Tag: Andrew Isherwood

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, delightful, delicious, de-lovely till Dec 30 ****

Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney: Leading with pizzazz in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

IF your search is for anything but pantomime on the York stage over the festive season, then go full steam ahead for Cole Porter’s 1934 musical, one set on a Christmas steamer, it just so happens.

Pick Me Up Theatre supremo Robert Readman is on design duty (as well as in producer and co-choreographer mode), fitting out the Theatre@41 auditorium with blue-and-white seating on the deck of the SS American, the audience placed port or starboard side in a traverse setting.

The upper deck, as it were, likewise fills the mezzanine level with more seating in familiar sea-faring livery.

Add two white-frosted Christmas trees on raised platforms at either end that open up to turn into beds, and Theatre@41 looks a picture, a picture that has you wanting to join this fast-moving, fizzing, funny and fun party.

Susannah Baines’s Evangeline Harcourt and Mark Simmonds’s Elisha Whitney in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Andrew Isherwood is at the helm, steering Porter’s Anything Goes with a keen eye for comic as well as dancing rhythm, working in tandem with chief choreographer Ali Kirkham, whose CV reveals her past days on cruise ships.

On board is a cast that combines plenty of the cream of York’s theatre world with two new arrivals, Fergus Powell and Thea Fennell, who moved up from Cambridge only two months ago. Two classically trained voices are to the fore too: York Opera leading lady Alexandra Mather fronting a musical theatre production for the first time with aplomb as Reno Sweeney and University of York graduate Claire Gordon-Brown singing delightfully as Hope Harcourt.

As the SS American makes its stately way from New York to London under the ever watchful eye of Adrian Cook’s ship’s Captain, Mather’s nightclub singer-cum-evangelist Reno glides coolly hither and thither, as if Dorothy Parker were penning her lines.

Adam Price’s Billy Crocker, left, Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney and Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin in Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Newly red-headed and looking every inch the Thirties’ part, matched by her Angels (Chloe Branton’s Chastity, Sophie Curry’s Virtue and Sophie Kemp’s Charity), Mather’s Reno is working with her forlorn buddy, Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price, lovely singing tone), the stowaway desperate to woo his beloved Hope Harcourt (Gordon-Brown’s role).

Porter, as elegant as eloquent in his writing, has such fun with Crocker’s character, who must take on myriad  disguises not to blow his stowaway status. Price, light of comic touch, is a joy, particularly when faced with that old Skakespearean comic device of the mistaken identity.

He works well not only with Mather’s Reno, queen of the acid comment, but also with Powell’s Moonface Martin, Public Enemy #13 conman, who joins Reno in backing Crocker’s cause, while also seeking to elude detection. Both have to keep their wits about them, and Porter gives them lines plenty to fit that bill.

Thea Fennell’s Erma Latour is given a lift-off by Charlie Fox, left, and James Robert Ball’s Sailors in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Taking on disguises: Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, and Adam Price’s Billy Crocker take on ever more extreme steps in Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Charlie Fox, in a break from cruise-ship engagements, bonds with the equally agile James Robert Ball as a brace of nimble sailors, while Ball has a second string to his comedic bow as the righteous Minister Henry T Dobson, something of a turbulent priest to rock the ocean liner.

Neil Foster first played Hope’s fiancé, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, the only Englishman aboard, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre all of 27 years ago, and the role fits him like a familiar glove, immaculately attired, thoroughly decent, delighted by American sayings. You might call Sir Evelyn nice bit dim in that Harry Enfield way, but Foster’s characterisation is more than mere caricature, and he revels in Sir Evelyn’s sudden revelation.

Susannah Baines’s grand mama Evangeline Harcourt (a role shared with Beryl Nairn), Mark Simmonds’s resolute Elisha Whitney and Leo Portal’s busybody Ship’s Purser are all in fine form too, and we are sure to see more of Pick Me Up debutante Fennell on the evidence of her Erma Latour, who’s a scream. Zachary Stoney and Reuben Baines, from Pick Me Up’s autumn hit production of Bugsy Malone, add a youthful spark here too as Spit and Dippy.

Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, with Reuben Baines’s Dippy, centre, and Zachary Stoney’s Spit. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Deputising for musical director John Atkin, who was on Father Christmas duty elsewhere on press night, Nigel Ball led the band as merrily as Porter’s wonderful tunes demanded, while Mather, Price and co delighted in his witty lyrics.

Kirkham’s choreography is playful, stylish, thrilling, making the most of the open deck with panache and exuberance, all enhanced by Julie Fisher’s fabulous costume designs. Throughout, Mather leads with pizzazz, hitting the heights with a knockout performance that affirms she is as much at home in musical theatre as opera. Cue a fight for her services! You’re the top, Miss Mather, as the opening number proclaims.

Does the director let anything go in Anything Goes? No, sirree, precision, precision, precision rules as he puts the swish into Isherwood, turning the madcap into the ever maddercap, the tap number into top of the taps, the romantic buds into full bloom.

All the while, the Porter hits keep a’coming: It’s De-Lovely, Let’s Misbehave, Bon Voyage, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Blow, Gabriel, Blow. Isherwood and his company get a kick out of every one of them, and so will you. Truly, it’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.

Pick Me up Theatre, Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Performances, 7.30pm, December 15 to 18, December 20 and December 27 to 30; 2.30pm, December 20, 21 and 27. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Do you bite your thumb at me, sir? James Robert Ball’s Sailor in Anything Goes

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Pick Me Up Theatre launches Anything Goes on Christmas steamer at Theatre@41

Full steam ahead: Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin and Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

YORK, it may be cold outside, but why not climb aboard the S.S. American as Pick Me Up Theatre’s all-singing, all-dancing Christmas production of Anything Goes sets sail at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from tomorrow?

Directed by Andrew Isherwood, Cole Porter’s swish 1934 Broadway musical follows the madcap antics of a motley crew as they ride the waves from New York to London on a Christmas-themed steamer.

On board are popular nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (played by Alexandra Mather) and her pal, lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown).

Hope, however, is engaged to another passenger, English gent Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, played by Neil Foster, reprising the role he first played 27 years ago. “It’s amazing how I’ve remembered so many of the lines and lyrics,” he says. “They must have been buried somewhere in my memory.”

Sailing to England too is second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell), aka “Public Enemy #13”. Cue song, dance, fabulous farce and “chooey”  Big Apple accents as Reno and Moonface try to help Billy win the love of his life.

Full steam a-redhead: Alexandra Mather in her first musical lead role as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Reno will be Alexandra Mather’s first lead in a musical after principal roles aplenty for York Opera. “Taking on Reno Sweeney is incredibly exciting for me,” she says. “I’m stepping into such a sharp and charismatic role, which is a dream come true.

“It’s an utterly terrifying prospect, if I’m honest. I’ve been really, really lucky doing lead roles for York Opera, feeling comfortable wrapped in a carpet of familiarity, but Anything Goes is a very different style.

“I’ve been obsessed with the music since 2013 when I bought the soundtrack of the Joel Gray and Sutton Foster production and I’ve listened to the album for years and years, so I’ve looked forward to doing the show for years, and now is the chance.”

Assessing the abiding appeal of Anything Goes, Alexandra says: “With Cole Porter’s music and the brilliant, witty script, the whole experience feels nostalgic, stylish and incredibly glamorous.

“The songs are just so beautifully written. For a singer, they’re just a joy to sing, as Porter worked with some of the great artists of the burgeoning musical theatre scene. The other thing that should be highlighted is the lyrical quality, done to perfection. For someone like me, who often gravitates to the comedy side, it’s irresistible.”

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster for Anything Goes. All aboard at Theatre@41, Monkgate, but can you spot what’s missing?!

Alexandra has “usually played ingénues and usually with comedy in the role”, but there is room to be more serious in Anything Goes. “In opera, because you’re focusing on the quality of the voice, you’re allowed a broader style of performance as it’s based on waves of emotion,” she says. In musical theatre, seeking a core truth rooted in realism, “you have to have  a bit more sincerity,” she suggests.

Director Andrew Isherwood highlights what acting style is needed. “It’s the principle of doing less to get a true performance where they’re still acting but you don’t realise they’re acting,” he says.

“Some characters are larger than life, but Alex’s Reno has more vulnerability in a show where you want the audience to care, to want things to be resolved and to end up right.”

Alexandra adds: “We’re all trying to create these fully realised characters. For example, Andrew has said that I sometimes use an ‘actor’s voice’, so I’m trying to strip that back.”

Blonde-haired Alexandra will be wearing a redhead wig. “It wasn’t me who suggested it!” says real-life partner Andrew. “No, we spoke to Robert (designer Robert Readman) and Jo (wardrobe assistant Jo Hird) as we wanted a really distinctive look for Reno,” she recalls.

York actress and opera singer Alexandra Mather

“We talked about elevating her to a fiery redhead, not to play to clichés, but because it works really well  for me, because usually I’m the blonde one playing these blonde roles, but getting into character, suddenly seeing a different person in the mirror, really does help.”

Andrew is promising an immersive production “where we’re all supposed to be on this cruise ship together”, audience and cast alike.”Robert has devised the set with lifebelts, so it feels like you’re on the deck of a ship – and it’s meant to be luxury transatlantic travel, not a budget trip!” he says. As for the costume design, “Reno is in the 1930s’ style of Greta Garbo and Katharine Hepburn.”

On the surface, December 12 to 30 would suggest a busy Christmas season for director and cast, but there will be room for a Christmas break. “Because of the how the dates have fallen, they’re more forgiving than  they were for Oliver Twist last year,” says Andrew. “So we’ll have a good stretch of shows up to December 21, then time off from December 22 to 26, and then be back in action from December 27 to 30.”

Pick Me up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30. Performances, 7.30pm December 12, December 15 to 18, December 20 and December 27 to 30; 2.30pm, December 13, 20, 21 and 27. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Thea Fennell’s Erma Latour, left, James Robert Ball, front, and Charlie Fox’s Sailors and Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

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Getting a kick out of you musical of the month: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, front centre) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

DITCH the December chills in York and climb aboard the S.S. American as Pick Me Up Theatre’s all-singing all-dancing Christmas production of Anything Goes! sets sail at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on December 12.

Directed by Andrew Isherwood, Cole Porter’s swish musical follows the madcap antics of a motley crew as they chart their course from New York to London on a Christmas-themed steamer.

On board are popular nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and her pal, lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown).

Hope, however, is engaged to another passenger, English gent Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, played by Neil Foster, who is reprising the role after 27 years. “It’s amazing how I’ve remembered so many of the lines and lyrics,” he says. “They must have been buried somewhere in my memory.”

Sailing to England too is second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell), aka “Public Enemy #13”. Song, dance and fabulous farce ensue as Reno and Moonface try to help Billy win the love of his life.

Reno will be Alexandra Mather’s first lead in a musical after principal roles aplenty for York Opera. “Taking on Reno Sweeney is incredibly exciting for me,” she says. “I’m stepping into such a sharp and charismatic role, which is a dream come true.

“With Cole Porter’s music and the brilliant, witty script, the whole experience feels nostalgic, stylish and incredibly glamorous.”

“I’m stepping into such a sharp and charismatic role, which is a dream come true,” says Alexandra Mather of playing Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes

That pretty much sums up Susannah Baines and Beryl Nairn too, who will be  sharing the sassy role of Hope’s mother, Evangeline Harcourt. No strangers to a sequin and a spin around the dance floor, they cannot wait to take to the stage at Theatre@41.

“It’s a fantastic role and I’m honoured to be sharing it with such a great, talented friend,” says Susannah. “I just feel for the rest of the cast, dealing with two overbearing mothers! I love this era. It’s so elegant. And I’m really enjoying working with our choreographer Ali Kirkham.”

Ali is right at home with her role, not only as choreographer but also with the nautical setting of this musical. “I worked as a singer myself on cruise ships,” says the former head of musical theatre at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts in Malton.

“I produced shows for more than 20 years for the fabulous Fred Olsen liners and theatres around the world. Many of my ex-students have gone on to perform on the West End and Broadway, in television and films, and of course on top-class cruise lines. Like my former student Charlie Fox, who is joining our York cast between contracts.”

The full cast comprises: Alexandra Mather as Reno Sweeney; Adam Price, Billy Crocker; Neil Foster, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh; Fergus Powell, Moonface Martin; Claire Gordon-Brown, Hope Harcourt; Beryl Nairn/Susannah Baines, Evangeline Harcourt; Mark Simmond, Elisha Whitney, and Adrian Cook, Ship’s Captain.

Thea Fennell plays Erma Latour; Leo Portal, Ship’s Purser; James Robert Ball, Minister/Sailor; Zachary Thorp, Spit; Reuben Baines, Dippy; Chloe Branton, Angel; Sophie Curry, Angel; Charlie Fox, Sailor, and Sophie Kemp, Angel. Cameo roles go to Ryan Richardson, Rich Musk, Andrew Roberts, Sanna Jeppsson, Adam Sowter and Jim Paterson.

The creative team comprises director Andrew Isherwood; musical director John Atkin; sound and lighting designer Will Nicholson; choreographers Ali Kirkham and Robert Readman (who also handles design and production) and wardrobe mistress Julie Fisher, assisted by Jo Hird.

Pick Me up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30. Performances, 7.30pm December 12, December 15 to 18, December 20 and December 27 to 30; 2.30pm, December 13, 20, 21 and 27. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/seasons/b4dda860-03cd-492d-b990-026e1ec590a3

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York ****

Alison Taylor’s Mrs Alexander, left, Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone, centre, and Beryl Nairn’s Siobhan with Pick Me Up Theatre ensemble members Jon Cook, Tom Riddolls and Lee Harris. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

THE Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time is playing York for the third time in ten years.

First came the National Theatre’s bells-and-whistles production, winner of seven Olivier awards, at the Grand Opera House in January 2015, with its white box framework of graph-paper lines on moving walls and flooring to match the mathematical mind of teenage protagonist Christopher Boone.

Next, the performing arts department at All Saints RC School combined dance, original livemusicand movement sequences in a February 2023 adaptation wherein ten narrators represented Christopher’s imagination and inner thoughts, while highlighting  the key motifs of letters, as well as Chris’s love of numbers and space, through physical theatre and projections.

Now comes York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s interpretation, using University of York history graduate Simon Stephens’s superlative script, premiered by the National Theatre, under the imaginative and inventive direction of Andrew Isherwood,  a regular presence on the York stage and increasingly in the director’s chair too.

“Directing this show has absolutely been one of the best experiences over the past 12 years I’ve had making theatre,” he says in his programme note – and it shows in an ensemble production that is cinematic yet boldly theatrical in its fusion of video projection, effects and lighting and sound by Will Nicholson, always in harmony with the mathematical shapes, emotional frictions and physical theatre of Isherwood’s team of 11 players.

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone and his pet rat Toby with Beryl Nairn’s Siobhan. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

His choice of recorded music is impeccable too, especially Cat Power’s heart-rending Maybe Not and Moby’s God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters, last used so evocatively in Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s face-off in Heat in 1995.

On arrival, the audience is confronted by the sight of Elanor Kitchen’s model of a dead dog, Wellington, pinned to the ground by a garden fork, on the end-on raised stage. Welcome to a “murder mystery like no other”.

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher John Francis Boone is rocking, traumatised, even more so when accused of killing the dog by Mrs Shears (Natalie Melia), his potty-mouthed neighbour in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Christopher is 15 years three months and two days old; he attends a special needs school, and although he is never attributed with Asperger’s syndrome by source novel writer Mark Haddon, this fearful yet fearless boy can calculate A-level Maths to A* standard at 15 but is ill-equipped to work out everyday life.

Christopher does not like to be touched, is incapable of lying and has powers of logic beyond conventional reasoning or normal patterns of behaviour. He loves red, his lucky colour, but rejects an offer of Battenberg cake because of his dislike of yellow.

Such frankness and original thinking instil humour and wonderment in his bright, naive, unpredictable utterances, but pain and puzzlement bubble beneath the surface too in Jonathan Wells’s performance, expressed in his twitching, fidgety fingers and downward gaze.

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone, centre, with fellow Pick Me Up Theatre cast members Jon Cook, left, Lee Harris, Catherine Edge, Beryl Nairn and Tom Riddolls. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

This Elvington GP has favoured musical theatre in his York stage appearances, but here he returns to straight theatre for the first time since Berkoff and Strindberg plays in his Sheffield student days, making you wonder why he has not done so previously.

What a revelation his performance is. Slim of frame, boyish of looks, not unlike Ben Whishaw, he is 34 yet wholly believable as 15 – the age, by the way, that he took his A-level in computing, giving him an immediate connection with Christopher.

His physical demeanour is only part of the equation, Equally significant is how to convey Christopher’s intelligence and more significantly, the way he thinks, and both Wells and Isherwood maximise how Stephens’s script travels both inside and outside Christopher’s head as he vows to defy his father by “doing detective work” to hunt down Wellington’s killer.

Like a Keaton or Chaplin, Wells’s Christopher makes us laugh at the absurdity of others, or whoever he winds up with his candid, unconventional manner, but he never sets out to be a clown or funny. Christopher is serious, earnest, but his comments are the stuff of observational comedy.

Such is the skill of novelist Haddon and playwright Stephens’s writing, where we wholly empathise with the young boy who follows his own path, however unsafe he may feel amid the chaotic cacophony, on a bigger journey of discovery that combines abnormal intellect with bewildering, baffling new experiences.

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone cowers from his father Ed (Mike Hickman) as a policeman (Jon Cook) looks concerned. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Yes, we laugh, but we are also stopped regularly in our tracks by the feeble behaviour of his elders, but certainly not betters, who let him down, in particular his mendacious father Ed (Mike Hickman), a boiler engineer with a tendency to boil over into rage, even violence.

The one exception is special needs teacher and mentor Siobhan (Beryl Nairn), who encourages him in his writing.

Catherine Edge, so elegantly impressive in Settlement Players’ Separate Tables in February 2024, excels again as Judy, the mother that, spoiler alert, Christopher had been told was dead but had in fact fled to London with her feckless lover, neighbour Roger Shears (Lee Harris). Hers is the most emotionally complex role, the least black and white, and Edge finds those nuances.

In the ensemble, Alison Taylor, Natalie Melia, Lee Harris, Jon Cook, Tom Riddolls and Alexandra Mather both play multiple roles and bond in choreographed movement and babbling, threatening noise on Christopher’s first solo train journey to London with pet rat Toby, into the pandemonium of a Tube station, and out on to the alienating, disorientating streets.

Nicholson’s lighting is key to Pick Me Up’s technical flourish, but all in service of Wells’s remarkable portrayal of a boy with a beautiful mind in search of a safe haven.

Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office:  tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Pick Me Up Theatre go boldly into The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from today

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone – and his pet rat Toby – with Beryl Nairn’s Siobhan in Pick Me Up Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

PICK Me Up Theatre take on the challenge of bringing Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s multi-million-selling novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time to the York stage from today.

The York company is following in the esteemed footsteps of the National Theatre, winner of seven Olivier awards for its remarkable production that played the Grand Opera House, York, on its first tour in January 2015.

Director Andrew Isherwood is at the helm for Haddon’s story of fearful yet fearless 15-year-old Christopher Boone, who can work out A-level Maths but is ill-equipped to work out everyday life, distrusting strangers deeply, never venturing alone beyond the end of his road.

Novelist Haddon never called him autistic or attributed Asperger Syndrome to him, but Christopher does not like to be touched, is incapable of lying, can count binary numbers to infinity and has powers of logic beyond conventional reasoning or normal patterns of behaviour.

Everything changes when Christopher falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world.

“When I spoke to Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman in January last year, when we did Young Frankenstein, I put down a list of a range of shows I would love to be part of, and Curious Incident was one of them,” recalls Andrew. “I also said I didn’t understand any reluctance to do productions related to children’s stories.

“To my surprise, Robert already had this play on his radar and had secured the rights.” Now, to Andrew’s delight, Curious Incident forms Pick Me Up’s first show of 2025, with no fewer than three matinees in the hope of attracting school audiences to assist with their GCSE studies of Haddon’s book.

Andrew has seen the National Theatre show on its NT At Home streaming service but will be putting his own mark on the play. “I’m  certainly trying to do my own version with projection and contemporary classical music,” he says.

“Over the years, even when I was studying film and television at York St John, I’ve always had an affinity with Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and John Williams and how films used their music, and we’ll be using music as part of the stream of consciousness in the play, to complement the scene, setting the mood and tone.”

Andrew brings his background in television and film and 12 years of acting on stage into his directorial role. “I like to set the scene to get it on its feet straightaway in rehearsals, where I’ll say, ‘show me what you’ve got’ and then we’ll adapt it from there. I’ll always listen to an idea and if it’s good, I’ll look to use it,” he says.  

Evocative lighting by Will Nicholson, on the back of his designs for Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women and Black Sheep Theatre’s The Tempest, will play its part in his third Theatre@41 show of 2025.

“We’re doing the show pretty much in the round, or more like a horseshoe, but with projection at the far end and we’ll be using a raised stage, like Pick Me Up did for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and before that Shakespeare In Love,” says Andrew.

“There’ll be very little set, but lots of light boxes and lots of props, and lots of playing with levels, on the balcony as well as the stage, and plenty of sound effects too as we create illusions through sound and light.

“We’ll have strip lights around the stage and lights under the raised stage to serve a story purpose and thematic purpose, but I don’t want to overuse these effects in the first half hour because people can become desensitised.

“We want the audience to keep being surprised, so we’re doing it in a way where we don’t do things all the time. It’s not about throwing things at the wall and bombarding people with sound and noise, but it has to be evocative and emotional in its impact.”

The balance of visual and verbal is the key. “The play lends itself to strong visual representation but the actors shouldn’t be overpowered by that side of it, although they are always in shapes, whether standing in squares of triangles, because it’s always playing to how Christopher thinks mathematically,” says Andrew.

He has enjoyed bringing so many components together under his direction. “I like the opportunity to be more abstract as it’s non-linear. We can be more out there but hopefully be evocative too, as well as somewhat esoteric and abstract, all for the purpose of storytelling to put across what’s going on in Christopher’s mind, if we can pull it off.” he says.

“It’s abstract, it’s out there, but it’s got heart too, and a cast of 11 who I’ve encouraged to really go for it. I think they’re having a lot of fun with it – and they tell me they are!”

Jonathan Wells’s Christopher Boone and fellow cast members in a scene from The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

Taking the role of Christopher will be 34-year-old Jonathan Wells. “I was about 15 when I first read it, Christopher’s age, and it was probably the first book I read from that teenage perspective, which was a new method of fiction for me,” he says. “It’s the way he sees and interprets the world that jumps out at you because it’s written in his words, seeing things the way he does, but with a back story too.

“I went back to the book after I got the part and it struck me how literal the play script is, how direct the transfer is from page to stage.”

Almost 20 years on, Jonathan notes how “there’s much more awareness now of neurodivergence and the different range of ‘normal’”. In turn he will bring both sympathy and empathy to playing Christopher. Sympthy first: “There are times when he is very vulnerable, not just when being hit by his dad, but also in thinking about his mother, who he thinks is dead, and it’s open to your interpretation how you present that sadness,” he says.

And empathy? “I think back to myself as a teenager, doing an A-level in computing at 15,” says Jonathan, finding common ground with Christopher’s gift for Maths. “My dad was a computer teacher and my brother was a teacher too, giving me some of his A-level Maths books.”

Jonathan went on to study medicine and is now in his fifth year as a GP in Elvington. “I’m also teaching medical students in the practice on Thursday mornings at the moment,” he says, keeping teaching in the family.

On the York stage scene, Jonathan has focused on musical theatre shows until now. “The last ‘straight’ play I did was at university in Sheffield, when I did Steven Berkoff’s The Trial and also did August Strindberg’s A Dream Play, another ensemble play, like ‘Curious Incident’, so it’s been nice to get back to that,” he says.

“Depending on the musical, depending on the show, you have more straightforward characters in musicals, where you can create as much depth as you like, but with a play like this you can really get into the depth of the character to spend a couple of hours on stage as Christopher.”

Jonathan reveals he did not apply initially for the role of Christopher. “I auditioned for one of the voice parts as I thought I’d be too old for Christopher, but at the audition Andrew had a thought: could I play Christopher?”

Further audition calls ensued, and Andrew had found his Christopher. “I’m playing him with that vulnerability you associate with young people, dressing in a tracksuit and T-shirts, as I would have done at that age, for the rehearsals as I don’t like rehearsing in my work clothes,” says Jonathan.

He is drawing not only on Simon Stephens’ script and Mark Haddon’s book for his portrayal of Christopher but also on Atypical, the Netflix series about Sam, an American high school teenager on the autism spectrum. “It’s a coming-of-age story and family drama, which has a lot of parallels with Haddon’s book, and I’ve taken a lot from Sam’s character,” says Jonathan.

His medical training has played its part too. “As part of our mandatory training, we have to do autism training, which has come a lot into the NHS with online training developed by a mother whose son has autism. That’s been really useful to learn more about the way it affects behaviour,” says Jonathan.

“I am very much aware I’m not an autism expert, and I’m probably at the other end of the spectrum, so I’m  playing him very much as a character [rather than from personal experience], drawing inspiration from what I’ve seen and read about it, taking that information, experimenting with different ways of moving and different ways of expressing the words, to keep the performance interesting.”

Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today (1/4/2025) to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond when night-time incidents spark curiosity. Hutch’s List No. 13, from The York Press

Kiki Dee & Carmelo Ruggeri: Heading to All Saints Church, Pocklington on The Long Ride Home tour

FOUR nights of Greg Davies and tenth visit of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s bill for cultural satisfaction.

Acoustic duo of the week: Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, All Saints Church, Pocklington, tonight, 7.30pm

JOIN Bradford-born singer Kiki Dee and guitarist Carmelo Luggeri for an acoustic journey through their songs and stories, taking in songs from 2022 album The Long Ride Home, Kate Bush and Frank Sinatra covers and hits from Kiki’s 55 years and more in the music business, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Star, I Got The Music In Me, Loving & Free and Amoureuse. Box office: kikiandcarmelo.com.

Brighouse & Rastrick Band: A blast of brass on Sunday afternoon at Pocklington Arts Centre

Brass concert of the week: Brighouse & Rastrick Band, Pocklington Arts Centre, tomorrow, 2pm

FOREVER associated with 1977 number two hit and “unofficial encore” The Floral Dance, West Yorkshire’s Brighouse & Rastrick Band presents a concert suitable for casual listener and connoisseur alike.

The majority of premier band championships have been held by ‘Briggus’, most recently becoming the 2022 British Open and Brass in Concert champions. ‘Briggus’ are noted too for collaborations outside the brass band tradition, from the late Terry Wogan to Kate Rusby, classical actor Simon Callow to The Unthanks at York Minster in 2012. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Tom Holland: Hailing Caesars at Grand Opera House, York

History lesson of the week: Tom Holland, The Lives Of The Caesars, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm

THE Rest Is History podcaster and storyteller Tom Holland journeys back to the Roman empire to “get up close and personal” with Caesar, Augustus, Caligula and Nero as he spotlights the lives of the first 12 Roman emperors in conversation with Martha Kearney.

In this supreme arena, emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle, as highlighted in Holland’s new Penguin Classics translation of Suetonius’s Lives Of The Twelve Caesars. Expect revelations of the emperors’ shortfalls, sex scandals, tastes, foibles and eccentricities. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Vivienne Carlyle’s Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones’s Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Jack Merriman

Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, April 1 to 5, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

WILLY Russell’s Liverpool musical makes its tenth visit to the Grand Opera House, and despite Sean Jones’s appearance in the 2022 tour being billed as his “last ever” after 23 years on and off as Mrs Johnstone’s son Mickey, here he is once more, still  “running around as a seven-year-old in a baggy green jumper and short trousers” at 54.

Scottish actress Vivienne Carlyle, who played Mrs Lyons on her previous Blood Brothers visit to York, takes the role of Mrs J in Russell’s moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Curiouser and curiouser: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Play of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 5,7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

ANDREW Isherwood directs York company Pick Me Up Theatre in Simon Stephens’s stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone (Jonathan Wells), a 15-year-old boy with an extraordinary brain Exceptionally gifted at Maths, he finds everyday life and interaction with other people very confusing.

Christopher has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, hates being touched and deeply distrusts strangers, but everything changes when he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbour’s dog, propelling him on a journey of self-discovery that upturns his world. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Greg Davies: Milking it in his Full Fat Legend stand-up show

Comedy gigs of the week: Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend, York Barbican, April 2 to 5,

TOWERING comedian Greg Davies plays York Barbican for a full-fat four nights on his Full Fat Legend Tour, his first on British soil for seven years.

The 6ft 8 inch star of Taskmaster, The Inbetweeners, The Cleaner, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Man Down and Cuckoo is undertaking his biggest stand-up tour to date. He last played York Barbican on November 1 and 2 2017 on his You Magnificent Beast tour, his first travels for four years. Tickets update: Sold out; for returns only, go to yorkbarbican.co.uk. Davies’s Hull Connexin Live shows on June 3 and 4 and at Leeds First Direct Arena on June 20 are sold out too.

Daniel Wilmot’s Count Dracula in Baron Productions’ Dracula at St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York

High stakes of the week: Baron Productions in Dracula, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, April 3 to 5, 7.30pm

FOUNDER and director Daniel Wilmot makes it Count when starring as the mysterious Dracula in York company Baron Productions’ account of Bram Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece in one of York’s most atmospheric churches.

When Jonathan Harker (Jack McAdam) embarks on a business trip to Count Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, little does he know the terror that awaits him. Guided by the wise Professor Van Helsing (Lee Gemmell), a courageous group must gamble their lives, even their very souls, to stop Dracula’s evil plans to enslave the world. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/baron-productions. 

Pianist Ian Pace

Classical concert of the week: York Late Music presents The Beethoven Project: Ian Pace, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, April 5, 7.30pm

IN the second of The Beethoven Project concerts for York Late Music, pianist Ian Pace continues his exploration of Beethoven’s nine symphonies (transcribed by Franz Liszt) with his iconic Pastoral Symphony No. 6.

The programme also includes Michael Finnissy’s English Country Tunes (1-3), Beethoven’s Six Goethe-Lieder (transcribed by Liszt) and a new work of three musical tributes by Steve Crowther, Rock With Stock, A Study In Glass and Louis’ Angry Blues. Box office: latemusic.org/product/ian-pace-concert-tickets/ or on the door.

The poster for the new additions to Lightning Seeds’ Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour

Gig announcement of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, October 9, doors 7pm

LIVERPOOL singer, songwriter and producer Ian Broudie is extending Lightning Seeds’ 35th anniversary tour with 11 more dates this autumn. Here come Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions and many more from his 20-track Tomorrow’s Here Today: 35 Years Of Lightning Seeds compilation album. This summer, Lightning Seeds will support York band Shed Seven at Millennium Square, Leeds, on July 11. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Our Star Theatre Company’s tour poster for Hannay Stands Fast

In Focus: Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

OUR Star Theatre Company cut a dash at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, on Thursday and Friday in Hannay Stands Fast, the sequel to The 39 Steps.

Adapted by David Edgar from John Buchan’s novel, this rip-roaring comedy finds dashing hero Richard Hannay back in the fray on a mission to thwart a new and deadly threat to his beloved England.

Engaged on this top-secret case by MI5, Hannay makes his way down to Cornwall to infiltrate a secretive organisation and learn their dastardly plans. Can he save the day to keep the nation safe for another day? Cue derring-do, utter chaos and laughs aplenty in a show replete with a train, motorbike, ambulance, car, police vehicle, even a horse.

“Like for our production of The 39 Steps, Hannay Stands Fast is taken on by four actors playing dozens of characters – 53 to be precise! – set in various locations created through quick and innovative uses of trunks, crates, suitcases, ladders, you name it!” says director Ben Mowbray, who founded the Ledbury, Herefordshire company in 2016.

Our Star Theatre Company are visiting York on the debut UK tour of the British professional premiere of Hannay Stands Fast with a cast of George Cooper as Hannay and Angharad Mortimer in her company debut as Mary Lambington (and others), joined by the multi-role-playing Daniel Davies and Mowbray as First and Second Clown.

Our Star Theatre Company in Hannay Stands Fast, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, April 3 and 4, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow ****

James Willstrop as Doctor Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein

IN the words of lead actor James Willstrop, Mel Brooks’s bawdy, boisterous musical conversion of Young Frankenstein is “not subtle”. “It’s lovely to be doing something silly, full of innuendos and jokes that some people might hate but are just daft,” he says.

Willstrop carries that spirit – and all the lanky physicality that goes into being a 6ft 4inch former world squash number one-turned actor – into playing esteemed New York brain surgeon and professor Doctor Frederick Frankenstein. Pronounced “Fronk-en-steen,” the mop-haired doctor insists.

Billed as a “wickedly inspired re-imagining” of a teenage Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein, Brooks’s comedy horror musical receives its northern premiere in Andrew Isherwood’s delightfully cheeky production.

Pick Me Up Theatre producer and designer Robert Readman had cast the show for its postponed run at the Grand Opera House last autumn: a delightful gift to Isherwood, whose own skills as a comedic actor find him bringing out the best in all those around him as Young Frankenstein is sparked into new life for this week’s run at the JoRo.

He even pops up in a doleful cameo as the blind Hermit, the Gene Hackman role from Brooks’s 1974 film, lamenting his loneliness in Please Bring Me Someone and bringing down the house in the slapstick nonsense of a farcical scene with Craig Kirby’s grunting Monster.

“It’s only one scene,” the woolly-haired Isherwood adlibs to the boisterous Pick Me Up supporters’ club in the stalls, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall as the anarchic Brooks would no doubt love.

In a nod to Young Frankenstein’s roots, the show opens with black-and-white screen credits, accompanied by thunder and lightning. One by one, we meet the colourful characters of Brooks’s horror-movie parody, a process that emphasises the individual strengths of Pick Me Up’s cast, each being given an introductory song to make their mark.

Willstrop had performed the opening The Brain as his audition piece and he immediately establishes the gawky boffin in Dr Frankenstein, always assertive but transmutable too, vowing not to follow in the deranged genius footsteps of his grandfather, Victor Von Frankenstein, on inheriting his Transylvanian castle and laboratory, only to later be enticed into matching his experiments in reanimating a corpse.

Fiancée Elizaeth will be left behind but not before Jennie Wogan-Wells has encapsulated her combination of spoilt ingenue naivety and needy, nasal New York attention-seeking in Please Don’t Touch Me.

Jack Hooper’s Igor, with his panda eyes, wraparound cloak and ever-moving hump, is the hunchbacked gothic sidekick to the manner born, definitely weird, even creepy, but a constant source of daft Transylvanian amusement too.

Who better to play eager-to-please, Scandinavian novice lab assistant Inga than Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson. Fabulous, flirtatious, funny, no wonder the Doctor falls for her as soon as she invites him to Roll In The Hay.

The caricature European accents keep coming, none better than Helen “Bells” Spencer’s Frau Blucher, the mysterious housekeeper, whose every entry is interrupted by the neigh of a horse.  Sternly seductive, severe of face, still infatuated by the late Victor Frankenstein, Spencer’s Frau delivers the show’s supreme vocal performance in He Vas My Boyfriend, with its echoes of Weimar Berlin cabaret nights, singing atop a chair.  

Tom Riddolls’s Inspector Kemp is keeping his eye on Frankenstein’s activities, all the more so after Craig Kirby’s newly sparked Monster breaks free from the laboratory. An innocent abroad, Kirby’s baritone-voiced creature learns on the hoof, an outlet for typically broad humour from Brooks and co-writer Thomas Meehan as Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth “connects” most enthusiastically with the Monster (in the manner of Bella Baxter’s “furious jumping” in Poor Things, but only heard, not seen).

Likewise, Irving Berlin’s borrowed dancefloor gem Puttin’ On The Ritz is transformed from Strictly Come Dancing-style showpiece to the Monster’s introduction to social niceties. This initiation is at once touching yet deliriously humorous too, a rare balancing act for Brooks that makes it all the better, even more so in the ever-excellent Kirby’s hands and feet as he gradually turns into Fred Astaire in Blue Skies.

This review has emphasised the gilded individual turns, but under Isherwood’s direction, the performances gel gleefully, the humour bursting out of the interactions, both physical and verbal.

The teamwork of Sam Steel’s Bertram Batram, Matthew Warry’s Felix and Kelly Stocker, Pearl Mollison, Ruby Salter, Freddie Heath and Ilana Weets, in the guise of students, horses, werewolves and angry villagers, adds to the comedic impact too.

Readman’s set design, with its science laboratory backdrop, and flamboyant costumes are as high quality as ever. Ilana Weets’s choreography is playful, sometimes character-driven, always exuberant; Sam Johnson’s nine-piece band relishes songs painted in bold, brazen colours.

Devotees of The Rocky  Horror Show and Mel Brooks alike will savour “the sweet mystery of life” and the Transylvania Mania of Young Frankenstein.

Remaining performances: 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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Squash champ James Willstrop tackles ‘mad scientist’ role in Mel Brooks’s spoof horror musical Young Frankenstein in York

Following the science? James Willstrop as Dr Frederick Frankenstein, creator of the Creature in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Young Frankenstein. Picture: Jennifer Jones

YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre’s delayed northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s comedy horror musical Young Frankenstein opens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre next Wednesday.

Unforeseen circumstances had forced the late postponement of last autumn’s run at the Grand Opera House, but rehearsals re-started in York in early December under the direction of Andrew Isherwood.

All the original principal cast chosen by Pick Me Up artistic director and designer Robert Readman was still available, not least former squash world number one James Willstrop in the lead role of mad scientist Dr Frederick Frankenstein, first played by Gene Wilder in Brooks’s 1974 horror-movie spoof of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein.

“You hear of other shows where it’s happened, but it was a really sad feeling when we couldn’t do it as were just about to start our run,” recalls James.

“I was feeling pretty depressed afterwards, thinking ‘this show isn’t going to happen’ – and when people ask, ‘how are you feeling?’, it’s unusual to have to explain to anyone as it’s not ‘real life’, but you do feel really deflated.

Pick Me Up Theatre principals in Young Frankenstein: back row, from left, James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning; front row, Jack Hooper’s Igor and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga. Picture: Jennifer Jones

“But then we got this text from Bells [production management assistant and actress Helen Spencer] asking, ‘Can you do these dates?’, as Robert said we could go ahead with a new run.”

Out went Pick Me Up’s planned production of Chicago at the JoRo, replaced by Young Frankenstein. Rehearsals have been a matter of “going again”. “We had the best part of a month off when the last thing I was thinking of doing was listening to the soundtrack!” says James.

“It’s been a case of getting into the scenes again, with the choreography kept largely the same. Andrew has been really great on the detail, which actors love, and that’s been good. He’s trusted our instincts and he’s been very alive to the comedy.”

James, who made his Pick Me Up debut as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music in December 2022, has enjoyed becoming acquainted with Brooks’s parody songs.

“Going into the audition, I didn’t know a lot about the show, but I love Pick Me  Up and working with Robert, and I loved the opening number, The Brain, which I decided to learn for the audition.

James Willstrop: Men’s doubles squash gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, his fifth Games

“A week out from the audition, I hadn’t been sure about the show, but by the time I did the audition, I was thinking, ‘this part is great, I’ve got to do it’!

“The first few times, listening to the soundtrack, it took me a while to get a feel for the songs, but then you realise they’re just great, simple songs. I love the tunes, they have a vaudeville quality, and the humour is always there.”

James, now 40, had first performed in “serious dramas” before branching out into musicals, and last year found him heading to the Cornish coast to play deluded mystery novel writer Charles Considine in Ilkley Playhouse’s production of Noel Coward’s supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit at the Minack Theatre.

“Doing that humorous role, and being tall [James is 6ft 4ins], with all the physicality that goes with that, just seemed to link perfectly to then playing Frederick Frankenstein,” he says.

. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,” says James Willstrop of Mel Brooks’s humour. Picture: Jennifer Jones

In Brooks’s spoof, the grandson of infamous scientist Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein, has inherited his family’s castle estate in Transylvania. Aided and hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor, Scandinavian lab assistant Inga, stern German Frau Blucher and needy fiancée Elizabeth, he strives to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life.

Cue comedy in the bold Brooks style. “It’s lovely to be doing something silly, full of innuendos and jokes that some people might hate but are just daft,” says James. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,” 

James, whose father grew up in York, lives in Harrogate and now divides his time between coaching squash – and “still playing a bit” – at the Pontefract Squash and Leisure Club and performing on stage.

Coming next will be his role as recovering alcoholic Harry in Bingley Little Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Bingley Arts Centre, West Yorkshire, from July 1 to 6.

Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 31 to February 3 2024, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

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Pick Me Up Theatre to stage revived Young Frankenstein, now on the move to Joseph Rowntree Theatre after November call-off

Pick Me Up Theatre principals in Young Frankenstein: back row, from left, James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning; front row, Jack Hooper’s Igor and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga. All pictures: Jennifer Jones

YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre will stage the northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s musical Young Frankenstein  in the New Year after the late postponement of last autumn’s run at the Grand Opera House.

Andrew Isherwood has picked up the directorial reins for this stage conversion of Brooks’s comedy horror movie, produced in York by artistic director and designer Robert Readman.

Rehearsals re-started in early December for the January 31 to February 3 run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, with the original principal cast still in place and Helen Spencer assisting with production management.

“This show is by the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation The Producers,” says Robert. “The comedy genius Mel Brooks has adapted his legendary comedy film from 1974 into a brilliant stage show of Young Frankenstein. I saw the West End production and loved it.

Following the science: James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein

“Every bit as relevant to audience members who will remember the original as it will be to newcomers, the musical has all the of panache of the screen sensation with a little extra theatrical flair added. Young Frankenstein is scientifically proven, monstrously good entertainment.”

In Brooks’s spoof, the grandson of infamous scientist Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”, he insists), has inherited his family’s castle estate in Transylvania.

Aided and hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor (pronounced “Eye-gore”), leggy lab assistant Inga (pronounced normally), devilishly sexy Frau Blucher (“Neigh”!) and needy fiancée Elizabeth (“Surprise”!), Frederick finds himself filling the mad scientist shoes of his ancestor.

After initial reluctance, his mission will be to strive to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life. “It’s alive!”, he exclaims as his experiment yields a creature to rival his grandfather’s monster. Eventually, and inevitably, this new monster escapes.

Working in tandem with Thomas Meehan, Brooks gleefully reanimates his horror-movie send-up of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, with even more jokes, set-pieces and barnstorming parody songs that stick a pitchfork into good taste. Among those songs will be Puttin’ On The Ritz, Please Don’t Touch Me, He Vas My Boyfriend, The Transylvania Mania and There Is Nothing Like A Brain!, among many more Transylvanian smash hits.

Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jack Hooper’s Igor

Leading Pick Me Up’s cast will be former world squash champion James Willstrop, continuing his transfer from court to stage player as Dr Frankenstein after his Captain Von Trapp in Pick Me Up’s The Sound Of Music at Theatre@41, Monkgate, last Christmas.

Starring opposite him again will be Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson (Maria in The Sound Of Music), here cast as Inga, while Jack Hooper, Mr Poppy in York Stage’s Nativity! The Musical in November 2022, will be Dr Frankenstein’s puppy dog of an assistant, Igor, “the classic Hammer Horror sidekick with a hump that keeps moving around”.

Helen Spencer (Mother Abbess in The Sound Of Music and Dolly Levi in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Hello, Dolly!) will play Frau Blucher, “the very stern housekeeper with surprising hidden depths”; Jennie Wogan-Wells, the Narrator in York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last May, will be ingenue Elizabeth Benning, Frankenstein’s fiancée from America. “Think Legally Blonde,” says Helen. “Very conscious of her image; very high maintenance, throwing a spanner in the works when she turns up.”

Craig Kirby (Tom Oakley in Pick Me Up’s Goodnight Mr Tom) will be in Monster mode and further roles will go to Tom Riddolls as Sgt Kemp, Sam Steel as Bertram Bartam and Andrew Isherwood, fresh from directing Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None for Pick Me Up last September, can be spotted as The Hermit as well as directing.

Rivals for Dr Frankenstein’s affections: Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning, left, and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga

A supporting ensemble will play Transylvanians, students and more besides. Choreography is by Ilana Weets and the orchestra will be led by musical maestro Sam Johnson.

Readman had to call off Pick Me Up’s Halloween double bill of Emma Reeves and Lucy Potter’s The Worst Witch and Young Frankenstein at the Grand Opera House due to unforeseen circumstances. It has not been possible to re-mount Rosy Rowley’s production of The Worst Witch, featuring a young cast, but Young Frankenstein will take over the JoRo slot allocated originally to Pick Me Up’s now jettisoned production of Chicago, whose principal casting was in place, but whose rehearsals were yet to start.

Helen Spencer is relishing the resumption of rehearsals for Young Frankenstein. “Ilana had already put us through a huge amount of tap-dancing work:  a very delayed return to tap in my case, having not done it since school, and she’s been very patient,” she says. “We’re having such fun again.

“Young Frankenstein is very silly with some brilliant numbers and really vibrant comedy, and we’re very lucky to have such amazing actors. Robert says it’s the best principal cast he could have wished for, such a safe pair of hands and so skilled that it would have been such a shame not to have done it. Thankfully we’re going ahead in January.”

Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 31 to February 3 2024, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

NEWSFLASHES…Curtains…The Hollywood Sisters…Joseph Rowntree Theatre Musical Theatre Awards…Musicals In The Multiverse…

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members for Curtains poke their heads out from beneath the JoRo curtain, which will fom part of the musical mystery whodunit’s set in February, along with the auditorium at large

JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company’s next show will be Curtains, the 2007 Broadway musical mystery comedy with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander and additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes.

What’s the plot? Boston’s Colonial Theatre is host to the opening night performance of a new musical in 1959. When the leading lady – a fading Hollywood star and diva, who has no right to be one – dies mysteriously on stage, the entire cast and crew are suspects.

Enter a local detective – and musical theatre fan to boot – who tries to save the show, solve the case, and maybe even find love before the show reopens, all without being killed.

Delightful characters, a witty and charming script and glorious tunes await you from February 7 to 10 at 7.30pm nightly plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee. In the cast will be Steven Jobson, Jennifer Jones, Jennie Wogan-Wells, Rosy Rowley, Jonathan Wells, Paul Blenkiron, Ben Huntley, Jennifer Payne, Anthony Gardner, Chris Gibson and Jamie Benson, among others.

Proceeds from ticket sales on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk will go to the JoRo.

The Hollywood Sisters: from left, Helen Spencer, Henrietta Linnemann, Rachel Higgs and Cat Foster

AFTER raising £1,000 for York Mind at their sold-out December 1 concert at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York close-harmony quartet The Hollywood Sisters – Helen Spencer, Cat Foster, Rachel Higgs and Henrietta Linnemann – will return there for another charity Christmas show with special guests next December. Watch this space for further details.

THE inaugural Joseph Rowntree Theatre Musical Theatre Awards will be launched formally in January. Watch this space.

Set up by the JoRo, the awards will run annually. “We’ve put out requests to all the companies that do full-book musicals in York, not specifically at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre,” says York actress, singer and director Helen Spencer, who is helping to run the awards with co-founder Nick Sephton. “At least seven companies have said they want to be involved.

“The way it works, each company nominates a judge; the judges will get together at the end of the year to decide who the winners are, with such categories as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Choreographer, and then the awards ceremony will be held at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Oscars style, in January.”

Explaining the concept behind the awards, Helen says: “The idea is to celebrate the amazing musical theatre scene we have in York and the amazing community we have that puts on these shows. This is a chance to celebrate all that creativity in our city.”

Scarlett Rowley in the first edition of Musicals In The Multverse at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in June 2023

TO quote CharlesHutchPress, from the June 30 review, “Musicals In The Multiverse turns out to be out of this world. A sequel will surely follow.”

Happy to report that this Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company revue will return to the JoRo in June 2024, dates yet to be confirmed.

Directed by Helen Spencer, the show’s modus operandi is “playful, radical too, and has the potential to be rolled out again,” as CharlesHutchPress wrote of June’s inaugural two-night run.

“Imagine alternative worlds – a multiverse – where musical favourites take on a new life with a change of gender, era, key or musical style, arranged with glee, joy and flourish after flourish by musical director Matthew Peter Clare for his smart band”. More details of the sequel will follow.

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Sat ****

And then there were ten: standing, Mark Simmonds, left, Martyn Hunter, Mike Hickman, Andrew Roberts, Ian Giles, Rory Mulvihill and Andrew Isherwood; seated, Jeanette Hunter, left, Florence Poskitt and Jessica Murray, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s And Then There Were None

NOT to be mistaken for Lucy Bailey’s “21st century reinvention” of Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel, bound for the Grand Opera House in November, this is the first of three Pick Me Up productions, made in York, one per month, this autumn.

For the record, Pick Me Up producer Robert Readman secured the rights for staging And Then There Were None before the Fiery Angel, ROYO and Royal & Derngate co-production emerged over the horizon.

He had put in place an autumn season to show off all the talents at Pick Me Up’s disposal: experienced hands for the “straight play”, Christie’s posh house party thriller; blossoming youths in The Worst Witch in late-October, and musical comedy exponents in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein the following week.

Readman is a Christie aficionado – he could pick her as his specialist subject for Mastermind – but decided to spread the directorial workload for the season ahead, having already cast And Then There Were None before the handing the reins to cast member Andrew Isherwood to steer a film noir-style nail biter.

Law and order: Rory Mulvihill’s judge, Sir Lawrence Wargrave, left, and Andrew Isherwood’s Detective William Henry Blore

Readman will direct Young Frankenstein, preceded by Rosy Rowley overseeing The Worst Witch, but his creativity is at play in And Then There Were None too in his design for a Christie murder mystery set in 1939 with Europe on the brink of war.

Christie had talked of a bleak house that should feel like it had long been empty, furnished but stark and unwelcoming. Readman, with his collector’s eye for acquiring props, furniture, costumes and more besides at his Chicken Sheds warehouse in Bubwith, delivers the period look to the T. 

Furniture from a friend’s house move, tick. A redundant fireplace from another friend’s refurb, tick. The glass-framed doors from York Theatre Royal’s production of Private Lives, tick. The ten little soldier boy models, from Readman’s research, tick. An Ercol chair from the Readman family stock, tick.

He assembles them on an end-on/side on set that dominates the Theatre@41 black box, deliberately so to give Isherwood’s production an oppressive, claustrophobic air. There will be no escape from Soldier Island, off the Devon Coast, for the eight house guests, butler and his housekeeper wife, assembled there at the intriguing invitation of a certain Mr and Mrs U N Owen (whose identity and whereabouts shall indeed remain unknown).

Passing judgement: Jessica Murray’s Emily Brent vents her spleen at Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythorne in And Then There Were None

One by one, they are introduced to the audience, first the husband-and-wife staff Rogers and Mrs Rogers, played by husband-and-wife Martyn and Jeanette Hunter, Martyn delightfully understated, Jeanette gone, spoiler alert, all too soon.

Not before Rogers follows instructions to play a sternly delivered recording that declares all of them to have a wicked past and a secret destined to seal their fate, each being marked for murder.

As the weather turns thunderous, cutting the island rock off from the mainland, let the bloodbath begin, the toy soldiers disappearing one by one with each murder, in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme on display above the mantelpiece.

Andrew Roberts has a cameo, West Country accent and all as Fred Narracott, delivering the guests to the island, before re-emerging as spiffing, fast-living, flippant Anthony Marston. Florence Poskitt’s outwardly level-headed but on-edge Vera Claythorne is welcoming guests on the Owens’ behalf; Mike Hickman’s devil-may-care Captain Philip Lombard likes to be seen keeping spirits up and his spirit intake up even higher.

What the butler saw or did he? Martyn Hunter’s Rogers and Jeanette Hunter’s Mrs Rogers in And Then There Were None

Andrew Isherwood soon sheds the dodgy accent of his cover as a wealthy South African, Davis, to be revealed as retired Detective William Henry Blore.

Ian Giles’s old boy, General MacKenzie, appears to be losing his marbles; Jessica Murray’s disapproving religious zealot Emily Brent knits feverishly, and Mark Simmonds’ Dr Armstrong is as earnest as brown bread.

Rory Mulvihill’s Sir Lawrence Wargrave is wont to dominate, a judge by profession, with a  permanent black-cap countenance and a voice that commands the stage and those around him alike.

Isherwood’s direction skilfully steers a path through dark humour, heightened tensions and chilling revelations, capturing Christie’s scathing dismissal of so many restrictive institutions, and his cast applies both light and increasing shade. 

Ian Giles’s General MacKenzie holds forth in And Then There Were None as Florence Poskitt’s Vera Claythone looks on quizzically

Hickman’s mysterious Lombard is particularly good at keeping up a front; Poskitt may be associated with wide-eyed, squishy faced comedy but here delves into disturbing inner turmoil, a revelation that affirms she should not be pigeonholed.

Mulvihill, latterly flourishing in diverse roles beyond his musical theatre leading-man prowess, is in terrific form once more, his grave Wargrave judging everyone to damnation.  

Will Nicholson and Adam Coggin’s lighting blends in just right with each scene’s tone and Readman’s scenery in Isherwood’s engrossing production that benefits from one other Readman decision: replacing the play’s happier ending with the novel’s original darker denouement, with permission from the Christie estate. Right again, Robert.

Performances: 7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Pick Me Up Theatre’s poster artwork for And Then There Were None