Matthew Gordon’s Joe Spud, centre, front, and Matthew Mellalieu’s Dad, centre, back, in Birmingham Stage Company’s Billionaire Boy. Picture: Mark Douet
IT used to be Roald Dahl’s stories that always drew children to the theatre, whether The Witches, James And The Giant Peach, The Twits or The BFG.
Now fellow prolific novelist David Walliams is becoming ubiquitous too, ploughing a similar furrow of comedy with an element of the grotesque. First came Gangsta Granny, now Billionaire Boy, and come September, the world premiere of Demon Dentist will be the latest to roll off the Birmingham Stage Company production line (to mark the company’s 30th anniversary).
Billionaire Boy is the tale of lonely boy Joe Spud (Matthew Gordon), whose 12th birthday present is a £1 million cheque, just as it was for his 11th birthday. Mum has left Billionaire Dad, Len (Nether Poppleton actor Matthew Mellalieu), whose new billionaire pad is the largest house in Britain, with a butler to boot, having made his fortune from inventing loo roll that is moist on one side, dry on the other.
Joe already has two pet crocodiles, the biggest TV, a simulated Formula One race track, but no friends: a bum deal indeed, especially at his private school, where he is picked on as the “Bottom Billionaire”.
Will moving to a new school, the local comp Ruffington High School, change all that in director Neal Foster’s boisterous adaptation, where the bum meets the Brum, with the accent on bold caricature performances on a set design made out of…you guessed it, loo rolls?
There are shades of Molesworth, Adrian Mole and Just William (Just Walliams?!) here, capturing the school world of bullying (the Grubs), teasing, trying to fit in, dealing with petty disciplinarian teachers and trying to avoid the ghastly lunch menu of dinner lady Mrs Trafe (one of several outstanding cameos by Emma Matthews).
Gordon’s Joe has a lugubrious air, fed by his Dad’s brash ways constantly bringing him further difficulties, especially with fellow outsider Bob (Jake Lomas). Father has even more to learn than son.
Suitable for age five upwards, Billionaire Boy is high spirited, fun at times too, typified by Tuhin Chisti’s shopkeeper Raj, but somehow not as fun, charming or engaging as it could be, not least Jak Poore’s underwhelming songs. All in all, that makes it a bit of a bummer.
Performances: tonight at 7pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7pm; Sunday, 11am, 3pm. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Jay Osmond: Enjoying the British theatre tour of The Osmonds: A New Musical. Picture: Aaron McCracken
JAY Osmond has wanted to tell the Utah musical family’s story for “such a long time”.
Hold your crazy horses! Here comes The Osmonds: A New Musical, whose 2022 tour visits the Grand Opera House, York, from August 2 to 6.
“The opportunity to create this beautiful musical, a sort of ‘living autobiography’, seemed the perfect way to do so,” says 67-year-old Jay, the Crazy Horses lead vocalist now retired from the family drum stool but very much the driving force behind a world-premiere British and Irish tour that runs from February to early December.
“I spent my whole life performing live – on stage, on TV specials, in arenas – so the buzz of live theatre felt like the perfect place for me. There were some difficult times in my life, and some big hurdles to overcome, and this musical will tell people things that will surprise them.
“But despite that trouble, when you look back and think of the fans, the music, the once-in-a-lifetime things we did, it’s joyful. I guess I want to do this now to try to spread a little bit of that joy.”
First, Jay penned his 2010 autobiography, Stages, charting a career that began at the age of two and a half. Now, he has provided the story for the Osmonds’ musical, a show with a book by Julian Bigg and director Shaun Kerrison and choreography and musical staging by Bill Deamer.
“I’ll know I’ve done a good job telling this story if I stand at the back of the theatre and see people waving their arms in the air, singing along and dancing in the aisles,” says Jay. “I just want people to be enjoying themselves. I guess that is in the Osmonds’ DNA.”
The Osmonds: A New Musical recounts the story of the brothers from Ogden, Utah, who began as The Osmond Brothers barbershop quartet, featuring Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay, and were later joined by sibling Donny and later still by “Little” Jimmy and sister Marie.
From their star residency on The Andy Williams Show from 1962 to 1969, when pushed into the limelight as children, to pop stars and Osmondmania from 1971 to 1975, to the arrival of The Donny & Marie Show, choreographed by Jay, from 1976 to 1979, The Osmonds lived a remarkable life.
They recorded chart-topping albums, sold out arenas and made record-breaking TV shows en route to 59 gold and platinum albums and 100 million record sales, but then one bad decision cost them everything, as the musical will highlight.
Jay’s musical pulls back the curtain to “reveal the real family behind all those Seventies’ hits”, One Bad Apple, Down By The Lazy River, Crazy Horses, Let Me In, Love Me For A Reason, (We’re) Having A Party, Puppy Love, Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, Paper Roses et al.
Parents George and Olive Osmond and all nine children, including older siblings Virl and Tom, feature in the family story. “The musical is written not only for those of our era, the Seventies, but for those who are curious about us, who know the music, but want to know about our story,” says Jay.
Love them for a reason: A scene from The Osmonds: A New Musical, the story of the family band from Utah, USA. Picture: Pamela Raith
“The show gives a wider specification of who the Osmonds were and are; why the Osmonds’ music is so much part of our lives; and it taps into different aspects of our songs, showing off a wider range of our music than just the hits. That was my goal: to appeal to a wider audience.”
Could an Osmonds’ musical have arrived sooner? “There were times when other members of the group thought about it, but we were doing other things,” says Jay.
“But when I wrote Stages, I was contacted by the producer, who said, ‘I always thought your family should do a musical. As the youngest one in the original group, you can say how you saw it; how the family dynamic worked; what some of the challenges were and how you overcame them’.”
Jay is delighted with how The Osmonds: A New Musical has taken shape. “I’m so thrilled with how the actors are performing. There are times to laugh; times to cry,” he says.
“We take the story back to Walt Disney and Andy Williams and Jerry Lewis, and we go back and forth between when we were kids and when we’re adults, starting in 1962 and ending in 2008.
“What we show is our uniqueness. If you make comparisons with the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Jackson Five – where there was a rivalry – we were unique as a family band who played our instruments but were also clean cut. That made us stand out.
“I think what people will take away from this show is an appreciation of some of the challenges we faced, some of the obstacles we faced, and how we bonded together as a family through that. That was the highest point of our career: when we were at our lowest, we stuck together.”
Looking back to the brothers’ early days on The Andy Williams Show, Jay says: “The pressure was immense. Growing up in the public eye, the pressure was always on us to get it right. There was a feeling that we had to be perfect, and we had to work through that and smile through that. I address that heavily in the musical, showing that other side to the Osmonds that people didn’t know.”
Likewise, you may not know that Jay and his wife, Karen, “almost moved to York”. “We considered York and Chester logistically, but Chester was nearer to what we were seeking,” he says.
“We want to go to the Jorvik Viking Museum because my wife has Viking connections.”
The Osmonds: A New Musical, runs at Grand Opera House, York, from August 2 to 6; box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York. Also: Hull New Theatre, October 18 to 22, 01482 300306 or hulltheatres.co.uk.
Did you know?
JAY Osmond’s choreographic style for the Osmonds and Donny and Marie’s TV shows was influenced by his karate skills learned from personal instructor Chuck Norris.
Kevin Kennedy, right, in his groovy role as Sunset Strip bar owner Dennis Dupree in Rock Of Ages
NEWS JUST IN: Matt Terry will NOT be appearing in Rock Of Ages at the Grand Opera House, York, after all this autumn, but Kevin Kennedy definitely will be.
Contrary to the initial announcement, the X-Factor’s Terry becomes the ex-factor in this visit to York on tour, but who will be playing “Stacee” Jaxx in his stead? The answer is expected to be announced during next week. Watch this space.
CharlesHutchPress wrote on 12/07/2022:
CORONATION Street soap star Kevin Kennedy and The X-Factor’s 2016 winner, Matt Terry, will lead the Rock Of Ages cast at the Grand Opera House, York, on tour from September 27 to October 1.
Visiting York for the fourth time in less than eight years, this rocktastic West End, Broadway, Las Vegas and touring hit is a self-mocking, cheesy jukebox musical comedy built around the classic rock songs of the 1980s from the glam metal prime of Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Europe et al.
Here come Don’t Stop Believin’, We Built This City, The Final Countdown, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Here I Go Again, Can’t Fight This Feeling and I Want To Know What Love Is, played loud and proud by a live band to Ethan Popp’s OTT arrangements and orchestrations.
Matt Terry’s rock demigod “Stacee” Jaxx in Rock Of Ages
Audiences are invited to “leave it all behind and lose yourself in a city and a time where the dreams are as big as the hair and they really can come true in Chris D’Arienzo’s tongue-in-both-cheeks book.
Kennedy will reprise the role of Dennis Dupree, owner of the Bourbon Room, on Sunset Strip, where he invites Terry’s egotistical rock demigod, “Stacee” Jaxx, to play for the last time with his band Arsenal, back in the basement where they started, after announcing their break-up.
Dupree’s joint, meanwhile, is under threat of closure from joyless German developer Hertz Klinemann and his rebellious son Franz.
Kevin Kennedy: Actor, soap star and musician
Kennedy previously played laissez-faire Los Angeles dude Dupree at the Grand Opera House in April 2019, having earlier appeared there as Jimmy’s Da in Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments in February 2017.
Best known for his Corrie soap role as floppy-fringed Curly Watts from 1983 to 2003, he was once in a band with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke and showcased his Present Kennedy solo album at Fibbers, in York, in July 2002.
Last time in York: Matt Terry, second from left, as Alex the lion in Dreamworks’ Madagascar The Musical at York Theatre Royal in 2019
Terry previously appeared in York in his stage musical debut, Dreamworks’ Madagascar The Musical, playing Alex the lion, king of all the animals in New York’s Central Park Zoo, at the Theatre Royal in February 2019.
He released his debut album, Trouble, in November 2017 and has been working on its follow-up, recording and writing in Miami, Los Angeles, Scandinavia and Spain, as well as fronting his own radio show on Capital FM and starring in Broadway’s Dr Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical on tour.
Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Matt Terry: From The X-Factor to musical lead roles
Todd Carty as Major Metcalf in the 70th anniversary tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, visiting York next March. Picture: Matt Crockett
THREE EastEnders’ alumni, Todd Carty, Gwyneth Strong and John Altman, will star in the 70th anniversary tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at the Grand Opera House, York, next year.
Billed as the world’s longest-running play, the genre-defining murder mystery will play York from March 6 to 11 2023.
The Mousetrap made its Grand Opera House debut in May 2013 on the 60th anniversary tour, returning in February 2016 and May 2019.
The poster for The Mousetrap’s 70th anniversary tour
In Christie’s puzzle of a play, as news spreads of a murder in London, seven strangers find themselves snowed in at Monkswell Manor, a remote countryside guesthouse.
When a police sergeant arrives, the guests discover – to their horror – that a killer is in their midst. One by one, the suspicious characters reveal their sordid pasts, but who is the murderer and who will be the next victim? Can you solve this notorious mystery for yourself?
From the pen of the world’s best-selling novelist of all time, the 70th anniversary tour of The Mousetrap will open on September 27 2022 at the Theatre Royal Nottingham, where the original world premiere tour began in 1952.
Strong casting: Gwyneth Strong, once Cassandra in Only Fools And Horses, now plays Mrs Boyle in The Mousetrap. Picture: Matt Crockett
Christie’s thriller will visit more 70 venues, including all the cities from that first tour, which was followed by the West End opening. To this day, The Mousetrap still plays St Martin’s Theatre, where 28,500 performances have drawn 10 million ticket sales.
Directed by Ian Talbot, the 70th anniversary tour will feature Todd Carty as Major Metcalf, Only Fools And Horses star Gwyneth Strong reprising her Christie role as Mrs Boyle and John Altman as Mr Paravicini.
Joelle Dyson, from Dreamgirls and Funny Girl, will play Mollie Ralston; Laurence Pears, from Magic Goes Wrong, will be Giles Ralston; Elliot Clay and Essie Brown, from The Mousetrap company in London, are confirmed for Christopher Wren and Miss Casewell respectively. Joseph Reed, from The Nobodies, will be leading the enquiries as Detective Sgt Trotter.
John Altman: Playing mysterious house guest Mr Paravicini on The Mousetrap’s 70th anniversary tour
Carty last appeared at the Grand Opera House in his long-running role as King Arthur’s sidekick, Patsy, in Monty Python’s Spamalot, in February 2015.
Altman played the villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood & The Babes In The Wood in the 1996-1997 Grand Opera House pantomime and hard-nut doorman Lucky Eric in John Godber’s Bouncers in September 2003 when nursing a broken wrist.
Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
The NE Musicals York company members on board a CitySightseeing bus on a publicity drive for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical
NE Musicals York are into the final stages of rehearsals for Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical.
Running at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from July 20 to 24, creative director Steve Tearle’s production will feature Finley Butler, Tom Henshaw and Tearle himself as three drag queens who take an epic journey from Sydney to Alice Springs across the Australian outback in their bus Priscilla.
The musical was preceded by Stephan Elliott’s 1994 film The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, starring Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce.
In making the journey to the stage, it revels in such songs as It’s Raining Men, Hot Stuff, MacArthur Park and I Will Survive.
Steve Tearle, Finley Butler and Tom Henshaw in rehearsal for their roles as three desert-crossing drag queens in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musicals
Director Steve says: “The journey is full of drama and dance routines but also so many laugh-out-loud moments. There’ll be costumes that have never been seen before in York and, of course, the star of the show, the Priscilla bus, which will take your breath away.”
“This musical is one of the best I’ve ever directed; the soundtrack is one of the very best; anyone who sees this show will not be disappointed. With a cast of 30 and more than 300 costumes, this is not just a bus ride, it’s a two-hour rollercoaster of a ride.”
To publicise Priscilla’s desert bus journey ahead of the July 20 opening, the NE Musicals company hopped on board a CitySightseeing open-top bus for a trip around York.
Tickets for the 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Saturday and Sunday matinees are on sale at £15 to £18 on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
NE Musicals York cast members publicising next week’s run of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical
Joe Spud (Matthew Hudson) , front, centre, seeks friends in David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy when he has too much of everything else. Picture: Mark Douet
MUSICALS, a children’s show, outdoor concerts, burlesque, baroque music and mystery bring contrasts aplenty to Charles Hutchinson’s diary.
Family show of the week: Birmingham Stage Company in David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy, Grand Opera House, York, July 14 to 17
JOE Spud is the richest boy in the country. At 12, he has his own sports car, two pet crocodiles and £100,000-a-week pocket money from his father Len’s radical loo roll fortune.
What Joe lacks, alas, after the family’s move to a palatial house is a friend, whereupon he decides to leave his posh school for a new start at the local comp. Things do not go as planned, however, leading to his young life becoming a rollercoaster as he tries to find what money cannot buy. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s night of heroes and villains at the JoRo
Musical stories of the week: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company Does Heroes And Villains, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm
A HERO. A villain. A power struggle between good and bad. An epic Act 1 finale. Sound familiar? Tonight, director Ben Huntley and musical director Jess Douglas bring to life the story of every musical you have ever seen in an evening of musical theatre songs for plucky protagonists and dastardly villains from Wicked, Hamilton, Sweeney Todd, The Sound Of Music and many more.
Along the way, other key characters will help, or possibly hinder, these intrepid characters. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Elbow: Heading for Scarborough tonight
East Coast outdoor gig of the week: Elbow, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, tonight, gates, 6pm
PLAYING together since sixth-form college days in Bury in 1990 and taking the name Elbow since 1997, Guy Garvey’s band arrive in Scarborough on the back of releasing their ninth studio album, Flying Dream 1.
Fresh from last month’s Platinum Party at the Palace rendition of One Day Like This outside Buckingham Palace, Elbow head outdoors once more this weekend to perform Lippy Kids, My Sad Captains, Magnificent, New York Morning et al – and hopefully early gem Station Approach. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Bryan Adams: Quick return to the Yorkshire open air on Sunday
West Yorkshire open-air gig of the week: Bryan Adams, Harewood House, near Leeds, Sunday, gates, 6pm
CANADIAN rocker Bryan Adams plays his second outdoor show of the Yorkshire summer this weekend, following his July 1 appearance at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
Adams, 61, will be showcasing his 15th studio album, So Happy It Hurts, and once more he will do Run To You, Cuts Like A Knife, Summer Of ’69, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You et al for you too. Box office: aegpresents.co.uk.
Simon Rodda in Heady Conduct Theatre’s Tiresias
Storytelling show of the week: Heady Conduct Theatre in Tiresias, Theatre At The Mill, Stillington, near York, Sunday, 7.30pm
HEADY Conduct Theatre’s short tour of their storytelling show of rejuvenated Greek myths and legends concludes at Stillington Mill this weekend, a long way from Tiresias’s previous performances pre-pandemic in New Zealand.
Co-artistic director Simon Rodda plays blind prophet Tiresias, who is given the gift to predict the future by Zeus, in a theatre piece about the extraordinary ability of humans to face adversity, often with mischief, humour and rebellion.
Rachel Barnes accompanies Rodda with singing and a live score on guitar and cello. Box office: atthemill.org.
Mikhail Lim’s Seymour is torn between Lauren Sheriston’s Audrey, left, and Emily Ramsden’s Audrey II in York Stage’s Little Shop Of Horrors
Anniversary of the week:York Stage in Little Shop Of Horrors, York Theatre Royal, July 14 to 23
YORK Stage make their York Theatre Royal debut with Nik Briggs’s 40th anniversary production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Fifties’ B-movie musical spoof.
Is there a way out of Skid Row, the New York ghetto where life is full of broken American dreams and dead ends? When flower shop assistant Seymour (Mikhail Lim) discovers a mysterious new plant with killer potential, hope may be on the horizon. So too fame, fortune and even romance with kind, sweet, delicate Audrey (Lauren Sheriston), but bloodthirsty Audrey II (Emily Ramsden) has other ideas. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for An Evening Of Burlesque at York Barbican
Glitz with a twist: An Evening Of Burlesque, York Barbican, July 21, 7pm
BRITAIN’S longest-running Burlesque variety show is bigger than ever on its latest tour with its 21st century twist on an old-fashioned blend of stylish cabaret, comedy, music, circus and burlesque.
Expect glitz and glamour, fun and feathers, fan dancing and fabulous costumes, speciality artistes and cabaret turns, circus stars and comedians, World Guinness record holders and champagne showgirls. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
filoBarocco: Performing baroque music at Explore York libraries
Exploring music: Baroque Around The Books community tour of Explore York libraries, July 21 and 22. UPDATE: MINI-TOUR CANCELLED
MUSICAL group filoBarocco is undertaking a Baroque Around The Books mini-tour of three community libraries in a new National Centre for Early Music initiative with Explore York supported by Culture & Wellbeing York.
filoBarocco will be visiting Acomb Explore on July 21 at 11am, Tang Hall Explore, July 21, 3.30pm, and Clifton Explore, July 22, 11am. Tickets are free but must be pre-booked at eventbrite.com/cc/baroque-around-the-books-735039.
Lucy Worsley: Uncovering the mysteries behind Agatha Christie’s life
History meets mystery: An Evening With Lucy Worsley On Agatha Christie, York Theatre Royal, September 26, 7.30pm
THE Queen of History will investigate the Queen of Crime in an illustrated talk that delves into the life of such an elusive, enigmatic 20th century figure.
Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was just an ordinary housewife, a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure, when clearly she wasn’t? Agatha went surfing in Hawaii, loved fast cars and was intrigued by psychology, the new science that helped her through mental illness.
Sharing her research of the storyteller’s personal letters and papers, writer, broadcaster, speaker and Historic Royal Palaces chief curator Lucy Worsley will uncover the real, revolutionary, thoroughly modern Christie. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Matthew Mellalieu, back, centre, as dad Len Spud, with Matthew Gordon, front, centre, as Joe Spud, the billionaire boy in David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Mark Douet
MATTHEW Mellalieu will be playing the theatre closest to his home on the 2022 tour of David Walliams’ Billionaire Boy from July 14 to 17.
North Yorkshire-born Matt, who moved from London to Nether Poppleton after the first pandemic lockdown, takes the role of dad Len Spud in Birmingham Stage Company’s stage adaptation when visiting the Grand Opera House, York, next week.
Billionaire Boy’s four-day run follows the Birmingham company’s February tour with Walliams’ Gangsta Granny. “I was aware of David Walliams popularity with children, but I hadn’t realised just how big his stories were with families in general,” he says.
“After I’d accepted the job, I told my housemate, who’s a teacher, and when he mentioned it at school, all the children were so excited, asking who I’d be playing!
“What I love is that there’s all that comedy but there’s quite a lot of needled political comment going on too,” says actor Matthew Mellalieu of Billionaire Boy
“Until playing Len, I hadn’t been aware just how prolific David Walliams had been, writing stories with all that gross-out comedy that children adore, making him the successor to Roald Dahl. What I love is that there’s all that comedy but there’s quite a lot of needled political comment going on too.”
In Walliams’ story, 12-year-old Joe Spud is the richest boy in the country, with his own sports car, two pet crocodiles and £100,000 a week pocket money, but what he lacks is a friend. Whereupon he decides to leave his posh school for the local comp, but things do not go as planned, his life becoming a roller coaster as he tries to find what money cannot buy.
“His dad, Len, like many of us, had found himself in a day-to-day job that had never really changed,” says Matt. “His job was to wrap the paper around the toilet roll day after day, but one day he was struck by an idea: inventing toilet roll that is moist one side and dry on the other, making billions of pounds for himself as he opened the Bum Fresh factory.
“In fact, he makes so much money, he has no idea what to do with it all, so he buys the biggest house and a Formula One race track, has a robot butler, the biggest TV set in the world and a swimming pool, but the crux of the matter is that now they’ve moved to a new place, they have no friends.
“This is a proper West End show, like a big musical, not just something for school halls,” says Matthew Mellalieu, third from left, in praise of Birmingham Stage Company’s Billionaire Boy production. Picture: Mark Douet
“He feels that to be a good dad, he needs to buy Joe all the things he never had as a child, but Joe only wants friends and the love of his dad, yet Len doesn’t realise that. It’s very much a story about friendship and love being important and money not being the be all and end all.”
Billionaire Boy first went on the road in 2019 and touring has resumed since lockdown restrictions were eased. “I joined the cast in January with only two weeks of rehearsals in London – where I first moved to go to drama school – and those rehearsals were really fast-tracked with half the company having been in the show since 2019,” says Matt.
“When Covid happened, they first re-started the show by performing off the back of a lorry, and now they’re resuming the original tour.
“What I’ve found with this show is you may have an idea of how a show will be; you may have a rough idea of what a kids’ show is, when I haven’t really done them, but have lots of Shakespeare on my CV, but then you discover this is a proper West End show, like a big musical, not just something for school halls.”
“The art of storytelling never changes,” says North Yorkshire-born Billionaire Boy cast member Matthew Mellalieu
As for the play itself, suitable for five-year-olds upwards, Matt says: “The reason that Shakespeare still works so well is that you’re dealing with archetypes, and then you realise that Billionaire Boy isn’t a million miles away from Shakespeare. It’s looking at relationships, though there’s none of the blood and murders! But there are grotesque bullies, just like in Shakespeare, and I play the bullies in this show as well as Len.
“The art of storytelling never changes; Walliams tells stories, with spectacle and yukky comedy, just as Shakespeare re-told Greek tales. Stories are ingrained in us and we all think about who we are, what we mean to our friends and family and where our place in the world is, but with a few good f**t gags or a song or a spectacle every five minutes in Walliams’ case to keep the kids engaged!”
Looking back on his own childhood, growing up in the fishing village of Robin Hood’s Bay, Matt says: “From a very early age, with friends and family at home, we told stories and made up our own sketches and interviews that my mum and dad filmed on a full-scale VHS camera and then we’d watch them back.”
And so began the performing career of Matthew Mellalieu that now brings him to the Grand Opera House, York, in Billionaire Boy. Performances are at 1.30pm and 7pm, July 14; 10.30am and 7pm, July 15; 2.30pm and 7pm, July 16, and 11am and 3pm, July 17. Box office: atgtickets.com/York.
Christina Bianco’s LV performing at Mr Boo’s in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. Picture: Pamela Raith
The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, Glass Half Full Productions, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight and Friday; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THE Rise And Fall Of Little Voice has a habit of rising again and again on a cycle of major tours.
It might even be argued that Jim Cartwright’s epic yet claustrophobically intimate tragi-comedy has been over-done, but its 30th anniversary is as good a reason as any for another revival.
This week’s run is not playing to big houses – most likely because the cost-of-living crisis is putting a tight squeeze on nights out, with holidays overseas taking priority, rather than Little Voice ennui – but Bronagh Lagan’s superb production deserves bigger audiences.
She has cast brilliantly, not only in the leads, Christina Bianco, Shobna Gulati and York-born Ian Kelsey, but also in the supporting Akshay Gulati, Fiona Mulvaney and the ever-welcome William Ilkley.
Cheesier than Mozzarella: William Ilkley’s tacky club owner Mr Boo. Picture: Pamela Raith
A decade ago, Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre opened its Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Stories season with ‘Little Voice’, that theme title summing up Cartwright’s bitter yet tender clash of the blitz and the glitz perfectly.
Lagan and set and costume designer Sara Perks retain the 1992 unspecified northern setting in Mari Hoff’s damp, run-down terrace-end house with its dodgy electrics, worn furniture, empty fridge, stack of booze bottles and on-the-blink meter. Excitement amounts to the installation of a new phone, bought on the never-never.
That only adds to the noise emanating constantly from Shobna Gulati’s heavy-drinking, needy motormouth Mari, flirting in the last chance saloon, while being neglectful of her daughter LV, yet smothering her all the while.
Drowned out by by man-eating Mari’s white noise, LV (American actress, singer and impersonator Christina Bianco) is reclusive (but not agoraphobic, she says). Spending days in her pyjamas, she listens to her late father’s vinyl collection in her bedroom, perfecting the vocal tropes and mannerisms of bygone divas Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Shirley Bassey and Bianco’s new addition, Cilla Black.
As and when necessary, she cleans up after her wild-living mother, whose neediness finds her treating her sugar-guzzling, simple, oversized neighbour Sadie (Fiona Mulvaney) like a comfort blanket to be picked up and discarded on a whim.
Clinging on: Shobna Gulati’s Mari Hoff in a needy moment with Ian Kelsey’s Ray Say. Picture: Pamela Raith
Cartwright depicts a dysfunctional, desperate world where lives are stymied by circumstance, but the wish to fly, to escape, to dream, to live beyond means, is omnipresent. LV does so through those records, kept in immaculate condition; Mari does so by placing her eggs in her latest basket: Ian Kelsey’s viper-tongued artist manager Ray Say, who sees himself as “the king of this gutter”, always on the make, but yet to make it.
When he hears caged songbird LV singing upstairs, while he’s romping with Mari on the sofa, Ray thinks he has a pathway to gold at last, if only he can persuade her to perform in public at Mr Boo’s tacky club in town.
In the wrong hands, Cartwright’s northern drama can become nasty, brutish and brash, even a freakshow, especially Mari, but the key is to locate its heart and to bring balance, to not let the white noise dominate.
Anyone who saw Gulati’s Ray in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at Leeds Grand Theatre will not be surprised at her tour-de-force Mari: selfish, grotesque, restless, volatile, relentless, potty-mouthed, over-heated yet devoid of warmth, but vulnerable too, and as funny as she is tiresome.
Bianco has hankered after the role of LV for a decade and what a performance she delivers, mastering an Oldham accent, suitably quiet and diffident yet full of stage presence, and bringing the house down with her myriad voices.
Always on call: Akshay Gulati’s shy phone engineer Billy making one of his multiple unexpected visits to Christina Bianco’s even shier LV. Picture: Pamela Raith
Her contrasting chemistry with Gulati’s volcanic Mari and Akshay Gulati’s tentative, caring, in-the-shadows telephone engineer Billy is impressive too as he tentatively leads her towards the light and freedom. Pent up for so long, when LV finally speaks her mind to Mari, Bianco finds devastating new heights.
Kelsey’s Ray Say has a veneer of charm, but the dark desperation is always bubbling away beneath the sleek yet seedy surface, as the chancer turns to user and abuser. Kelsey’s Theatre Royal debut at 55 is long overdue in his home city, and we can only hope more powerhouse roles will follow here.
Meanwhile, William Ilkley’s Mr Boo, the club boss with the flatlining patter, is a delightfully observed cameo from clubland’s past.
Echoing the heightened language of Greek drama and Shakespeare, yet redolent of Fifties and Sixties’ kitchen-sink dramas too, Cartwright’s world of outsiders and leftovers elicits fears, cheers and finally tears as LV finds her voice.
In the closing words of Mari, “I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech you” to buy a ticket this week.
Sara Perks’ set design for The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice with its cast of outsiders and leftovers: Christina Bianco’s LV (bedroom), Ian Kelsey’s Ray Say, Shobna Gulati’s Mari Hoff, Fiona Mulvaney’s Sadie and William Ilkley’s Mr Boo. Picture: Pamela Raith
Suddenly, Seymour: Mikhail Lim takes on the lead role in York Stage’s Little Shop Of Horrors
MIKHAIL Lim may have a long association with the York stage but he did not envisage being picked to play Seymour, the hapless Skid Row florist shop assistant, in York Stage’s 40th anniversary production of Little Shop Of Horrors.
“Seymour is not typically something I would think of being cast as,” he says, in the foyer of York Theatre Royal, where you will indeed be seeing more of his Seymour from July 14 to 23 in director-producer Nik Briggs’ show.
“A lot of the issues with my confidence comes from being an Asian actor, pitching against established white actors – and everyone thinks of Rick Moranis’s performance in the film, which people are so attracted to.
“But, coming to my take on Seymour, Nik saw something in it, and so did Stephen Hackshaw, the musical director.”
Hence Mikhail will be leading Briggs’s cast of 11 in York Stage’s Theatre Royal debut in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s B-movie musical spoof about a bloodthirsty plant.
He cut his York theatrical teeth in John Cooper’s Stagecoach Youth Theatre, the Grand Opera House’s Stage Experience summer school and York Stage Musicals before studying drama at York St John, but his love of performing is rooted in his Filipino homeland in South East Asia.
“I went to train in the Repertory Philippines in Manila, where they put on theatre even though there’s no official arts programme in the Philippines,” he says. “Seeing all the things that’s going on with the arts over here now with funding cuts and school curriculum changes, it’s starting to feel like that again. Though I love the Philippines, but there’s a struggle for the arts there, I’m not going to lie.”
Mikhail was born to his mother’s second marriage with a nine-year gap to his sister and two older brothers (whose father had passed away). “My parents worked really hard for me to get here,” he says.
Plant shop trio: Mikhail Lim’s Seymour with Lauren Sheriston’s Audrey, left, and Emily Ramsden’s Audrey II in Little Shop Of Horrors
“It started with me going to the OB [Operation Brotherhood] Montesorri School in Manila, and then they put me in a private school, the Ateneo de Manila University grade school, where they were really prioritising my education at one of the Philippines’ best schools over feeding the family.
“You can imagine that going into the theatre might not have been their number one career choice for me! It was an all-boys school, with a sister school that we’d meet up with to do shows.
“So, I did Fiddler On The Roof in a Catholic school with lots of Filipinos who knew nothing about Judaism! The only thing I had going for me was that I had a Russian name! My mother named me after Mikhail Gorbachev, who she thought of as a hero.
“I was born in October 1991 in the year after the Cold War stopped and I had a birthmark on my forehead, just like Gorbachev! As a kid, I knew nothing about him, but later I read about him and thought, ‘OK, I’ll take it’!”
Mikhail’s mother wanted a change, a new opportunity for Mikhail, and so he moved to York with his parents at the age of 14. “My siblings were much older than me; they had their own lives by then and they wanted to stay in the Philippines, so it was just me and my mum and dad who came over,” he says. “Mum was a scientist with the Nestle Product Technology Centre and that’s why we came to York.”
Settling into Haxby was not easy. “Not at all,” he recalls. “English is my first language, but even speaking the same language meant nothing culturally, and you can imagine how it was back then, when York was not as welcoming as it is now. It was very jarring, like people assuming I didn’t know what snow was.
“I lasted a very short time at Joseph Rowntree School, then went to All Saints, and on to York College to do my A-levels. Not my first intended route, but I studied English Literature, Ancient History, Maths and Theatre, so at least Theatre was in there.
Moving on: Chef Mikhail Lim, centre, will be leaving Oshibi Korean Bistro, in Franklin’s Yard, on Saturdayafter four years in the kitchen. “It’s been a good run,” he says
“There was always this superiority complex in people who assumed you came from somewhere impoverished by comparison with York, though I was top of the class in Maths, but you just can’t prove anything on paper.”
All the while, his acting and singing talent was nurtured with Stagecoach, Stage Experience and York Stage. “In most places, I definitely feel like theatre is more of a home,” he says. “That said, I’ve always gaslit myself think I was the weird, out-of-place kid, because I was, but then I realised it wasn’t just me who had this problem. Teenagers are vicious.
“But I’ve come to love York and living here. I think you notice it more when you go to other cities and you realise just how beautiful York is and how respectful people are to each other – though I’m aware acting can require you to move around, maybe train in London.”
After completing his York St John theatre studies in 2014, Mikhail trained as a chef, specialising in desserts, latterly working at Oshibi Korean Bistro & BBQ, in Franklin’s Yard, Fossgate, after the unfortunate timing of opening his own specialist café in Franklin’s Yard a month before the first Covid lockdown.
“In a way, lockdown was a blessing, allowing me to think about what I really wanted to do, because I’d been working continually, When Nik [Briggs] messaged me to ask me to do Songs From The Settee online, that opened up things again for me to do theatre again.”
Cue his stage return in Little Shop Of Horrors. “I’m now hoping to save up to do an MA in musical theatre,” he says. “I’ve stopped and started and trained so much already, but getting that piece of paper, an MA, is how to get connections in the theatre world.”
York Stage in Little Shop Of Horrors, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm, July 14, 16, 18 to 23; 4pm and 8pm, July 15; 2.30pm, July 16 and 23. Box office:01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Christina Bianco: Playing LV at last almost a decade after Jim Cartwright’s vow to “make it happen”
YORK has been on New Yorker Christina Bianco’s bucket list of British cities to visit for “the longest time”.
Glory be for the American actress, supreme impressionist and YouTube sensation, she will be at York Theatre Royal all this week, playing reclusive songbird LV in Jim Cartwright’s deeply dark comedy-drama The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice.
“I’m going to be all over that city, taking a million photos,” she vows. “Apologies to the locals of York for my camera being out and my blocking traffic in the streets! It’s one of those places, which, coming from America, you don’t believe is real. It looks like something out of Harry Potter! So yes, to finally be in York is truly amazing.”
Ahead of this week’s run, Christina already had a sneak preview of York in the company of co-star Ian Kelsey, who took her on a guided tour of his home city last month, taking in York Minster, the Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate street sign, a pub and the Theatre Royal stage.
From bucket list to wish list as Christina realises a long-held ambition to play LV. “When I was young growing up in New York, I always did impressions and loved singing many genres of music,” she says. “My parents tell me I had a natural instinct for mimicry, especially when it came to Judy Garland in The Wizard Of Oz.
Christina Bianco acquainting herself with York. Picture: Ant Robling
“For some reason, I always gravitated toward British culture, television, films and comedy, watching the video of Four Weddings And A Funeral when I was little, and later Monty Python, and there was something about the British sensibility that I just loved.
“One of my favourite things in the world to watch was Absolutely Fabulous. I especially loved Jane Horrocks in it, and I love how your comedies have such broad characters but deal with serious subjects. Something hit me about the difference with American comedies.”
Later, Christina’s father saw a review of York director Mark Hearld’s 1998 film adaptation of Cartwright’s play, Little Voice, starring the aforementioned Horrocks. “Given LV’s love for Judy and all the diva impressions, he said we had to see it. I was blown away by Jane Horrocks’ performance and, of course, by the story itself. I became a little obsessed with it!” she says.
First, Christina brought her talent for mimicry to the fore in Forbidden Broadway off-Broadway in 2008. “I was doing impressions in public for the first time and gratefully being well reviewed for doing so,” she recalls.
“It put me on the map as an impressionist, and over the next few years I pushed myself to try more and more impressions and to eventually build my own show – both because I was enjoying it and because I realised there was an audience for this sort of act. It was around this time I posted some impressions videos on YouTube and they started racking up some views.”
Ian Kelsey introduces Christina Bianco to York Theatre Royal on his guided tour of his home city. Picture: Ant Robling
Move the story forward to the summer of 2012, when Christina saw a notice that Little Voice was to go on a British tour, directed by Cartwright himself. “I’d never seen the show on stage before, so my husband and I planned a six-day trip to London…with my ulterior motive being to take a train to Guildford to see the show!” she says.
“My managers at the time suggested ‘Why don’t you write to Jim, introduce yourself and tell him how much you love the show?’.”
Cartwright duly wrote back to say “I’ve just watched your stuff online. You’re fabulous! Come to the stage door and we’ll chat”. “I ended up sitting down with Jim and talking about the show for quite some time,” says Christina.
“We stayed in touch and soon after, when some of my YouTube videos went viral and I had a run of sold-out shows at the Hippodrome, Jim came and said ‘we have to make LV happen for you’! That was in 2013. So, as you can see, doing this show has been a very long journey! Now, to finally get to do it, on this grand scale, with this incredible cast, is just thrilling.”
How come it still took so long to “make LV happen” after Cartwright’s vow? “We definitely have to rule out two years of Covid, of course, but the first reason was that I met him just as he was directing a big production of his play, so I knew I’d have to wait four or five years for another big production,” says Christina.
Christina Bianco’s LV performing her repertoire of diva impersonations at Mr Boo’s Club. Picture: Pamela Raith
“Then I was attached to a production that Jim gave his blessing to that was supposed to go to Broadway, but that didn’t happen after going through three different directors – but that’s the story of showbiz.
“Then, the really tricky thing is that in the UK ‘Little Voice’ is so loved and some people say it’s overdone, being done by regional theatres and colleges as well, so the wait went on.”
Nevertheless, Christina was undaunted in her pursuit of adding LV to her CV, and once producer Katy Lipson attained the rights to the play, she promptly contacted the American actress, having seen her vocal impressions in concert. “She said, ‘I want to work with you; what would you like to do? Come up with a couple of ideas’. I said I’d love to do LV before I can’t do it.”
Sure enough, despite a further delay, Christina’s LV has arrived “when I’m still not too long in the tooth” at 40. “When Jane Horrocks first did it, she was in her late-20s, and in the movie, she was in her 30s. LV is not in her teens; she’s emotionally regressed, staying in the emotional state of a child.”
Christina’s diva impersonations on LV’s bedroom floor and the northern club stage are drawn specifically from the vinyl record collection of LV’s late father. “Everyone probably expects me to come out and do Celine Dion but it’s not the right time period,” she says.
“I don’t like confrontation,” says Christina Bianco, who shares that characteristic with the reclusive LV in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice. Here Bianco’s LV keeps her distance from Ian Kelsey’s Ray Say and Shobna Gulati’s Mari Hoff. Picture: Pamela Raith
“What I will be doing, though, is attempting Cilla Black for the first time in my life. Everybody I impersonate in the show will be of the classic musical era LV’s father loved: Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Shirley Bassey…”.
When adding a new diva to her repertoire, how does she master the voice? “It depends on the particular vocalist but typically I immerse myself with them for a couple of days. I listen to lots of their music before I watch any video footage of them.
“I like to get the essence of their voice first. Then I study their physicality in more detail. I try to take on as many mannerisms, characteristics and facial expressions as I can. Thank goodness everyone’s liking my Cilla; everyone’s clapping; no-one’s booing! I did have the fear of God put into me about singing You’re My World just right, but I made a point of knowing that she’d been told to sing it with a mid-Atlantic accent, which I’m doing.”
Christina’s biggest challenge is playing an introvert. “It’s very funny timing for me, with my last part being Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, who’s the polar opposite of LV. Fanny couldn’t help attracting attention, whereas LV is happy to fade into the background,” she says.
“Everyone says Fanny Brice is one of the most challenging roles of all time, and I don’t disagree. You never leave the stage except to change costume; you sing 12 songs, laugh, cry, dance and do physical comedy – the list goes on!
Pyjama drama: Christina Bianco’s LV singing in her bedroom. Picture: Pamela Raith
“But I can safely say I’m more nervous about doing Little Voice because I’m not an introvert. There’s the part of me that needs the platform to perform, though [away from the stage] I can be quite shy and I don’t like to stand out, so I’ve channelled that side of me. I don’t like confrontation too, and that part of me hasn’t changed with age.
“What many people wouldn’t know about me is that I’m an only child who’s happy to be alone, and if there’s no ideal platform for me to be on stage, if someone asks me to stand in front of a microphone I’ll shrink.”
Christina fully memorised the script before entering the rehearsal room. “I wanted to be as comfortable with the text as possible, in order to be fully comfortable performing it in a Northern accent,” she reasons.
“Sure, I’m good at accents but it’s a very different thing when you’re doing an accent in the place where that accent actually comes from. I’m not doing this show in New York. I’m doing a Lancashire accent for people in the north. That’s very intimidating!”
For that reason, she did consult a voice coach. “People have this assumption that if you’re good at vocal impressions, you’ll be good at accents too, but it’s so important that you’re comfortable in the accent. It’s either right or wrong, an accent, whereas an impression is an interpretation, and that’s different.
Christina Bianco and Ian Kelsey set out from York Theatre Royal on Ian’s guided tour. Picture: Ant Robling
“I worked with a voice coach on Zoom over lockdown to get the Oldham/Manchester accent, and as Katy Lipson is from Manchester, she’d let me know if I was getting it wrong!”
Christina notes how American and British audiences differ. “I think Americans kind of watch you, leaning back, giving off an ‘entertain me’ vibe. I feel a British audience leans forward a bit more. They come into you and your world. Both are great and I’m not trying to insult my home country but I do feel British audiences are a little more appreciative.
“On the other side of that, Americans are much more likely to leap to their feet at the end of the show! Over here you can give the best performance of your life and the audience cheers like crazy but they don’t always leap to their feet.
“It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to this play. It won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy but I personally don’t see it as a traditional comedy. I see it as a true drama that happens to have a lot of comedic moments – and I know Jim and our director, Bronagh Lagan, are really looking to bring out the heart at the centre of it. How people are imperfect, make mistakes and have rises and falls – but they persevere.
“Fear of ‘starting over’ is a big theme in the show and I think we can say we’re all having to start over now in many ways. On both sides of the pond, and all over the world. It’s very timely.”
“York is one of those places, which, coming from America, you don’t believe is real,” says Christina Bianco, here standing outside York Art Gallery. Picture: Ant Robling
Summing up why Cartwright’s play has resonated with audiences through 30 years, Christina says: “First of all, I think this play is a true love letter to the UK. It celebrates so many great British artists and their music.
“But the story itself is something everybody can relate to, regardless of whether or not they know the music in the play. The idea that no matter how difficult things get, you can still persevere and rise from the ashes. And I think that’s exactly the message we need after the last two years.
“It’s a story about not being afraid to try something different and starting again. We’ve all been through something together that has changed us, just as the characters in the play do.”
Christina hopes audiences will embrace her as an American performer, taking on such an iconic British character. “I’d like to think that I’ve earned some stripes working in the UK quite a bit already, so maybe that will help,” she says. “And I’ve actually just become a resident, along with my husband and our dog Jeff Vader. We all live here now [on a three-year visa in London], so you’re stuck with me!”
Jeff Vader, Christina? “I named the dog after an Eddie Izzard joke,” she reveals of a surrealist shaggy- dog story that took in the Death Star, a cafeteria, Lego, and yes, Jeff Vader.
The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice, starring Christina Bianco, Shobna Gulati and Ian Kelsey, runs at York Theatre Royal until July 9, 7.30pm, plus 2pm, Thursday and 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Shobna Gulati, Christina Bianco and Ian Kelsey in the tour poster for the Glass Half Full Productions tour of The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice
