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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on York Opera in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday

Outstanding; Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells in York Opera’s The Sorcerer. Picture: Allan Harris

THE Sorcerer is a two-act Gilbert & Sullivan opera based on an earlier Sir William Schwenck Gilbert Christmas story, The Elixir Of Love, and is a typical poke in the eye satire on Victorian England’s class-ridden society.

It is the third operatic collaboration, and certainly not their best – much of the second half is dramatically pretty dull – but there is no denying that York Opera’s production of The Sorcerer is absolutely wonderful. And with a company led by John Soper (stage director and set design), Maggie Soper (costume design) and musical director Alasdair Jamieson, it just had to be, didn’t it.

The opening orchestral overture is pretty much spot on: crisp, articulate playing, generating a quiet confidence for the singers to draw from. And they do. The double chorus Ring Forth, Ye Bells is rhythmically tight and full of joie de vivre.

And why not. Love is in the air and the common villagers of Ploverleigh are preparing to celebrate the betrothal of Alexis Pointdextre (Hamish Brown, tenor), Grenadier Guards, son of local baronet Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre (Ian Thompson-Smith, baritone) and a total bore to boot, to the blue-blooded Aline Sangazure (Alexandra Mather, soprano), daughter of aristocratic Lady Sangazure (Rebecca Smith, contralto). A match made in heaven.

Constance (Emma Burke, soprano) is not a happy bunny as she is secretly in love with the local vicar Daly (Christopher Charlton-Mathews, baritone). However, after the first sighting of said vicar chasing butterflies with a butterfly net – a brilliantly comic scene that could have been choreographed by Sir Ed Dave – one did have to question why?

Anyway, that’s enough of the introductions. Emma Burke’s When He Is Here, I Sigh With Pleasure is simply delightful: lovely tone, crystal-clear diction. It is just a pity that there are so few opportunities here for Ms Burke to shine.

Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells, left, Hamish Brown’s Alexis Pointdextre and Alexandra Mather’s Aline Sangazure in The Sorcerer. Picture: Allan Harris

The response from Mr Charlton-Mathews – a sweet, melancholic The Air Is Charged With Amatory Numbers and Time Was When Love And I Were Well Acquainted – are terrific. His comic timing and mannerisms are infectious. As indeed they prove to be throughout.

Following a crisply choreographed dance and a touching female chorus With Heart And With Voice, we arrive at the vocal high point, literally. Alexandra Mather (Aline) delivers a powerful Happy Young Heart with relatively eyewatering high notes.

Enter Sir Marmaduke – with a lineage going back to Helen of Troy, he claims – and Lady Sangazure. They clearly have history, not as far back as Homer’s Iliad, as revealed in their tender love duet, Welcome Joy, Adieu To Sadness.

Enter Alexis, who tells his blue-rinsed fiancée that love has the power to unite all classes and ranks (“without rank, age or fortune…”) in a passionate Love Feeds On Many Kinds Of, I Know. He decides to implement this musical ‘levelling-up’ policy via an elixir or love potion from the entirely respectable London firm, J.W. Wells & Co, Family Sorcerers.

And it is just as well he does as it introduces a show-stealing Anthony Gardner (baritone) in the form of John Wellington Wells. Mr Gardner’s spiky, animated and wonderfully sung My Name Is John Wellington Wells, followed by the theatrical incantation Sprites Of Earth And Air (with Alexandra Mather, Hamish Brown and Chorus) is the opera highlight. Of course it is. His pantomime villain is reminiscent of the incomparable David Leonard, infused with a dash of Del Boy.

What follows is A Midsummer Night’s Dream gone nuts. The potion is administered via a cup of tea from a giant teapot and, following hallucinatory experiences (Oh, Marvellous Illusion) and the village falls into a drug-infused sleep.

Act II begins at midnight, as tradition decrees, when the villagers wake up and instantly fall in love with the person next to them. Of the opposite sex, obviously! If the village people had an inkling of what was to come, they might have positioned themselves into a more advantageous position.

Ian Thomson-Smith’s Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre and Rebecca Smith’s Lady Sangazure. Picture: Allan Harris

As it is, all the matches made are both highly unsuitable and comical. The best of these by far is Constance (Emma Burke’s) duet with the ancient, ear-trumpeting notary Adrian Cook (bass,  with a clear lower register).

During the brilliantly performed Dear Friends, Take Pity On My Lot it is implied that his heart, so full of joy, is likely to be one ending in heart failure. There is a delightful vocal quintet, I Rejoice That It’s Decided, with Alexandra Mather, Amanda Shackleton, Hamish Brown, Christopher Charlton-Mathews and Ian Thompson-Smith. The balance is spot on.

But there is no way of getting away from it, the star is Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells. He catches both the eye (big time) and the ear throughout; his performance is outstanding. Although why the villagers vote to do away with him and not the son of Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre, Alex, is beyond me. No offence meant Mr Brown, you are very good indeed.

Not all of the production is flawless; at times the orchestra and singers aren’t completely in sync and not all of the singing is pitch perfect. But this was the first night for goodness’ sake.

But let’s finish with a collective role call for the superb John and Maggie Soper, Pauline Marshall, Clare Bewers (stage manager) and Eric Lund (lighting) and all the hard-working creative team involved. Take a bow. The Sorcerer orchestra, excellent throughout. Take a bow. And lastly, but not least, musical director Alastair Jamieson, who conducts the whole comic opera with clarity, authority and musical insight. He must have been delighted. Take a bow. Hang on, you already have done.

York Opera, The Sorcerer, York Theatre Royal, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Review by Steve Crowther

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Discover the elixir of love at first sight as York Opera stages Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer at York Theatre Royal, July 3 to 6

Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells practises his magic for York Opera’s production of The Sorcerer on a visit to The Potions Cauldron in Shambles, York

ON the last occasion that York Opera staged The Sorcerer in 2001, John Soper played the lead role of John Wellington Wells, the sorcerer of the title.

Roll on 23 years to find him directing the 1877 work, the first of Gilbert and Sullivan’s full-length operas, in next week’s run at York Theatre Royal.

“It’s a delight to be revisiting this great comic opera but this time as the director,” he says. “It’s shaping up to be a fantastic opera.

“In The Sorcerer we see the pattern for all Gilbert and Sullivan’s major works, from H.M.S. Pinafore to The Gondoliers. Its central character, John Wellington Wells, family sorcerer of St Mary Axe, was the first in the line of comedy ‘patter’ roles, followed in the ensuing years by the Major General, the Lord Chancellor, Koko and many others.”

Hamish Brown’s Alexis, left, Alexandra Mather’s Miss Aline Sangazure and Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells in York Opera’s The Sorcerer. Picture: John Saunders

What unfolds in The Sorcerer?  Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre invites you to attend afternoon tea in the formal gardens of Ploverleigh Hall to celebrate the happy betrothal of his only son, Alexis, to Miss Aline Sangazure, daughter of Lady Annabella Sangazure. R.S.V.P. Ploverleigh Hall.

A love-at-first-sight elixir is mixed into the celebration tea by the sorcerer, John Wellington Wells. Mayhem ensues as the assembled guests fall under the magic spell. What could possibly go wrong?

All the cast members have been involved in numerous York Opera shows, led off by Anthony Gardner’s John Wellington Wells, his first York Opera principal role since Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore in 2022.

Amanda Shackleton’s Mrs Partlet, left, Emma Burke’s Constance and Chris Charlton-Matthews’ Dr Daly in The Sorcerer. Picture: John Saunders

Hamish Brown, Macduff in Macbeth in 2023 and Tamino in The Magic Flute in 2021, will be Alexis, playing opposite Alexandra Mather, Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore in 2022 and Pamina in The Magic Flute, as his beloved Aline.

Chris Charlton-Matthews, director of The Elixir Of Love in 2023, will play the vicar, Dr Daly, and Ian Thomson-Smith follows up Macbeth in Macbeth and Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore with the role of Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre. 

Rebecca Smith, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, will be the aristocratic Lady Sangazure; Amanda Shackleton, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore in 2010, will play the “pew opener” Mrs Partlet, and Emma Burke, Gianetta in Elixir Of Love, will return as her daughter Constance.

York Opera in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer, York Theatre Royal, July 3 to 6, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Pick Me Up Theatre to perform Stephen Sondheim shows at the double at Theatre@41, Monkgate in March and April

Sam Hird: Singing Sondheim with Pick Me Up Theatre

ROYAL College of Music student Sam Hird returns home to York to join his father Mark Hird in the Pick Me Up Theatre company for Sondheim We Remember at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from March 27 to 30.

Taking part too in this celebration of New York composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim will be director Helen ‘Bells’ Spencer, Susannah Baines, Emma Louise Dickinson, Alexandra Mather, Florence Poskitt, Andrew Roberts, Catherine Foster, Nick Sephton and Matthew Warry.

Planned originally for 2020 before Covid intervened – and Sondheim’s death on November 26 2021 at the age of 91 – Pick Me Up’s show features music from his Broadway shows, film scores and TV specials. Tickets for the 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Saturday matinee are on sale at tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s company of singers for Sondheim We Remember

Pick Me Up will make a swift return to Theatre@41 with a second Sondheim show, his 1984 musical collaboration with playwright and director James Lapine, Sunday In The Park With George, from April 5 to 13.

Inspired by Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte, the musical follows Seurat (played by Adam Price) in the months leading up to the completion of that famous work.

Seurat alienates the French bourgeoisie, spurns his fellow artists and neglects his lover Dot (Natalie Walker), not realising that his actions will reverberate over the next 100 years.

Performances will start at 7.30pm on April 5, 6 and 9 to 13, plus 2.30pm on April 6, 7 and 13. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Picture pose: Pick Me Up Theatre’s Emma-Louise Dickinson, as Celeste, adds to the scene in Georges Seurat’s painting Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte, the inspiration for Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Sunday In The Park With George
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Opera in The Elixir Of Love, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 18 to 20

Hamish Brown as Nemorino and Ian Thompson-Smith as Dr Dulcamara in York Opera’s The Elixir Of Love

WITH spring in the air, a young man’s thoughts turn to love. Nemorino is the love-lorn peasant in Donizetti’s melodramma giocoso – let’s call it a witty farce – and the course of his true love is bound to run less than smoothly. So he looks to a love potion to fix his problems and finds himself in even deeper water.

That is the essence of Romani’s libretto, sung here in Ruth and Thomas Martin’s English translation. York Opera’s new production, in the hands of Chris Charlton-Mathews, making his directing debut with the company, provides just the tonic we all need as the sap begins to rise again post-pandemic.

The focus here is the con artist who supplies the potion (actually alcohol), the travelling medicine-man Dulcamara. Ian Thompson-Smith makes the role his own. Smarmy and smug, self-assured and spivvy, he is just what this production needs, given that it has been updated to the 1940s, with Italy desperately seeking to rehabilitate itself after the war. His baritone is firm, his diction is clear and his charisma never deserts him.

David Valsamidis’s Sergeant Belcore and Alexandra Mather’s Adina

Naturally he has the down-trodden peasantry eating out of his hand; they have been through hard times. This includes Hamish Brown’s Nemorino, whose journey from self-doubt to amatory success is neatly managed.

Over the years, Brown has gradually acquired a confident stage presence and this is his best character yet. He provides the greatest pathos of the evening in his last aria – Una Furtiva Lagrima (A Furtive Tear) in the original – with eloquent phrasing.

The target of his affections is the Adina of Alexandra Mather, who makes an engaging transition from standoffishness to tenderness. Her coloratura is in good nick and at its best in the finale. Oddly enough, she is less well-focused in easier passages earlier in the show. But talent will out and she surmounts her difficulties.

Emma Burke in her York Opera debut as Gianetta

David Valsamidis brings a strong baritone to the role of Sergeant Belcore, leading a rag-tag platoon of GIs and posing as saviour of the wretched villagers. His acting is less fluent but he has potential. So too has Emma Burke, who makes the very most of her cameo as Giannetta. We may look forward to their return in future productions.

The chorus is relentlessly enthusiastic and brimming with bonhomie. They certainly take Donizetti’s catchy tunes to heart and sing as if their lives depended on it. Two cautions, however. There were several occasions on the first night when they raced ahead of conductor Steve Griffiths.

His beat was perfectly clear from within the auditorium, but perhaps his proximity to the stage makes his baton hard to see on stage. If so, he should raise his arms a little; if not, the chorus must pay more attention.

York Opera in Donizetti’s witty farce The Elixir Of Love

Secondly, it is an error on the right side to be involved, but when a soloist is performing, individual members of the chorus should not be reacting as characters in their own right. Group chorus reactions are fine, solo ones are distracting. The exception of course is when the chorus itself is in the spotlight, when choreographed unity is to be encouraged.

Griffiths keeps his small orchestra on its toes and it answers his every call. Highlights include some notable flute passagework, and a mellow bassoon accompanying Nemorino’s last aria. Rhythms are strong throughout and the spirit of the dance is infectious. Maggie Soper’s costumes, as always, are right in period: we know at once where we are without being told.

In general, Charlton-Mathews does an excellent job of marshalling his forces on this small stage. He just needs a touch more discipline in his chorus. But this is a company whose morale is definitely back in high gear, suiting the season perfectly.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: The Sound Of Music, Pick Me Up Theatre, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ****

Sanna Jeppsson’s Maria Rainer with the von Trapp children in Pick Me Up Theatre’s The Sound Of Music. All pictures: Helen Spencer

Pick Me Up Theatre in The Sound Of Music, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until December 30. Performances: 7.30pm, December 19, 21, 23, 27, 28 and 29; 2.30pm, December 20, 22, 27, 29 and 30. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk

THIS is Theatre@41’s Christmas show, as signified by the seven fairy-lit fir trees on director-designer Robert Readman’s end-on stage.

Those trees evoke both the hills, alive with the sound of music, and the home, one for each von Trapp child.

However, although it may Christmastide, just as with 1938’s rising tide of Nazism in Austria, the hills and the cities in 2022 are all too alive with intolerance, extremism and anything but music.

James Willstropp: A commanding presence as Captain von Trapp

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical was last staged in York by Nik Briggs’s York Stage Musicals in April 2019 at the Grand Opera House on a grander scale. Readman has gone for a more intimate performance, the audience around the perimeter settling into deeply comfy chairs more normally to be found in smart houses, but being confronted by unsettling Nazi insignia, from uniforms to Swastika flags and armbands and a hale of heils. 

This heightens the beauty of the mountain setting, the purity and devotion of the nuns, the love among the children, the goodness of Maria and the resolute political convictions of Austrian naval captain Georg von Trapp, when countered by the strangling grip of Nazism.

It also enhances the pleasure of watching the performers, when so close up, all the better for facial expressions in a musical where song and dance numbers are never more than gather-round family sized in Jessica Sias Wilson’s choreography.

Led by Helen Spencer’s Mother Abbess, the choral singing of the Nonnberg Abbey nuns has a haunting stillness, and even the beloved How Do We Solve A Problem Like Maria? is more driven by the singing than movement. Sister Act, it aint!

Alexandra Mather’s haughty-but-ice Elsa Schraeder

Spencer’s Climb Ev’ry Mountain, once taken to the chart peak by Shirley Bassey, is sung with heart and matriarchal concern, in keeping with the character, rather than as a showstopper, but is all the more moving for that interpretation.

The two leads could not have been better cast. Since making her York debut  in The 39 Steps in November 2021, Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson has rapidly ascended the York theatrical circuit, showing diversity, equally adept in comedy and drama, and now revealing her talent for musicals too.

A radiant stage presence, she shines as Maria Rainer, the unsure trainee nun who finds her true calling with the von Trapp children, as the young nanny with nonconformist ideas, bursting with love and kindness, independent, strong-willed thinking, a zeal for nurturing, and a delight in bringing joy, yet we are always aware too that she is learning, as much as they are learning from her.

Her Maria is full of good humour too, her singing uplifting in The Sound Of Music, light, bright and playful in the set-pieces with the von Trapp children, My Favourite Things and Do-Re-Mi.

Sanna Jeppsson’s Maria: “Bursting with love, kindness and independent, strong-willed thinking”

James Willstrop has been making the headlines this year…for his sporting prowess, swishing all before him on the squash doubles court as world champion and Commonwealth games gold medallist, but he has another string to his bow as an actor on the stages of Harrogate and West Yorkshire.

Now he makes his York debut as widowed Captain von Trapp. Tall, commanding, carrying off a suit with an air about him, he begins with righteous austere authority, issuing orders to staff and children alike on his whistle, but warming under Maria’s influence, while never wavering from his bold stance against Nazism.

He has a lovely tenor too, best expressed in Edelweiss, and is handy with strings too, this time the guitar, not the squash racket. Word has it, he is keen to do more with Pick Me Up next year.

Elsa Schraeder might be seen as the female short-straw role, but Alexandra Mather brings more than Viennese airs and graces to the sometime sourpuss, the children’s putative “new mother”. There is ice but shards of haughty humour too, and her operatic voice has crystalline clarity.

Sam Steel’s naïve delivery boy Rolf Gruber

Andrew Isherwood’s “political cockroach” Max Detweiler is dextrous rather than sinister, dapper, flamboyant, peppering his performance with a comic edge more usually to be found in the Emcee in Cabaret.

Daisy Winbolt-Robertson impresses as wilful Liesl von Trapp (a role shared with Emily Halstead), as does Sam Steel as Rolf Gruber, the naïve delivery boy who takes up the Nazi cause (in a role share with Jack Hambleton).

Readman has assembled three sets of von Trapp children (Teams Linz, Graz and Vienna). Saturday night was Team Linz’s turn, and how they excelled, working so delightfully with Jeppsson’s Maria, yet blossoming individually too, especially Poppy Kay’s Brigitta.

Sanna Jeppsson’s Maria dancing with James Willstrop’s Captain von Trapp

Natalie Walker’s five-piece band may be out of sight, behind a screen, but they play their part to the full, those so-familiar songs flying high on flute, trumpet, clarinet, keys and percussion.

Readman and Carolyne Jensen’s costumes are top drawer, from Von Trapp and Detweiler’s suits to Schraeder’s dresses. Look out too for the children’s clothes made out of curtains.

Readman surrounds the audience with tied-back drapes and floral decorations, a typically theatrical flourish to his design, to go with those glittering trees and steps. The lighting signifies each change of tone too.

Plenty of matinees as well as evening performances affords ample opportunity to visit Theatre@41 over the festive season for the best of Readman’s three productions in quick succession (after Matilda The Musical Jr and Nativity! The Musical).

Andrew Isherwood’s Max Detweiler and Alexandra Mather’s Elsa Schraeder
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Opera in HMS Pinafore, York Theatre Royal

Jack Storey-Hunter’s Ralph Rackstraw, Polina Bielova’s Hebe, centre, and Alexandra Mather’s Josephine in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore. All pictures: Ben Lindley

Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, York Opera, at York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

THREE members of York Opera make important debuts in the company’s latest foray into Gilbert & Sullivan. They contributed significantly to the triumphant success of opening night.

Annabel van Griethuysen’s ingenious production mines a good deal more humour than is usually found in HMS Pinafore. Jack Storey-Hunter gives an extremely assured performance in the role of Ralph Rackstraw. Tim Selman steps up to the rostrum to conduct his first opera with the company.

But there is so much strength in depth in this company that you can virtually guarantee a really satisfying evening, whatever they do. So it is here. Good G & S relies on a sturdy chorus. The ladies – the First Lord of the Admiralty’s ‘sisters and his cousins and his aunts’ – seem to have welcomed some new blood and sing with immense conviction and presence. They are clearly enjoying themselves.

John Soper’s Sir Joseph Porter KCB surrounded by ‘his sisters and his cousins and his aunts’

The men are equally lusty, slightly older hands maybe, but none the worse for wear and all the more credible as hard-bitten tars. An innovation here is a semi-chorus of eight, four ladies, four men, who deliver three sea shanties, including an especially offbeat version of What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?.

The other two shanties are not quite so effective and, for the sake of continuity, one in each of the two acts would be enough. But the idea is excellent. It was typical of a production that goes out of its way not to rely on the traditional ‘business’ that so often dogs Savoy operas. Who has ever seen a sailor chased by a mouse here? Or Rackstraw having soothing cream applied to his wrists after being released from irons? There were countless such instances, most of them witty.

There are many old friends among the principals, none more so than John Soper as Sir Porter. Believe it or not, he has been with this company for more than 50 years, yet his baritone is as firm as ever. He struts his stuff superbly but is not above laughing at himself. When I Was A Lad was hilarious. He catches the eye whenever he appears.

Ian Thomson-Smith is another old hand with the company and his Captain Corcoran – albeit wearing commander’s stripes – does not disappoint. I Am The Captain Of The Pinafore goes with tremendous verve and he is a cheery soul throughout, even when he has to play straight man to Porter.

Ian Thomson-Smith’s Captain Corcoran with Anthony Gardner’s piratical Dick Deadeye

Jack Storey-Hunter’s Rackstraw announces himself in a firm, confident tenor, declaring his love for Josephine. He is not above re-joining his mates but maintains an admirable manner even when seemingly spurned by his intended. This was a most promising start.

First-night nerves can kick in unexpectedly and Rebecca Smith at first made a restrained Buttercup, but she sustained a perfect West Country brogue – emulated to a degree by the chorus men – and relaxed as the evening progressed.

Alexandra Mather’s Josephine followed a similar course. As the top of her soprano opened out in Act 2, so too did her personality. Both will progress over the five shows.

There are more than useful contributions from Anthony Gardner’s piratical Dick Deadeye and Polina Bielova’s effervescent Hebe, who ends up as Sir Joseph’s bride. Hers is a voice that we shall undoubtedly hear again. Fine cameos from Alex Holland’s bo’sun and Mark Simmonds’ carpenter round out the principals.

Alexandra Mather’s Josephine, the Captain’s daughter

Joseph Soper’s permanent set, with poop deck above and behind the quarterdeck, emblazoned with VR insignia, more than serves the purpose. It is backed up in similarly authentic style by Maggie Soper’s costume team.

Amy Carter’s carefully conceived choreography does not always earn the discipline it deserves. Doubtless it will improve with time, but better to cut the numbers and keep it tight than throw everyone into the ring for every dance.

Last, but certainly not least, is Tim Selman’s sizeable orchestra, which includes several established figures including leader Claire Jowett. They have rhythmic zest to burn. Occasionally Selman follows his soloists rather than lead them and tempos sag slightly. Otherwise, he keeps a firm hand on the tiller.

As the nights draw in and temperatures dip, I can think of no better way to warm your spirits than this rousing show. You dare not miss it.

Review by Martin Dreyer

The lusty-voiced Men’s Chorus in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore

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York Opera head to sea in Gilbert and Sullivan’s love-struck HMS Pinafore at York Theatre Royal from November 16 to 19

Madly in love but kept apart by social hierarchy: Lovesick sailor Ralph (Jack Storey-Hunter) and the Captain’s daughter, Josephine (Alexandra Mather), in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore

YORK Opera will set sail at York Theatre Royal with Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta HMS Pinafore or The Lass That Loved A Sailor from November 16, steered by a new production team of Annabel van Griethuysen and Tim Selman.

Stage director Annabel and conductor Tim will be at the helm of a production at the Theatre Royal for the first time.

HMS Pinafore was G&S’s first big success, both in Great Britain and the United States, establishing their still undiminished position at the pinnacle of light opera in this country.

Although they had had significant success with Trial By Jury and The Sorcerer, the world of light opera in the 1850s and 1860s was dominated by the works of Jacques Offenbach, full of catchy tunes and brilliantly orchestrated. 

Breaking into this field of theatre and dominating it across the English-speaking world must be due greatly to the witty and topical libretti by W.S. Gilbert. In conjunction with Sullivan’s sparkling and tuneful musical settings, HMS Pinafore established the rock on which all the subsequent G&S repertoire would be founded.

Annabel van Griethuysen’s Carmen in York Opera’s Carmen at York Theatre Royal in October 2018. Now dietician Annabel switches from mezzo-soprano singing to stage directing HMS Pinafore

The story follows Ralph, a lovesick sailor, and Josephine, the Captain’s daughter, who are madly in love but kept apart by social hierarchy. The musical numbers, loved by young and old alike, include We Sail The Ocean Blue, Never Mind The Why And Wherefore and When I Was A Lad.

As usual with York Opera’s G & S productions, a healthy mix of youth and experience combines in the cast. New to the company are Jack Storey-Hunter in the leading tenor role of Ralph Rackstraw and Polina Bielova as Cousin Hebe. 

Well-known cast members in the line-up include Alexandra Mather in the leading soprano role of Josephine; John Soper as Sir Joseph Porter; Ian Thomson-Smith as Captain Corcoran; Rebecca Smith as Little Buttercup and Anthony Gardner as Dick Deadeye.

York Opera in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, York Theatre Royal, November 16 to 19, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Sea-bound: Jack Storey-Hunter’s Ralph and Alexandra Mather’s Josephine in York Opera’s HMS Pinafore
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REVIEW: Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, York Musical Theatre Company

Steven Jobson’s Edward Hyde and Nicola Holliday’s Lucy Harris

York Musical Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, York Musical Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

ON the only previous time CharlesHutchPress encountered Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn’s Broadway musical, at Leeds Grand Theatre in July 2011, this was his verdict.

“In a nutshell, it is a very good performance of a not particularly good musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella that has but one memorable song, This Is The Moment,” he wrote, before concluding: “A deliciously wicked way to spend tonight or tomorrow awaits you”.

Eleven years on, This Is The Moment continues to stand out, but once more, Jekyll & Hyde The Musical’s story of love, betrayal and murder hits the mark in performance, this time under the gothic-inspired direction of Matthew Clare.

The aforementioned 2011 touring production relied on the handsome pop star chops of Marti Pellow in the dual role of upstanding, if obsessive Dr Henry Jekyll and his vengeful, sadistic, chemically altered alter ego, Mr Edward Hyde.  

Director Matthew Clare

Clare goes with freelance actor, singer and voice actor Steven Jobson, whose love of performing was triggered by witnessing The Phantom Of The Opera at the age of 14, another show that ventures deep into the dark side.

Jobson can certainly act; he sings Jekyll & Hyde’s difficult, impassioned, narrative-driven songs adroitly too, and you can hear why he is a voice actor as he switches between the urbane, educated, tenor airs of the romantic scientist Jekyll and the guttural bass growl of Hyde, ably retaining the distinction in song.

In one early moment, his agitated singing voice for Hyde becomes muffled in the sound mix, but let’s put that down to this being the first night.

Jobson is equally convincing in his physical transformations, never straying into Hammer Horror melodrama. His monstrous madman always lurks within, those inner demons brought to the surface by reckless scientific brio as much as by his experiments.

Alexandra Mather vowed to make Jekyll’s trusting, unknowing fiancée, Emma Carew, more three-dimensional than on the page, and she delivers on that promise in her characterisation, while her pure, operatic voice wholly suits the score.

Nick Sephton’s Sir Danvers Carew

Director Clare has decided to split the role of love-struck but fearful prostitute Lucy Harris between York musical theatre regular and radio presenter Claire Pulpher (next performance, Saturday matinee) and Scarborough professional Nicola Holliday in her YMTC debut. Holliday was on duty on Wednesday, growing into her performance the more she sang, conveying both Lucy’s untrusting, self-protective nature and quest for love.

Strong support comes from Anthon Gardner’s lawyer John Utterson and Nick Sephton’s Sir Danvers Carew, and the ensemble relishes Bring On The Men, choreographed sassily by Hannah Wakelam.

John Atkin’s band is in good order throughout, steering the path between big balladry in the Lloyd Webber mode and a sly wickedness more in keeping with Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.

Costumes and wigs serve the primary role in evoking the Victorian era; the plain set design, by comparison, is a modern construction of metal stairways and a mezzanine level, more in keeping with a pop concert, but the use of blue lighting to denote Jekyll and red for Hyde is effective.  Everyone stands, no-one sits, such is the restless, unrelenting, unnerving progression from Jekyll to hellish Hyde.

Director Clare had called Jekyll & Hyde a “niche musical”, but he has successfully brought it out of the shadows, and in Steven Jobson he has found just the man for the job.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

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York Musical Theatre Company determined to take “phenomenal” Jekyll & Hyde The Musical out of niche status at JoRo Theatre

Steven Jobson, who plays Jekyll/Hyde, and Nicola Holliday, in the role of Lucy Harris, pictured at York Castle Museum

YORK Musical Theatre Company are marking their 120th anniversary with a new staging of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical.

Directed by Matthew Clare, York’s longest-running amateur theatre company are presenting Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of love, betrayal and murder from May 25 to 28, when the epic struggle between good and evil comes to life to the pop-rock score of Grammy and Tony Award-nominated Frank Wildhorn and double Oscar and Grammy-winning Leslie Bricusse.

Jekyll & Hyde has been described as a “niche musical”, prompting Matthew to say: “It was first done in Texas in the 1990s and it’s true it’s not been done commonly. Maybe its subject matter is off-putting to those who want something more family orientated: Annie comes without seven murders, doesn’t it – and I once did 17 productions of Annie in one year!

“But given that the music is phenomenal, we stood the chance of getting a really good cast, doing some music nights with musical director John Atkin going through some of the score, and we ended up with a really good turnout for the auditions.”

Among those auditionees was Glyndebourne Academy alumna Alexandra Mather, who will play Emma Carew. “The music has some operatic elements and strong musical theatre ones too,” she says.

“So, the show has that crossover appeal between the populism of Lloyd Webber and the sophistication of Sondheim. It’s Phantom meets Sweeney Todd, with the big power ballads for the Lloyd Webber factor and the interplay of Sondheim in the ensemble scenes.”

Matthew Clare: Directing York Musical Theatre Company’s production of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical

Stevenson’s tale of two men – one, a doctor, passionate and romantic; the other, a terrifying madman – and two women – one, beautiful and trusting; the other, beautiful and trusting only herself – finds both women in love with the same man and both unaware of his dark secret.

A devoted man of science, Dr Henry Jekyll is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve the most challenging of medical dilemmas. Rebuffed by the powers-that-be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons, along with the man that the world would come to know as Mr Hyde.

“It’s a really powerful story rooted in Dr Jekyll looking for a cure for his father’s dementia,” says Matthew. “Most people can probably sympathise with that emotion, that desire, but the issue is that he becomes obsessed with it.”

Alexandra adds: “Jekyll doesn’t have a way to pursue this through the proper channels because it’s a one-man crusade and he ends up having to push Emma away because of what he’s doing.”

Anthony Gardner, cast as lawyer John Utterson, joins in: “Hyde is a diminished part of Jekyll. He’s juxtaposed with Utterson, who has all the correct moral values and represents stability.”

Matthew notes how Hyde is the only honest character in the story. “That’s a really weird thing to say about your villain, who’s always within Jekyll.”

“It’s Phantom meets Sweeney Todd,” says principal cast member Alexandra Mather, describing the musical style of Jekyll & Hyde

How we might behave in any given situation depends on where we are in our lives, suggests Alexandra. “We are not constant,” she says. “Depending on where we are, it can bring out that other side.”

Anthony is playing “one of the more relatable characters”. “Utterson is Jekyll’s best friend but he’s also someone who steps out of the story and becomes a narrator, so as such his voice is one of the ones you can trust,” he says.

“He’s desperate to save his friend but he’s also blind to his faults so he’s always one step behind.”

Anthony has been “knocking around I don’t know how many companies all these years”, from York Light Opera Company to York Opera, the Bev Jones Music Company to York Musical Theatre Company. “But the draw to Jekyll & Hyde for me was very specific,” he says.

“I met my fiancée doing an abridged version at the ROSS Musical Theatre Performance School at Lancaster: a 45-minute version that still had all the murders and the full story.

“I had to play two characters: my first take on Utterson, a role suited to my style, and Spider; my now fiancée was playing Lucy Harris, the prostitute, and now she’s playing Lady Savage next week.

Devoted man of science: Steven Jobson’s Dr Henry Jekyll

“We’re due to get married next year. We got engaged over lockdown, and we’ll be getting married on Kirkgate at York Castle Museum, where, as it happens, we did the photocall for Jekyll & Hyde.”

Anthony’s bride-to-be is Elizabeth Vile. “No, she will not be keeping her maiden name! I had always thought I would go double-barrelled when marrying, but ‘Vile Gardner’ doesn’t quite work, does it?!”

Should you be seeking further reasons to be “immersed in the myth and mystery of 19th century London’s fog-bound streets” in Jekyll & Hyde, here are two more from director Matthew.

“Because of Covid, York Musical Theatre Company haven’t had a full-scale production for two years since Jesus Christ Superstar, just a couple of online concerts, so it’s great to be back,” he says.

“It’s also very interesting to have two performers playing Lucy – Nicola Holliday on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evening; Claire Pulpher on Thursday and at the Saturday matinee – and seeing how they play her in their different ways.”

York Musical Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 25 to 28, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

York Musical Theatre Company’s poster artwork for Jekyll & Hyde The Musical
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Rehearsals start for York Musical Theatre Company’s May show Jekyll & Hyde The Musical. Who’s in Matthew Clare’s cast?

York Musical Theatre Company’s artwork for Jekyll & Hyde The Musical

REHEARSALS are underway for York Musical Theatre Company’s May staging of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical.

“The production team were blown away by the high standard of talent that attended the two days of auditions in January, resulting in a very tough task in the casting of roles,” says company stalwart Mick Liversidge. “In fact, deliberation went on to the early hours of the morning after the final auditionee had left on the second day.

“YMTC feel that the resulting cast will deliver a fantastic show, worthy of marking the company’s 120th year. Rehearsals began on Monday and the cast couldn’t wait to get stuck into the sumptuous music of this fabulous show.”

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story, the epic struggle between good and evil comes to life on stage to the thrilling pop-rock score of Grammy and Tony Award-nominated Frank Wildhorn and double Oscar and Grammy-winning Leslie Bricusse.

An evocative tale of two men – one, a doctor, passionate and romantic; the other, a terrifying madman – and two women – one, beautiful and trusting; the other, beautiful and trusting only herself – finds both women in love with the same man and both unaware of his dark secret.

A devoted man of science, Dr Henry Jekyll is driven to find a chemical breakthrough that can solve the most challenging of medical dilemmas. Rebuffed by the powers-that-be, he decides to make himself the subject of his own experimental treatments, accidentally unleashing his inner demons, along with the man that the world would come to know as Mr Hyde.

York Musical Theatre Company invite audiences to “be immersed in the myth and mystery of 19th century London’s fog-bound streets, where love, betrayal and murder lurk at every chilling turn and twist” in the May 25 to 28 run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

Tickets are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk. For the Early Bird discount of £2 off each ticket, use the promo code JEKYLL22HYDE when booking online.

Jekyll & Hyde cast:

Dr Henry Jekyll/Mr Edward Hyde: Steven Jobson
Emma Carew:  Alexandra Mather
Lucy Harris:  Nicola Holliday & Claire Pulpher (shared role)
John Utterson:  Anthony Gardner
Sir Danvers Carew:  Nick Sephton
Simon Stride:  Matthew Ainsworth
Lady Beaconsfield:  Helen Spencer
Lady Savage: Elizabeth Vile
Archibald Proops:  Ryan Stocks
General Glossop: Rob Davies
Bishop of Basingstoke: Ryan Richardson
Spider: Ben Caswell
Nellie: Erin Keogh

Ensemble: Eleanor Anson; Faye Addy; Danar Cantrill; Ellie Carrier; Sophie Cunningham; Bethany Edwards; Rebecca Ellis; Tess Ellis; Emily Hardy; Cameron O’Dent; Frankie Nicholls; Suzanne Perkins; Victoria Rimmington; Paula Stainton; Hannah Wakelam.


Director: Matthew Clare; musical director, John Atkin; production manager, Peter Jamieson;
wardrobe, Kathryn Addison.