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Knaresborough actress Lou Henry flicks the ‘SIX! switch’ as she plays Catherine Howard on her return to Grand Opera House

Heading for a beheading: Lou Henry as Catherine Howard in SIX! The Musical. Picture: Pamela Raith

LOU Henry will be giving SIX of the best at the Grand Opera House from Tuesday, returning to the York stage where she made her professional debut as Snow White in December 2019.

This time, the Grand Opera House is but one stop on a 15-month tour in the role of Catherine Howard in SIX The Musical, the all-female show for the millennial age that reactivates the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII in modern mode, with attitude.

Call it gig theatre, call it a pop concert, wherein the Queens tell their story in song in chronological order to decide who suffered most at Henry’s hands once he put a ring on that wedding finger.

Billed as “York’s own” when picked to play a black-wigged Snow White in Three Bears Productions’ Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Knaresborough-raised Louise now performs as Lou Henry, playing wife number five in Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s musical since April 25.

Lou’s Catherine Howard was Queen Consort from 1540 to 1541, beheaded at the Tower of London on February 13 1542, still only in her 18th year. Henry had called her his “rose without a thorn”, but the history books ascribe to her a scandalous past and present, one that led to her being found guilty of adultery.

“And ever since I was a child, I’d make the boys go wild,” she brags in All You Wanna Do, but later adds: “With Henry, it isn’t easy, his temper’s short and his mates are sleazy.”

“I think she’s misunderstood,” says Lou. “By the time she sings her song, she undercuts everyone’s expectations because there’s a darker side to what she experiences, which is so sad and harrowing, though it’s also a really fun act as a role, not just a big belting moment in song, but there’s loads to act out.

“I have mums and lots of the female members of the audience coming up afterwards and saying, ‘I feel so sad at the end of the song because it’s such a terrible experience she goes through.”

Lou feels the pressure to “tell the story right”. “Already we’ve done more than 70 shows, so it feels more settled now. Catherine’s song is really long – seven minutes of singing; it’s ridiculous! – but she’s giving it everything,” she says.

SIX The Musical is playing to packed houses wherever it goes, whether York this week or Leeds Grand Theatre in early August, and the Grand Opera House has even added standing tickets for the first time, such has been the demand to see the “Spouse Girls musical” on its return to York only six months after its first run here.

“It absolutely is the show of the moment,” says Lou. “It feels very current and important in its subject matter, and the reason it sells so well is the message behind it as much as the pop concert format.

“That’s what attracts people in the first place and keeps them coming. Yes, it’s a pop concert but it turns the mirror round on the audience and says it’s not right that women keep being treated like this.”

Performing in such a show is an 80-minute adrenaline rush, but “we try to keep ourselves really calm before the start, as it can be very excitable in the auditorium, even though there’s a harpsichord playing as if it’s just a Tudor piece,” says Lou.

“But then we have the ‘SIX switch’, where we say we’ve got each other’s backs and what we want out of the show that night. Hit the Six switch, and we tell our story, undercutting historical expectations and people’s expectations of what’s coming.

“Because it’s so interactive, encouraging involvement, you’ll see people singing along or dancing – you can see they’re so invested in it – so I’ll take a deep breath and think, ‘I’ve still got a job to do here’!”

What has Lou learned after those 70-plus performances? “I was under the preconception that it was just a poppy concert but now I really have something to say [through Catherine Howard], and we’re making points in this really well-oiled machine, which is really special, while interacting with each other through the experience of touring, with little changes that keep it interesting for ourselves on stage.”

Joining Lou’s Katherine are Nicole Louise Lewis’s Catherine of Aragon, Laura Dawn Pyatt’s Anne Boleyn, Erin Caldwell’s Jane Seymour, Kenedy Small’s Anna of Cleves and Aoife Haakenson’s Catherine Parr, backed by the all-female band The Ladies in Waiting. 

SIX! The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 27 to July 2; Tuesday to Thursday, 8pm sold out; Friday, 6pm, 8.30pm, sold out; Saturday, 4pm, 8pm, limited availability; Sunday, 2pm, sold out. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Also Leeds Grand Theatre, August 1 to 6, 8pm, Tuesday to Saturday, plus 5pm, Friday and Saturday; 2pm, Sunday. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Hitting it for Six: The cast on a 15-month tour

SIX The Musical: the back story

SIX follows the six wives of Henry VIII as they take to the mic to tell their own personal tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute  celebration of 21st century girl power.

Since its early days as a student production in a 100-seat room at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s pop concert/musical has become a global phenomenon.

On the international stage, SIX has productions playing on Broadway at the Lena Horne Theatre, New York, and two concurrent North American tours, including a seven-week run in Las Vegas, with autumn runs announced for Canada and the Netherlands (featuring the UK tour cast from September 20).

SIX has played an Australian tour too. The South Korean production ran at the Shinhan Card Artium, Seoul, from March 17 to June 25, to be followed by July 1 and 2 performances at the Sejong Centre for the Performing Arts in Sejong.

On home turf, the London production continues its reign in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre (its third royal residence), while the UK and Ireland tour continues to break box office records, booking through to 2024.

Winner of 26 major international awards, including the 2022 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design on Broadway; double Whatsonstage Award for Best West End Show for 2022 and 2023 and 2020 BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical. Nominated for five Olivier awards, including Best New Musical.

More than 500 million streams and three billion views of Marlow and Moss’s songs on TikTok. Original studio album of SIX turned gold in 2021; Broadway album SIX – Live On Opening Night was nominated for a Grammy Award.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond with summer in full bloom. Hutch’s List No. 26 for 2023, courtesy of The Press, York

Vote Nature: York artist Jade Blood with her Community Notice Board installation for Bloom in the Artists Gallery behind York Art Gallery. Picture: Charlotte Graham

FLOWER power indoors and out, musicals with a twist, trees and romantic entanglements hark the arrival of Charles Hutchinson’s new summer of love.

Garden of delights: Bloom at York Art Gallery, on display until October 8

FLOWERS, plant life and gardens have fascinated and inspired generations of artists. Cultivated by York Art Gallery curator of fine art Becky Gee, the Bloom display brings together more than 100 botanical artworks from York Art Gallery’s collection, alongside key loans, to explore the importance of nature and green spaces for enjoyment, creativity and wellbeing and highlight the gallery’s relationship with the neighbouring Museum Gardens, set up by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in 1828. Look out for York artist Jade Blood’s installations too.

Banjo player Curt Eller: Bringing his band to the Arts Barge on July 1

Down by the river: The Arts Barge presents Dylan Earl, on Selby Tony, Foss Basin, York, tonight, 7pm; Curtis Eller’s American Circus, July 1, 7pm

ARKANSAS singer Dylan Earl returns to the Arts Barge for a headline gig after his Arts Barge Hoodang appearance last year. Likewise, Curtis Eller’s American Circus show heads back to the barge, this time with full band in tow for a night of banjo-driven rock’n’roll. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.

SIX of the best: The Queens giving Harry the hurry up. Picture: Pamela Raith

Quick return of the week: SIX The Musical at Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Sunday; also Leeds Grand Theatre, August 1 to 6

WAS it only last October that Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s Spouse Girls musical/pop concert first wowed York? Its return has all but sold out again as the dancing queens with attitude tell their story in song in chronological order to decide who suffered most at Henry VIII’s hands once he put a ring on that wedding finger.

Of York interest, Knaresborough-raised Lou Henry returns to the stage where she made her professional debut in the 2019-2020 pantomime as Snow White. This time she plays the apparently not-so-squeaky-clean Catherine Howard, short-lived wife number five. Box office (probably for frustration only): atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

Mark Simmonds, Monica Frost, Emma Dickinson and Richard Bayton (at the wheel) in rehearsal for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change

In pursuit of love: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’ off-Broadway musical revue is directed by York Light’s Neil Wood in its 2018 updated revamp in a witty look at how we love, date and handle relationships.

Guiding love’s path through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson and Mark Simmonds. Shocks and surprises incoming, as love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members rehearsing Musicals In The Multiverse

Expect the unexpected: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Musicals In The Multiverse, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm

IN a fundraiser for the JoRo, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company transports you into a multiverse full of musical theatre favourites with a twist. Guided by director Helen Spencer, enter a parallel universe where familiar songs have their traditional renditions turned on their heads in swaps of gender, major to minor keys, musical styles and eras. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Acoustic gig of the week: An Evening With Ocean Colour Scene’s Simon & Oscar, Harrogate Theatre, Thursday, 7.30pm

OCEAN Colour Scene vocalist Simon Fowler and drummer Oscar Harrison present an intimate acoustic performance of their big hits and anthems, from The Riverboat Song, The Circle and Traveller’s Tune to Hundred Mile High City and The Day We Caught The Train.

“Our acoustic shows are a real tonic: a great chance to look the audience in the eye and interact with them on a more personal basis than ever before,” says Fowler. Dexys Midnight Runners founder member Pete Williams supports. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

Murray Watts: His play Mr Darwin’s Tree will be performed at Stillington Mill

Science meets art: Mr Darwin’s Tree, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, July 1, 7.30pm

COMMISSIONED for Charles Darwin’s bicentenary and premiered at Westminster Abbey, Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts’s 75-minute play has since been staged in China, South Korea, and throughout the United States. Now Stillington Mill beckons.

Watts directs film, television and theatre actor Andrew Harrison – last seen at Stilllington in Fire From Heaven last summer – in a study of the relationship between the agnostic Darwin and his Christian wife Emma that explores science, faith, family, love and destiny. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill.

Saxophonist Snake Davis: Having a blast at Cop’ Carnival’s Jazz Night

Community event of the week: Cop’ Carnival Day, Copmanthorpe Recreation Centre, Barons Crescent, Copmanthorpe, York, July 1, 11.30am to 7pm

COP’ Carnival Day returns in its 53rd year for a day of dance troops, bands (including Miles And The Chain Gang), traditional games and attractions. Tickets are on sale at copmanthorpecarnival.org.uk and on the day.

The carnival week runs from June 27 to July 1, featuring a jazz night with saxophonist Snake Davis on Tuesday (7.45pm); a wine-tasting quiz on Wednesday (7.30pm, sold out) and a comedy night with Justin Moorhouse, Tal Davies, Roger Monkhouse and host Alex Boardman on Thursday (8pm). Copmanthorpe Methodist Church houses the carnival exhibition by 30 artists from today to July 1.

Jack Whitehall; Chance to Settle Down at York Barbican

Not many tickets left: Jack Whitehall: Settle Down, York Barbican, July 12, 6.30pm

SETTLE Down is comedian, actor, writer and presenter Jack Whitehall’s “most personal show to date”, driven by material aplenty focused on the big changes in his life.  

“It’s about my struggle to settle down gracefully,” says Londoner Whitehall, 34. “I’ve got a long-term partner, a ridiculous dog and am now hurtling towards middle aged without a clue. It’s about a foppish man-child’s cack-handed attempt at adulting!” Note the early start time; no late night for this all-work-and-no-play Jack! Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Ballet Black to perform Pioneers double bill of Then Or Now and Nina: By Whatever Means at York Theatre Royal on Friday

Ballet Black dancers Sayaka Ichikawa and Mthuthuzeli November in Will Tuckett’s Then Or Now. Picture: Bill Cooper

CASSA Pancho’s Ballet Black return to York Theatre Royal on Friday with a double bill of original ballets in Pioneers.

Formed in 2001 to celebrate dancers of Black and Asian descent, the London company presents works by two of their best-known collaborators, the award-winning Will Tuckett ((Depouillement, 2009, Orpheus, 2011) and Mthuthuzeli November (Ingoma, 2019, The Waiting Game, 2021).

Tuckett’s 35-minute Then Or Now, created in 2020, blends classical ballet, music and the poetry of Adrienne Rich to ask the question: in times like these, where do we each belong?

The second piece, the world premiere of November’s 40-minute Nina: By Whatever Means, is inspired by the artistry and activism of American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist Nina Simone. November weaves a picture of Simone’s turbulent and influential life to create an emotional and empowering love letter to this legendary cultural icon.

Cassa Pancho, Ballet Black’s founder, chief executive officer and artistic director, says: “Every year, I describe how delighted I am to present new works and this, our 21st year, is no different. I am so pleased that we can bring Then Or Now back for a longer run. Originally created to premiere in 2020, this ballet was delayed by the pandemic, and only had a very short run across four theatres in 2021.

Rosanna Lindsey, left, and Sayaka Ichikawa in Mthuthuzeli November’s Nina: By Whatever Means. Picture: Bill Cooper

“One of the joys of having work created specifically for Ballet Black is getting to revisit it with the choreographer, and we’ve had fun having Will back in the studio to restage this beautiful ballet.”

As for November’s Simone work, Pancho says: “It’s thrilling to be able to bring Nina: By Whatever Means to life. It’s part of our growing collection of ballets that depict the Black experience through classical ballet, creating a new and relevant repertoire for audiences of all ages, backgrounds and cultures.

“It is the realisation of a dream Mthuthuzeli had to create a love letter to Nina Simone, and I cannot wait to share this programme with you all.”

Ballet Black: Pioneers, York Theatre Royal, June 23, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: 7+. Caution: themes of racism and fleeting domestic violence in Nina: By Whatever Means.

Isabela Coracy in Ballet Black’s world premiere of Mthuthuzeli November’s Nina: By Whatever Means. Picture: Bill Cooper
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York Shakespeare Project director Tom Straszewski to hold July auditions for Marlowe’s Edward II. Here’s how to apply

York Shakespeare Project’s poster for this autumn’s production of Edward II

YORK Shakespeare Project is to hold auditions next month for its first foray into staging a play by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries.

A diverse ensemble of 12 to 15 actors is sought for Christopher Marlowe’s intimate drama Edward II, to be staged by returning director Tom Straszewski at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York.

“We were delighted that Tom emerged from a strong field to be chosen as the director of the first non-Shakespeare play of YSP’s new project,” says chair Tony Froud.

“Strasz brings great knowledge and wide experience of directing Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and promises an innovative interpretation of Marlowe’s fascinating text.

“He previously directed The Merry Wives Of Windsor in 2012 and The Two Noble Kinsmen in 2018, now joining Paul Toy, Mark France and Ben Prusiner as three-time directors for YSP. We look forward to a memorable follow-up to Lucrece and Richard III, the first plays of phase two of YSP.”

In Marlowe’s historical tragedy, Edward II is finally king. Eager to bestow his gifts on those he loves, he calls back his exiled lover, Piers Gaveston. King, court and country are caught up in the heady atmosphere of their passions.

“This is a play about power and love – who has it, who gives it, who takes it, and who suffers for it,” says Tony. “For this production, we’ll begin by exploring the play through creative workshops, editing a script that reflects the people in the room.

Edward II director Tom Straszewski

“No characters will be cast until after this process: you will help decide this, alongside the director and rest of the ensemble.”

To audition, please complete this application form: https://forms.gle/DUGsmNVaLxkrJVZq5. To arrange your audition and/or if you have any questions, email Strasz at tom.straszewski@gmail.com, indicating your preferred day(s) and time.

Auditions will take place in York at a venue yet to be confirmed on Tuesday, July 4 and Wednesday, July 5 at 6.30pm onwards and Saturday, July 8, 2pm onwards. “You’ll be asked to work in a small group on a short scene from the play,” says Tony.

“You will have the opportunity to review the play extract in advance of auditioning and do not need to learn a speech. All we want to see is how you work together and approach the text with adaptability and inventiveness.”

Those cast for YSP’s amateur production must be available for five evening/weekend workshops in late-July, the production week from October 15 to 22 and the majority of the rehearsal period.

“There will be two or three rehearsals per week between August and October, though you are unlikely to be required for every one,” says Tony. “If you are likely to be away for more than two weeks during the rehearsal period but are keen to audition, we’ll see if we can make this happen.”

YSP is seeking recruits for a technical team for make-up, sound, lighting, captions and videography too. If you can help, please email Strasz at tom.straszewski@gmail.com.

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Riding Lights launches The Word Bank new writing fund in memory of Paul Burbridge

Paul Burbridge, 1953-2023

RIDING Lights Theatre Company is launching The Word Bank, a new writing fund in memory of co-founder and artistic director Paul Burbridge.

The fund was announced by Paul’s widow, Bernadette, at the conclusion to his two-hour service of service and thanksgiving, held on June 10 at St Michael-le-Belfrey, the church they attended regularly.

Further details can be found in Riding Lights’ June newsletter. “Paul believed that Riding Lights is called to make kingdom-centred theatre that is responsive, urgent, visionary, insightful and prophetic, and that in order to do that we need new plays,” Bernadette says.

“Paul was genuinely excited when a first draft dropped into his inbox. A skilful wordsmith himself, he became an excellent commissioner and dramaturg: a midwife of new work and encourager of writers.”

The Word Bank will support the commission and production of new writing, ensuring that it remains at the heart of Riding Lights’ work.

“When Paul died, he was – as ever – full of plans for Riding Lights. But underpinning plans, Paul always had a vision of theatre that was abundant and generous, because it was a response to the abundance and generosity of God,” says Bernadette.

“He was very amused, in the early days of the company, when a stern critic accused him of employing ‘unnecessary humour’. Years later, he described the work that Riding Lights makes as a precious outpouring, like Mary’s jar of perfume poured over Jesus’s feet: an apparently unnecessary, costly offering; an act of witness, and an expression of the abundance of the kingdom.”

The Word Bank will remain open for donations until the end of July 2024. For full details of how to make a regular or one-off donation, along with information on increasing the gift’s value through Gift Aid, go to: ridinglights.org/TheWordBank.

“As we invite you to give to The Word Bank in Paul’s memory, we hope that you will do so with that spirit of abundance, no matter how much or how little you can give…to nurture the creation and presentation of new work as Riding Lights moves into the future,” says Bernadette.

Introduced by the Reverend Iain Lothian, Paul’s memorial service was packed to the rafters for tributes by Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts and regular designer Sean Kavanagh, a reflection by Geoffrey Stevenson and contributions by daughters Erin Burbridge and Caitlin Harland and son Patrick Burbridge, plus playwright and co-writer Bridget Foreman.

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York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust to perform The Barbours Play at Holy Trinity Church on Saturday and Sunday afternoon

Sally Maybridge’s John the Baptist and Michael Maybridge’s Jesus Christ with Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden’s angels in rehearsal for The Barbours Play at Holy Trinity Church

PAUL Toy directs the York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust community cast in The Barbours Play: The Baptism of Christ on Saturday at 2 pm and 4 pm and Sunday at 4.30pm.

This play from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays will be staged in a 20-minute performance of words and music in the garden of Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, as part of the St John’s Eve Festival.

Supporters Trust chair Linda Terry says: “We were delighted to respond to Holy Trinity’s invitation to stage a Mystery Play as part of the festival. In the church calendar, June 23 is the festival of St John the Baptist, hence our choice of play.  

“It is the only play in the cycle significantly featuring the Baptist. We hope to attract people to the performance who have not had chance to see a Mystery Play before, as well as those in the city already familiar with the tradition.”

In Toy’s cast will be Michael Maybridge as Jesus Christ and Sally Maybridge as John the Baptist, accompanied by Helen Jarvis and Lydia McCudden as angels.

Tickets cost £5, under-15s £2, with some availability at the gate on the day. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/york-mystery-plays-supporters-trust/

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More Things To Do in York and beyond, in summer pumps and circumstances. Here’s Hutch’s List No.25 for 2023, from The Press

Opera singer Jennifer Coleman: Soprano soloist on song at York Proms

PROMS, outdoor festivals and carnivals, here comes the sun and summer fun as Charles Hutchinson reaches for the cream.

Outdoor event of the weekend: York Proms, Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates open at 5pm

BRITISH-IRISH soprano Jennifer Colemen, Opera North tenor Tom Smith and West End musical theatre singer, actress and TV presenter Shona Lindsay will be the soloists for Sunday’s York Proms.

Musical director Ben Crick conducts the 22-piece Yorkshire Festival Orchestra in a musical theatre tribute, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel and Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story through to Les Miserables and Wicked. The rousing Proms finale will be accompanied by The Fireworkers’ fireworks. Tickets update: sold out; waiting list for returns at yorkproms.com/contact.

Tom Smith: Tenor soloist at Sunday’s York Proms

Shakespeare Shorts: Twelfth Night, Barley Hall Great Hall, Coffee Yard, York, today, on the hour, every hour, from 11am to 3pm

SHAKESPEARE in only 15 minutes presents an immersive re-telling of Twelfth Night, the one with heaps of mistaken identities, cross-dressing and long-lost siblings.

Barley Hall’s costumed storyteller promises to “make simple a story that has even the characters confused, all while exploring themes of gender identity and the history of cross-dressing in theatre”. Barley Hall admission: barleyhall.co.uk.

Shakespeare Shorts: The artwork for the 15-minute Twelfth Night at Barley Hall

Strensall Community Carnival, Strensall Village Hall and Field, Northfields, Strensall, York, today, 12 noon to 5pm

BACK for its 8th year, Strensall Community Carnival has attractions for all the family, with a procession from Hurst Hall, a food court, 30-plus charity and business stalls and entertainment on the outdoor arena.

Look out for Ebor Morris, The Cadet Band, York Karaoke DoJo, Dynamics Band and Generation Groove in the arena; the Robert Wilkinson School Choir and Band and Mark’s Magic Kingdom Puppet Show in the main hall, and the Captivating Creatures animal show, medieval mayhem with the Knights of the Wobbly Table storytellers, Messy Adventures sensory play and Generate Theatre drama games in the outdoor space.

The Grand Old Uke of York: “Almost unplugged” at Stillington

Uke over there: The Grand Old Uke of York, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tonight, 7.30pm

YORK collective The Grand Old Uke of York grace the At The Mill stage in an unusual twist to their norm: turning their usual set list on its head to bring gorgeous, pared-back vocals, buttery harmonies and ukuleles played with summery vibes – rather than their usual rock mode – to the garden.

Formed more than ten years ago, they love nothing more than to transform expectations of the ukulele’s bounds. Tonight is a rare chance to see the dynamic group stripped back and “almost” unplugged. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/925922

 

Party time: Just Josh celebrates a decade of entertaining children’s parties with a JoRo show

Big kid of the weekend: Josh Benson: Just Josh’s 10th Birthday Party!, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 4pm

AFTER a decade of doing other kids’ parties, York family entertainer, magician and pantomime silly billy Josh Benson has decided he should have his own bash.

Expect all Just Josh’s usual mix of daft comedy chaos, magic, juggling, balloons, dancing and games, plus extra-special surprises. “It’s the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for the whole family,” he says. “Yes, even Dad. It is Father’s Day after all!” Ticket update: last few on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for York Printmakers’ summer showcase at Blossom Street Gallery

Exhibition of the week: York Printmakers: A Showcase, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until July 31, open Thursdays to Sundays

SIXTEEN York Printmakers members demonstrate techniques and printing processes that date back hundreds of years through to those that push the boundaries of contemporary practice, with laser-cut plates, digital elements and 3D techniques.

Taking part are: Harriette Rymer; Lyn Bailey; Bridget Hunt; Carrie Lyall; Patricia Ann Ruddle; Jane Dignum; Jo Rodwell; Lesley Shaw; Phill Jenkins; Sally Parkin; Emily Harvey; Gill Douglas; Becky Long-Smith; Vanessa Oo; Sandra Storey and Rachel Holborow.

Two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg”: Terrain Theatre in Helen at Theatre@41

New play of the week: Helen, staged by Terrain Theatre/Theatre  503 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

HELEN is 40 when she loses her husband. Becca is 15 when her dad dies. Now it is only the two of them, what do they do next? From Maureen Lennon, the Hull-born writer of York Theatre Royal’s 2022 community play, The Coppergate Woman, comes Helen, a series of snapshots of their relationship’s joys and traumas, laughs and arguments over the next 40 years.

Presented by new northern company Terrain Theatre and directed by Tom Bellerby, this 85-minute play about love, death, grief, postnatal depression, eating disorders, alcoholism, dementia and cancer, and two women up a hillside with ashes stuck to their trouser leg, explores the thread that binds them together and the different ways they damage and save each other. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster for the return of Mrs. Brown Rides Again: Heading to Hull in October

Comedy booking of the week: Mrs. Brown Ride Again, Hull Bonus Arena, October 27, 7.30pm, and October 28, 2pm and 7.30pm

BRENDAN O’Carroll and Mrs. Brown’s Boys will be back on stage in their “classic play” Mrs. Brown Rides Again from August to November. The only Yorkshire shows of the ten-venue tour with the television cast will be at Hull Bonus Arena in late-October.

Written by and starring O’Carroll as the beloved “Mammy”, the play finds Agnes Brown and her dysfunctional family romping their way through what seems to be her last days at home. After hearing of a plot by her children to have her put into a home, Agnes decides to prove them wrong by displaying a new lease of life. Box office: bonusarenahull.com.

The Prodigy: “Full attack mode, double barrel” at Leeds First Direct Arena this autumn. Picture: Andrea Ripamonti

Gig announcement of the week: The Prodigy, Army Of The Ants Tour, Leeds First Direct Arena, November 18

THE Prodigy’s Liam Howlett and Maxim will play Leeds on night three of their seven-date autumn arena tour after a spring and summer run of international festival headline dates. Support will come from Soft Play, the British punk duo of Laurie Vincent and Isaac Holman, formerly known as Slaves. 

“Army Of The Ants is a calling to The Prodigy peoples,” says Howlett. “We’re comin’ back for u the only way we know, full attack mode, double barrel.” Box office: tix.to/TheProdigy

Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and Marc Almond: Headlining Let’s Rock Leeds

Recommended but general and VIP admission sold out already: Let’s Rock Leeds, Temple Newsam, Leeds, today, gates 11am; 10.30pm finish

HOMECOMING Leeds duo Soft Cell and OMD top the bill at this retro festival. Tony Hadley, Midge Ure, Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom, The Farm, The Real Thing, Roland Gift, Heatwave and Hue & Cry play too. For any form of tickets left, head to: letsrockleeds.com.

In Focus: York Light Opera Company in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 27 to July 1

York Light Opera Company cast member Sanna Jeppsson

RIOTOUS, rude and relevant, Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts’s off-Broadway musical comedy I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change looks at how we love, date and handle relationships.

In a revamp of the original 1996 production, York Light Opera Company stage this witty hit show with a cast of seven under the direction of Neil Wood, fresh from his menacing Sweeney in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. Martin Lay provides the musical direction for the two 7.30pm peformances and 2.30pm Saturday matinee.

Noted for its insights into human nature and catchy-as-a-Venus-flytrap songs,  I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change explores the joys and challenges of love in songs that chart the heart’s path from dating to marriage to divorce.

Guiding audiences through a series of comedic and poignant vignettes will be Richard Bayton, Emma Dickinson, Monica Frost, Emily Hardy, James Horsman, Sanna Jeppsson and Mark Simmonds.

Cue shocks, surprises and songs aplenty as our love lives are reflected in art, up close and personal. Box Office tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

The poster for York Light Opera Company’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
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All your favourite musical songs, but not as you know them, in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Co’s Musicals In The Multiverse

Helen Spencer directing a rehearsal for Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Musicals In The Multiverse. Picture: Jenny Jones

JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company’s summer fundraising show, Musicals In The Multiverse, will be their “most ambitious concert production ever”.

Staged at the JoRo on June 29 and 30, this out-of-this-universe show will be directed by Helen Spencer, last seen on that stage in the title role of JRTC’s Hello, Dolly! in February.

“We have some of the best talent York has to offer in our 36-strong cast, so it’s been a joy to cast,” says Helen. “We were delighted after the success of Hello, Dolly! to welcome a lot of new members and this concert is the perfect showcase for the ever-growing JRTC as we invite the Yorkshire community to this epic show.

“It’s our ‘most ambitious’ concert in that it’s the biggest cast we’ve had for a summer show and it’s much more of a production than just a concert: more numbers, more choreography, more cast members, and the concept itself is more ambitious and challenging.”

Introducing the show’s concept, she says: “Musicals In The Multiverse will be an exciting evening of musical theatre favourites with a twist. In the parallel universes of this musical multiverse, you’ll hear the songs that you know and love, but with their traditional presentation turned on its head, so they are different but still recognisable. This means gender swaps, minor to major key swaps, musical style swaps and more!

“The concept came from a conversation among JRTC members about songs they would love to sing but would never get the opportunity to do so in a fully staged musical production, for example due to the gender, age etc of the character in the original setting.

“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive and welcoming artistic space for all. The concept for this show allows our wonderfully talented and diverse cast to perform songs that explore and celebrate who they are, to push some of the traditional musical theatre boundaries and ultimately honour some of the best musical songs ever written.” 

Cast members in an early rehearsal for Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Musicals In The Multiverse. Picture: Jenny Jones

Accompanied by a five-piece band, Helen’s cast will perform a mixture of solos, duets, small group and full ensemble numbers on a set list featuring songs from Les Miserables, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Rent, Blood Brothers, Company, Bat Out Of Hell, The Little Mermaid, Jersey Boys, Chicago, Guys And Dolls, Beauty And The Beast, Frozen and Billy Elliot.

“As well as showstopping songs from a whole cast bursting with vocal talent, our strong core of dancers will perform several spectacular featured dance numbers, such as Electricity from Billy Elliot,” says Helen.

“Every song in the show will have at least one twist. Our tagline ‘Expect the unexpected in the multiverse’ is absolutely right. The most basic shift will be from male to female voice, for which we have to change the key. Then we have musical style changes for songs that were classical or musical theatre pieces into jazz or blues numbers.

“There are era swaps too, moving songs contextually into a different era so that the words take on a different meaning. Bring Him Home, from Les Miserables, is moved from 19th century France to Second World War Britain, sung beautifully by Jennie Wogan-Wells as a mother to her son on the front, wanting to bring him home safely.”

In the shift from major key to minor, two Disney numbers change dramatically. “Frozen’s Let It Go, sung by Connie Howcroft, and Little Mermaid’s Part Of Your World, sung by Rachel Higgs, take on a more sinister, evil vibe,” says Helen. “Let It Go becomes a much darker song, less Disney, more jazz.”

Focusing on the gender swaps, Helen says: “Often we’ve not changed the gender within the song, so the sexuality of the song becomes different. For example, Rosy Rowley sings Meat Loaf’s Dead Ringer For Love from Bat Out Of Hell and takes Frankie Valli’s lead vocal in Who Loves You from the musical Jersey Boys.

“That’s one of the things we’ve loved about the rehearsal process: people have the chance to sing songs they now feel comfortable with, so we’re proud of supporting of that aspect of the show, because of the gender diversity in the cast.”

As consultant psychiatrist and JRTC regular Helen swaps Dolly’s red feathers for the director’s hat, she is joined in the production team by musical director Matthew Clare, choreographer Jennie Wogan-Wells and assistant musical director James Ball.

“It’s a formidable new creative team for this adventure,” says Helen. “I have a huge amount of professional experience as a performer, vocal coach and company manager and I’m delighted to be taking the reins for this exciting project.

“Some of his arrangements are absolutely stunning,” says director Helen Spencer of musical director Matthew Clare. Picture: Jenny Jones

“Well known on the York musical circuit as a director, musical director and musician, this is Matthew’s first production with JRTC. However, he has close ties with the cast and the company, and he is most excited to be writing unique and innovative arrangements of some all-time favourites.

“I approached Matthew, who I’d worked with before, as he’s very good at rearranging music and parts and that’s what we needed for this show, altering songs in some way. Some of his arrangements are absolutely stunning, some are challenging to sing: he never does anything easy!”

As for choreographer Jennie, Helen says: “She has been a key figure in JRTC for many years, both on and off the stage, and we’re thrilled to have her experience, energy and vision as the choreographer in the multiverse. 

“We’re super-super happy to have Jennie doing it as she’s a really strong dancer in JRTC shows and she’d expressed a wish to get more involved in the choreography. She has the imagination to run with an idea, which is perfect for this show.

“We’ve also been lucky to get some really good dancers so that it’s not just a stand and sing show but has lots of great dancing in it.”

Helen will feature in the show in a “very tiny way”. “I’ll be performing in a fun number from City Of Angels, What You Don’t Know About Women, which is usually sung as a duet, but we’re doing it as a sextet where we’ve changed it from the 1930s to the modern day as a pyjama party for women bitching about men!

“I’m only doing it because I was feeling jealous about not doing anything at all on stage, though I’m a believer in stepping back as the director and giving everyone in the company as much chance as possible to shine,” she says.

“It felt right to do that as we’re determined to have featured parts for everyone, even if its’s just a featured line or a highlighted moment to show what an amazing company we’ve put together.”

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Musicals In The Multiverse, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, June 29 and 30, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk. All profits go straight back the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.

Making moves: Choreographer Jennie Wogan-Wells in action. Picture: Jenny Jones


Cast List:

Abi Carter; Alex Schofield; Ashley Ginter; Ben Huntley; Catherine Foster; Charlotte Wetherell; Chris Gibson; Connie Howcroft; Dan Crawford-Porter; Ellie Carrier; Helen Barugh; Jack James Fry; Jai Rowley; James Willstrop; Jen Payne; Jennie Wogan-Wells; Jenny Jones; Jono Wells; Kat Dent; Kathryn Lay; Lorna Newby; Meg Badrick; Nick Sephton; Nicola Strataridaki; Pamela Bradley; Rachel Higgs; Richard Goodall; Rosy Rowley; Ryan Richardson; Scarlett Rowley; Steven Jobson; Tessa Ellis; Vanessa Lee and Victoria Beale.

Did you know?

HELEN’S children, Temperance and Laertes Singhateh, aged ten and seven, will be singing in the show. “In When I Grow Up, from Matilda, adults will sing Matilda’s lines and Tempi and Laertes will do teacher Miss Honey’s lines, because the concept is, we’re all children but we happen to grow up,” says Helen. “It realy changes the song doing it this way.”

Did you know too?

HELEN Spencer worked in theatre professionally, touring Europe in her 20s, having studied for a music and drama degree.

She has been a consultant psychiatrist for 12 years since changing her career path. Initially she combined performing with her medical studies but then decided psychiatry should be her focus.

Now she is embracing performing and directing anew. “I love psychiatry, working for the NHS in my job, but part of my well-being is doing music and drama, so it’s good to be doing that too. If I don’t do it, I’m sad,” she says. “Being busy and happy is fine by me.”

Copyright of The Press, York

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REVIEW: Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’s Demon Dentist, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ***

Sam Varley’s Alfie, with Miss Root’s cat Zang, Emily Harrigan’s Miss Root, Georgia Grant-Anderson’s Gabz and Misha Malcolm’s Winnie in David Walliams’s Demon Dentist. Picture: Mark Douet

AS part of Birmingham Stage Company’s 30th anniversary, director Neal Foster is drilling down into the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth in a third collaboration with prolific children’s author David Walliams.

As with Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, already presented at the Grand Opera House by these regular York visitors, Foster has written the adaptation and lyrics for this fast-moving fangtasy.

In familiar Walliams style, Roald Dahl meets Little Britain for little’uns in his toothy tale of dental detectives Alfie Griffin (Sam Varley) and school classmate Gabz (Georgia Grant-Anderson) – his friend who’s a girl but not his girlfriend, just to be clear – investigating the strange events suddenly besetting children’s bedrooms in their hometown.

As per the norm, children leave their teeth for the tooth fairy, but in Walliams’s warped world, they awake to find strange, unpleasant things under their pillows. Dead mice. A bat’s wing. The rest of the bat is apparently still alive, reduced to flying around in circles. A typical Walliams gag in a show that adds a pinch of Tim Burton and Addams Family gothic humour and pathos too.

Alfie is 12, a lone child, with a dead mother and an ailing dad (James Mitchell), who is reduced to walking on sticks as he struggles with his breathing after years of working down the mine. Pneumoconiosis. Not long to go.

Dark materials for a children’s show, you might think, but it was ever thus in literature. Besides, there is the bond of love, a routine of tea and biscuits after school. Comfort amid the difficulties of what life has thrown at them.

Emily Harrigan’s “tooth witch”, Miss Root. Picture: Mark Douet

Varley’s Alfie has something of the downbeat yet upwardly aspirant diarist Adrian Mole about him, aged 12, not 13¾, not least in his Me Against The World demeanour, especially in his relationship with social care worker Winnie (Misha Malcolm), with her expectations of chocolate biscuits or any variation of chocolate whenever she visits.

Those demands peak in one of the show’s best scenes, full of comic timing by Varley and Malcolm, as his exasperation meets her insistent enquiries in pursuit of a choc boost.

Where does the demon dentist of the title fit in, you ask? All routes lead to Emily Harrigan’s Miss Root – “Call me Mummy,” she says, arms outstretched – who is one of those white-coated practitioners that puts the mental into dental, like Orin Scrivello in Little Shop Of Horrors.

Alfie has not sat in a dental chair since his traumatic encounter with his last dentist – Mr Erstwhile, a literary gag of a name for a late dentist – six years ago and his mouth is more like a graveyard. Off to the corner of Drill Drive and Plaque Place he is taken, and evil this way lies.

Before you know it, kindly, if eccentric newsagent Raj (Zain Abrahams) has given him his late wife’s false teeth and drunk the stale water himself. Raj makes a case to be the favourite character here, with his bargain offers on everything, his warm heart and eternal optimism. A cornershop caricature, yes, but within the exaggeration rests the ring of truth too.

Sometimes, especially in the first half, Foster’s production feels overstretched, the comedy striving too hard. Alas, Miss Root falls short of a premier league villain, no match for a Miss Trunchbull or Miss Hannigan: a dental disappointment.

Dental detectives at work! Sam Varley’s Alfie Griffin and Georgia Grant-Anderson’s Gabz. Picture: Mark Douet

Gems are to be found, however: observations of no-one liking the coffee-flavoured Revels; how boys and girls behave towards each other at 12; above all, the scene-stealing cameo by the over-excitable drama teacher (Aaron Patel), flouncing around as he revels in an improvisation session. Why is every school impro play always about the end of the world, ponders Walliams. How true!

Jacqueline Trousdale’s set, comprising brick walls and interiors beneath a brooding urban skyline, moves with ease from house to school to dental surgery and later, in the equivalent of a pantomime transformation scene, to a mine shaft and Miss Root’s bewitching HQ. Jak Poore’s songs are functional rather than memorable.

This driller-thriller adventure ends with self-sacrifice, a thwarted, flattened baddie, an adoption and a wedding, so much melodrama to cram in, like a misfitting set of dentures, but with a big smile as the reward.

David Walliams’s Demon Dentist, Grand Opera House, York, today, 10.30am, 6.30pm; Saturday, 11am, 3pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

What’s next from Birmingham Stage Company on tour?

David Walliams’s Awful Auntie, Live On Stage!, coming to a theatre near you in 2024. Watch this space.

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REVIEW: Royal Shakespeare Company in Julius Caesar, on tour at York Theatre Royal, until Saturday ***

Losing grip on power: Nigel Barrett’s Julius Caesar grapples with Thalissa Teixeira’s Brutus in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar. Picture: Marc Brenner

FRIENDS, readers, Yorkshiremen, lend me your time; I come neither to bury Atri Banerjee’s Julius Caesar, nor to praise it.

Recruited to direct Shakespeare’s political thriller through the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Hire initiative “to improve transparency and access to freelance creative jobs in theatre”, Banerjee brings his South Asian heritage to a production of global scope, one where he plays with gender identity too, as well as playing with the artform of theatre.

A play is called a play because it is an act of play, one that gives free rein to artistic expression and interpretation refracted through present times. In our case, Covid, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Trump, the climate crisis, three Conservative Prime Ministers in a matter of months, and progression from LGBT to LGBTQIA+.

Some reactions have suggested that Banerjee is playing with his audience, from his warm-up exercise crowd-opening with all the opera-sized RSC cast running on the spot and howling, to casting Brutus (Thalissa Teixeira), Cassius (initially Kelly Gough, now the non-binary Annabel Baldwin) and Octavius Caesar (Ella Dacres) as women, to a ghostly Caesar (Nigel Barrett) waving insouciantly at Brutus.

You could argue that Banerjee is playing instead with audience expectations, in a case of when in Rome, don’t do as the Romans do, by taking on the po-faced antediluvians who think such a serious play should be taken more seriously, because politics is no laughing matter, although any number of political sketches by John Crace or Marina Hyde’s columns in the Guardian counter that view.

What’s more, Banerjee is being serious, very serious, if modish in his delivery, in asking the big question: how far would you go for your principles?

Presented as part of the RSC’s Power Shifts season, Julius Caesar reflects how political change appears to be happening ever faster, (although despotic leaders have a way of re-writing the rule books – or commandeering the ballot box – to allow themselves to stay in power).

This week alone, Italy has come to bury – and reappraise – the first of the modern wave of populist leaders, Silvio Berlusconi, while another, Boris Johnson, has had his political career buried underneath a stinking mound of lies about lying.

Julius Caesar was the populist ruler of his time, here played in casual shirt sleeves by Barrett with rather more commanding order to his delivery of the blank verse. His crime, as William Robinson’s Marc Antony ascribes four times to Brutus, is ambition. Yet Marc Antony calls Brutus “honourable”, just as Othello calls Iago “honest” and Macbeth is praised for his valour and worthiness. Vaulting ambition did for him too, of course.

Misjudgements may have proliferated in modern politics, our age of narcissistic frontmen, but this is no longer the age of lies, damn lies and statistics, or truths and half-truths, but “alternative truths” and “post-truths”.

Caesar was a “divisive ruler”: he surely would have thrived in our era of divide-and-rule leaders, nourished by an equally divisive media in print, on screen and on air. In his time, however, he was removed, despatched, without a plan of what might come next, other than a craving for a “better future”. (Don’t all politicians say that when first entering the House of Commons before the Whip-cracking and corruptive need to keep power take over?)

Death after death, as it turns out, is the result here, all gathered in what has become known flippantly as the “ghost bus” on Rosanna Vize’s revolving stage. At that point, they are restored to clean clothing, whereas those assassins still alive are still stained by Caesar’s blood, here black and sticky as newsprint rather than red.

Those death blows had been applied in smearing actions, rather than as 33 stab wounds, to be followed by a PAUSE, announced in big letters, accompanied by a two-minute countdown before Caesar’s exit, taking almost long as an opera death by aria. This would be one of those moments that has made Banerjee’s Julius Caesar as divisive as the ruler himself,

It finds its echo in the INTERVAL countdown on screen, 20 minutes ticking by to the mournful repetitive sound of a single trombone: in keeping with the sombre mood, or irritating, depending on how you reacted to the 90-minute first half. Or, maybe, a sonic tool that theatres could use in future to drive customers to the bar.

Banerjee’s “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” style of production is full of ideas: the Caesar wave; the rising multitude of ghosts, giving a sense of time running out; Joshua Dunn’s Cinna the Poet re-emerging all in ashen grey after his death; the use of a York community chorus (Hilary Conroy, Astrid Hanlon, Elaine Harvey, Stephanie Hesp, Anna Johnston and Frances Simon, under Jessa Liversidge’s musical direction), only to employ them rather less than a traditional Greek chorus role; not enough ill wind in their sails.

Better is the casting of the power seekers as young, like the Blair intake in 1997, still learning the political ropes and prone to mistakes and rash judgements. You will enjoy the nods to Dominic Cummings and Malcolm Tucker in Matthew Bulgo’s administrator, Casca.

Frustrations? Why does Teixeira’s Brutus not find her footing until deep in the mire? Why is Niamh Finlay playing the Soothsayer in red tracksuit bottoms with juddering, jagged dance movements like Happy Mondays’ Bez, as if three Macbeth witches trapped in one body? 

Why, after making much of changing the gender dynamics of Julius Caesar’s world, does Antony’s eulogy to Brutus still conclude: “This was a man”? Ask Atri! He may be making a point about women having to mirror men to fit in, to succeed.

Ultimately, in the play for power, will we ever decide that Brutus was right: “Good words are better than bad strokes”?

Royal Shakespeare Company in Julius Caesar, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk