Bongomaniacs (1pm); Danny MacMahon (2pm); Beetlebug (3.15pm); Rocketsmith (4.10pm); Nalgo Bay (5.30pm); Red Box (6.50pm) and The Feens (8.10pm). Box office: tickettailor.com/events/crawfest/641880.

Anne-Marie Piazza and Pete Ashmore in rehearsal for Brief Encounter at the SJT. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Romance of the summer: Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter, in The Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, July 22 to August 27

SJT artistic director Paul Robinson directs this new co-production of Emma Rice’s playful adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, presented in tandem with Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Octagon Theatre, Bolton.

Rice turns Coward’s film inside out, adding joyous musical numbers and physical comedy while still maintaining the classic love story of the 1945 black-and-white original, where Laura and Alec are married – but not to each other – when a chance meeting at a railway station hurls them headlong into a whirlwind romance that threatens to blow their worlds apart. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

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Exit York, Rachel Croft heads into a Hurricane as she settles into London life

Rachel Croft: Storming ahead as she answers to “the force-of-nature pull felt by dream chasers everywhere”

LEAVING York behind her, singer-songwriter Rachel Croft is kicking up a Hurricane with her stormy new single, released today.

Combining an ominous fusion of indie-rock attitude and bluesy Americana energy, the track pairs dark, rootsy swagger with thunder-and-lightning vocals, painting a picture of an artist who will not be tamed.

“It’s a risk-taking anthem about straying from the beaten path, highlighting the force-of-nature pull felt by dream chasers everywhere, embracing who you are at any cost,” says Rachel, who moved to London in early 2022.

She has spent a year honing her sound, venturing deeper into the Americana genre heralded by her 2021 EP, Reap What You Sow, for her most energised song to date, written just before her relocation to pursue her musical path in new waters.

“York has been my home and safe space for so long, and I’ve loved living there,” says Rachel, who first moved to the city to study at the University of York. “Throwing myself into a new place has been at the same time intimidating and liberating.”

Here, Rachel discusses her London move, her new single and the path ahead with CharlesHutchPress.

What made you take the leap from York to London? Had lockdown given you the chance to reflect on the need to move on to new ground for fresh stimulation and new experiences?

“An opportunity came up for a chance to live in the capital, which I never thought was going to be possible for me as a full-time indie artist. I had to take it or I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.

“It was terrifying but so exciting at the same time. Certainly lockdown gave me itchy feet, the stagnation, and lack of evolution – it felt at the time – caused so many people to be bold in their lives, and I was the same!”

How has life choice become a powerful motivator for your song writing?

“Thinking about my journey and choice in life to be a creative person and independent artist has been something I dwell on a lot, whether it’s the right path. But I am so glad I chose to take the chance.

“The move has really supercharged me, giving me a new energy to grow and explore my creativity. Hurricane is for anyone who ever dared to stray from the beaten path, and the torn feelings about that, which come with you many steps of the way. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.”

“Where’s the folk?”, as you said at the outset of your Forty Five Vinyl Cafe gig last year! Hurricane represents the strongest shift yet, embracing indie rock as much as a natural progression to bluesy Americana. Discuss…

“Folk was my starting point into music; I grew up around it but I’ve always been inspired by heavier music, lots of different genres in fact. I found folk and singer/songwriter styles only showed a small part of who I am, and lockdown gave me the go-ahead to say, ‘you know, stuff it, I’m going to try and make the music that I love but never thought I could’. This has always been me. I’d just not shown it during my folk era!”

You have embraced jazz, folk, blues, now Americana…

“I allow my songs to speak to me, and follow my intuition. This release shouts Americana all over, but the song I’m working on next steps in a slightly different direction. It’s so empowering to truly explore the sounds I’m inspired by and find what feels totally right for me and true to each song deep down, without compromise. I can’t wait to delve even deeper.

“What remains a strong trait is the cinematic feel of my compositions. I’ve always loved soundtracks and songs which instil clear imagery in the mind of listener. I want to transport people, and really make them feel something when listening to my music.”

The artwork for Rachel Croft’s new single, Hurricane

Do you consider yourself to be a force-of-nature dream chaser?  Does that strengthen through the years, despite the harsh reality of your song We Are’s expressions of being “so tired”?

“Ha-ha, that was someone else’s quote! I would say, though, that I’ve been relentless in pursuing my career (and dream) of being a full-time musician. I haven’t had another job since deciding on this path a good few years ago, and I’m proud of that achievement when I think on it.

“it’s been extremely tough to withstand the pressures it comes with for so long, especially independently. I would say now I feel pressure to keep growing, I don’t want to plateau – so I suppose the desire to keep going is stronger now to deflect the doubts that come and go on my journey.” 

How have you settled into performing on the London scene?

“I’ve really loved it, and I was amazed at how welcoming people are here, so open and full of new possibilities that have really helped my drive to continue what I’m doing.

“I’ve played so far at St Pancras Old Church, The Green Note, Pizza Express Live Holborn, and I’m headlining at the legendary Troubadour on Saturday, August 6. So, a bit of a flying start really. I hope I can keep it going!”

Is there anything you miss about York?! Playing with Karl Mullen on Phoenix jazz nights, for example? 

“Yes, of course, it was my home for so long and I do consider it the place that made me into a musician. I’ll miss Karl – he’s practically family – and the musicians and creatives and just the general amazing community I was so lucky to have there.

“It was time to try something new, though, as easy and lovely as living in York for the rest of my life would have been! Plus, I’m always back around so no-one has chance to miss me, ha-ha!”

When are you next playing up here?

“I’m arranging a show in September in central York. I’ll add everything onto my socials and live tab of my website though when I can announce more details.” 

What will be the other tracks accompanying Hurricane on your upcoming EP?

“That’s a bit of a secret, but so far Hurricane and the next single, set for autumn, will be on there.” 

Any plans for a new album? 

“Anything’s possible…”

Any tips on whose music we should be discovering?

“I have a recommendation! One of my favourite bands and a big inspiration for me when switching genres was Kaleo. Totally underrated. They are as good live too; I saw them in Manchester just recently. Check them out, so good.”

Hurricane is available everywhere for sale and streaming. Smart link for streaming from today: https://ffm.to/rachelcroft-hurricane

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Bob Dylan to play Hull Bonus Arena on Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. Hurry, hurry, tickets go on sale this morning

BOB Dylan will play Hull Bonus Arena on October 27 as one of nine British dates on his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021-2024.

Tickets go on sale at 10am today at ticketmaster.co.uk/event/36005CE8F066F6 as the Nobel Prize-winning American singer-songwriter announces his first UK itinerary since his Never Ending Tour dates in April and May 2017.

Dylan, who turned 81 on May 24, began his latest travels last December in Milwaukee and has since played 74 gigs showcasing his 39th studio album, June 2020’s chart-topping Rough And Rowdy Ways, his first set of original songs since 2012’s Tempest.

Dylan will open his British visit with four intimate nights at the London Palladium on October 19, 20, 23 and 24, before playing Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on October 26, Hull the next night, Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on October 28 and Glasgow Armadillo on October 30 and 31. Preceding European dates will run from October 25 to 17, taking in Oslo, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

All Dylan’s 8pm shows are “non-phone events”, where audience members must put their phones into a Yondr bag, to be kept with them until after the concert. This is intended to deter audio and video recording, photography or the distractions of using a mobile device.

American dates so far have placed an emphasis on the Minnesota-born folk and rock veteran’s latest album, rather than a greatest hits set from a 60-year career that has brought him 125 million record sales and a 2001 Oscar for Best Original Song for Things Have Changed from the Wonder Boys soundtrack.

American dates so far have placed an emphasis on the Minnesota-born folk and rock veteran’s latest album rather than greatest hits from a 60-year career that has brought him 125 million record sales and a 2001 Oscar for Best Original Song for Things Have Changed from the Wonder Boys soundtrack.

The latest addition to those sales is a one-off: a new studio recording of Dylan’s 1962-penned protest song Blowin’ In The Wind that sold for £1.5 million at auction last Thursday at Christie’s, in London, where bidding lasted four minutes, matching the length of the record coincidentally, after a guide price of £600,000 to £1million.

The recording is presented on an Ionic Original disc, a form of technology that promises to deliver higher quality sound than vinyl and can be played on a conventional turntable by the way. The disc is made of aluminium, treated with a layer of nitrocellulose, coated with a sapphire and quartz gradient.

The recording was produced by musician T Bone Burnett in “one take, if I’m not mistaken”, working with Dylan, mandolin player Greg Leisz and bassist Don Was. “It felt holy. It always feels holy for me playing with Bob,” said Burnett, who described it as a “one-off piece of singular art, the equivalent of an oil painting”.

Dylan’s music can be heard live in York too in late-summer, at the Theatre Royal from September 6 to 10, in Conor McPherson’s bold reimagining of his songs “like you’ve never heard them before” in Girl From The North Country, a heart-breaking and universal story about family and love.

Writer-director McPherson’s double Olivier and Tony Award-winning West End and Broadway hit is set in 1934 in the heartland of America, where a group of wayward souls cross paths in a time-weathered guesthouse.

Standing at a turning point in their lives, they realise nothing is what it seems, but as they search for a future and hide from the past, they find themselves facing unspoken truths about the present.

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

A scene from Girl From The North Country, heading for York Theatre Royal in September, replete with Bob Dylan songs. Picture: Johan Persson
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Jay’s journey from family drummer to family drama in The Osmonds: A New Musical

Jay Osmond: Enjoying the British theatre tour of The Osmonds: A New Musical. Picture: Aaron McCracken

JAY Osmond has wanted to tell the Utah musical family’s story for “such a long time”.

Hold your crazy horses! Here comes The Osmonds: A New Musical, whose 2022 tour visits the Grand Opera House, York, from August 2 to 6.

“The opportunity to create this beautiful musical, a sort of ‘living autobiography’, seemed the perfect way to do so,” says 67-year-old Jay, the Crazy Horses lead vocalist now retired from the family drum stool but very much the driving force behind a world-premiere British and Irish tour that runs from February to early December.

“I spent my whole life performing live – on stage, on TV specials, in arenas – so the buzz of live theatre felt like the perfect place for me. There were some difficult times in my life, and some big hurdles to overcome, and this musical will tell people things that will surprise them.

“But despite that trouble, when you look back and think of the fans, the music, the once-in-a-lifetime things we did, it’s joyful.  I guess I want to do this now to try to spread a little bit of that joy.”

First, Jay penned his 2010 autobiography, Stages, charting a career that began at the age of two and a half. Now, he has provided the story for the Osmonds’ musical, a show with a book by Julian Bigg and director Shaun Kerrison and choreography and musical staging by Bill Deamer.

“I’ll know I’ve done a good job telling this story if I stand at the back of the theatre and see people waving their arms in the air, singing along and dancing in the aisles,” says Jay. “I just want people to be enjoying themselves. I guess that is in the Osmonds’ DNA.”

The Osmonds: A New Musical recounts the story of the brothers from Ogden, Utah, who began as The Osmond Brothers barbershop quartet, featuring Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay, and were later joined by sibling Donny and later still by “Little” Jimmy and sister Marie.

From their star residency on The Andy Williams Show from 1962 to 1969, when pushed into the limelight as children, to pop stars and Osmondmania from 1971 to 1975, to the arrival of The Donny & Marie Show, choreographed by Jay, from 1976 to 1979, The Osmonds lived a remarkable life.

They recorded chart-topping albums, sold out arenas and made record-breaking TV shows en route to 59 gold and platinum albums and 100 million record sales, but then one bad decision cost them everything, as the musical will highlight.

Jay’s musical pulls back the curtain to “reveal the real family behind all those Seventies’ hits”, One Bad Apple, Down By The Lazy River, Crazy Horses, Let Me In, Love Me For A Reason, (We’re) Having A Party, Puppy Love, Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, Paper Roses et al.

Parents George and Olive Osmond and all nine children, including older siblings Virl and Tom, feature in the family story. “The musical is written not only for those of our era, the Seventies, but for those who are curious about us, who know the music, but want to know about our story,” says Jay.

Love them for a reason: A scene from The Osmonds: A New Musical, the story of the family band from Utah, USA. Picture: Pamela Raith

“The show gives a wider specification of who the Osmonds were and are; why the Osmonds’ music is so much part of our lives; and it taps into different aspects of our songs, showing off a wider range of our music than just the hits. That was my goal: to appeal to a wider audience.”

Could an Osmonds’ musical have arrived sooner? “There were times when other members of the group thought about it, but we were doing other things,” says Jay.

“But when I wrote Stages, I was contacted by the producer, who said, ‘I always thought your family should do a musical. As the youngest one in the original group, you can say how you saw it; how the family dynamic worked; what some of the challenges were and how you overcame them’.”

Jay is delighted with how The Osmonds: A New Musical has taken shape. “I’m so thrilled with how the actors are performing. There are times to laugh; times to cry,” he says.

“We take the story back to Walt Disney and Andy Williams and Jerry Lewis, and we  go back and forth between when we were kids and when we’re adults, starting in 1962 and ending in 2008.

“What we show is our uniqueness. If you make comparisons with the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Jackson Five – where there was a rivalry – we were unique as a family band who played our instruments but were also clean cut. That made us stand out.

“I think what people will take away from this show is an appreciation of some of the challenges we faced, some of the obstacles we faced, and how we bonded together as a family through that. That was the highest point of our career: when we were at our lowest, we stuck together.”

Looking back to the brothers’ early days on The Andy Williams Show, Jay says: “The pressure was immense. Growing up in the public eye, the pressure was always on us to get it right. There was a feeling that we had to be perfect, and we had to work through that and smile through that. I address that heavily in the musical, showing that other side to the Osmonds that people didn’t know.”

Likewise, you may not know that Jay and his wife, Karen, “almost moved to York”. “We considered York and Chester logistically, but Chester was nearer to what we were seeking,” he says.

“We want to go to the Jorvik Viking Museum because my wife has Viking connections.”

The Osmonds: A New Musical, runs at Grand Opera House, York, from August 2 to 6; box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York. Also: Hull New Theatre, October 18 to 22, 01482 300306 or hulltheatres.co.uk.

Did you know?

JAY Osmond’s choreographic style for the Osmonds and Donny and Marie’s TV shows was influenced by his karate skills learned from personal instructor Chuck Norris.

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Corrie’s Kevin Kennedy to star in Rock Of Ages’ autumn return to Grand Opera House…but X-Factor winner Matt Terry won’t be. UPDATE 19/07/2022

Kevin Kennedy, right, in his groovy role as Sunset Strip bar owner Dennis Dupree in Rock Of Ages

NEWS JUST IN: Matt Terry will NOT be appearing in Rock Of Ages at the Grand Opera House, York, after all this autumn, but Kevin Kennedy definitely will be.

Contrary to the initial announcement, the X-Factor’s Terry becomes the ex-factor in this visit to York on tour, but who will be playing “Stacee” Jaxx in his stead? The answer is expected to be announced during next week. Watch this space.

CharlesHutchPress wrote on 12/07/2022:

CORONATION Street soap star Kevin Kennedy and The X-Factor’s 2016 winner, Matt Terry, will lead the Rock Of Ages cast at the Grand Opera House, York, on tour from September 27 to October 1.

Visiting York for the fourth time in less than eight years, this rocktastic West End, Broadway, Las Vegas and touring hit is a self-mocking, cheesy jukebox musical comedy built around the classic rock songs of the 1980s from the glam metal prime of Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Europe et al.

Here come Don’t Stop Believin’, We Built This City, The Final Countdown, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Here I Go Again, Can’t Fight This Feeling and I Want To Know What Love Is, played loud and proud by a live band to Ethan Popp’s OTT arrangements and orchestrations.

Matt Terry’s rock demigod “Stacee” Jaxx in Rock Of Ages

Audiences are invited to “leave it all behind and lose yourself in a city and a time where the dreams are as big as the hair and they really can come true in Chris D’Arienzo’s tongue-in-both-cheeks book.

Kennedy will reprise the role of Dennis Dupree, owner of the Bourbon Room, on Sunset Strip, where he invites Terry’s egotistical rock demigod, “Stacee” Jaxx, to play for the last time with his band Arsenal, back in the basement where they started, after announcing their break-up.

Dupree’s joint, meanwhile, is under threat of closure from joyless German developer Hertz Klinemann and his rebellious son Franz.

Kevin Kennedy: Actor, soap star and musician

Kennedy previously played laissez-faire Los Angeles dude Dupree at the Grand Opera House in April 2019, having earlier appeared there as Jimmy’s Da in Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments in February 2017.

Best known for his Corrie soap role as floppy-fringed Curly Watts from 1983 to 2003, he was once in a band with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke and showcased his Present Kennedy solo album at Fibbers, in York, in July 2002.

Last time in York: Matt Terry, second from left, as Alex the lion in Dreamworks’ Madagascar The Musical at York Theatre Royal in 2019

Terry previously appeared in York in his stage musical debut, Dreamworks’ Madagascar The Musical, playing Alex the lion, king of all the animals in New York’s Central Park Zoo, at the Theatre Royal in February 2019.

He released his debut album, Trouble, in November 2017 and has been working on its follow-up, recording and writing in Miami, Los Angeles, Scandinavia and Spain, as well as fronting his own radio show on Capital FM and starring in Broadway’s Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical on tour.

Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

Matt Terry: From The X-Factor to musical lead roles

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South African singers Ladysmith Black Mambazo to play Grand Opera House

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Heading to the Grand Opera House, York

LADYSMITH Black Mambazo’s October 29 concert at the Grand Opera House, York, will mark Black History Month.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, they established themselves as the most successful singing group in South Africa, whereupon Paul Simon incorporated the group’s harmonies into his ground-breaking 1986 album Graceland: a landmark recording that was seminal in introducing world music to mainstream audiences.

A year later, the American singer-songwriter produced Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first worldwide release, Shaka Zulu, winner of a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Folk Recording. 

Since then, the group has been awarded two more Grammy Awards for Raise Your Spirit Higher in 2004 and Ilembe in 2009 and has been nominated 15 times in all. 

Ladysmith Black Mambazo also have recorded with Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, Emmylou Harris, Melissa Etheridge and Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby.

Their film work includes an appearance in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker video and Spike Lee’s Do It A Cappella. They have contributed to the soundtracks for Disney’s The Lion King Part II, Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America, Marlon Brando’s A Dry White Season, Sean Connery’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, James Earl Jones’s Cry The Beloved Country and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.

The film documentary On Tip Toe: Gentle Steps To Freedom, the story of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was nominated for an Academy Award.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo have appeared on Broadway, being nominated for Tony Awards and winning a Drama Desk Award, and they have featured in The Family Guy and the film Mean Girls.

In 2014 they released Always With Us, a tribute to the group’s matriarch, Nellie Shabalala, Joseph Shabalala’s wife, who passed away in 2002. For the album, they added their voices to Nellie’s songs she had recorded with her church choir in 2001.

Tickets are on sale at £26.50 on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

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NE Musicals York take bus trip to drive home Priscilla Queen Of The Desert is opening soon at Joseph Rowntree Theatre

The NE Musicals York company members on board a CitySightseeing bus on a publicity drive for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical

NE Musicals York are into the final stages of rehearsals for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical.

Running at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from July 20 to 24, creative director Steve Tearle’s production will feature Finley Butler, Tom Henshaw and Tearle himself as three drag queens who take an epic journey from Sydney to Alice Springs across the Australian outback in their bus Priscilla.

The musical was preceded by Stephan Elliott’s 1994 film The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, starring Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce.

In making the journey to the stage, it revels in such songs as It’s Raining Men, Hot Stuff, MacArthur Park and I Will Survive.

Steve Tearle, Finley Butler and Tom Henshaw in rehearsal for their roles as three desert-crossing drag queens in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musicals

Director Steve says: “The journey is full of drama and dance routines but also so many laugh-out-loud moments. There’ll be costumes that have never been seen before in York and, of course, the star of the show, the Priscilla bus, which will take your breath away.” 

“This musical is one of the best I’ve ever directed; the soundtrack is one of the very best; anyone who sees this show will not be disappointed. With a cast of 30 and more than 300 costumes, this is not just a bus ride, it’s a two-hour rollercoaster of a ride.”

To publicise Priscilla’s desert bus journey ahead of the July 20 opening, the NE Musicals company hopped on board a CitySightseeing open-top bus for a trip around York.

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees are on sale at £15 to £18 on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

NE Musicals York cast members publicising next week’s run of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical
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More Things To Do in York and beyond when money isn’t everything and friends mean more. List No. 90, from The Press

Joe Spud (Matthew Hudson) , front, centre, seeks friends in David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy when he has too much of everything else. Picture: Mark Douet

MUSICALS, a children’s show, outdoor concerts, burlesque, baroque music and mystery bring contrasts aplenty to Charles Hutchinson’s diary.

Family show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy, Grand Opera House, York, July 14 to 17

JOE Spud is the richest boy in the country. At 12, he has his own sports car, two pet crocodiles and £100,000-a-week pocket money from his father Len’s radical loo roll fortune.

What Joe lacks, alas, after the family’s move to a palatial house is a friend, whereupon he decides to leave his posh school for a new start at the local comp. Things do not go as planned, however, leading to his young life becoming a rollercoaster as he tries to find what money cannot buy. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s night of heroes and villains at the JoRo

Musical stories of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company Does Heroes And Villains, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

A HERO. A villain. A power struggle between good and bad. An epic Act 1 finale. Sound familiar? Tonight, director Ben Huntley and musical director Jess Douglas bring to life the story of every musical you have ever seen in an evening of musical theatre songs for plucky protagonists and dastardly villains from Wicked, Hamilton, Sweeney Todd, The Sound Of Music and many more. 

Along the way, other key characters will help, or possibly hinder, these intrepid characters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Elbow: Heading for Scarborough tonight

East Coast outdoor gig of the week: Elbow, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tonight, gates, 6pm

PLAYING together since sixth-form college days in Bury in 1990 and taking the name Elbow since 1997, Guy Garvey’s band arrive in Scarborough on the back of releasing their ninth studio album, Flying Dream 1.

Fresh from last month’s Platinum Party at the Palace rendition of One Day Like This outside Buckingham Palace, Elbow head outdoors once more this weekend to perform Lippy Kids, My Sad Captains, Magnificent, New York Morning et al – and hopefully early gem Station Approach. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Bryan Adams: Quick return to the Yorkshire open air on Sunday

West Yorkshire open-air gig of the week: Bryan Adams, Harewood House, near Leeds, Sunday, gates, 6pm

CANADIAN rocker Bryan Adams plays his second outdoor show of the Yorkshire summer this weekend, following his July 1 appearance at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.

Adams, 61, will be showcasing his 15th studio album, So Happy It Hurts, and once more he will do Run To You, Cuts Like A Knife, Summer Of ’69, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You et al for you too. Box office: aegpresents.co.uk.

Simon Rodda in Heady Conduct Theatre’s Tiresias

Storytelling show of the week: Heady Conduct Theatre in Tiresias, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Sunday, 7.30pm

HEADY Conduct Theatre’s short tour of their storytelling show of rejuvenated Greek myths and legends concludes at Stillington Mill this weekend, a long way from Tiresias’s previous performances pre-pandemic in New Zealand.

Co-artistic director Simon Rodda plays blind prophet Tiresias, who is given the gift to predict the future by Zeus, in a theatre piece about the extraordinary ability of humans to face adversity, often with mischief, humour and rebellion.

Rachel Barnes accompanies Rodda with singing and a live score on guitar and cello. Box office: atthemill.org.

Mikhail Lim’s Seymour is torn between Lauren Sheriston’s Audrey, left, and Emily Ramsden’s Audrey II in York Stage’s Little Shop Of Horrors

Anniversary of the week: York Stage in Little Shop Of Horrors, York Theatre Royal, July 14 to 23

YORK Stage make their York Theatre Royal debut with Nik Briggs’s 40th anniversary production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Fifties’ B-movie musical spoof.

Is there a way out of Skid Row, the New York ghetto where life is full of broken American dreams and dead ends? When flower shop assistant Seymour (Mikhail Lim) discovers a mysterious new plant with killer potential, hope may be on the horizon. So too fame, fortune and even romance with kind, sweet, delicate Audrey (Lauren Sheriston), but bloodthirsty Audrey II (Emily Ramsden) has other ideas. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The poster for An Evening Of Burlesque at York Barbican

Glitz with a twist: An Evening Of Burlesque, York Barbican, July 21, 7pm

BRITAIN’S longest-running Burlesque variety show is bigger than ever on its latest tour with its 21st century twist on an old-fashioned blend of stylish cabaret, comedy, music, circus and burlesque.

Expect glitz and glamour, fun and feathers, fan dancing and fabulous costumes, speciality artistes and cabaret turns, circus stars and comedians, World Guinness record holders and champagne showgirls. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

filoBarocco: Performing baroque music at Explore York libraries

Exploring music: Baroque Around The Books community tour of Explore York libraries, July 21 and 22. UPDATE: MINI-TOUR CANCELLED

MUSICAL group filoBarocco is undertaking a Baroque Around The Books mini-tour of three community libraries in a new National Centre for Early Music initiative with Explore York supported by Culture & Wellbeing York.

filoBarocco will be visiting Acomb Explore on July 21 at 11am, Tang Hall Explore, July 21, 3.30pm, and Clifton Explore, July 22, 11am. Tickets are free but must be pre-booked at eventbrite.com/cc/baroque-around-the-books-735039.

Lucy Worsley: Uncovering the mysteries behind Agatha Christie’s life

History meets mystery: An Evening With Lucy Worsley On Agatha Christie, York Theatre Royal, September 26, 7.30pm

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

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

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