DEAR Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why. If you miss this week’s run at Leeds Grand Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse touring production of Benji Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson’s musical will be visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from June 22 to 25 2025. Tickets go on general sale from Tuesday (12/11/2024) at atgtickets.com/york.
Promoted by ATG Productions, this is the first British production of the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical to utilise an ensemble. Busy stage, and very busy Leeds Grand auditorium too on press night, a performance that crackled with excitement at the first chance to experience the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award winner close to home. Not least because Pasek and Paul were the Oscar-gilded composers of The Greatest Showman and La La Land
“I am beyond thrilled with the talented cast we have assembled: an exciting mix of musical theatre legends and rising stars,” said director Adam Penford of a stellar company led by Ryan Kopel (from Newsies) as Evan Hansen, Lauren Conroy (Into The Woods)as Zoe Murphy and West End luminary Alice Fearn (Wicked, Come From Away) as Evan’s mum, Heidi. Today is going to be a good day to reveal all three are scheduled to play York too. Hurrah.
“It’s been nine years since the original show premiered, and it’s an honour to be the first production to re-imagine this powerful story through a contemporary lens,” Penford added.
That lens focuses on Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen: a friendless, bullied, 17-year-old American high school senior struggling with social anxiety and depression, who would like nothing more than to fit in and befriend Zoe Murphy. Especially with his mother Heidi (Fearn) always being too busy with her work to see him and his father long absent.
Evan’s therapist (the never-seen Dr Sherman) asks him to write letters to himself – the Dear Evan Hansen letters of the title – as a therapeutic exercise to explore his feelings and boost his positivity when courage and words desert him in the presence of others.
“Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why,” each letter should start. Except that for Evan, they either don’t start at all or when one finally does, today is going to be anything but a good day. That letter is snatched off him by fellow friendless school outsider, Zoe’s brother, Connor (Killian Thomas Lefevre), Dear Evan Hansen’s riff on Heathers’ JD.
It will be the last words Connor ever reads, spoiler alert. When Connor’s parents (Helen Anker’s Cynthia and Richard Hurst’s baseball-loving American jock Larry) assume it to be his suicide note, Evan tries to explain otherwise, but words fail him, and so, trouble this way lies…
…And lies and lies again as the lies pile up, a form of self-preservation that utilises Puck-like family friend Jared Keinman’s (Tom Dickerson) writing skills to concoct past text messages from the outsiders’ “secret friendship” and social media “ambulance chaser” Alana Beck’s (Vivian Panka) drive to set up a fundraising appeal to reopen an orchard where the two teens met.
In doing so, he deceives Connor’s parents and Zoe, as she starts to warm to him. The thing is, it’s not that simple. Yes he is lying, but he is doing so to comfort them, to make them feel better, to build a full picture that puts the destructive, nihilistic Connor in a better light.
The thing is, it’s not that simple either, because suddenly he has Zoe where he always wanted her to be, with him. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma! What would you have done in these circumstances?
Pasek and Paul’s wonderful songs and Leversen’s witty, sharp, probing dialogue addresses his predicament with admirable complexity. Not only his mother will tell him he is not a bad lad; chances are you will feel that way too, and the compassion that ultimately prevails does not seem unreasonable.
In her opening speech at this week’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, festival director Cherie Federico called for everyone to be kind to each other. Not the usual content on such an occasion, but Cherie had a point. One that resonated all the more when watching Dear Evan Hansen, especially in the wake of Trump’s vainglorious return to the presidency.
Recalling Joshua Jenkins’s remarkable performance as neuro-divergent schoolboy Christopher Boone in the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time – although Christopher was incapable of lying – Ryan Kopel gives the outstanding lead performance of the year in a touring musical. So much pent-up energy, so much inner turmoil, expressed in movement, expression, vocal mannerisms and angelic, pure singing voice.
Conroy’s Zoe excels too, part rose, part thorn; Fearn brings West End star quality to Heidi; Lefevre’s Connor has haunting, gothic presence; Dickerson amuses as prankster Jared; Panka’s Alana is as persistent as a bee trying to escape from a window; you absolutely connect with Anker and Hurst’s struggling parents too.
Michael Bradley’s band are on top form, especially the beautiful strings, in a score of powerful, emotive, melodic song after song from the heart. Top marks too to Penford’s exhilarating, emotionally-layered direction; Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s brisk, punchy choreography to rival her work in SIX The Musical; Morgan Large’s set (and costume) design, with its use of sliding, see-through doors, and the state-of-the-art video design by Ravi Depres. Do not miss the Generation Z musical with far wider appeal.
Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here’s why. If you can’t wait until the newly added run at the Grand Opera House, you can catch Dear Evan Hansen at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, April 8 to 12, or Hull New Theatre, April 22 to 26 next year.Leeds Grand Theatre, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: leedsheritagetheatres.com or 0113 243 0808.
Did you know?
THIS Nottingham Playhouse production of Dear Evan Hansen is partnering withThe Mix, the digital charity for under-25s. The musical deals with sensitive topics, relevant to young people today, and this partnership will ensure that anyone affected by the issues explored in the show knows where to find support.
Brushing up on her art: Lindsey Tyson, one of the Wednesday Four exhibiting at Pyramid Gallery, York
FROM the Wednesday Four to the sold-out Barbican four, a Sondheim musical to John Godber making history, Charles Hutchinson puts the ‘yes’ into November’s calendar.
Last chance to see: The Wednesday Four, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today and Monday, 10am to 5pm
THE Wednesday Four, a group of four artist friends who gather in Scarborough each week – busy schedules permitting – are exhibiting together for the first time in York.
Shirley Vauvelle (ceramic sculpture and paintings), Gillian Martin (paintings and prints), Katie Braida (ceramics) and Lindsey Tyson (paintings) have been meeting for three years but have known each other much longer.
Tarot: Performing sketches in nighties in Shuffle at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: PBJ Management
Sketch show of the week: Tarot: Shuffle, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight, 8pm
“THEY (our parents, partners, children) say ‘sketch is dead’, but if it’s dead then where’s all our money going?” ask Tarot, a sketch troupe featuring members of Gein’s Family Giftshop and Goose, Adam Drake, Ed Easton and Kath Hughes.
What lies in store in Shuffle? “Joyously silly and uproariously live and in-the-room, we would call it ‘improv’ but we’ve got some self-respect: this is sketch in nighties. Come watch a new tour of big, daft and, above all, live comedy being conjured up in front of your very eyes.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rise Up To Empower Women: Fundraiser for York charity IDAS at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
Fundraiser of the week: Rise Up To Empower Women, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
YORK and Leeds performers come together to “raise the roof to end gender-based violence”, sharing inspiring and moving stories of female survivors of abuse in a night of musical theatre organised by Hannah Winbolt-Lewis. Proceeds will go to IDAS, the Blossom Street, York-based domestic abuse and sexual violence support charity, and to aid the recovery of Leanne Lucas, a survivor of July’s Southport stabbings.
Performing arts student Daisy Winbolt-Robertson
Performing arts students Kate Lohan, Daisy Winbolt-Robertson, Sara Belal, Rose Scott, Chloe Amelie Lightfoot, Erin Childs, Annie Dunbar, Jasmine Lowe, Declan Childs and Oliver Lawery will sing songs from shows that depict survivors’ stories: Heathers, Spring Awakening, Waitress, The Color Purple, SIX The Musical and the newly premiered SuperYou. Donations can be made via idas.co.uk. Box office: O1904 501935, josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk or bit.ly/RiseUpToEmpowerWomen.
Simon Brodkin: Ripping into celebrity culture, social media, the police, Putin, Prince Andrew and God in Screwed Up
Comedy gig of the week: Simon Brodkin, Screwed Up, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 8pm
SIMON Brodkin, world-famous prankster, Lee Nelson creator and most-watched British stand-up comedian on TikTok, brings his outrageous stand-up show back to York.
In Screwed Up, Brodkin rips into celebrity culture, social media, the police, Putin, Prince Andrew and God. Nothing is off limits, from his own mental health and family to his five arrests and how he once found himself at an underground sex party. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Irish Christmas celebrations in song and dance in Fairytale Of New York
What? Christmas in old York already : Fairytale Of New York – The Ultimate Irish-Inspired Christmas Concert, Grand Opera House, York, November 11, 7.30pm
FROM the producers of Seven Drunken Nights – The Story Of The Dubliners comes a rich tapestry of Irish singers, musicians and dancers performing Driving Home For Christmas, Step Into Christmas, Oh Holy Night, Fairytale Of New York and Irish sing-along favourites The Galway Girl, The Irish Rover, Dirty Old Town and The Black Velvet Band. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sarah Millican: “Lots of stuff about dinners and lady gardens” at York Barbican
Recommended but sold out alas: next week’s shows at York Barbican
BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don kicks off a particularly busy week at York Barbican when he shares his passion for gardens and the role they play in human inspiration and wellbeing on Monday night (7.30pm). Jazz pianist, songwriter and BBC Radio 2 presenter Jamie Cullum will be supported by Northampton pianist and singer Billy Lockett on Tuesday (doors 7pm).
On Thursday (8pm), in her Late Bloomer show, South Shields comedian Sarah Millican mulls over her transition from being quiet at school with not many friends and an inability to say boo to a goose to being loud with good friends and goose-booing outbursts aplenty, “plus lots of stuff about dinners and lady gardens,” she says. On Friday (doors 7pm), in her Rockin’ On show, queen of rock’n’roll Suzi Quatro rolls out Can The Can, Devil Gate Drive, Stumblin’ In, 48 Crash, The Wild One et al. “It’s my 60th year in the business and it still feels like I’ve just started,” she says.
The York Stage poster for their “new version” of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s American musical comedy Company
Musical of the week: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, November 13 to 16, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married? Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s bold , sophisticated and insightful revolutionary musical comedy follows Bobby as he navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily (and unhappily) married friends as he explores the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind.
Nik Briggs directs a York Stage cast featuring Gerard Savva as Bobby, Florence Poskitt, Julia Anne Smith, Alexandra Mather, Joanne Theaker, Dan Crawfurd-Porter and Jack Hooper, among others. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The Highwayman cast of Dylan Allcock, left, Emilio Encinoso-Gil, Matheea Ellerby and Jo Patmore in John Godber’s new historical play. Picture: Ian Hodgson
New play of the week: John Godber Company in The Highwayman, York Theatre Royal Studio, November 14 to 16, 7.45pm plus 2pm Friday and Saturday, sold out
AFTER more than 70 plays reflecting on modern life, John Godber goes back in history for the first time in The Highwayman. “It’s 1769 and Yorkshire’s population has exploded, the races at York are packed, the new theatre in Hull is thriving, and the Spa towns are full,” he says.
“Everyone is flocking north. Yorkshire is the place to be; a region drunk on making money, social climbing, gambling and gin, but with wealth in abundance, the temptation is great.” Enter the highwayman, John Swift and his partner, Molly May. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In focus: Paterson Joseph, Sancho & Me, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm, with post-show discussion
Paterson Joseph and Charles Ignatius Sancho: Storyteller and subject in Sancho & Me at York Theatre Royal
CHARLES Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, became a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected man of letters in 18th century London – the first man of African heritage to vote in Britain.
Actor, author and Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University Paterson Joseph tells his story, accompanied by co-creator and musical director Ben Park, built around Joseph’s book The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.
Joseph explores ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and where these themes intersect with his own story of growing up Black and British
Joseph says: “Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) had a most extraordinary life. Born of enslaved African parents, he rose to a position of great influence in British society. A polymath with a talent for music, his vote in 1774 and 1780 made him the first person of African descent to vote in a British Parliamentary election.
“I first came across Charles Ignatius Sancho in 1999. Born and raised in London, by my mid-thirties I had no idea there were thousands of Black Britons in the UK long before the famous ‘Windrush Generation’ who arrived in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. I cannot overstate the powerful sense of belonging this knowledge brought me.
“My desire is to spread that sense of rootedness through spreading the word far and wide: Britain has always been a multi-ethnic country and Black people have been a major part of that story.”
The show incorporates Sancho’s compositions and original music by composer and musician Ben Park. In the words of Sancho: “Friendship is a plant of slow growth, and, like our English oak, spreads, is more majestically beautiful, and increases in shade, strength and riches, as it increases in years.”
Paterson Joseph: the back story
Born: Willesden, London on June 22 1964 to parents from St Lucia. Educated at Cardinal Hinsley RC High School. Worked briefly as catering assistant. Trained at Studio ’68 of Theatre Arts, London (South Kensington Library), from 1983 to 1985, later attending London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).
Theatre roles: Oswald in King Lear, Dumaine in Love’s Labours Lost and Marquis de Mota in The Last Days Of Don Juan, Royal Shakespeare Company, 1990. Title role in Othello, Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2002. Lead roles in The Royal Hunt Of The Sun and The Emperor Jones, Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London, 2006. Brutus, in Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar, set in Africa, 2012. Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Old Vic Theatre, London, 2019 into 2020.
Undertook documentary project My Shakespeare, filmed for Channel 4 in 2004, directing version of Romeo & Juliet that used 20 young non-actors from deprived Harlesden area of London.
On television: Mark Grace in Casualty (1997–1998); Alan Johnson in Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show (2003–2015); Lyndon Jones in Green Wing (2004–2006); Greg Preston in Survivors (2008–2010); DI Wes Layton in Law And Order: UK (2013–2014); “Holy Wayne” Gilchrest in The Leftovers (2014–2015); DCI Mark Maxwell in Safe House (2015–2017); Connor Mason in Timeless (2016–2018); Home Secretary, then Prime Minister Kamal Hadley in Noughts + Crosses (2020-2022); Commander Neil Newsome in Vigil (2021); Samuel Wells in Boat Story (2023).
Films include: Benbay in In The Name Of The Father (1993); Keaty in The Beach (2000); Greenfingers (2001), Giroux in Æon Flux (2005), The Other Man (2009) and Arthur Slugworth in Wonka (2023).
His debut play as a writer, Sancho: An Act Of Remembrance, was first co-produced and performed at Oxford Playhouse in 2015, then twice toured United States of America, including Kennedy Center in Washington and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York. Performed by Joseph in London in 2018 at Wilton’s Music Hall; published by Bloomsbury.
Debut novel The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho was published in 2022 by Dialogue Books in UK and Henry Holt in USA, charting Sancho’s life through fictionalised diary entries, letters and commentary. Nominated for six literary awards, winning Royal Society of Literature’s Christopher Bland Prize and Historical Writers Association Debut Novel Prize in 2023.
First book, Julius Caesar And Me: Exploring Shakespeare’s African Play, published by Bloomsbury.
Appointed Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University in 2022. Installed in May 2023.
Paterson Joseph, Me & Sancho, York Theatre Royal, November 14, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Suzi Quatro: Using this iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. York Barbican awaits
SUZI Quatro is marking the 60th year of her reign as “the Queen of Rock’n’Roll” by embarking on a five-date autumn tour.
On November 15, Suzi, 74, plays York Barbican, her only Yorkshire show and the first on the tour to sell out.
“It’s my 60th year in the business, and it still feels like I’ve just started,” she said, when announcing the tour. “Devil Gate Drive, number one, 51 years ago. Are you ready now? Let’s do it one more time for Suzi.”
Sixty years? Yes, Michigan-born singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, actress, poet novelist and radio presenter Suzi started out in bands in Detroit, playing concerts and teen clubs with Ted Nugent, Bob Seger and others, having first played bongos with her father Art’s jazz trio when she was eight.
“I started a band at 14,” she recalls. “I was in ninth or tenth grade. We worked the whole summer, going to New York.
“I talked to my dad about not going back to high school. He was on the phone, saying ‘is there anything I can say to change your mind?’.He quietly put the phone down and that was clever. It gave me time to pause and think about it. I made my choice: I would be in music for life.”
In May 1964, her sister Patti formed the group The Pleasure Seekers with Suzi on bass, leading to their first single coming out on the Hideout Records label in 1965, when Suzi was 15, Patti, 17.
Further singles Never Thought You’d Leave Me and Light Of Love followed in 1966 and 1968 respectively.
In 1971, Suzi flew to England to work with songwriting hit factory Chinn and Chapman after producer Mickie Most saw her perform live at the East Town Ballroom when in Detroit to record Jeff Beck at Motown.
Suzi expected to be in the UK for three months, but stayed. “I go back to America a lot but I haven’t lived there since 1971,” she says. The story goes that she did not take even a coat with her when first leaving.
Significantly, Suzi has used an iconic image from her first photographic session with Gered Mankowitz in 1973 to promote her 60th anniversary tour. The definitive one in the leather jump suit, as memorable as Mankowitz’s portrait of a teenage Kate Bush.
“I’ll try to make a long story short,” says Suzi, explaining how that look was born. “We’d recorded Can The Can and Mike [Chapman] said, it’s going to be number one’. I said, ‘we need to discuss the image’. I said ‘leather’; he said ‘No’, but I got my way.
“Then he suggested a jump suit, and he was right. People thought of it as very sexy, though I didn’t realise that at the time.”
The poster for Suzi Quatro’s 60th anniversary Rockin’ On tour
At the photo session, Mankowitz said, ‘OK, give me that Suzi Quatro look’. “I gave ‘the look’, and that’s when the Suzi Quatro look was created. It was new,” she says.
“I have finally, at the age of 74, accepted it. I didn’t know it at the time. I was just being who I am. I didn’t think it was unusual. I’d played bass since I was 14 but Mike kept saying I was unique.”
Chapman’s prediction was right: Suzi topped the UK charts in 1973 with the 2.5 million-selling Can The Can and had further hits that year with 48 Crash, Daytona Demon and the chart-topping Devil Gate Drive.
More UK hits would follow with Too Big, The Wild One, Your Mamma Won’t Like Me, Tear Me Apart, If You Can’t Give Me Love, She’s In Love With You and Mama’s Boy, her last UK Top 40 entry in 1979, peaking at number 34.
Her native United States was slower to catch on. “There were a lot of things happening on the other side of the world that America didn’t get then, but I did start touring in America in ’74. Happy Days was the thing that catapulted me to success there: the number one TV show. Suddenly they discovered me.”
Suzi made her first of seven appearances on Happy Days, playing Leather Tuscadero, the little sister of Fonzie’s ex-girlfriend Pinky, in 1977. “I then had a number four hit in the American Billboard Hot 100 with Stumblin’ In [her duet with Smokie’s Chris Norman] in 1978,” she says. Ironically, the song reached no higher than number 41 in the UK.
She may live between her Essex manor house and her husband’s German house, but America continues to play its part in her career. “I was in Detroit in September recording with Alice Cooper for my next album. I haven’t got a title yet but it’s got 14 songs, writing with Alice, and I’ve covered MC5’s Kick Out The Jams out of respect,” says Suzi.
“The next night Alice asked me to do School’s Out with him, on bass, which I’d never done before and had to learn real quick to play to 12,500 people at Pine Knob [Music Theatre], just outside Detroit. I was just grinning from ear to ear.
“I’ve known him since I was 15 years old. I did the Welcome To My Nightmare Tour with him in 1975 in America, and it really was a nightmare tour, though I loved it! It was a long tour, doing a couple of flights a day sometimes.”
As well as selling more than 55 million records – she featured in the UK charts for 101 weeks between 1973 and 1980 – Suzi has branched out into acting, writing novels and poetry, broadcasting, making her documentary film Suzi Q and presenting her autobiography Unzipped live in a one-woman show.
Suzi has been a ground-breaker. “Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, they all said , ‘none of us would have done what we did without Suzi Quatro’, which made me cry, as I didn’t realise what I’d done, but I can now accept it,” she says.
“It had to fall on someone like me because I didn’t know I was doing it, and if I had known, it would have looked manufactured. That’s why I’m still here because whatever you see, it’s real.
“It’s funny. When I’ve done big shows with other acts, you end up talking in the bar and usually the conversation gets round to me and how different I was. ‘But did it look like I was I was just being me,’ I asked, and they said ‘yes’.”
York pantomime dame Berwick Kaler: Suzi Quatro wrote a song for her best friend, The Queen Mother Of Rock’n’Roll
She describes herself as “really stubborn”, giving the example of make-up artists asking if they could make her “bushy” eyebrows smaller. “I said, ‘you can enhance them, but don’t change them, this is me’.”
In 2019, Liam Firmager directed the documentary Suzi Q. “I said yes as I’d always wanted to do one. When we met, he said, ‘I’m not a fan, but I like your music’. I said ‘OK, but why do you want to do a documentary about me?’,” Suzi recalls.
Firmager said he had been fascinated by her. ”I knew that as a ‘non-fan’, you’re going to get the truth, even the ‘cringe’ moments, and he did stick to that,” says Suzi.
“It’s great documentary. There’s nothing I didn’t know, but it brought it to the fore that I’m very family orientated, very soft inside. There’s little Suzi from Detroit and there’s Suzi Quatro, who strides out on stage.”
Suzi says she has a sharp tongue when she is pushed. “Don’t mess with me. I’m a deep thinker.”
How does she feel she has been treated in a male-dominated industry that has had its stories of women being exploited? “Absolutely fine, because I demand that,” says Suzi. “It’s all about my attitude. I’m from Detroit. I’ve got a quick mind. I’ve got a quick mouth. If you touch me inappropriately, you will have a soprano voice.
“My father brought me up to have balls and my mother’s teaching, as a strict Catholic girl, gave me my morals. There’s an invisible line [not to be crossed], but I can play the softer side too.”
What is her advice to women in the business? “You can be tough but don’t lose your femininity,” she says.
Next Friday’s show will be a two-hour set with an interval. “I’ll be taking you on a journey through my life, with a song from every album, two from the album I did with K T Tunstall [2023’s Face To Face], an eight-minute bass solo – it’s not boring! – and some clips on the screen.”
The Wild One will rock on, she vows. “I will retire when I go on stage, shake my ass, and there is silence,” she says. “I’ve always been the same and I will always be the same. I’ve never coasted and I never will.”
Looking forward to playing to a sold-out York audience, Suzi says: “My overall feeling is that I am grateful and I am so happy that people want to see me. I take it very seriously.”
Performing in York brings back memories of working with Berwick Kaler, the legendary, newly retired pantomime dame. “We worked together for about a year in Annie Get Your Gun. We’ve been friends ever since. He was the best man at my second wedding [to German concert promoter Rainer Haas]. He’s my best friend.
“He once asked me to write a song for the panto – I’ve been to his shows many times – and wrote The Queen Mother Of Rock’n’Roll for him.”
Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil with her fashion house mincing minions Casper (Charles Brunton) and Jasper (Danny Hendrix) in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
NOT everything is black and white with Alsatians, just like with Border Collie sheepdogs, but if one film has shaped a general affection for a breed, then 101 Dalmatians has done a fantastic PR job.
Yes, Dalmatians can be loyal, loving, intelligent, good with children and pets; good watchdogs too, but they can be aggressive towards other dogs, or timid, and easily distracted in training.
Let’s be honest, that popularity comes down to the spots. If a fashion designer were to design a dog, chances are they would go dotty for Dalmatians. Cruella De Vil does exactly that, of course, at her Haus of De Vil fashion house but not as an accessory for the walkway.
No, the fashionista villain of Dodie Smith’s ever-popular tale of wagging tails wants their pelts for her latest fabulous fur coat in 101 Dalmatians, the canine caper re-told here in musical form with music and lyrics by Douglas Hodge and book by Johnny McKnight from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris.
Re-imagined from the 2022 outdoor production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London, Runaway Entertainment’s touring show is led by Kym Marsh, Hear’Say pop singer, Coronation Street soap star, Waterloo Road regular, Strictly 2022 alumna and Morning Live presenter.
What a canny piece of casting she is in her first musical lead-singing role, as she turns to the dark side for the first time at 48, knocking spots off other Cruellas with the De Vil in the detail of her vampish performance, full of pantomimic villainy, spitefully humorous putdowns and dramatic, powerhouse singing that peaks with the Act One climax, Bring Me Fur.
“She’s the most fun character ever,” said Marsh, in an appraisal that might raise eyebrows, given that Cruella is a knife-wielding canine killer, but she is right. More lairy than scary in demeanour, her fiendish “Cruella times ten” is a vainglorious baddie in pantomime tradition, commanding in presence but in need of being taken down.
Marsh, who is given wonderfully sharp costumes by designer Sarah Mercade, is the star turn in Bill Buckhurst’s raucous production, but the show is built on Jimmy Grimes’ puppetry, Lucy Hind’s choreography, Hodge’s humorous songs and McKnight’s love of jokes as cheesy and daft as panto puns. Oh yes, and there are puppies aplenty, of course.
Sorry to keep making comparisons with pantomimes, but characters are played and dressed with those broad, bold strokes, from Samuel Thomas’s gawky Tom Dearly, in his slightly-too-short trousers and specs, to Emmerdale star Jessie Elland’s matching Danielle Dearly in polka-dot coat and specs, their clothing patterns looking as if they were drawn with a child’s eye for exaggeration.
Likewise the spry comedy double act of Cruella’s fashion-hound acolytes, her dimwit nephews Casper (Charles Brunton) and Jasper (Danny Hendrix), could be torn from any of this winter’s upcoming pantos, although they would be equally at home in Shakespeare’s comedy romps.
The ensemble of canine puppeteers are on singing duty too, led by Linford Johnson’s Pongo (you may remember him from Alan Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre) and Emma Thornett’s Perdi (last seen in York in Gus Gowland’s musical Mayflies at the Theatre Royal in May 2023). Thornett has one terrific, moving scene where her Perdi will not give up on saving the ailing, frozen-cold Button as the night-time snow falls.
The Dalmatians, 101 of them by the finale, are a dotty delight, keeping the ensemble on their toes as they multiply. Hodge’s songs are fun and funny, albeit that the tunes are somewhat workmanlike pastiches, but the likes of The Pub Song, the insistent Litterbugs and I Can Smell Puppy hit the right note.
In a crowded musical market, 101 Dalmatians is not quite Premier League. Nevertheless it definitely surpasses the energy level of a typical Dalmatian, a breed that requires more than 40 minutes of exercise per day. These ones give the run-around for two hours.
101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7pm plus 2pm Thursday and Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Livy Potter as Katy, left, and Alice Rose Palmer, as mum Natalie, in Louise Beech’s How To Be Brave at Gilling East Village Hall and Helmsley Arts Centre
FROM a devilish yet dotty canine musical to comedians having their moment, a film festival to glowing ghosts, Charles Hutchinson spots plenty to light up dark days ahead.
Touring play of the week: Other Lives Productions in How To Be Brave, Gilling East Village Hall, tomorrow, 7.30pm, and Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
IN 1943, Merchant Seaman Colin Armitage’s cargo ship was torpedoed by an Italian Navy submarine in the South Atlantic. He scrambled aboard a life raft. Fifty days later, HMS Rapid rescued him.
Colin was the grandfather of How To Be Brave playwright Louise Beech. Sixty-four years after his ordeal, Louise’s daughter, Katy, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In order to distract her during insulin injections Louise began to tell the story of Colin’s bravery and determination to survive.
Scenes in this resulting play alternate between the life raft and a house in Hull as York actors Jacob Ward and Livy Potter take the lead roles in Kate Veysey’s production. Box office: Gilling East, gillinjgeastevents@hotmail.co.uk; Helmsley, 01439 771700.
Man of The Moment: Ali Woods, playing York Barbican on his debut stand-up tour
Comedy men of The Moment: Mo Gilligan, In The Moment, York Barbican, tomorrow,8pm; Ali Woods, At The Moment, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
THE moment has arrived for two comedy tour dates with similar show titles, first up the host of Channel 4’s The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan, Londoner Mo Gilligan, on his In The Moment World Tour 2024.
The following night, half-English, half-Scottish comedian, podcaster and content creator Ali Woods plays York on his debut stand-up tour. At 30, this viral online sketch sensation has finally fallen in love with an amazing lady. “Come on an embarrassing and cathartic journey of teenage angst, relationship fails and learning how to live in the moment,” he says. Tickets update: available for both shows, whereas An Audience With Monty Don (November 11), Jamie Cullum (November 12), Sarah Millican: Late Bloomer (November 14) and Suzi Quatro ( November 15) have sold out already. Box office: yortkbarbican.co.uk.
Artist CJP with his work The Majestic Oak at Art Of Protest Gallery, York
Exhibition of the week: From Little Acorns Grow Mighty Hopes: An Exhibition of Hand-drawn Natural Wonders, Art of Protest Gallery, Walmgate, York, until November 16
ART Of Protest is the first gallery to show CJP’s work The Majesty Oak in an exhibition of original and rare limited-edition artwork. Look out for the Art Of Protest York Special Edition, only available to be ordered until November 16, featuring the River Ouse-dwelling Tansy Beetle, an elusive insect featured on a resplendent mural near York railway station.
“This is an amazing opportunity to own a truly unique celebration of British fauna with a very special York twist,” says gallery owner Craig Humble. “CJP will add a Tansy Beetle to each piece, along with the gold leafing of the branches.”
Very definitely Pride Of Prejudice * (*Sort Of), sending up Jane Austen affectionately in Isobel McArthur’s play at York Theatre Royal
Theatrical flourish of the week: Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
MEN, money and microphones will be fought over in Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), the audacious retelling of a certain Jane Austen novel, where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance but it’s party time, so expect the all-female cast to deliver such emotionally turbulent pop gems as You’re So Vain and Young Hearts Run Free.
Writer Isobel McArthur directs this new production of her West End hit, Olivier Award winner for best comedy. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In the driving seat: Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
Dog show of the week: 101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7pm plus 2pm today, Thursday and Saturday matinees
KYM Marsh’s Cruella De Vil leads the cast for this musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians. Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
When fashionista Cruella De Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
3 Missing 10 Hours, directed by Fanni Fazakas, showing in the Animation programme at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024
York festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York city centre, today to Sunday, and UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO, Guildhall, York, Thursday to Saturday
THE BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival returns for its 14th year under the direction of Cherie Federico, this time integrating the tenth anniversary of York’s designation as Great Britain’s only UNESCO City of Media Arts. Fifteen venues will play host to 300 film screenings in 12 genres, Virtual Realty and Gaming labs, plus 60 panels, workshops and discussions. For the full programme and tickets, head to asff.co.uk.
The UNESCO EXPO will showcase the region’s creative sector, working in film production, games development, VFX (visual effects), publishing and design, with the chance to try out new projects and speak to creatives. Entry to the Guildhall is free.
Ghosts After Dark: New nocturnal complement to the Ghosts In The Gardens installation in York Museum Gardens
Nocturnal event of the week: Ghosts After Dark, York Museums Gardens, tomorrow to Sunday, 6.30pm to 9.30pm; last entry, 8.30pm
YORK Museums Trust and the York BID present the inaugural Ghosts After Dark, showcasing York’s rich tapestry of historical figures with light, sound and storytellers for four nights only.
Ticketholders will have the exclusive chance to experience York Museum Gardens like never before, by choosing their own path to explore 46 ghostly sculptures, hidden around the gardens and lit dynamically against an atmospheric background of smoke and sound. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/ghosts-after-dark/.
Fishermen’s Friends: Playing York Barbican this week, then returning next October
Gig announcements of the week: Fisherman’s Friends, York Barbican, October 3 2025
IN celebration of performing sea shanties for more than 30 years across the world, Fisherman’s Friends will head out from the Cornish fishing village of Port Isaac to play a British tour split between 2025 and 2026.
York will come early, booked for night number two next October on a 32-date itinerary announced even before they have played their sold-out Barbican gig on Friday this week on their Rock The Boat tour, promoting fifth album All Aboard. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in her giraffe suit in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
THE musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians arrives at the Grand Opera House, York, on Tuesday, led by Kym Marsh’s villainous Cruella De Vil.
Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
When fashionista Cruella de Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies.
After making her name in the Popstars reality TV pop band Hear’Say in 2001, playing barmaid and landlady Michelle Connor in Coronation Street for 13 years from 2006 and partnering with Graziano di Prima in the 2022 series of Strictly Come Dancing, Merseysider Kym is turning to the dark side at 48 in 101 Dalmatians The Musical.
“I enjoy playing [villainous] roles because they’re so far removed from me, so you have to really try and get into the head of that person,” she says of playing the dog-murdering Cruella.
At the wheel: Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
“Trying to get into the head of a person who wants to skin puppies to wear is especially alien to me because I’m such a huge dog lover! I’ve got two of my own, and I adore them.”
Villains do not come more fabulous than Cruella De Vil. “I think people are going to absolutely love her,” says Kym. “The costumes are so brilliant, and when she walks on, she’s just in command of everything. She’s the the most fun character ever.”
Look out, above all, for Cruella’s trademark black-and-white hairdo. “But there won’t be just one wig,” reveals Kym. “There’s going to be several changes and it’s not just what you expect from her. We’re like Cruella De Vil times ten!”
Her role requires her to perform big musical numbers on stage after many years of concentrating on other pursuits. “If you don’t sing, you forget,” she says.
Did she not sing in her role in last year’s tour of the Take That musical Greatest Days? “I didn’t have a lot to sing [in that],” she clarifies. “There were no solos, and nothing hugely taxing. Whereas in this, I’ve got my own songs, and there’s a lot to learn.”
Kym had to combine rehearsals for 101 Dalmatians with filming commitments for her role as canteen worker Nicky in the latest series of BBC school drama Waterloo Road. Then again, she is no stranger to juggling tasks, ever since she started out as a performer while raising two children as a single mother.
“When she walks on, she’s just in command of everything,” says Kym Marsh of playing Cruella De Vil. “She’s the the most fun character ever.” Picture: Johan Persson
Her parents encouraged her determination to succeed. “I fell pregnant at a very young age and my parents were like ‘this is even more reason for you to continue and carry on pursuing your dream, and make the life that you want, not just for you but for the children’. I was very much spurred on and encouraged, and I’m thankful for that,” she says.
Popstars, the 2001 ITV series that spawned the Hear’Say line-up of Kym, Suzanne Shaw, Noel Sullivan, Myleene Klass and Danny Foster, kicked off the wave of talent shows that led to Pop Idol, The X Factor and The Voice UK.
Kym recalls those “unique and very strange” days as a learning experience unlike anything that anyone had undergone before. “We were guinea pigs and people were watching thinking, ‘what’s going to happen now?’. People were very much waiting for us to fail, and every move we made, there was a comment about it,” she says. “The press back then were very different to how they are now. They’re much more well behaved.”
Her move into acting emerged “by accident”. When Hear’Say folded after only 20 months, citing “abuse from the public” as the primary reason for their demise, Kym set a solo career in motion but was dropped by her record label, despite her 2003 album Standing Tall peaking at number nine in the UK charts and spawning two Top Ten singles, Cry and Come On Over.
While contemplating whether to pursue another deal, she was offered the role of Annette in a West End production of Saturday Night Fever. “Once I started to do that, I remembered my love of acting, which I had as a teenager but had not pursued because I felt like I could make money singing in pubs and clubs,” she says.
Haus of De Vil: Kym Marsh’s Cruella De Vil in her fashion house in 101 Dalmatians The Musical. Picture: Johan Persson
A few small TV roles ensued, followed by the chance to play Michelle Connor in Coronation Street, a soap-opera opportunity that initially was confined to only four episodes. Kym made such an impression, however, that she was asked to return, becoming one of the best-loved characters.
“I never in a million years thought or expected [that was how things would go],” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate, as I’ve been given some amazing opportunities, and had a lot of people believe in me, even if I didn’t necessarily believe in myself.”
She is now a daytime TV presenter too, hosting the BBC’s flagship lifestyle show Morning Live since its launch in 2020. When offered the job, she had “huge impostor syndrome”, having never done a live TV gig and only a couple of presenting slots for the BBC.
Four years on, she feels part of a TV family, working with co-host Gethin Jones. “I was very fortunate to be paired with him, because he’s a very generous co-presenter,” she says. “He took me under his wing, and I’ve learned so much from him.”
101 Dalmatians will keep Kym on the road until January 5 2025. What next? She has ambitions to do more meaty TV dramas and films but is content to see where life leads her.”One minute I’m serving chips and beans in the canteen at Waterloo Road, and the next thing I’m Cruella wearing [pretend] giraffe skin,” she says. “It’s a bizarre life I live!”
101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 5 to 9, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Skylights: York band headline York Barbican for the first time tonight
FROM Skylights to Ghosts After Dark, a fiesta of film to a musical dog show, Charles Hutchinson spots plenty to light up these November nights.
York gig of the week: Skylights, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
ANTHEMIC York indie band Skylights play their biggest home-city gig to date this weekend with support from Serotones and Pennine Suite.
Guitarist Turnbull Smith says: ‘We’re absolutely over the moon to be headlining the Barbican. It’s always been a dream of ours to play here. So to headline will be the perfect way to finish a great year. Thanks to everyone for the support. It means the world and we’ll see you all there.” Box office update: Standing tickets still available at ticketmaster.co.uk.
Rob Rouse: Headlining Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club at The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, tonight
Comedy gig of the week: Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, Rob Rouse, Peter Brush, Faizan Shan and Damion Larkin, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, tonight, 8pm
PEAK District comedian, television regular, Upstart Crow actor and self-help podcaster Rob Rouse, who trained as a geography teacher at the University of Sheffield, makes a rare York appearance with his hyperactive, loveable brand of comedy.
Harrogate Comedian of the Year 2012 Peter Brush combines a slight, bespectacled frame and scruffy hair with quirky one-liners and original material, delivered in an amusingly awkward fashion. Manchester comic Faizan Shah’s material makes light of growing up in an immigrant household with the mental health challenges it brings. Organiser Damion Larkin hosts as ever. Box office: 01904 612940 or lolcomedyclubs.co.uk.
Artist CJP with his work The Majestic Oak at Art Of Protest Gallery, York
Exhibition of the week: From Little Acorns Grow Mighty Hopes: An Exhibition of Hand-drawn Natural Wonders, Art of Protest Gallery, Walmgate, York, until November 16
ART Of Protest is the first gallery to show CJP’s work The Majestic Oak in an exhibition of original and rare limited-edition artwork. Look out for the Art Of Protest York Special Edition, only available to be ordered until November 16, featuring the River Ouse-dwelling Tansy Beetle, an elusive insect featured on a resplendent mural near York railway station.
“This is an amazing opportunity to own a truly unique celebration of British fauna with a very special York twist,” says gallery owner Craig Humble. “CJP will add a Tansy Beetle to each piece, along with the gold leafing of the branches.”
Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of): Making merry mayhem with Jane Austen’s novel at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic
Theatrical high spirits of the week: Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, November 4 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
MEN, money and microphones will be fought over in Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), the audacious retelling of a certain Jane Austen novel, where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance but it’s party time, so expect the all-female cast to deliver such emotionally turbulent pop gems as Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.
Writer Isobel McArthur directs this new production of her West End hit, Olivier Award winner for best comedy and Emerging Talent Award winner in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, now featuring University of York alumna Georgia Firth in the cast. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
On the spot: 101 Dalmatians The Musical takes up canine residence at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday. Picture: Johan Persson
Dog show of the week: 101 Dalmatians The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, November 5 to 9, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
KYM Marsh’s Cruella De Vil leads the cast for this musical tour of Dodie Smith’s canine caper 101 Dalmatians. Written by Douglas Hodge (music and lyrics) and Johnny McKnight (book), from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris, the show is re-imagined from the 2022 production at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London.
When fashionista Cruella De Vil plots to swipe all the Dalmatian puppies in town to create her fabulous new fur coat, trouble lies ahead for Pongo and Perdi and their litter of tail-wagging young pups in a story brought to stage life with puppetry, choreography, humorous songs and, yes, puppies. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
3 Missing 10 Hours, directed by Fanni Fazakas, showing in the Animation programme at Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024
York festival of the week: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York city centre, November 6 to 10, and UNESCO City of Media Arts EXPO, Guildhall, York, November 7 to 9
THE BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival returns for its 14th year under the direction of Cherie Federico, this time integrating the tenth anniversary of York’s designation as Great Britain’s only UNESCO City of Media Arts. Fifteen venues will play host to 300 film screenings in 12 genres, Virtual Realty and Gaming labs, plus 60 panels, workshops and discussions. For the full programme and tickets, head to asff.co.uk.
The UNESCO EXPO will showcase the region’s creative sector, working in film production, games development, VFX (visual effects), publishing and design, with the chance to try out new projects and speak to creatives. Entry to the Guildhall is free.
Ghosts After Dark: New nocturnal complement to the Ghosts In The Gardens installation in York Museum Gardens
Nocturnal event of the week: Ghosts After Dark, York Museums Gardens, November 7 to 10, 6.30pm to 9.30pm; last entry, 8.30pm
YORK Museums Trust and the York BID present the inaugural Ghosts After Dark, showcasing York’s rich tapestry of historical figures with light, sound and storytellers for four nights only.
Ticketholders will have the exclusive chance to experience York Museum Gardens like never before, by choosing their own path to explore 46 ghostly sculptures, hidden around the gardens and lit dynamically against an atmospheric background of smoke and sound. Box office: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/ghosts-after-dark/.
Rag’n’Bone Man: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre next summer
Gig announcements of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, July 6, and Rag’n’Bone Man, July 11 2025
“I THINK I’ve got the best reggae band in the world,” says UB40 legend Ali Campbell, who last played Scarborough OAT in 2021. “They are all seasoned musicians, who have spent all their lives in professional bands, and I feel so confident with them.” Support acts will be Bitty McLean and Pato Banton.
Triple BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award winner Rag’n’Bone Man, alias Rory Graham, will follow up his 2023 Scarborough OAT show with a return next summer in the wake of his third album, What Do You Believe In? entering the charts at number three last Friday. His special guest will be Elles Bailey. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.
Show announcement of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to May 17 2025
Gary Oldman reflecting on his first steps in professional theatre in the York Theatre Royal dressing rooms on his March visit
OSCAR winner Gary Oldman will return to York Theatre Royal, where he began his career as a pantomime cat, to direct himself in Krapp’s Last Tape next spring: his first stage appearance since the late-1980s.
The April 14 to May 17 2025 production of Samuel Beckett’s one-act monodrama was set in motion when Slow Horses star Oldman paid a visit to the St Leonard’s Place theatre in March, when he met chief executive Paul Crewes.
“When Gary visited us at the beginning of the year, it was fascinating hearing him recount stories of his time as a young man, in his first professional role on the York Theatre Royal stage.,” says Paul.
“In that context when we started to explore ideas, we realised Krapp’s Last Tape was the perfect project. I am very happy that audiences will have this unique opportunity to see Gary Oldman return to our stage in this brand new production.”
Making plans: Actor and director Gary Oldman in discussion with York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes in the York Theatre Royal main house auditorium
Ticket prices start at £25, with priority booking for the York Theatre Royal Director’s Circle opening on November 6, YTR Members’ priority booking from November 11 and public booking on November 16, all from 1pm. To become a member and access priority booking, head to: https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/support-us/.
After graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, Londoner Oldman started out in the repertory ranks at York Theatre Royal in 1979 in such plays as Privates On Parade and She Stoops To Conquer and playing the Cat in Berwick Kaler’s third York pantomime, Dick Whittington, that Christmas.
Dame Berwick later told the Guardian in an interview in 2018: “Gary has gone on to become one of our greatest screen actors but I’m afraid he was a bit of a lightweight when it came to pantomime.
“He kept fainting inside the costume. On at least three occasions I had to turn to the audience and say, ‘Oh dear, boys and girls, I think the poor pussy cat has gone to sleep’!”
Gary Oldman as the Cat with dame Berwick Kaler, centre, in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Oldman, now 66, posted on Instagram: “My professional public acting debut was on stage at the York Theatre Royal. York, for me, is the completion of a cycle. It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home.
“The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.”
After cutting his teeth in York, New Cross-born Oldman went on to act at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, the Royal Court, London, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then swapped theatre for film with break-our roles as Sid Vicious in Sid And Nancy (1986), Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1992) and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
He later played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film franchise and Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, won the 2018 Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, and is now starring as obnoxious MI5 boss Jackson Lamb in the latest Apple+ series of British spy thriller Slow Horses.
Gary Oldman (third from the left in hat and glasses) in Privates On Parade at York Theatre Royal in 1979: one of his first professional performances after graduating from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, with a BA in Acting. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Oldman has been considering going back to the stage for a long time. “I have never been far from the theatre and, in fact, have been discussing plays and my return to the theatre for nearly 30 years,” he posted.
What happens in Krapp’s Last Tape, Samuel Beckett at his most theatre of the absurd? Each year, on his birthday, Krapp records a new tape reflecting on the year gone by.
On his 69th birthday, Krapp, now a lonely man, is ready with a bottle of wine, a banana and his tape recorder. Listening back to a recording he made as a young man, Krapp must face the hopes of his past self.
The melancholic, tragicomic role was premiered in 1958 by Patrick Magee and has been played by the likes of Albert Finney, Harold Pinter, John Hurt, Stephen Rea and Kenneth Allan Taylor, the long-running Nottingham Playhouse pantomime dame, writer and director, at York Theatre Royal in 2009.
Gary Oldman’s Cat in the 1979-1980 York Theatre Royal pantomime Dick Whittington. Picture: York Theatre Royal
Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989): the back story
IRISH writer, dramatist and poet, specialising in theatre of the absurd. Wrote in English and French. Principal works for the stage included Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape and Waiting For Godot. Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
Gary Oldman: Further screen appearances
TINKER, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Academy Award and BAFTA nominations); Mank (Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations); Oppenheimer; The Book Of Eli; Meantime; The Firm; Prick Up Your Ears; Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead; State Of Grace; Romeo Is Bleeding; True Romance; Leon/The Professional; The Fifth Element; Immortal Beloved and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, among many others.
Worked with directors Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone, Frances Ford Coppola, Luc Besson, Alfonso Curon, Chris Nolan, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Paulo Sorrentino.
Did you know?
IN 1995 Gary Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski founded a production company, producing Oldman’s screenwriting and directorial debut, Nil By Mouth, winner of nine majot awards from 17 nominations.
Selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, where Kathy Burke won Best Actress. The same year, Oldman won Channel Four Director’s Prize at Edinburgh International Film Festival, British Academy Award (shared with Douglas Urbanski) for Best Film and BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.
In Focus:Other Lives Productions in How To Be Brave, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm, and on tour
Livy Potter as Katy, left, and Alice Rose Palmer as mum Natalie in Louise Beech’s How To Be Brave
ON March 19 1943, just after midnight, Merchant Seaman Colin Armitage’s cargo ship, the Lulworth Hill, was torpedoed by an Italian Navy submarine in the South Atlantic. He scrambled aboard a life raft. Fifty days later HMS Rapid rescued him.
Colin was the grandfather of How To Be Brave playwright Louise Beech. Sixty-four years after his ordeal, Louise’s daughter, Katy, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In order to distract her during insulin injections Louise began to tell the story of Colin’s bravery and determination to survive.
The story inspiring ten-year-old Katy to be brave in the face of her diabetes is a true one. She has said that Grandad Colin’s experience made her determined to carry on when she wanted to give up and die: “If Grandad Colin can survive an ordeal like that, I can do anything. I can do these injections,” she said. And she has never faltered.
Director Kate Veysey with Rose’s seagull Gilbert
“We hope that by presenting this story we can inspired audiences in the East Riding and beyond,” says director Kate Veysey, a familiar name from both York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre and Next Door But One productions.
Scenes alternate between the life raft and Katy’s house in Hull as York actors Jacob Ward and Livy Potter take the roles of Colin Armitage and Rose (Katy, given a pseudonym), joined by Lex Stephenson as carpenter Ken Cooke, on the raft, Alice Rose Palmer as Natalie (alias mum Louise) and Alison Shaw as nurse Shelley. Age guidance: ten upwards (the show contains moderate bad language). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Lex Stephenson, as Ken Cooke, left, and Jacob Ward, as Colin Armitage, in Other Lives Productions’ How To Be Brave
Olly Murs: First signing for next summer’s concerts at York Racecourse
THE Music & Racing calendar for 2025 is under starter’s orders at York Racecourse with chart-topper Olly Murs confirmed for June 28, a new race day for next summer.
Tickets go on sale at 9am this morning with the promise of “some attractive deals” at yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Acts are yet to be confirmed for the Music Showcase Weekend on July 25 (evening meeting) and July 26 (afternoon meeting). Keep checking the course’s website for further announcements.
James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship, says: “It is great news that Olly Murs, a performer who wowed the crowds on his previous visits here, will be performing for us. It will herald a month for music and racing fans to remember.”
Murs, who will perform following the Saturday race card, will complete his hat-trick of appearances at the Knavesmire track, having played there in 2010 – the year after he finished runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor – and 2017.
The 40-year-old Essex singer, songwriter, actor and television personality from Starstruck and The Voice UK has released seven albums and 25 singles, including the number ones Please Don’t Let Me Go, Heart Skips A Beat, Dance With Me Tonight and Troublemaker and Top Five hits Thinking Of Me, Dear Darlin, Wrapped Up and Up. He last breached the Top 40 in 2017 with Unpredictable, peaking at number 32 in a duet with Louisa Johnson.
On June 28, racing and music fans can take advantage of a price freeze on general admission. Entry to the main Grandstand and Paddock enclosure starts at £38 per person for a group of six, with no booking fees and free car parking.
On the track, the racing action will see seven thoroughbred contests with combined prize money of at least £275,000.
You can’t stop the beat: The Hairspray The Musical cast on Takis’s psychedelic stage
HAIRSPRAY opened on Monday, but press night was on Tuesday, when it was somewhat of a surprise to be presented with an extensive notice headed “For this performance the role of… will be played by”.
The list covered a full page of A4, eight roles in all, but the eye went straight to the disappointing absence of Yorkshire lead actor and Hull New Theatre pantomime favourite Neil Hurst, whose interview featured in The Press on Monday.
In his stead, understudy Stuart Hickey would be cross-dressing as Edna Turnblad, the no-nonsense laundry service, played on screen by Divine and John Travolta, no less. Hurst will be back from Thursday, we are told.
On a further Yorkshire note, your reviewer had hoped to see Alexandra Emmerson-Kirby in her professional debut as plucky daughter Tracy Turnblad after cutting her musical theatre teeth at the YMCA Theatre in Scarborough.
On tour, however, performances are being shared out with Katie Brice, and on Tuesday, it was Katie’s turn. What a feisty, fearless, funny performance she gave.
Still the feel-best of all the feel-good musicals, Hairspray will be playing to big houses all week, all the more so in half-term week when families are looking to fill the diary with not only Halloween parties and too many sweets.
Paul Kerryson and Brenda Edwards’s touring production last played the Grand Opera House in July 2018, and it returns looking even more kaleidoscopically colourful in Takis’s design for this black-and-white anti-segregation story.
Rooted in John Waters’ cult 1988 cinematic nostalgia spoof and the tongue-in-cheek panache of the 2007 Travolta-led movie remake, this fabulously flamboyant, highly humorous and exuberantly energetic spin-off Broadway musical is propelled by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman’s Sixties pastiche songs and Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan’s witty, anarchic book.
Takis delivers a deliciously gaudy set and costume design, as groovy as an Austin Powers movie, now complimented by George Reeve’s projections designs that bring a hi-tech sheen to evoking an early-Sixties retro vibe, whether depicting Baltimore streets, the TV studio for The Corny Collins Show, the Turnblad and Pingleton homes or a prison cell that echoes Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock movie.
Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, where teen rebel Tracy Turnblad (Brace/Emmerson-Kirby) vows to prove “fat girls can dance”, as she challenges the segregation policy that excludes her like and the black community from appearing in the TV talent contest introduced by the slick Corny Collins (cheeky charmer Declan Egan).
On one side of the divide are Tracy; outspoken, larger-than-life mum Edna Turnblad (Hickey/Hurst) and joke shop-owning doting dad Wilbur (Dermot Canavan), and geeky pocket-dynamo best friend Penny Pingleton (Nina Bell/Freya McMahon).
So too are hip-swivelling black pupil Seaweed J Stubbs (Shemar Jarrett/Reece Richards)) and the sage, savvy Motormouth Maybelle (Michelle Ndegwa).
On the other side are the aspiring pageant queen, spoilt brat Amber (Allana Taylor) and her bigoted mother, the TV show’s shrewish, bigoted producer, villainous Velma Von Tussle (Strictly Come Dancing alumna Joanne Clifton in the latest of multiple Grand Opera House musical appearances).
Torn between needy pin-up girl Amber and boundary-breaking Tracy is the TV show’s Elvis-lite pretty boy, Link Larkin (Solomon Davy).
Hickey’s Edna is very much a towering man in a dress, but equips her with the requisite twinkling eye, abundant love of family and well-timed putdowns for authority, and is at his best in the double act duet with Canavan’s ever-resourceful Wilbur, Timeless To Me. Mel Brooks would surely love it.
Beneath her bouffant beehive, Brace’s Tracy buzzes with enthusiasm for life and taking every opportunity; Davy’s Link carries a crooner’s tune and pink suit with equal aplomb, and Clifton’s humorously sour-faced Velma is full of vile style.
Soul and gospel singer Michelle Ndegwa is resplendent in her theatre debut as Motormouth Maybelle after working with the likes of Gorillaz, Gregory Porter and Leeds band Yard Act. Golden hair, golden dress, golden voice, she brings the house down in the stand-out I Know Where I’ve Been.
Exuberant dance numbers choreographed with oomph and pizzazz by Drew McOnie combine with fun, fabulous and forthright performances in a knockout show where “you can’t you stop the beat” but you can beat intolerance, bigotry and racism.
Hairspray, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York RI Golden Rail Band members: Playing 40th anniversary concert at National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York, on Friday
YORK RI Golden Rail Band, a brass band with its roots in York’s railway history, will mark its 40th anniversary with a special concert at the National Centre for Early Music on Friday (1/11/2024).
Based at the band room on Queen Street, next to York Station, the Golden Rail Band came into being in 1984, taking on the name of its sponsor at the time, British Rail’s Golden Rail, the operators of popular all-inclusive holidays by train to British resorts in the 1970s and ’80s from a base in York.
Before taking on the Golden Rail name, it was the training band for what is now York RI Band (previously York Railway Institute Band), also based at the Queen Street band room.
The parent band’s relationship with the railways goes back even further, to 1952, following a merger that saw Ebor Excelsior Silver Band and York City Band allied to York Railway Institute, as most members were railwaymen at the time.
After the arrangement with the British Rail package holidays company ended, Golden Rail Band retained the name and went on to take part in brass band contests under the baton of long-time conductor John Warley until 1994.
A number of different conductors succeeded him, not least Huntington schoolboy Jack Capstaff, who took on the role at only 16 years old in 2010, earning the title of Britain’s youngest brass band conductor.
Jack was succeeded by older brother Nicholas Eastwood, who had previously held the title when he began his conducting career aged 19 with Honley Band in Huddersfield.
Other former Golden Rail conductors include Peter Andrews, funeral director Kevin Moxon, the RI Band’s James Lolley and Iain Fell, now of Malton White Star Band, before trombonist Nicholas Eastwood took up the baton again as musical director in January 2022.
He embraced his return to brass bands with typical verve and enthusiasm, driven by an ambition for the band to aim higher and do more innovative programming, and in 2023 he was shortlisted for the Brass Bands England Conductor Award.
Nicholas has devised the programme for Golden Rail’s 40th anniversary concert, with tickets priced at £5 to make the experience accessible and affordable for all, on sale on 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk.
“I’m looking forward to our anniversary concert, where we can not only celebrate the successes of the past but also look with pride at the band that has evolved, one that encourages grassroots performance, enthuses audiences, and innovates at a level above its stature,” he says. “This concert will do that, for sure!”
As well as marking the band’s railway roots and connections, Friday’s 7.30pm programme features an environmental-themed original story for brass band written by Nicholas, featuring vocalist Rachel Tuckett and narrated by York actor Paul Joe Osborne. Blackbird brings together a repertoire of popular music, including songs by Paul McCartney, Sia, Queen, Disney’s Hercules and The Cinematic Orchestra.
Reflecting on Golden Rail Band’s history, Nicholas says: “The band’s 40-year legacy is so rich and colourful. We have had so many players that have been through this phenomenal organisation and have gone on to the highest of musical accolades, including other areas of music like jazz, military and orchestral. It’s a privilege to have contributed to that vibrant history, both as a player and as musical director – twice!”
Many of York’s established brass musicians learned to play with Golden Rail, which enjoyed a thriving and sociable youth scene. Former band member Paul Stamp, who now plays with Championship Section Shepherd Brass Band in York, says: “I still have vivid memories of my first ever concert as a young player with the Golden Rail Band. I was around ten years old when I joined the band in 1987.
“It was at the Citadel on Gillygate. I remember pulling on the massive green Golden Rail concert jacket and green tie and walking into the band room before the concert. There must have been at least 20 people that told me I looked like a Teddy Boy! I had no idea what they were talking about.
“I sat on the third cornet seat next to my grandad Bill. I remember returning home and my dad asking my grandad how I did. He said I was great, but I needed to learn my sharps and flats. I’m still working on that!”
Paul retains a fondness for the now dilapidated band room, which is to be knocked down as part of the work connected with York Station Gateway.
“The band room is amazing,” he says. “Its history, intensity and aura are something many bands long for. You can’t buy that. The generations that have come through the Golden Rail Band and emerged as excellent players and friends to this day is quite astonishing.”
Sharon Greenfield joined in 1982 when in its training band days and was there for the transition to the Golden Rail Band name. “I was very much a part of that band family,” she says.
“There were a number of kids all of a similar age that grew up in this band together. We had a number of, dare I say, mature players that kept a good eye on us kids and I considered them my banding uncles. John Scarboro, Peter Duck, Billy Stamp, to name a few. I have some wonderful memories of my time with the band.
“As I grew older and my banding career went off in a different direction, I remember with much fondness my days with the Golden Rail Band. Even though my life took me to a different part of the county, I will never forget my roots and where my brass banding was nurtured.”
York RI Golden Rail Band will round off a year of celebrations by performing at three more iconic venues, playing Selby Abbey with Leeds Male Voice Choir on December 7, a service for the Lullaby Trust at York Minster on December 8 and the Community Carol Service at York Barbican on December 15.
