Rachel Higgs, left, Connie Howcroft, Tess Ellis and Catherine Foster in rehearsal for Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women – The Broadway Musical. Picture: Helen Spencer
WHARFEMEDE Productions will stage their first solo production, Little Women – The Broadway Musical, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from February 18 to 22.
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s 1868–1869 semi-autobiographical two-volume novel, Allan Knee, Mindi Dickstein and Jason Howland’s show focuses on the four March sisters – traditional Meg, wild, aspiring writer Jo, timid Beth and romantic Amy – and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts, while their father is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the American Civil War.
Vignettes wherein their lives unfold are intercut with several recreations of the melodramatic short stories that Jo writes in her attic studio in a musical featuring a book by Knee, lyrics by Dickstein and music by Howland.
“Rarely produced in the UK since its Broadway debut in 2005, this is a unique opportunity for musical and literary lovers to see this fabulous adaptation,” says director Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ chief artistic director and co-founder.
Connie Howcroft (Jo March) and Steve Jobson (Laurie) in the rehearsal room. Picture: Matthew Warry
“Little Women is a character-driven musical with family and friendship at the heart of this beloved story. I fell in love with this musical the first time I listened to it and having never seen it on stage. The score is beautiful, rousing and reflects the traditional setting of the piece, with spectacular group numbers and heartfelt solos.”
Helen continues: “As Wharfemede’s first independent production, it was the perfect size company and we are incredibly lucky to have some of the best performers in York in our ten-strong cast.
“Leading our cast as the passionate and fiery Jo March will be the incredible Connie Howcroft. I knew that Connie had sung Astonishing, the most famous song from the show, in her graduation ceremony several years ago so, ‘some things are meant to be’.
“Having performed with Connie several times, there was no doubt in my mind that she was perfect for this challenging role, with her incredible vocals and strength as an actor.”
Andrew Roberts (Mr Brooke) rehearsing a scene from Little Women. Picture:Matthew Warry
The rest of the cast was “honestly, just as easy to fall into place”, reveals Helen. “I was extremely lucky that they all said Yes!”
Joining Connie in the company will be Catherine Foster as Meg; Rachel Higgs as Beth; Tess Ellis as Amy; Spencer herself as Marmee; Rosy Rowley as Aunt March; Steven Jobson as Laurie; Nick Sephton as Professor Bhaer; Andrew Roberts as Mr Brooke and Chris Gibson as Mr Lawrence.
“We have spent a lot of time working on the rich characters and building a bond in the cast that shines through on stage. I am so excited for our audiences to see this moving and funny show,” says Helen, who is working alongside musical director Matthew Clare, assistant directors Rosy Rowley and Henrietta Linnemann and choreographer Rachel Higgs in the production team.
Formed by Helen and chief operating officer Nick Sephton, Wharefemede Productions made their debut last October, staging Jason Browne’s The Last Five Years in tandem with fellow York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions at the National Centre for Early Music, York.
Wharfemede Productions present Little Women – The Broadway Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Who are Wharfemede Productions?
Wharfemede Productions chief operating officer Nick Sephton and chief artistic director Helen Spencer at last September’s company launch in the Wharfemede garden
CO-FOUNDED by chief artistic director, musical actress and psychiatrist Helen “Bells” Spencer and chief operating officer, musical actor and former Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company chair Nick Sephton last September, the innovative company takes its name from their home in Thorp Arch and is dedicated to bringing high-quality musical productions and events to Yorkshire, with respect and openness at the heart of its work.
Having gained a drama degree from Manchester University and then co-founded and company managed Envision Theatre Company, this new company marks a return to her roots for Helen.
Calling on decades of logistics, managerial and computing experience, Nick is excited to be founding a company that uses these skills, combined with his love for music and theatre.
Gareth Gates: Bringing Valentine romance to York Barbican
GARETH Gates was visiting York Barbican for the first time on Wednesday – or so he thought – to promote his upcoming visit on February 16 with a concert of love songs from the movies.
A perusal through The Press files revealed the Bradford pop singer, musical theatre actor and pantomime regular, now 40, had performed there in Mad About The Musicals, singing the songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Boublil & Schönberg and Lloyd Webber & Rice, in November 2015.
Forgive him for not recalling that York performance. After all, much water has passed under the bridge since former Bradford Cathedral head chorister Gareth was piloted to pop success at 17 by his 2002 Pop Idol clash of the stammering northern working-class lad versus the unstoppable southern posh boy, Will Young.
In York, he also had appeared as bad-boy Warner in Legally Blonde The Musical in September 2012 and in his first comedy role as cowboy Willard in Footloose in May 2017, both at the Grand Opera House. “I did two tours of that show and they asked me to do it a third time, but I thought, ‘I’ve ticked that box,” he says.
Tanned, teeth pearly white, hair and beard matinee-idol dark, full and thick, he looked the very picture of gym-toned good health in the Barbican bar, his vocal coach a calming presence by his side as the stammer that never affects his singing or stage performances only rarely punctuated his affable conversation.
“I used to come to York as a child,” he says. “I’m from Bradford and we’d always have a day out here over the summer, bringing me over for a cruise on the River Ouse. I’ve always loved this place, going to the Minster, and being able to perform here over the years has been a thrill.”
His latest return, in the week of St Valentine’s Day, will see producer and performer Gareth leading a company of singers and a four-piece band in Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies, a show rooted in his 2002 cover of The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody.
“That was my biggest hit and first ever number one, made famous by that scene in the movie Ghost, and I got thinking about how the world’s greatest love songs come from the movies and how I should do a show built on all those incredible movie songs,” says Gareth.
“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move.
“If the show is a roaring success, we could look at doing an album, either as a live concert recording or going into the studio.”
Expect songs from Armageddon, Dirty Dancing, Titanic, A Star Is Born, My Girl, Top Gun and Footloose, among others, in a concert show divided into two sets of “beloved classic ballads, heart-warming melodies, electrifying up-tempo modern hits”. “And of course I’ll be doing Unchained Melody too,” says Gareth.
“I’m working again with Carrie Courtney, who booked the tour for Mad About The Musicals, and I’ve put together an incredible cast featuring West End talent. We have Maggie Lynne, who’s done Wicked and worked with me on a show many, many years ago, and Britt Lenting, a Dutch singer, who’s just finished doing panto with me in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, where I was Prince Gareth of Greenwich and she was the Evil Queen.
The tour poster for Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies
“We started rehearsals when I was looking to cast the show. I heard her sing and thought, ‘I need you to be in the cast’. She’s done The Phantom Of The Opera, Love Never Dies and Little Mermaid, and she can be very operatic when she sings. She has such a powerhouse voice.
“She made a big name for herself in Holland but in 2016 she decided to take a leap across the water to see if she could make it in the West End and she’s absolutely smashing it.”
Completing Gareth’s vocal line-up will be Dan Herrington. “He’s fresh out of college after studying at Performers College in Essex,” says Gareth. “I like to put together an experienced bunch of performers but I also like to give aspiring, budding talent a chance to shine.
“I went to a showcase at Performers College, heard him sing and booked him straightaway for my autumn tour, where he was one of the Four Seasons in my Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons show.”
The band from that tour – all of them session musicians from big shows in the West End – will be joining Gareth for the 25-date movie music tour of England, Scotland and Wales. “We also had this crazy idea of taking the Frankie Valli show out again at the same time, doing one show in some cities, the other show in other cities. It seemed like a good idea – I’ll tell you how it goes!”
Gareth has worked with lighting designer Matt Boyles on the movie show’s design. “It’s essentially a concert show, but because of my roots in theatre, there will be a narrative to it too, with an old-school TV screen that we’ll start the show on and then we launch into all these amazing songs, which I’m really excited about singing all in the same show.
“Putting the set list together is based on instinct and experience over the years of doing these shows, which counts for a lot. If, after the first show or two, we feel something doesn’t work where we’ve placed it, we will change things up, based on the reaction of the crowd. I’m a great believer in that: you have to read the room.”
Gareth has lived in London since his Pop Idol discovery at 17, “but any opportunity I get to come back to Yorkshire, I do,” he says. “The first house I ever bought was up here in Yorkshire, on the edge of the Dales, which I bought for my family and I still have a house up here. I come up as often as I can and Yorkshire will always be my home.”
Hence his Love Songs tour will open in Yorkshire in Valentine’s week with shows at Wakefield Theatre Royal on February 10 and Hull Connexin Live on February 13, as well as York Barbican on February 16, and later dates at Bradford St George’s Hall on March 14 and Sheffield City Hall on March 28, while Gareth Gates Sings Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons will play the Victoria Theatre, Halifax, on March 1.
He has filmed a piece for ITV’s Calendar show on Bradford City of Culture 2025, visiting “some of the places where I grew up, like my old school Dixons City Academy and Bradford Cathedral, where I joined the choir when I was nine and was head boy chorister at 11,” recalls Gareth.
“I sang for The Queen at the Maundy Thursday Service in 1997 when I was 12 and was given Maundy money as I was the head boy soprano soloist, so essentially I was working for The Queen!
“For that sort of pressure to land on your shoulders at that age was a challenge, but all great training for what was to come.”
“The more I’ve looked into it and put together the set list, I realised that the synergy between music and movies is huge, and I hope that tapping into that will be a great move,” says Gareth Gates
Gareth had the honour of meeting HM The Queen again on his 18th birthday. “I was invited to Buckingham Palace for a Young Achievers ceremony after I’d helped many people with stammering and speech impediments. She didn’t remember me singing at the Maundy service!.”
Gareth hopes to take part in Bradford’s year as City of Culture, on top of his home-city performance of Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs From The Movies. “We’re in talks about doing a show at Bradford Live, the brand new venue at the old Bradford Odeon, hopefully towards the end of the year,” he reveals. Watch this space.
Gareth’s diary is ever busy. “I’m constantly working, and the biggest thing I’ve learned of late is not to overdo it,” he says. “I’m very fortunate to be as much in demand as I’ve ever been. There’s never been a dry spell – I find it hard to say ‘No’ – though I do have to at times.
“In 2023 I worked the most I’d ever worked with only ten nights off. It was a mixture of work, like performing every night when I was on board on cruise ships, with my own lounge, and also doing pantomime and The SpongeBob Musical, which was a fun show to do.
“I did lots of festivals, lots of Nineties and Noughties shows, and do you know what, I did burn out. I did way too much, so last year I eased off when I could, and this year I’ll be trying to do a little less – and that’s through the fear of my voice becoming slightly smashed. I do have to be careful with it and look after it.”
Staying fit is important to Gareth. “I’m massively into the gym,” he says. “I’m a health freak! I get all that right but I am very guilty of over-working.”
Twenty-three years on from Pop Idol, he and Will Young maintain their friendship. “I’ve only stayed in touch with Will and with Zoe Birkett too from that time. We’re really good friends; we hook up whenever we can – I spoke to him last week.”
Looking back to 2002, he says: “We went into it completely blind, not knowing what to expect, and we had each other to rely on throughout. Then we had a number one hit together with The Long And Winding Road and went on tour together. We were the guinea pigs of it all but we could fall back on each other.”
Pop careers rooted in the hothouse of talent shows can crash and burn, but not so with Gareth. “I’m fortunate that people have not turned on me, but a big part of that is I’ve not changed from the person I was, whereas you open yourself up to criticism if you do. I’ve stuck with the same people, always being grounded, rather than overstepping the mark,” he says.
“The danger of pop stars losing their way is if they surround themselves with ‘yes’ people, and then the moment someone goes against them and says ‘No’, that’s their downfall. I’ve kept the friends I’ve always had around me and they’ve kept me the person I’ve always been.”
He may live in London, but you cannot take the Yorkshireman out of Gareth. “It’s massively important to me,” he says. “I take a lot of pride in keeping my roots. My accent is still quite broad and I actually enjoy that. I get a lot out of coming from Bradford and Yorkshire. It’s made me the person I am. I love being from Yorkshire – and I love playing to a home crowd as they love to see a Yorkshireman doing well.”
Gareth Gates Sings Love Songs from The Movies – A Valentine Special, York Barbican, February 16, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also Hull Connexin Live, February 13, 7.30pm. Box office: connexinlivehull.com.
Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson: Writers of The Psychic, premiering at York Theatre Royal in 2026
YORK Theatre Royal will stage the world premiere of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s twisted thriller The Psychic at York Theatre Royal next year. Tickets go on general sale from 1pm on January 15.
In the wake of the success of Ghost Stories, which spooked the Grand Opera House, York, in March 2020, Dyson and Nyman are to reunite for this electrifying new production. Show dates will be April 29 to May 23 2026, with the first week being previews.
Leeds-born Dyson and Nyman say: “We are so thrilled to have the world premiere of our new play at York Theatre Royal and to be part of their exciting next chapter. We cannot wait to unleash The Psychic at this remarkable venue.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “We are very proud to be producing the world premiere of The Psychic here at York Theatre Royal. Andy and Jeremy have created this wonderful edge-of-your-seat script that we can’t wait to bring to life on our stage in 2026.”
The poster for The Psychic at York Theatre Royal
In The Psychic, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan. It costs her not only her reputation, but also a fortune in legal fees.
When wealthy parents ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, Sheila senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed, leading her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Cue thrills, shocks…and laughs.
The Psychic adds to York Theatre Royal’s bill of produced and co-produced work in 2025 and 2026. In the diary for this year are the co-production of North By Northwest with Emma Rice’s Wise Children, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse from March 18 to April 5 and erstwhile pantomime cat Gary Oldman’s return to the Theatre Royal in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape from April 14 to May 17.
To book tickets, ring 01904 623568 or head to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The night-watchman on his guard in Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories (pictured in the 2019 London production)
Jeremy Dyson: the back story
Award-winning Leeds-born writer and director.
Writing credits for theatre include Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith, nominated for Olivier Award for Best Entertainment); The League Of Gentlemen Are Behind You (UK tour); The League Of Gentlemen: A Local Show For Local People (UK tour, Theatre Royal Drury Lane – nominated for Olivier Award for Best Entertainment) and The League Of Gentlemen.
Co-writing credits for television include Psychobitches (winner of Rose d’Or for Best TV Comedy and nominated for two British Comedy Awards); The Armstrong & Miller Show (winner of BAFTA Award for Best Comedy); Billy Goat; Funland (nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial) and The League Of Gentlemen (winner of BAFTA Award for Best Comedy, Golden Rose of Montreux and RTS Award for Best Entertainment).
Co-writing credits for film include Ghost Stories and The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse.
Andy Nyman: the back story
Award-winning actor, director and writer.
As an actor, his theatre work includes The Producers; Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory); Fiddler On The Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory and Playhouse Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical); Abigail’s Party (Menier Chocolate Factory and Wyndham’s Theatre); Hello, Dolly! (London Palladium); Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen (Wyndham’s Theatre/Broadway), and the original production of Ghost Stories (Duke of York’s Theatre/Arts Theatre), which he starred in, co-wrote and co-directed with Jeremy Dyson. Later adapted into a film, in which he also starred.
Television credits include Lockerbie; Wanderlust; The Eichmann Show; Campus and Dead Set, as well as playing Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders.
Film credits include Jungle Cruise; Judy; The Commuter; Death At A Funeral; Kick-Ass2; Black Death; The Brother’s Bloom; Severance and Shut Up & Shoot Me, for which he won Best Actor award at Cherbourg Film Festival in 2006.
Collaborated with Derren Brown for almost 20 years, co-writing and co-creating much of Brown’s early TV work. Co-written and directed Brown’s stage shows, winning Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for Derren Brown – Something Wicked This Way Comes and New York Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Event 2017 for Derren Brown – Secret.
Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Roslyn Grant
FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.
Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm
MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.
Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”. “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights
Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm
IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2
After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2
YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar, a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.
The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre
One-off interview comes into view: Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.
FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.
Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season
IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.
July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch.
Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11
STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.
Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17
Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus
THE Waterboys will showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Released on April 4 on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture.
“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol.
“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”
As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.
Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.
The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4
Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.
The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott, who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.
The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.
Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:
1. Kansas (featuring Steve Earle) 2. Hollywood ’55 3. Live In The Moment, Baby 4. Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights 5. Andy (A Guy Like You) 6. The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher) 7. Freaks On Wheels 8. Blues For Terry Southern 9. Memories Of Monterey 10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras 11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius) 12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues 13. Michelle (Always Stay) 14. Freakout At The Mud Palace 15. Daria 16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen) 17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple) 18. Rock Bottom 19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith) 20. Frank (Let’s F**k) 21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye) 22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper 23. Golf, They Say 24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper 25. Aftermath
Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate: Playing Titania and Hippolyta and Oberon and Theseus respectively in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
GARY Oldman will not be the only former Berwick Kaler co-star returning to a York stage in 2025.
Suzy Cooper, for more than 20 years the ditzy, posh-voiced, jolly super principal gal in the grand dame’s pantomimes, will lead Nik Briggs’s cast alongside York actor Mark Holgate as the quarrelling Queen and King of the Fairies, Titania and Oberon, in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from May 6 to 11.
In his tenth anniversary of producing and directing shows at the Grand Opera House, Briggs relocates his debut Shakespeare production from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s path still does not run smooth.
Presented as York Stage’s first co-production with the Cumberland Street theatre, Briggs’s Dream will feature a new score by musical director Stephen Hackshaw. “Whilst not being a musical, the show will include a live band alongside powerhouse vocals that York Stage are famous for with their musical production,” says Nik. “Keep your eyes peeled over the coming weeks for more Dreamy cast announcements. The next one will be very soon.”
Suzy last trod the Grand Opera House boards in dowager dame Berwick Kaler’s valedictory pantomime after 47 years on the York stage in Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates Of The River Ouse from December 9 2023 to January 6 2024.
Britannia rules the waves: Suzy Cooper’s fairy in Robinson Crusoe &The Pirates Of The River Ouse at the Grand Opera House, York, in December 2023. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“It will be lovely to be back in York, performing at the Grand Opera House again,” says Suzy, who will take the role of Hippolyta too opposite Holgate’s Theseus. “I’ve never played Titania before, but I did play the fairy, Mustardseed, at York Theatre Royal, with Malcom Skates as Bottom and Andrina Carroll as Titania, and then Peter Quince in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s production at Blenheim Palace in 2019 [when she also appeared as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth].
“I’ve not worked with Mark before, but he did the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre season the same summer that I did, and it’s going to be a lot of fun working with him.”
Explaining how this production and the initial casting came to fruition, producer-director Nik says: “This is a new venture for York Stage in our first co-production with the Grand Opera House, so as part of that we were looking at how we could create the next generation of York Stage productions.
“Like when we did our first pantomime [the socially distanced Jack And The Beanstalk in the Covid-shadowed winter of 2020] and we’ve also talked about using professional casting alongside our community casting, where a lot of our actors have professional credits too.
“It was important for York Stage to use professional actors with connections with York, and Suzy was someone I had wanted to work with for a long time. We’d talked several times about doing a show, and this was the perfect opportunity. It’s been in the offing since late-summer when we started talking about it.”
York Stage director Nik Briggs: Relocating Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from the court of Athens Court, a northern council estate
Nik continues: “We were thinking about making ‘Dream’ like Brassic or Shameless, set on a northern council estate. In the original telling, Hippolyta is the Amazon queen, who is almost a prisoner of the Athenian court, and the idea struck me that with Suzy being a southerner but adopted by York after performing here for nigh on 30 years, she would be ideal as the southern counterpoint to the northern world in the tumultuous battle that unfolds, adding a North-South divide to it.”
Nik will be directing Mark Holgate for the first time too. “Our paths have never crossed before. Mark’s father had seen a piece in The Press about us looking for actors and said that Mark had had a career with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Cheek By Jowl, Sheffield Crucible and theatres across the UK and was a real master of Shakespearean acting, but he’d never performed at the Grand Opera House or York Theatre Royal.
“The opportunity to perform in one of the big theatres in his home city, with his family living in the city, was a real draw for him. He’s played such roles as Banquo in Macbeth and Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night – he was sensational in that – for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre but until now I wasn’t aware that he was from York.
“So we met up, he did some readings and he was exactly what I’d envisaged for Oberon. It really hinges on Oberon in this play, and Mark got my vision; he had just what I wanted from the role. It’s really exciting to see what he’ll bring to it.”
Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate will star in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees . Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Laura Fraser’s DI Bea Metcalf on the York waterfront in Channel 4’s crime drama Patience. Picture: Channel 4
FROM a neurodiverse TV crime drama to an Oscar winner’s stage return, Charles Hutchinson picks highlights of the year ahead.
Seeing York through a different lens: Patience, Channel 4 from January 8, 9pm
CHANNEL 4’s six-part police procedural drama Patience, set in York, opens with the two-part Paper Mountain Girl, on January 8 and 9, wherein autistic Police Records Office civilian worker Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) brings her unique investigative insight to helping DI Bea Metcalf (Laura Fraser) and her team.
Written for Eagle Eye Drama by Matt Baker, from Pocklington, Patience is as much a celebration of neurodiversity as a crime puzzle-solver. “The centre of York itself is a little bit like a puzzle,” he says.
Lara McClure: Atmospheric storytelling at A Feast Of Fools II at the Black Swan Inn
Out with the old, in with the new: Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools II, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, Sunday, 7pm to 10.30pm; doors, 6pm
YORK collective Navigators Art presents a last gasp of mischief in an alternative end-of-season celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas, packed with live folk music, spoken word and a nod to the pagan and the impish.
Dr Lara McClure sets the scene with atmospheric storytelling, joined by York musicians Oli Collier, singer, guitarist and rising star Henry Parker, York alt-folk legends White Sail and poet and experimental musician Thomas Pearson. Book tickets at bit.ly/nav-feast2.
Seeing eye to eye: Rob Auton in his new touring comedy vehicle The Eyes Open And Shut Show
The eyes have it: Rob Auton: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club at The Crescent, York, March 5, 7.30pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, May 3, 7.30pm
“THE Eyes Open And Shut Show is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says surrealist York/Barmby Moor comedian, writer, artist, podcaster and actor Rob Auton. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut…thinking about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.”
On the back of last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe trial run, Auton goes on the road from January 27 to May 4 with his eyes very much open. Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
York-raised artist Harland Miller with his title work for the XXX exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: courtesy of White Cube (Ollie Hammick), 2019
No stopping him this time, please: Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery, March 14 to August 31, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm
AFTER the first Covid lockdown curtailed his York, So Good They Named It Once show only a month into its 2020 run, international artist and writer Harland Miller returns to the city where he was raised to present XXX, a new exhibition that showcases paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series.
Stirred by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities.
Harland Miller, XXX, oil on canvas, 2019. Copyright: Harland Miller. Photo copyright: White Cube, Theo Christelis
Coinciding with the release of a book of the same title by Phaidon, XXX features several new Miller works, including one that celebrates his home city, in a hard-edged series that melds the sacred seamlessly with the everyday, drawing inspiration from medieval manuscripts, where monks often laboured to produce intricate illuminated letters to mark the beginning of chapters.
In these works, the Yorkshire Pop artist – who is represented by White Cube – uses bold colours and typefaces to accentuate the expressive versatility of monosyllabic words and acronyms such as ESP, IF and Star.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a Q&A with the artist plus community activities to “inspire, inform and involve all”. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk/tickets.
Gary Oldman in the dressing room when visiting York Theatre Royal last March to plan this spring’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape
Theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to May 17
ONCE the pantomime Cat that fainted thrice in Dick Whittington in his 1979 cub days on the professional circuit, Oscar winner Gary Oldman returns to the Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since the late-1980s.
“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate: Teaming up as Titania and Oberon – and Hippolyta and Theseus too – in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Look who’s back too: Suzy Cooper in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11
GARY Oldman will not be the only former Berwick Kaler co-star returning to a York stage in 2025. Suzy Cooper, for more than 20 years the ditzy, posh-voiced, jolly super principal gal in the grand dame’s pantomimes, will lead Nik Briggs’s cast alongside York actor Mark Holgate as the quarrelling Queen and King of the Fairies, Titania and Oberon.
Briggs relocates his debut Shakespeare production from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s path still does not run smooth. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Beach hut five, Shed Seven: York band to make Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut in June
“Biggest ever headline show in their home county”: Shed Seven, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 14
IN the aftermath of their 30th anniversary celebrations and two number one albums in 2024, refulgent York band Shed Seven will focus on the great outdoors in the summer ahead, fulfilling a dream by making a long-overdue Scarborough OAT debut, when Jake Bugg and Cast will be their special guests. “It’s a stunning and historic venue…Yorkshire’s very own Hollywood Bowl!” enthuses lead singer Rick Witter.
The Sheds also return to Leeds Millennium Square on July 11, supported by Lightning Seeds and The Sherlocks. Box office: Scarborough, scarboroughopenairtheatre.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk; Leeds,gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Bridget Foreman: Co-writer of York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights’ community play His Last Report
Community play of the year: York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights Theatre Company in His Last Report, York Theatre Royal, July 22 to August 3
YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and York company Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch will co-direct a large-scale community project that focuses on pioneering York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree and his groundbreaking 1900s’ investigation into the harsh realities of poverty.
Told through the voices of York’s residents, both past and present, Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s play will ask “What is Seebohm’s real legacy as the Ministry begins to dismantle the very structures he championed?” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nothing could burst Shed Seven’s celebratory balloons in 2024. Picture: Chris Little
CharlesHutchPress doffs his cap to the makers, creators, artists and shakers who shaped York’s year of culture.
Story of the year and gigs of the year:Shed Seven’s 30th anniversary annus mirabilis
GOING for gold anew, York’s likely lad Britpop veterans had the alchemist’s touch throughout their busiest ever year, matching Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Elton John in notching two number one albums in a year in January’s studio set A Matter Of Time and October’s newly re-recorded compilation Liquid Gold.
In a year of resurgent upward motion in York, one that ended with York City atop the National League, Shed Seven’s resurrection was crystallised by lead singer Rick Witter’s name being appropriated for a council road gritter but even more so by two nights of homecoming concerts at York Museum Gardens in July, when special guest Peter Doherty’s beatific smile best captured the exultant mood of celebration.
Tristan Sturrock’s Blue Beard versus Katy Owen’s Mother Superior in Wise Children’s Blue Beard at York Theatre Royal
You Should Have Seen It play of the year:Wise Children’s Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9
“IT certainly won’t be boring,” promised Wise Children writer-director Emma Rice, and it certainly wasn’t. Blue Beard, her table-turning twist on the gruesome fairytale, was everything modern theatre should be: intelligent, topical, provocative, surprising; full of music, politics, “tender truths”, mirror balls and dazzling costumery.
It had comedy as much as tragedy; actors as skilled at musicianship as acting and dancing to boot, all while embracing the Greek, Shakespearean, cabaret, kitchen-sink and multi-media ages of theatre. So, why oh why, weren’t the audiences bigger?
Angst and anger: Bright Light Musical Productions in Green Day’s American Idiot
York debut of the year:Bright Light Musical Productions in Green Day’s American Idiot, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, July 4 to 6
BRIGHT Light Musical Productions staged the York premiere of punk rock opera Green Day’s American Idiot in Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s high-octane, politically driven, perfectly-timed production that opened on American Independence Day and the UK General Election day, also marking the 20th anniversary of Green Day’s groundbreaking album American Idiot.
“Personally, the issues it tackles have affected me profoundly, as they have many others,” said Crawfurd-Porter. “The aim is to give a voice to those who feel unheard, just as it has given one to me.” The show, with its commentary on America and the impact of politics at large, did just that.
Jack Savoretti performing at Live At York Museum Gardens, presented by the Futuresound Group. Picture: Paul Rhodes
Event launch of the year:Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, July 18, 19 and 20
LEEDS concert and festival promoters Futuresound stretched their wings to launch Live At York Museum Gardens, selling out all three nights featuring Anglo-Italian singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti and a brace of gigs by local heroes Shed Seven, each bill featuring York and Yorkshire support acts. One complaint, from Clifton, over the Sheds’ noise levels was rejected by City of York Council, and Mercury Prize winners Elbow are booked already for 2025.
Rob Auton: Comedy mined from self-examination at The Crescent, York
Comedy show of the year:Rob Auton in The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28
ROB Auton, hirsute York/Barmby Moor stand-up comedian, writer, podcaster, actor, illustrator and former Glastonbury festival poet-in-residence, returned north from London with his tenth themed solo show.
After mulling over the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds in past outings, surrealist visionary Rob turned the spotlight on himself, exploring memories and feelings from his daily life, but with the observational comic’s gift for making the personal universal as the sublime and the ridiculous strolled giddily hand in hand.
Bristol street artist Inkie’s artwork for Rise Of The Vandals at 2, Low Ousegate, York
Exhibition of the year:Bombsquad’s Rise Of The Vandals, 2, Low Ousegate, York, June 22 and 23, June 28 to 30 and July 5 to 7
YORK art collective Bombsquad launched Rise Of The Vandals in a celebration of the city’s street art scene, taking over a disused office block with the owner’s permission but suffused with the underground spirit of squatters’ rights. Art was not only wall to wall, but even the loos were given a black-and-white checkerboard revamp too.
Spread over four floors in one of the tallest buildings in the city, the installation showcased retrospective and contemporary spray paint culture, graffiti, street art and public art in three galleries, complemented by a cinema room, an art shop and live DJs. There really should be more such artistic insurrections in York, instead of turning every shell of a building into another hotel or yet more student accommodation.
Honourable mention: National Treasures, an exhibition built around Claude Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond, as part of the National Gallery’s bicentenary, at York Art Gallery, May 10 to September 8.
Leading lights: Riding Lights’ new executive director Oliver Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch at Friargate Theatre in York
Re-enter stage right: Riding Lights Theatre Company and Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York, under the new artistic directorship of Paul Birch, picking up the baton from late founder Paul Burbridge. York Theatre Royal Studio, re-booting for cabaret nights as The Old Paint Shop.
Behind you: Departing dame Berwick Kaler gave his last pantomime performance as Dotty Dullally at the Grand Opera House, York, on January 6 2024. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Exit stage left: Dowager dame Berwick Kaler, from York pantomimes after 47 years; Harkirit Bopara, from The Crescent community venue; The Howl & The Hum’s Sam Griffiths, from York and Leeds for London; At The Mill, from serving up theatre, comedy, music, fine dining and Saturday sausage sandwiches at Stillington Mill; The Victoria Vaults, from promoting gigs, in an enforced pub closure on December 11 after 160 years. The very next day, City of York Council upheld York CAMRA’s request to list the Nunnery Lane premises as a community asset. Watch this space.
Gordon Kane RIP. Picture: Gareth Jenkins
Gone but not forgotten:Gordon Kane, actor and good sport
A SCOTSMAN by birth and richly theatrical accent, but long resident in York, this delightfully playful screen and stage actor, and casual cricketer and golfer to boot, appeared in Time Bandits, The Comic Strip Presents and latterly Nolly and Buffering, but around Yorkshire he will be treasured for his work for York Theatre Royal, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, Harrogate Theatre and Hull Truck Theatre, not least in John Godber’s plays.
His good friend Mark Addy delivered the eulogy – written with typically mischievous humour by Gordon himself – at December 18’s funeral at York Cemetery.
Lara McClure: Atmospheric storytelling at A Feast Of Fools II
YORK collective Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools II, a last gasp of mischief to mark the curtain closing on the festive holiday on January 5 at the Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York.
“Welcome to our second alternative end-of-season celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas, packed with live folk music, spoken word and a nod to the pagan and the impish,” says artist and co-founder Richard Kitchen.
Henry Parker: York singer and guitarist
“Flushed with Edinburgh Fringe success, Dr Lara McClure will set the scene with some atmospheric storytelling. We’re also delighted to welcome two acclaimed York musicians: Oli Collier, with a walk on the dark side, and singer, guitarist and rising star Henry Parker.”
On the 7pm to 10.30pm bill too will be York alt-folk legends White Sail, who return from last year’s event with new material, and doing likewise will be poet and experimental musician Thomas Pearson.
“Last year’s show sold out, so be sure to grab your tickets before they’re gone,” advises Richard. Booking in advance is recommended at bit.ly/nav-feast2. Doors open at 6.30pm.
Putting the cross into cross-dressing: Richard Galloway’s Wicked Witch of West Yorkshire in Badapple Theatre Company’s Sleeping Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Karl Andre
YES, you read that show title correctly. Sleeping Beauty And The Beast is a panto-mash-up of Sleeping Beauty and Beauty And The Beast from the inquisitive, anarchic mind of Richard Kay. And what a smash of a mash he makes in this madcap marriage.
“Three actors, two pantomimes, one hour, what could possibly go wrong,” read Badapple Theatre Company’s invitation to York writer, director and composer Kay’s delightfully playful show. The answer, on preview night at Stillingfleet Village Institute, turned out to be the absence of a crucial prop, met with a profuse apology from the tech desk!
The intrepid cast of Richard Galloway (in his third Badapple show), Pip Cook (in her second) and Livy Potter (in her company debut) improvised admirably in a show that is fleet of foot and quick of mind throughout.
Potter’s Fairy Naturel and friends must thwart the evil potion plant-poisoning plans of the “Bad to the Bone” Wicked Witch of West Yorkshire (Galloway putting the cross into cross-dressing in roughly applied blue eye-shadow, gash of red lipstick, heavy stubble, rudimentary wig and a mardy mood) as Kay weaves pollution, a dig at water companies and, later, the re-wilding of a country estate into the mix.
Pip Cook’s Belle: One of her eight roles in Sleeping Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Karl Andre
A Donald Trump mask, references to July’s General Election, Brexit, Covid, climate change and Nigel Farage, plus a jibe at how Royal Families “can get away with anything” provide a bit of politics too to please the Ben Eltons of this world, while Kay’s dips into 2024 culture include a pastiche of Claudia Winkleman in Traitors mode, a mention of Taylor Swift and a nod to Brat, Charli XCX’s word of the year.
The two overlapping stories, fused into one with “too much plot”, are set in the neighbouring villages of High Uppington and Lower Netherdale, where Cook’s Belle (in blue) and Potter’s Beauty (in matching pink) must be saved from their fairytale fates with the fairy’s help as the admirably alliterative Wicked Witch vows to “nobble these numpties” when learning of the prophecy that either Belle or Beauty will save the planet.
Those villages are depicted on the front of William Fricker’s proscenium arch set, a wonderfully unpredictable design with a rotating core that facilitates puppets making sporadic entries and Cook somehow squeezing through a seemingly too small space to make a hasty exit.
The highly comedic Cook will be kept busiest of all the cast, eight roles no less, ranging from apprentice villain David the Dimwit to Sir David of Attenborough, from Mother and Father in puppet form to Queen Carmella and King Charlie, requiring her to dash on and off ever more frantically for a costume change to switch from one royal to the other.
Livy Potter’s Lord Hunk in Sleeping Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Karl Andre
Potter, such an impressively diverse actress in past roles in “serious plays” on the York stage, has bags of fun in the lighter froth of pantomime, whether as Beauty, the feisty fairy or Lord Hunk, the nobleman who will become the Beast (represented by a puppet head).
Galloway’s ease with comedy, seen previously in Badapple’s revival of Kate Bramley’s Eddie And The Gold Tops, is given full expression in his rough and ready “dame”, the Wicked Witch, and he also revels in sending up a French accent as Lord Hunk’s gardener, the eco-conscious Bertie.
Three actors, two stories, only one hour, this is a novel pantomime but one steeped in tradition too, or at least playing with tradition. Kay, for example, can never resist putting the pun into panto. What is the child’s name? Belle. “It has a nice ring to it,” we are told. “Our baby Belle. Does it sound too cheesy.” There will be plenty more where those came from, best of all the Luke Littler one.
Kay dips into the fashion for meta-theatre with such self-aware comments as “That’s a slightly unusual tangent for pantomime” and “Hey, fourth character for you in this scene. That’s a record”, while his satire on every pantomime’s obligatory saccharine, soppy ballad turns into a point-making ode to rescuing the planet, Our Love For The Earth.
Writer, director and composer Richard Kay in the rehearsal room for Sleeping Beauty And The Beast
Kay is in a mischievous mood too, his tongue firmly in his cheek when he talks of “the “self-satisfied stench of rural village life” on a tour that will be playing to village audiences. ”.
You will love the clever little touches, such as the use of silhouettes with torches, a puppet speeding across the top of the set to signify “running all the way”, and Fricker’s creation of a “particularly prickly thicket” to spread across the set.
Given just how well this mash-up works in the Green Hammerton company’s match-up with Rural Arts On Tour, Badapple surely will ask Richard Kay to come up with another one for next winter. Any suggestions?
Badapple Theatre Company and Rural Arts On Tour present Sleeping Beauty And The Beast until January 5 2025. For tour and ticket details, head to ruralarts.org/whats-on/performances/ or email admin@ruralarts.org or phone 01845 526 536.
Performances: December 30, Amotherby, 1pm; Shipton-by Beningbrough, 7pm; December 31, Stillington, 1pm; January 2, Coverdale, 1pm; Green Hammerton, 7pm; January 3, Cononley, 1pm; Clapham, 7pm; January 4, Middleton St George, Darlington, 1pm; January 5, Sharow, Ripon, 1pm.
Dastardly double act: Pip Cook’s David the Dimwit and Richard Galloway’s Wicked Witch of West Yorkshire in Badapple Theatre Company’s pantomime mash-up. Picture: Karl Andre
Sario Solomon’s Aladdin in a scene with Evie Pickerill’s Genie of the Lamp in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
SARIO Solomon is starring in the title role in Aladdin, this winter’s pantomime at York Theatre Royal, and is no stranger to the role.
“I played the part in Telford a few years ago. He’s full of energy and youthful exuberance, and he’s jokey and fun too,” he says.
“I had a really good time there, so I thought, ‘let’s give it another go, this time in York’. But I’m surprised I got it because I’m hopeless at the ‘self-tapes’ you have to send in and I’m not really tech savvy. It’s always hard to come across on camera as you want to be perceived, but luckily Juliet [creative director Juliet Forster] said ‘yes’.”
He had to miss the official pantomime launch on account of his acting commitments elsewhere that day but he did make a Sario solo trip to meet the media.
“I was playing the American-Italian Sonny, one of the Burger Palace Boys, on tour. I first played the part in London at the Dominion Theatre and then on the long UK tour – 18 months altogether, but I liked playing him. He’s funny, stupid and silly, so you can get away with things you can’t in other shows.
“It was wonderful to work with choreographer Arlene Phillips and director Nikolai Foster, who I’d done West Side Story with at the National Youth Music Theatre. That’s how he remembered me when he was casting for Grease.
“I was still on the Grease tour in the first week of rehearsals for Aladdin when I was able to commute from Sheffield each day and so we worked schedules around that.”
Does Sario prefer singing and dancing in musicals or acting in plays? “I just love musicals,” he says. “I knew I wanted to do musical theatre. I’m quite a silly, stupid person so straight acting is less appealing.
“It’s the same with panto. I like to have fun. It’s not meant to be serious! It’s meant to be funny. I like going over the top and having fun. It’s a very English institution, so trying to describe it to my German friends is always difficult!”
Like so many, Sario first attended a pantomime in his childhood. “Jack And The Beanstalk, probably with my grandmother, at a theatre in North London, where I grew up,” he recalls. “I was intrigued.
“Straightaway I just loved anything on stage. I knew it was something I wanted to be in and be part of, partly because I remember how much joy it gave me as a child. I was told the importance of A levels and exams, but I went to the National Youth Music Theatre in the summer holidays.”
Among his career highlights, Sario has worked with Take That’s Gary Barlow. “After A-levels I entered the BBC talent contest Let It Shine to find four young men to form a boy band for a musical called The Band featuring Take That’s music. I was one of the winners, which got me into the industry and an agent.
Sario Solomon outside York Theatre Royal when promoting his role as Aladdin. Picture: Ant Robling
“My mother loves Take That very much, so I knew a lot of their 90s’ classics and really enjoyed their music. It was cool to meet Take That and have them as mentors, giving notes and their wisdom in rehearsals. Gary was often there.
“That show basically got me into performing, having done a few things as a kid. I realised I loved performing more than anything else, so Mum let me pursue that after GCSEs and A-levels.”
Sario did not attend drama school. “Sometimes I wish I had because there’s a certain level of dance I can’t do straight off to West End-trained standards. It takes me longer to learn, whereas there’s repetition built into drama school training, but once I’ve nailed it, I’m fine,” he says.
Sario’s mother is from Tokyo, his father, from Newcastle – they met in London – and he is as fluent in Japanese as he is in English. “I write in Japanese too,” he says. “I grew up in North London and went to Japanese school on Saturdays. I love Japan and Newcastle too.”
He is breaking new ground in his career by performing in York. “I’ve never been to York before, even though I’ve toured in theatre shows for four or five years, but I have seen photos and it looks very pretty,” he said at his June press day.
“It will be especially lovely to be here at Christmas. I hear York has a fantastic Christmas market and I do love a German Christmas market!”
Sario lives on a 54ft-long narrowboat in London, moored at Stamford Hill. “I have always loved streams and rivers, it’s very much in the Japanese culture,” he says. “Living on a boat appealed to me. You wake up seeing swans on the river and the wood burner alight. It’s also nice to live on my own rather than flat-sharing.
“I’ve always wanted to buy a place, but in London it’s nigh on impossible to do that, so the narrowboat was the best bet. I’ve been living on it for three or four years but I’m always so busy touring that in reality I’ve only been on it for about a year – though it was lovely to be there during the Covid lockdown.”
Home is where he will be headed once Aladdin and his magic carpet have come to rest one final time on January 5. “The carpet does acrobatics! You feel quite queasy after a while,” he reveals.
Post Aladdin, Sario promises himself: “I’ll eat, rest and prepare audition pieces if necessary. I need a bit of a holiday after being on the road for 18 months. I’m not 21 any more, I’m 27 and need a holiday.”
Sario Solomon plays Aladdin in Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
