DARKNESS and light, American and Scottish singers, Yorkshire brass players and a York comedian will draw the crowds in the week ahead, advises Charles Hutchinson.
Light show of the week: Doubletake Projections’ Colour and Light, York Minster, 6pm to 9pm nightly until February 23
DOUBLETAKE Projections are using projection mapping to re-imagine the facade of York Minster’s South Transept in a free public show visible from the South Piazza.
Brought to the city by the York BID (Business Improvement District) to illuminate the cathedral during winter’s dark nights, this immersive digital experience is running on an eight-minute loop. Viewers are invited to stay for as many showings as they wish. No booking is required.
In addition to paying homage to the cathedral’s construction and incorporating nods to local history, York Minster’s medieval stained glass is in the spotlight. Collaged compositions of biblical stories told through the glass is being animated and beamed onto the towering transept walls, shining a new light on the medieval window illustrations.
Using animation techniques and styles, the after-dark projection show showcases elements of the rich historical archives in a new way while emphasising the grandeur and ornate detail of York Minster’s architecture.
Dark show of the week: York Light Opera Company in Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to March 4, 7.30pm, except February 26; 2.30pm, February 25 and March 4
YORK Light return to York Theatre Royal for a 70th anniversary production of “one of the darkest musicals ever written”, Stephen Sondheim’s noir thriller Sweeney Todd, directed by Martyn Knight with musical direction by Paul Laidlaw.
Neil Wood plays the Georgian-era misanthropic barber who returns home to London after 15 years in exile, seeking vengeance on the corrupt judge (Craig Kirby) who ruined his life. The road to revenge leads him to open new tonsorial premises above the failing pie shop run by Mrs Lovett (Julie-Anne Smith). Cue a very tasty meaty new ingredient to boost sales in this now cutthroat business. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Fundraiser of the week: York Brass Against Cancer 2, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 2.30pm
YORK’S Shepherd Group Brass Band joins up with West Yorkshire’s world famous Black Dyke Band for a charity collaboration in aid of York Against Cancer. BBC Radio Leeds presenter David Hoyle hosts this two-hour concert. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
California calling: Belinda Carlisle, The Decades Tour, York Barbican, Monday, 7.30pm
NOW living in Bangkok and once the lead vocalist of The Go-Gos, “the most successful all-female rock band of all time”, Los Angelean Belinda Carlisle, 64, has enjoyed chart-topping solo success too with Heaven Is A Place On Earth.
At a gig rearranged from October 2021, hopefully The Decades Tour set list will be taking in Runaway Horses, I Get Weak, Circle In The Sand, Leave A Light On, Summer Rain, (We Want) The Same Thing, Live Your Life Be Free, In Too Deep and Always Breaking My Heart from her eight studio albums. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Storyteller of the week: Suzanne Vega, An Intimate Evening Of Songs And Stories, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm
2022 Glastonbury acoustic stage headliner Suzanne Vega, 63, plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire show of the New York singer-songwriter’s 14-date tour.
Emerging from the Greenwich Village folk revival scene of the 1980s, Vega has brought succinct, insightful storytelling to songs of city life, ordinary people and social culture. Her support act will be Tufnell Park folk singer and traditional song archivist Sam Lee. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton, The Crowd Show, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 24 (Burning Duck Comedy Club) , 8pm, sold out; Pocklington Arts Centre, May 27, 8pm; Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm
CHARMINGLY offbeat York poet, stand-up comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home from London on his 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour. Next Friday’s show is crowded out already but space is available at his Pocklington and Leeds gigs.
After his philosophical observations on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”. Box office: Pocklington, 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk; Leeds, hydeparkbookclub.co.uk.
Doing her Nut: KT Tunstall, York Barbican, February 24, 8pm
SCOTTISH singer-songwriter KT Tunstall returns to York on Friday for the first time since she lit up the Barbican on Bonfire Night in 2016. In her line-up will be Razorlight’s Andy Burrows, on drum duty after opening the gig with his own set.
The BRIT Award winner and Grammy nominee from Edinburgh will be showcasing songs from her seventh studio album, last September’s Nut, the conclusion to her “soul, body and mind” trilogy after 2016’s Kin and 2018’s Wax. Box office: kttunstall.com and yorkbarbican.co.uk.
You should walk 500 miles for: Central Hall Musical Society in Sunshine On Leith, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 23 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
SUNSINE On Leith, aka “the Proclaimers’ musical”, is a tale of love; love for family, love for friends, love for romantic partners and love for our homes, as one tight-knit family, and the three couples bound to it, experience the joys and heartache that punctuate all relationships.
Secrets will be revealed, relationships made and lost and broken hearts mended once more, all while singing the songs of Charlie and Craig Reid in this student production by the University of York’s musical theatre society, directed by Romilly Swingler. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
