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How Anna made career moove to play a talking panto cow at York Theatre Royal

Mooving and grooving: Anna Soden’s Dave the Talking Cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

YORK actress, musician, comedian and writer Anna Soden is playing not only Dave the Talking Cow but Dave the Trumpet-Playing Cow too in the Walking On Sunshine finale to Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal.

“Acting comes first; I trained in straight acting at Mountview [in Peckham, London], but I’ve explored writing and music and comedy too,” says Anna, on her return to her home-city pantomime after starring as a rapping, funky, blue and pink-haired, multi-tasking Fairy, more likely to hit the bass line than wave a wand, in The Travelling Pantomime, toured by York Theatre Royal to community venues in the Covid winter of 2020.

“I play bass guitar and trumpet mostly and love it when I can incorporate singing or playing instruments into a job, and it’s ace to put on my own work, but I’m an actor first and foremost.”

In a first for the Theatre Royal pantomime, Patricia the cow, with its front and rear-end actors, fluttering eyes and nodding head, has made way for Anna’s Dave, the female Friesian with the male name and plenty to say, delivered not so much on the hoof as upright on two hooves in a pantomime variation on the “Four legs, two legs better”mantra in Orwell’s Animal Farm.

“I’m playing the front and back because of the cost-of living crisis” says Anna. “There were whispering throughout the year that they needed someone who would dress up as a cow. I think Hayley [choreographer Hayley Del Harrison] was thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be fun if Anna played it’, and hopefully it’s exactly that – fun – and not, ‘oh, that woman’s having a mental breakdown!”

Before attending the pantomime launch in September, she had been expecting to play Caroline the Cow. “To be honest, I had no idea [about the role]; I hadn’t read the script. I just heard ‘cow’, and that I’d be working again with Juliet [director Juliet Forster], Hayley and Robin [dame Robin Simpson], and my new pal James Mackenzie [after doing CBeebies’ Shakespeare together], and I thought, that sounds fun and said ‘yes’,” recalls Anna.

Anna Soden’s Dave the Talking Cow with James Mackenzie’s villain, Luke Backinanger, left, Giant Blunderbore, right, and surly teenage son Darren in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

“But big news, I’m going to be Dave the Talking Cow,” she announced that day. How did she react to writer Paul Hendy’s change of plan? “In terms of my panto career, Dave the Talking Cow is a big step forward! I feel like going from a Genie to a talking cow is a progression: it’s a great career moove!

“My first pantomime was the rock’n’roll panto at Liverpool Everyman, where everyone played instruments, It was Sleeping Beauty and I was the fairy and got to fly – and sing Golden Slumbers, a Beatles song, in Liverpool!

“Then I did Chipping Norton; they have a brilliant traditional show there, with original songs. I played a Boy Scout and a Weasel in Rapunzel – you know, the famous weasel in Rapunzel! – and that was gloriously silly. Last year I was at Derby Arena, which was a totally different vibe again, as it was massive! I played the Genie and a lot of other roles in Aladdin; it was a spectacle, I had a ball! Every city and town does panto so differently, so it’s really interesting experiencing them all.”

None was more “interesting” than the one-off Travelling Pantomime tour under Covid rules in York. “It was a really special thing. It kind of felt like a fever dream; it was a little explosion of glitter in an apocalypse,” says Anna. “Working in that cast of five with a skeleton creative team was a unique bonding experience. I really made such dear friends on that show, and I’m so happy to be reunited with lovely Robin [Simpson] this year.

“Performing on that little pop-up stage, our dressing rooms being disabled toilets or storage cupboards, touring to hotels, schools, churches, village halls… it felt like a really gorgeous way to do panto. It was bursting with a sense of community and local identity. I’d love to see more theatre being made like that, not just when there’s a deadly pandemic (although I’ll take a dressing room over a disabled toilet this year).”

Raised in York, Anna cut her stage teeth over a decade of York Youth Theatre shows. “I was in the young people’s ensemble for loads of York Theatre Royal shows growing up, including The Railway Children twice, The Wind In The Willows, Peter Pan and King Arthur, and the Cinderella pantomime in 2006,” she says.

Anna Soden’s bass guitar-playing funky Fairy in York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime in 2020. Picture: Anthony Robling

“I moved away at 18, so it’s lovely to sporadically come home to York Theatre Royal. In the pandemic, the theatre partnered with me, with the support of Arts Council England, to make my one-person family adaptation of Five Children And It, set on Scarborough beach.”

Presented in association with Scarborough community producing company Arcade, this collaboration marked the formation of Anna’s theatre-making company, Strawberry Lion, whose online premiere of her storytelling, puppetry and musical account of E Nesbit’s 1902 children’s novel was streamed on Explore York libraries’ You Tube channel in April 2021.

As well as playing Feste in CBeebies’ Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, with Theatre Royal panto villain James Mackenzie as Duke Orsino and choreography by Hayley Del Harrison, Anna has taken to making “stupid videos”.

“I love to make online sketches,” she says. “Digital comedy is at a really exciting place where it’s so easily accessed, so I make a lot of silly stuff for TikTok and Instagram. It’s also easier than persuading the BBC to give me my own sketch show/sitcom.

“I’ve started doing stand-up comedy, mostly gigging in Brighton and London, which I’m loving, but making video sketches is my favourite format. They are very stupid but I did win the British Comedy Guide sketch competition last year, and Harry Hill said they were ‘very funny’, so there’s definitely merit in stupid!

“My comedy is pretty absurd, more alternative, but not particularly child-friendly! All my digital comedy is not necessarily rude but quite scary. I’ll be interested to see if the kids like a talking panto cow!”

Anna Soden in rehearsal for her adaptation of E Nesbit’s Five Children And It

Since graduating from Mountview in 2017, Anna has spent only the Covid Christmas of 2020 at home in York. “That was lovely but keeping sopcially distanced of course, but it’s part of an actor’s job that you work at Christmas and won’t be at home, so it’s great that this Christmas I get to see my family” says Anna.

“It’s also super exciting to be performing at York Theatre Royal because I used to chaperone here while I was at training at drama school, when I was doing my serious roles and played Juliet twice.

“When I graduated, I thought, ‘that’s enough for me, I’m going to be silly now’, but if you’d said back then I’d be playing a talking pantomime cow…”

Jack And The Beanstalk, co-produced by Evolution Productions, runs at York Theatre Royal until January 7 2024. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

One final question for Anna

Do you have any unusual interests or hobbies away from the stage?

“Lying on the floor when it’s about to rain, producing dairy products, eating grass…” she says, slipping into Dave the Talking Cow mode. “…and tarot reading.”

Copyright of The Press, York

“I’m playing the front and back of the cow because of the cost-of living crisis,” jokes Anna
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Let the challenge begin for James Mackenzie as Raven turns into Theatre Royal panto baddie Luke Backinanger

Evil versus good: James Mackenzie’s pantomime villain Luke Backinanger with Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap Fairy in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

GOODIE or baddie. Which is the better to play? Let’s ask James Mackenzie, CBeebies star and now revelling in his role as Luke Backinanger in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk.

“Baddie,” he says. “I’ve been a jobbing actor for 25 years, doing pantomimes where I’ve played everything from Prince Charming to Abanazar. The only roles I haven’t done are the silly billy and the dame, but I’ve always loved playing the baddie, getting the audience to boo you, and getting the kids screaming with a mixture of fear and excitement is priceless. It’s a whole lot of fun.”

It turns out that Scotsman James is keeping it in the family. “The first panto I saw was at the age of four; Babes In The Wood in Inverness. My dad [Michael Mackenzie] is an actor and he was playing the baddie, the Sheriff of Nottingham,” he recalls.

“I loved it! It was a bit strange that my dad was on stage and people were booing him, but I forgot all that as soon as I got asked to come up on the stage to meet the comic. ‘So, what does your Daddy do?’, asked the comic. ‘He works,’ I replied. It got a huge laugh. That was it, I was hooked!”

Doing the zombie dance: James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger and the ensemble in a clash of red and green in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Now Dundee-born James is playing Luke Backinger, a villain with a name that nods to Oasis’s 1996 chart-topper Don’t Look Back In Anger, a name that surely no-one can take seriously? “That’s the point, right? No-one ever really takes a panto baddie too seriously, as they always have to be redeemed by the end and find their inner goodness,” says James. “For this reason, I think Luke is a 7.5 [out of ten] on the baddie scale.

“Traditionally, the baddie in this pantomime is Fleshcreep, but Luke Backinger is a more contemporary take on the baddie’s role, so there’s no Fleshcreep in the show, but Luke still has a baddie bond with the Giant.”

Was it inevitable that James would follow father Michael into the “family business”? “I think it probably was,” he says. “It felt familiar, and to be honest it was the only thing I was really ever good at. I was always adequately academic, however acting and performing was my happy place, the only thing I seemed to excel at. Well, when I say ‘excel’, I mean, I was better than adequate.”

James’s father once auditioned to play James Bond, missing out to George Lazenby for 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. “How cool would it have been to say ‘my dad is James Bond’?! I’d love to play him, absolute career goal. However I think that ship has definitely sailed, and a middle-aged bearded Scotsman is probably not what the Bond producers have in mind for their eponymous hero.”

James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger finds his failed dream career becoming a reality as he belatedly forms a boy band with Matthew Curnier’s Billy, left, Mia Overfield’s Jack Trott and Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott in a glorious send-up in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

Instead, James is most associated with his role as mysterious, leather-clad, immortal warlord Raven in the BAFTA award-winning CBBC show of the same name, but was he a good guy or bad guy? “Oh he was definitely a good guy,” he asserts. “He was there to guide the young warriors, to teach them the path of the good and true, to be a reassuring presence when facing the forces of evil, but he was a stern teacher.”

James once described himself as a “feathery Obi Wan-Kenobi”. “Who wouldn’t want to call themselves that?!” he says. “When Raven was recommissioned in 2017 after a seven-year break, my character was brought back as a guide to the new young Raven. He was there as a sage and a confidante to help the new immortal warrior defeat the forces of evil.”

The 15 series of Raven were screened worldwide. “I still do get recognised for Raven,” says James, who hosted the children’s game show with his catchphrase of “Let the challenge…begin”. “Raven became a bit of a cult with that Lord Of The Rings medieval fantasy vibe, garnering that cult status amongst the late-20 somethings.

“Of course, now I get recognised just as much by little ones for Molly & Mack [the CBeebies drama series  that ran for five seasons from 2018 to 2022 with James ‘Mack’ Mackenzie playing James, Molly and Mack’s father].

James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger in the show poster for York Theatre Royal’s pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk

“The thing that makes me feel really old [he is 44] is when someone says, ‘Oh, I used to watch you in Raven; I loved it. And now my kids love watching you in Molly & Mack’. That’s when my grey hair feels particularly apparent.”

James is working with York choreographer Hayley Del Harrison for the third time this year. “We did CBeebies’ Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, then the CBeebies’ Panto, where I’m playing Alan, the singing squirrel, that really famous character from Robin Hood [showing at cinemas from December 1], and now, of course, the panto here,” he says.

Playing Luke Backinger marks several firsts for James. “This is my first Evolution Productions pantomime, my first time at the Theatre Royal and my first time in York. I’ve only ever been through York when the train stopped at the station. It’s a beautiful place and everyone told me it’s particularly magical at Christmas.”

James retains his Scottish accent for the climate-changing, weather-making villainous Luke. “Quite often it doesn’t feel as though it will be as much fun to use your own accent, as you want to take a part further, and it’s not common to take the Scottish accent south of the border,” he says. “But we felt we would have fun with Luke as a Scottish baddie in a York show.”

James Mackenzie appears in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal until January 7. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Scottish actor James Mackenzie

James Mackenzie: the back story

BEST known for his role as Raven, the children’s game show host in the multi-BAFTA award-winning CBBC series of the same name that first ran from 2002 to 2010 and was re-commissioned from 2017. Garnered cult status over 15 series, filmed in far-flung exotic locations such as India. Aired from Canada to Australia and multiple places in between.

Worked for many theatre companies, including National Theatre of Scotland. Performed all over the UK in everything from Macbeth to Sunshine On Leith The Musical.

Regular role as Gary Trenton in BBC Scotland soap opera River City. Guest appearances in Still Game and Outlander. Introduced to a new generation from 2018 to 2022 in CBeebies series Molly & Mack, playing James.

Takes “immense pleasure” from being part of CBeebies’ Christmas shows for the past few years and performing at Shakespeare’s Globe in CBeebies’ Shakespeare shows. Among the plays was Twelfth Night, playing Duke Orsino, with Jack And The Beanstalk co-star Anna Soden as Feste.

Like most Scottish actors, he has appeared in Taggart more than once!

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Elio Pace to showcase The Billy Joel Songbook in York, Sheffield and Hull gigs

Elio Pace at the piano performing The Billy Joel Songbook

ELIO Pace and his band will present “the greatest love letter ever to the genius that is Billy Joel” at York Barbican on March 27 2024.

Further Yorkshire performances of The Billy Joel Songbook tribute show are booked into Sheffield City Hall for March 26 and Hull City Hall for April 4 on the 18-date British and Irish tour.

Tour tickets will go on sale at 10am on Friday at eliopace.com/tours; York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk or 0114 256 5593; Hull, hulltheatres.co.uk or 01482 300306.

Devised by piano-playing Southampton singer-songwriter, producer and arranger Pace and Matt Daniel-Baker, this homage rounds up more than 30 of Joel’s songs, including The Longest Time, She’s Always A Woman, An Innocent Man, Uptown Girl, Tell Her About It, The River Of Dreams, We Didn’t Start The Fire and Piano Man.

After two sold-out tours, Pace enthuses about next year’s return: “We all get such a buzz touring this show so we absolutely cannot wait to get back out on the road. We have an amazing tour in place, returning to theatres while also visiting some for the first time, and to be starting in my hometown and then ending in London’s West End is going to be pretty incredible.

“The music of Billy Joel is timeless. He is a genius composer and, in my humble opinion, the greatest singer/songwriter of all time. I really do feel humbled that so many people want to see us perform his music.

“We can’t wait to celebrate this incredible music once again and we’ll now look forward to travelling across the country next spring.”

In 2010 Pace was the musical director for BBC Radio 2’s Weekend Wogan, playing as the featured artist on all 35 shows broadcast that year.

He has performed with Brian May, Huey Lewis, Glen Campbell, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Lulu, Mike Rutherford, Don McLean, Tom Chaplin, Debbie Reynolds and Martha Reeves.

His performing skills have taken him to Elstree Studios, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Radio 2’s Elvis Forever, Proms In The Park, The Bitter End in New York and BBC Radio Theatre in London.

In 2013 and 2014 he was invited to “‘fill Billy Joel’s shoes” by appearing in five reunion concerts in the United States with Joel’s original 1971-72 touring band, whereupon Pace embarked on the debut tour of The Billy Joel Songbook.

In 2018 he released the double CD and DVD The Billy Joel Songbook Live; in June 2019 his concert film of The Billy Joel Songbook Live won an award at the 17th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Overall Long Form Music Video in New York City.

In 2019 he released his second live double CD album and DVD within a year, Elio Pace Presents Elvis Presley: The World Premiere, 16 August 2017.

Did you know?

ELIO Pace featured in Sky Sports’ coverage of the 2015 Ashes cricket series between England and Australia with two specially re-written versions of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.

Did you know too?

ELIO Pace has appeared on the BBC children’s show ZingZillas as “the greatest boogie woogie player in the land”, turning him into a household name…“well, at least to every CBeebies-loving under five-year-old and their parents”.

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A-woof! Time to earn your badges as Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show tours York Theatre Royal and Leeds Grand Theatre

Clarke Joseph-Edwards, left, Sarah Palmer, Benedict Hastings, Jane Crawshaw, Vinnie Monachello and Kaidyn Niall Hinds in Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show. Picture: James Watkins

LOVABLE big dog Hey Duggee is touring for the first time, bounding into York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to Sunday.

Best Family Show winner at the 2023 Olivier Awards, Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show features Duggee, the Squirrels and many more favourite characters from the CBeebies series.

Betty wants to make costumes, Happy wants to sing, Tag wants to make music, Norrie wants to dance, Roly wants jelly and they all want you to join them at the Clubhouse.

There is so much to do, but luckily Clubhouse leader Duggee has his theatre badge. Will you get yours too in a show full of puppetry and storytelling, fun, laughs, music, singing and dancing?

Produced by Cuffe & Taylor and Kenny Wax Family Entertainment under licence from BBC Studios, Hey Duggee – The Live Theatre Show will be on stage in York tomorrow at 10.30am and 2pm; Friday, 1pm; Saturday, 10am, 1pm and 3.30pm, and Sunday, 10am and 1pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Here the stage show’s lead creatives, director Matthew Xia and his co-adaptor, musical supervisor and arranger Vikki Stone, discuss how they translated 156 episodes of the hit television series – 18 hours in all – into the all-new, 55-minute, interactive stage show for pre-schoolers.

Matthew Xia, director of Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show

“WHEN the producer, Kenny Wax, first approached me, he said: ‘I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Hey Duggee…’, and I said ‘it’s one of my favourites’,” recalls Matthew (artistic director of the Actors Touring Company, by the way).

“My daughter was born in 2014, the same year Hey Duggee started, so we’ve really grown up with the show.”

By contrast, Vikki had never seen a single episode. “I didn’t know Hey Duggee at all when I was approached. So, I spent a long time getting very closely acquainted with the show and now I love it!” she says.

“I very quickly got pulled into it and caught up in the world of Duggee, the Squirrels and their friends. It’s very funny and full of joy and laughs.

“And I very soon realised how special Hey Duggee is, that it sits in the realm of co-viewing; the adults are watching it with their children, not just putting it on to entertain them while they’re doing something else.”

How did they tackle creating Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show? “The first day, Matthew and I sat in an office and had our own lists of our favourite bits – and we had chosen a lot of the same things,” Vikki explains.

 “Kenny had given us pretty much free rein,” says Matthew. “That also made the challenge even greater. Taking 156 episodes, each one seven minutes long, and turning them into a complete theatrical experience for children.

“Series one and two I knew really well – I’d seen those episodes a lot. Any parent knows what it’s like! So, I kind of knew where the hits were.

“We had to keep the big format of the show, you know – where the Narrator says to the Squirrels ‘Do you know what time it is?’. That’s the start of the adventure, and that had to be the same on stage.”

Matthew and Vikki have a wealth of experience between them as co-adaptors. As well as working in theatre, Matthew was known as DJ Excalibah and was in the original line-up on BBC Radio 1Xtra, as well as DJing for the London Paralympic Games opening ceremony.

Alongside her work as a composer and musician, Vikki is a stand-up comedian. She made history last year as the first female musical director of a house band on British television in more than 20 years with her appearance on ITV’s Romeo And Duet.

Matthew and Vikki have worked closely with the CBeebies show’s creator, Grant Orchard, and the rest of the team behind Hey Duggee at Studio AKA, to create the live experience.

“It has been really interesting working alongside the Hey Duggee TV team,” says Vikki. “Duggee is effectively Grant’s baby. They are new to theatre and are amazed at what we can do that TV can’t, or how we translate things from TV into a live setting.

“With the animated series, the script has to be locked in and cannot be altered from that point. The dialogue is recorded, and then it’s animated to fit. Whereas, in theatre it’s almost the opposite – we can tweak the script all the way through the process.”

What can fans of Hey Duggee expect from the live theatre show? “We had to think about what an audience member would want and expect to see from Hey Duggee on stage. Badges, songs, jokes, in-gags. It’s all there,” says Vikki.

Jane Crawshaw, left, Sarah Palmer, Kaidyn Niall Hinds, Clarke Joseph-Edwards, Vinnie Monachello and Benedict Hastings in Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show. Picture: James Watkins

“Essentially, we have created a big quest story,” adds Matthew. “The Narrator’s voice has been really important, it’s that big question setting up each episode: ‘Hey, Duggee, what are you doing?’.

“Without spoiling it, the Squirrels have never been to a show before, and they set out to learn about all the things that go into making a show and earn the relevant badges.

“We’ve brought in some of our favourite Hey Duggee stars to help the Squirrels – Mrs Weaver, Hennie and Chew Chew, who I can mention, as well as several more that I can’t…

“And the children and families in the audience are very much going to be part of the Squirrel gang. They will have important things to do!”

Some of the biggest moments in Hey Duggee have been marked by music. “We were spoilt for choice with the songs!” says Vikki. “I wanted to treat Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show as a musical, where the songs could move the story along – and the songs we’ve pulled from the TV series do that brilliantly.

“We’ve taken those songs, added harmonies and dance breaks, made them longer, done all the things which would make them work for stage rather than TV. And there is a brand-new song, unique to the stage show, which is just fantastic.”

Since the tour was first announced in June 2022, a further 13 venues – and more than 100 shows – have been added to the schedule, such is the popularity of the CBeebies show.

What makes Hey Duggee so popular, Matthew? “There are so many brilliant references in it, for the adults, and then this exceptionally strong look and style that’s so instantly recognisable,” he says.

“When adults enjoy a kids’ programme, that’s a very sweet spot to hit. Hey Duggee as a TV show is just so playful. It’s really non-judgemental in a most beautiful way – just as children are.”

Vikki adds: “There’s a lot of activity in the Duggee world that just exists, with the wonderfully subtle light touch. You know, Happy is a crocodile and his parents are elephants.

“You see that in the show’s titles, and straight from the off it is subtly stating that families come in all shapes. But there’s never any question or issue made of it.

“There’s so much social commentary within the show, but it all just ‘is’. The modes of transport that the Squirrels come to the Clubhouse in, where they travel from, it’s all there but without any fuss.

“The TV show is just so brilliantly inclusive, without being virtue signalling – and that’s a beautiful thing for children and families.”

Have they felt pressure in re-creating such a well-loved TV show? “I do feel slightly petrified of letting people down as Hey Duggee is such a very special TV programme,” says Matthew. “It’s a huge responsibility to take such well-known characters and to meet all the expectations.

“Added to that, for many of the children coming to Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, it will be their first theatrical experience. How exciting is that? I can’t wait to see the children’s responses – that’s why I make theatre, to see the effect it has on audiences.

“The biggest thing I want to achieve, though, is that children leave the theatre and say ‘I can’t wait to go back’.”

Vikki Stone: Musiocal supervisor and arranger for Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show

Quickfire questions for Matthew Xia and Vikki Stone

What is your favourite Hey Duggee moment?

Matthew: “In The Super Squirrel Badge, the Squirrels are naming their superhero characters. Norrie says something like ‘Super Mouse’ or ‘Fast Mouse’, and the Squirrels all look to Roly, who doesn’t quite get it (as he often doesn’t), and say ‘What’s yours, Roly?’.

“He says ‘Roly’, and they say ‘No, you need a different name’. Roly punches the air and shouts ‘Steven’! It’s just so simple, so typical of the character, and so funny.”

Vikki: “I love eggs, so The Omelette Badge and The Egg Badge both really hit the mark for me. And you might find some reference to them in the stage show…”

Who is your favourite Hey Duggee character?

Matthew: “I love Roly. He’s a lot of fun, full of energy and slightly louder than everyone else.”

Vikki: “A lot of the secondary characters. Mrs Weaver, Hennie and Chew Chew are brilliant, so I’ve loved working them into the show. And then there are characters like Mr and Mr Crab just woven into it and existing with no commentary that they are two males.”

Which Hey Duggee character are you most like?

Matthew: “I’m torn between Roly and Betty. Roly reminds me of myself. At the same time, I can be quite like Betty too, in my introverted side, with my head in a book trying to understand the universe.”

Vikki: “Roly. I get easily excited and I like to shout.”

Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show also plays Leeds Grand Theatre, July 19 to 22, 10am and 1pm.  Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

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Raven alert! CBeebies’ James Mackenzie to play the villain in York Theatre Royal pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk

On the dark side: James Mackenzie, alias CBeebies’ Raven, is to play the villain in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk

JAMES Mackenzie follows in the CBeebies’ footsteps of Maddie Moate last winter and Andy Day in 2021 in being signed up for the York Theatre Royal pantomime.

The Scottish actor and game show host, 44, will play the villainous Luke Backinanger in the “Fe-Fi-Fo-Fun family pantomime” Jack And The Beanstalkfrom December 8 2023 to January 7 2024.

Moate appeared as Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, preceded by Day’s Dandini in Cinderella.

Mackenzie will turn to the dark side in the fourth panto collaboration between the Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions, having played the immortal, leather-clad warrior in CBBC’s fantasy adventure game show Raven. 

James Mackenzie: “Strutting his stuff as the bad boy of panto” at York Theatre Royal this winter

He was the original lead character in the multi-Bafta award-winning show Raven from 2002 to 2010. This mysterious warlord led young warriors on a quest to test their skills and win their heart’s desire in a show that garnered cult status, spanning 15 series filmed in far-flung exotic locations such as India. Its popularity saw it air from Canada to Australia and places aplenty in between.

Mackenzie has worked for many theatre companies, such as the National Theatre of Scotland, and has performed all over Britain in everything from Macbeth to the Proclaimers’ musical Sunshine On Leith. He has been a regular in BBC Scotland’s soap opera River City and made guest appearances in Still Game and Outlander.

Over the past few years, he has been introduced to a new CBeebies’ generation as James in Molly And Mack. He has been part of the CBeebies Christmas shows and performed on stage at Shakespeare’s  Globe for CBeebies Shakespeare. Like most Scottish actors, he has appeared in Taggart more than once.

Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, who will be directing Jack And The Beanstalk, says: “We are delighted to welcome James Mackenzie to the cast for this year’s panto.  James is such a well-loved children’s TV personality and we can’t wait to see him strut his stuff as the bad boy of panto.”

Robin Simpson: Returning to the dame’s role in Jack And The Beanstalk

Mackenzie will perform alongside the already announced Robin Simpson in his fourth Theatre Royal panto. Simpson played the dame in The Travelling Pantomime in 2020, the British Pantomime Award-nominated Ugly Sister Manky in Cinderella in 2021 and Mrs Smee in All New Adventures of Peter Pan last winter.

He will be on dame duty in Jack And The Beanstalk, with further casting to be announced for a show that promises “stunning sets, lavish costumes, breath-taking special effects and lots of pantomime magic”.

Evolution’s co-founder Paul Hendy is writing the script once more, as he did for the past three pantos.  

Tickets are “proving popular”, with a special family ticket offer available for all performances: £75 for bookings with three tickets, including at least one adult and one child, saving up to £52, or £100 for bookings with four tickets, including at least one adult and one child, saving up to £68. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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After CBeebies’ Romeo And Juliet, Alex Phelps and Juliet Forster reunite for Around The World In 80 Days circus escapades

On your bike: Alex Phelps, front, in rehearsal for his dual roles as the Ringmaster and Phileas Fogg in Around The World In 80 Days

TILTED Wig are teaming up with York Theatre Royal for a nationwide tour of Around The World In 80 Days – in 171 days, to be precise – after a month of rehearsals in York.

Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s first toured all four corners of York in August 23 days in 2021, not in a hot-air balloon, but on a trailer, in the tradition of travelling players going from town to town.

Forster’s circus-themed production played four York playing fields – Carr Junior School, Copmanthorpe Primary School, Archbishop Holgate’s School and Joseph Rowntree School – followed by a last stop, back indoors, at the Theatre Royal, where producers Tilted Wig’s new tour of England, Scotland and Wales will open from Thursday to Saturday.

In Forster’s version, Verne’s original characters are transformed, embracing different modes of transport in Phileas Fogg’s fictional frantic race to travel around the world in 80 days.

One original cast member, New Zealander Eddie Mann’s sharp-witted Knife Thrower and Detective Fix, will be joined by Alex Phelps’s resolute Ringmaster and unscrupulous Fogg; actor-puppeteer Katriona Brown’s Acrobat and real-life globe-traveller Nellie Bly; Wilson Benedito’s Clown and Passepartout and Genevieve Sabherwal’s Trick Rider and Aouda.

Around The World In 80 Days director Juliet Forster

Phelps had first made an impression on Forster when playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek with such brio in Joyce Branagh’s Jazz Age take on Twelfth Night for Shakespeare Rose Theatre in York in June 2019.

“That was the first time I’d seen Alex performing, though we’d met at Theatre By The Lake, and I was really keen to consider Alex for the role of Phileas Fogg last time around in 2021, when there were only two names I wanted on my list: Alex and Emilio (Iannucci), but Alex was already committed to doing Justin’s House for CBeebies.”

This time around, Emilio decided not to do the tour, much as he would have like to do so, opening the door for Alex.

“I was doing the CBeebies’ Christmas show when Juliet contacted me, and had a Zoom meeting with her while I was in the dressing room for Dick Whittington And His Cat,” he recalls. “I managed to find a quiet little corner where the wi-fi worked, while everyone wondered what was going on!”

And so, as fate would decree, Juliet has ended up working with both her preferred picks for Fogg.  “It does feel like it was meant to happen this way,” she says. “It’s not that you have to typecast a particular role, but there is something about the essential nature, or spirit, of a person that sits right with the role, and that was the case with both Emilio and Alex.

Alex Phelps: Actor noted for his comic skills of physicality and playfulness

“One of my strengths as a director is how I cast and I do a lot of work through the casting process, where interpretation of a character is a big part of that, and if someone is not quite aligned with my thinking…

“But Alex is completely right for it. Playfulness is really important in this role, and I would find it hard to work with someone who didn’t want to be playful, which also brings out the truthfulness.”

Alex concurs: “It’s an important element that can be overlooked, but you’re putting on a play that’s all about ‘playing’. Like two people playing tennis, you’re on either side of the net, and the other person has to hit it back.

“The audience are ahead of the cast – the circus performers playing Verne’s characters – where they know the goal is to complete the journey in 80 days, so the excitement is: how will they get there in that time?

“It’s a comedy, and I really believe great comedy has to tread the razor’s edge of great tragedy, as it does in Aguecheek’s case too, where’s it all very tragic for Aguecheek but very funny for the audience.”

Alex has been studying Buster Keaton for his latest role. “I’ve gone back to his films for Fogg because what he’s so good at is how his face never changes, but all his physical expression comes through his body and that tells the audience everything they need to know,” he says.

Alex Phelps’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek, back row, centre, with Cassie Vallance’s Fabian and Fine Time Fontayne’s Sir Toby Belch, winding up Claire Storey’s Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s Twelfth Night in York in 2019. Picture: Charlotte Graham

Juliet and Alex have worked together before, joining forces when she directed CBeebies’ version of Romeo And Juliet, recorded under lockdown restrictions. “Having seen how funny he is physically as an actor and knowing what a genuinely lovely person he is, I kept nagging the CBeebies’ producer to cast Alex as Mercutio, which was going to be a small role but needed someone who would fill it with personality immediately,” she says.

“Under Covid conditions, we had proximity devices to stop you getting within two metres of each other, lunch was at separate tables; everyone had to be completely separate  at the hotel.

“It was difficult not to want to direct close-up, and you could only be close to someone for a maximum of 15 minutes in a day, but none of us got Covid, so maybe it was the best way to work, even if it was a bizarre experience.”

Alex would go on to do more CBeebies’ shows, not least being asked to join Justin Fletcher’s Mr Tumble in Justin’s House and making Christmas specials.

Now it is time for his playful Phileas Fogg to fly under Juliet’s direction.

Tilted Wig and York Theatre Royal present Around The World In 80 Days at York Theatre Royal on Thursday, 2pm and 7.30pm, Friday, 7.30pm, and Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Also: Cast, Doncaster, July 5 to 8; castdoncaster.com. Age guidance: five plus.

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REVIEW: All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, York Theatre Royal, until January 2 2203 ****

Hook, line and singer: Paul Hawkyard’s Captain Hook in his big nuumber in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. All pictures: Pamela Raith

York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present All New Adventures Of Peter Pan at York Theatre Royal. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk 

THE show title signifies changes afoot and freshness, but York Theatre Royal knows continuity is important too.

In the third year of the pantomime partnership with Evolution Productions – with a fourth year already rubber stamped for Jack And The Beanstalk next winter – Juliet Forster remains the director, Paul Hendy, the writer, and Hayley Del Harrison, the choreographer.

Children’s favourite Faye Campbell returns too, alongside the double-the-trouble double act of Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson, Cinderella’s award-nominated Ugly Sisters last year and now villainous Captain Hook and dame Mrs Smee respectively.

Ship-shape and bristling fashion: Robin Simpson’s dame, Mrs Smee

Having a CBeebies TV presenter to the fore last year in Andy Day proved a hit, and so science whizz Maddie Moate fronts the poster and flyer campaign this time as a feisty, fearless, even fractious Tinkerbell.

What’s new? The story for a start, still rooted in JM Barrie, but for the next generation. Wendy Darling is now Wendy Sweet (Theatre Royal newcomer Francesca Benton-Stace), mum to single-minded Elizabeth (Campbell), who craves her own flight to Neverland with Peter Pan (Jason Battersby). Elizabeth is more of a feminist, never attracted to Peter in the way Wendy was, but very much a dab hand at the “Lizzie Mother” role to the Lost Boys and Lost Girls.

There’s a new Newfoundland nanny dog in the house too, Nana being replaced by Minton, who leaves a mark on the show in more than one way. Naughty, Minton.

The father of the house, Hawkyard’s Mr Sweet, still turns into Captain Hook; Simpson’s dame makes a rather smaller leap for pantokind from home help Mrs Smee to Hook’s henchperson Mrs Smee. Likewise, Jonny Weldon, actor since childhood and social media comedy-sketch phenomenon since Covid lockdowns, switches from butler Mr Starkey to Hook’s other henchman, Starkey.

Balancing act: The Black Diamonds in acrobatic mode in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan

The double act becomes a mischief-making trio, Hawkyard’s dandy, intemperate Hook still ridiculously vainglorious but the butt of multiple jokes as shock-haired cheeky chappy Weedon and Simpson’s savvy dame conduct a pun fight to the last.

Oh, how writer Paul Hendy loves a pun, no matter how convoluted the set-up, and when it is combined with visual gags in a fish-name routine, reprising the magazine-title routine from 2020’s Travelling Pantomime, the jokes really get their skates on, faster, funnier, fishier.

Act One hits its stride amid the mayhem of Hawkyard, Simpson and Weldon struggling to manoeuvre a boat across the stage, dangerously close to the orchestra pit, reducing fourth occupant Moate’s to fits of laughter on the stern. This scene, already ripe for improvisation, will grow ever more chaotic as the run progresses.

Moate’s beaming Tinkerbell had made her first entry from above, flying high over the stage. Soon Battersby’s Pan, a magical, mysterious yet damaged perennial child, will lead Campbell’s Elizabeth across the London night sky to a duet of Take That’s Rule The World and onwards to Neverland in a gorgeous video projection by Dr Andy.

Drop in. centre: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell makes her entry as Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth and Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan look on

Later, in Act Two, Simpson’s Mrs Smee will emerge from on high too to the accompaniment of the James Bond theme, now playing flipper-clad Caroline Bond on a hoist that stubbornly refuses to touch the ground despite Simpson’s increasingly desperate pleas. Comic timing is exquisite here, and again, for all Simpson’s self-sacrificing physical discomfort, this scene is sure to expand.

Hendy and director Juliet Forster love the magic of pantomime as much as the comic mayhem rendered by haughty Hawkyard and co. This applies equally to Helga Wood, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s set design, for London house, island and aboard the Jolly Roger, and to Harrison’s fizzing and fun choreography, and they are never happier than when magic and mirth elide in the Mermaids, beautiful and shimmering at first, but then turning into gossipy fish wives.

Benton-Stace’s scene-stealing Myrtle the Mermaid gives the outstanding vocal performance under Benjamin Dovey’s musical direction, run close by Hawkyard’s riotous Guns N’ Roses number, Neil Morgan guitar solo et al.

Cultural references play their part, from departing Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock to departing Dr Who Jodie Whittaker; Moate is granted a brief science bit about the sun; Campbell’s Elizabeth turns on the girl power and dance captain Emily Taylor drives on her troupe of Lost Boys and Girls with boundless energy.

Jonny Weldon’s Starkey, piratical mischief maker in chief

Big, big cheers go to the show’s speciality act, East African acrobats Teddy, Muba and Mohamed, alias The Black Diamonds, who defy the compact space to pull off dazzling feats of athleticism.

“All New” these adventures may be, but the increasingly tedious Sweet Caroline is an unimaginative choice for the song-sheet singalong. Not so good, so good, alas. Far better is the impact of Duncan Woodruff’s fight direction for Hook’s clashes with magic-powered fairy Tinkerbell, Elizabeth and Pan alike.

Michael J Batchelor and Joey Arthurs’ beautiful but bonkers costumes for Simpson’s dame keep topping the last one, and it is lovely to see the Theatre Royal walkdown scene in full pomp once more in gold, cream and white.

Something of the darkness of Barrie’s original story is lost in pursuit of pantomime frolics, but York Theatre Royal and Evolution unquestionably have found their groove, their own schtick, that appeals to children and adults alike.Simpson’s convivial dame is already confirmed for next year, another sign of continuity in this new age for the Theatre Royal pantomime.

“Lizzie Mother’s” storytelling sit-down: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell, left, and the Lost Boys and Girls listen to Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth. Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan prefers to keep watch
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CBeebies’ science ace Maddie Moate raring to fly high as feisty Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan at Theatre Royal

Shining light: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan at York Theatre Royal

YOU must have seen CBeebies’ favourite Maddie Moate’s smiling face on the side of buses, at shelters, on billboards and flyers, as the poster star for York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan.

“It’s very strange because it’s not usual to see pictures of myself staring back at me at bus stops, on lamp posts and even the menus here !” says the Maddie’s Do You Know? television presenter, podcaster, YouTuber and children’s author, who will be starring as feisty fairy Tinkerbell in creative director Juliet Forster’s production from tomorrow (2/12/2022) to January 2 2023. “That’s an entirely new experience!

“There’s a little pressure there, but I’m really glad the show is selling so well because, being at the front of the poster, I’m aware it comes with responsibility, though the show is not ‘the Tinkerbell show’, it’s very much about the ensemble, the full cast. After all, Tinkerbell is often played by a little light bulb or a bell!”

Following Andy Day – Dandini in last year’s Cinderella – as the CBeebies’ name in the York Theatre Royal-Evolution Productions co-production, Maddie was the first signing for the Peter Pan cast and will be sharing the stage with returnees Faye Campbell (Elizabeth Darling), Paul Hawkyard (Captain Hook) and Robin Simspon (Mrs Smee); viral video sensation Jonny Weldon (Starkey) and Jason Battersby (Peter Pan).

Not only being the dominant face on the panto poster is new to Maddie, so too will be flying across the stage. “I’m not scared of flying. In fact, I’m thrilled! When I found out I’d be flying, that was the clincher for me, though I would have done it regardless. It was the cherry on the cake,” she says.

Maddie Moate: CBeebies presenter, YouTuber, podcaster, children’s author and York Theatre Royal panto star

She conducted this interview the day before “Flyday Friday”, when the company met the flying team from Foy’s [Flying By Foy] for the first time. “All of us, apart from Jason, who was in Wendy & Peter Pan at Leeds Playhouse last winter – are first-time flyers, so it’ll be exciting to give it a go,” says Maddie.

“We’ll have to be at least 15ft high to fly through the window: the Theatre Royal stage is tall and it’s deep but it’s not so wide, so we’ll need a bit of height.”

Maddie will be making her entry that way. “I’ll have the one flying scene and then it’s done for me! I get it over and done with in my first scene,” she says.

Rather than a light or a bell, Maddie’s Tinkerbell is “one of Peter Pan’s sidekicks” in these All New Adventures. “She’s one of the Lost Children’s gang; they are her family, and she doesn’t like it when anyone else takes Peter’s attention away as he’s her very best friend.

“It’s said that fairies are so small, they have room for only one emotion at a time, so she’s a character of extremes – and she’s not like me!

Fairy powers: Maddie Moate in the poster pose for All New Adventures Of Peter Pan

“Quite often on TV you end up playing an exaggeration of yourself, but Tinkerbell is the furthest removed I could be from myself, and I’m having fun with that.”

Last Christmas, Maddie played Fairy Phoenix in panto at Leicester de Montfort Hall. “She was a fairy in training, whereas Tinkerbell has some serious fairy skills. Flying for one – and she has a stand-off with Captain Hook, where she gets to show off her magic skills.”

Her first experience of performing in panto was a “huge learning curve”. “Doing it for the first time made me really appreciate the medium, when it could be considered ‘silly’ or ‘not proper’ theatre, but last year I found it interesting to see just how steeped people are in the tradition,” she says.

“Some performers just have ‘panto bones. The timing. It’s all in the timing. So I got the rhythm of panto under my belt – I hope!”

Maddie had studied theatre, film and television at the University of Bristol from 2006 to 2009. “It was a course that had a little bit of everything, but first and foremost it was an academic degree,” she recalls.

“For a short time, I thought I wanted to go to drama school, but I quite quickly fell out of love with it and regretted not studying science. I was really missing science, which I hadn’t pursued as a degree because I didn’t know what role I would do afterwards, whereas I’d done theatre all my life.”

The acting bit, the science bit and now the acting bit again in pantomime for Maddie Moate

She would see wonderfully talented actors who would be perfect in a role but did not meet the director’s ideal for that part. Such unpredictability was unappealing, and so instead Maddie started working on an App for the National History Museum and ended up working for the wonderfully named Lady Geek TV.

Making a comedy YouTube series about smartphones and technology ensued. “Before I knew it, I was reviewing tech on YouTube and that became a career,” she recalls as the science side of Maddie found fulfilment.

“It was only later that CBeebies said they were looking for someone to talk about science on a new show, and it ended up being called Maddie’s Do You Know?”

Maddie has presented the series, exploring the secret workings of everyday objects, since 2016 and a year later she won the Best Presenter category at the BAFTA Children’s Awards. Multiple science-based projects have followed.

“Now it’s all come back round, starting as a performer, deciding not to pursue acting full time, then doing science, but now returning to the stage in pantomime all these years later,” she says.

All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, York Theatre Royal, December 2 to January 2 2023. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as ghosts loom and pantomimes bounce back. Hutch’s List No. 107, from The Press

Winter’s chill: Rebecca Vaughan in Dyad Productions’ Christmas Gothic

GHOST stories, pantomimes and Jools’s annual visit top Charles Hutchinson’s list of winter essentials to keep warm and alert.

Ghost stories of the week, part one: Dyad Productions in Christmas Gothic, Theatre@41, Monkgate, tonight (27/11/2022), 7.30pm

FROM the creators of I, Elizabeth, A Room Of One’s Own, Female Gothic and Austen’s Women comes a dark celebration of Christmas, adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan.

Come in from the cold and embrace the Christmas spirit as a spectral woman tells haunting tales of the festive season, lighting a candle to the frailties of human nature and illuminating the chilling depths of the bleak, wintry gloom at this time of feasts and festivities, visits and visitations, ghosts and more ghosts. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

A Dickens or three of a scary night: James Swanton in his Ghost Stories For Christmas

Ghost Stories For Christmas, part two: James Swanton, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, select dates from November 29 to December 20, 7pm

YORK’S gothic ghost storyteller supreme, James Swanton, presents his most ambitious Dickensian schedule yet, with 12 shows back home and around 20 more around the country, transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.

Ghost Stories For Christmas is made up of Swanton’s hour-long solo renditions of A Christmas Carol (eight performances) and the lesser-known The Chimes and The Haunted Man (two nights each). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/ghost-stories-for-christmas/.

The Stylistics: Soul power at York Barbican

Good for the soul show of the week: The Stylistics, York Barbican, tonight (27/11/2022), 7.30pm

SOULFUL Philadelphia harmony veterans The Stylistics “can’t wait to be back in the UK, performing all our hits, bringing back great memories and having a great evening with you all” on their 27-date tour.

In the line-up will be founder members Arrion Love and Herb Murrell, complemented by  ‘Bo’ Henderson and Jason Sharp, as the 2004 inductees into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame sing I’m Stone In Love With You,  You Make Me Feel Brand New, Let’s Put It All Together, You Are Everything et al. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Robert Hollingworth: Director for University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble’s concert at Central Hall. Picture: Frances Marshall

Christmas concert of the week: Long, Long Ago, Messe de Minuit pour Noel, University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble, Central Hall, University of York, Wednesday, 7.30pm

UNIVERSITY of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble are joined by The 24 for a Christmas concert of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit for voices, strings and flutes, Howells’ four jazz-inflected Carol Anthems and Bo Holten’s First Snow.

Director Robert Hollingworth also will be donning his dressing gown for a reading of Dylan Thomas’s magical A Child’s Christmas In Wales. “All in all, it’s a strange alchemic mix but we know it works!” he says. “Trust us – and come and have your first mince pie of the season.” Box office: yorkconcerts.co.uk.

Bad to the bone: Michael Lambourne’s ABBAnazar in Harrogate Theatre’s Aladdin. Picture: Karl Andre

Yorkshire welcome back of the week: Aladdin, Harrogate Theatre, until January 15 2023

MICHAEL Lambourne, the booming-voiced thespian who needs no introduction to York Theatre Royal audiences, can probably be heard all the way from York when he plays the evil ABBAnazar in his Harrogate Theatre pantomime debut.

Lambourne joins daft lad Tim Stedman’s Wishee Washee and fellow Harrogate panto returnees Christina Harris(Princess Jasmine), Colin Kiyani (Aladdin) and Howard Chadwick, back on spa-town dame duty, as Widow Twankey, for the first time since Snow White in 2019. Ebony Feare’s Genie and Stephanie Costi’s Pandora the Panda are the new faces in Marcus Romer’s cast. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

From CBeebies to York Theatre Royal: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan

Putting the Pan into pantomime: All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, York Theatre Royal, December 2 to January 2 2023

CBEEBIES favourite Maddie Moate and three stars of last year’s Cinderella – Faye Campbell, Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson – fly into action for York Theatre Royal’s third collaboration with Evolution Productions.

Moate plays naughty fairy Tinkerbell, Campbell, Elizabeth Darling, Hawkyard, Captain Hook and Simpson, Mrs Smee, joined by Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan and Jonny Weldon’s pirate Starkey in creative director Juliet Forster’s production, scripted by Evolution’s Paul Hendy. Look out for acrobats Mohammed Iddi, Karina Ngade and Mbaraka Omari too. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jools Holland: Returning to York Barbican with Vic Reeves as his specual guest

Jools et Jim show: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, with Vic Reeves, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm

ON the back of notching the 30th anniversary of his Later…With Jools Holland shows on BBC Two, the boogie-wooogie piano man joins up with fellow Squeeze alumnus Gilson Lavis, vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall and his exuberant big band.

The special-guest star turn goes to comedian, artist and chart-topping all-round performer Vic Reeves (aka Jim Moir), Holland’s Leeds-born podcast partner on Jools & Jim’s Joyride, fresh from his Yorkshire Rocks & Dinghy Fights exhibition at RedHouse Originals, Harrogate. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Long wait: Diversity bring Supernova to York in…2024

Looking and booking ahead: Diversity: Supernova, York Barbican, March 7 and 8 2024

LONDON street dance troupe Diversity’s 66-date Supernova tour to 40 cities and towns in 2023-2024 will take in a return to York.

Winners of the third series of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, Ashley Banjo’s dancers will be switching to the Grand Opera House from York Barbican, where they presented Connected, a show full of playful, comedic routines with powerful statements on human connectivity, in April this spring. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

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All New Adventures Of Peter Pan brings faces familiar and fresh to York Theatre Royal panto with Evolution Productions

Putting the ‘new’ in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan: York Theatre Royal debutants Jason Battersby (Peter Pan) and Maddie Moate (Tinkerbell) on stage at the pantomime launch. Picture: Anthony Robling

REHEARSALS for All New Adventures Of Peter Pan will start on November 7 but already York Theatre Royal’s cast members have met up to launch the third pantomime collaboration with Evolution Productions.

In attendance for a photo-session and chat over sandwiches and brownies were Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson, last year’s award-nominated ugly sister double act Manky and Mardy; Faye Campbell, their fellow returnee from Cinderella, and two faces new to the Theatre Royal panto ranks, CBeebies’ Maddie Moate and Jason Battersby, promoted from Lead Shadow in Wendy And Peter at Leeds Playhouse last Christmas to Peter Pan this winter.

Absent that day was Jonny Weldon, a comedy video-making social media sensation with a “little part” in House Of The Dragon, who will play Starkey.

Hawkyard and Simpson had just finished Harrogate Theatre’s HT Rep season of three plays in three weeks, Simpson appearing in all three, Abigail’s Party, Gaslight and Men Of The World; Hawkyard in the first and last.

Caught on the hook: Paul Hawkyard’s Captain Hook, “the all-time best baddie”. Picture: Anthony Robling

“Robin and I have worked together before, for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York, sharing a dressing room from the day we started. We get on well, we have a laugh, and it’ll be great working with my mate again,” says Paul, who is delighted to be playing Captain Hook.

“As soon as I found out they were doing Peter Pan here, I really wanted the part because he’s one of the all-time best baddies.”

Tall, imposing, but naturally comedic too, Paul is playing around with ideas, probably not entirely seriously. “I’m going to switch the hook from arm to arm, to see if anyone notices!” he says.

Rather more definitely, he adds: “There’ll be lots of comedy opportunities together with Robin.”

Maddie chips in: “I think people just enjoy seeing friendships, partnerships, on stage. People like that familiarity in panto.” Faye concurs: “If we’re having fun, the audience will have fun too.”

“It’s Smee!”: Or, rather, it’s Mrs Smee, the specially created dame’s role for Robin Simpson in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. Picture: Anthony Robling

Robin may have worked flat out on HT Rep, rehearsing the next play from Wednesday to Saturday in the daytime before performing in the evening, but he has had no time to rest. Already he is hitting his straps in rehearsals at the Central Methodist Church for David Reed’s play Guy Fawkes ahead of its York Theatre Royal premiere from October 28 to November 12.

Come panto-time, he will be playing Mrs Smee, effectively the dame’s role in these All New Adventures, written by Evolution’s Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster.

Not Mrs Darling, Robin? “As far as I’m aware, I’ll be Mrs Smee, though there’s still time to change that! The character is normally Smee, the pirate, Hook’s mate. Now it will be Mrs Smee and a sidekick, Starkey.”

Like Simpson, Faye Campbell will be completing a hattrick of Theatre Royal-Evolution pantos after her fairy in 2020’s Travelling Panto and title role in 2021’s Cinderella. “I’m playing Emily, who’s Wendy’s daughter, so it’s moved on in time from J M Barrie’s original story. Now it’s Emily who goes on the adventures, after hearing of the story of Peter Pan from her mother,” she says.

Maddie Moate, who follows Andy Day from the CBeebies team into the Theatre Royal panto, says: “For those who love the traditional story of Peter Pan, you will still meet Peter Pan, Hook, the Lost Boys, the crocodile. They won’t be disappointed. It will all be instantly recognisable,” she says.

Welcome back Faye Campbell: Returning to the York Theatre Royal pantomime for a third year, cast as Wendy Darling’s feistier daughter, Emily. Picture: Anthony Robling

“I’ll be playing Tinkerbell, after I played Fairy Phoenix, the good fairy, at Leicester De Montford Hall last year, who was a bit of a nerd, a fairy in training!”

Jason Battersby took a deep dive into JM Barrie’s world when researching his role as Lead Shadow at Leeds Playhouse. “I love the book and the way you can tell it’s written for children but from an intellectual viewpoint,” he says, as he turns his attention to leading the Theatre Royal show as Peter Pan. “It’s almost like it was written by an incredibly clever child.

“As I know from last year, there are so many different ways to tell the story, and it’s one of those stories where you can really bring your own thing to it. All New Adventures Of Peter Pan is completely different from Wendy And Peter. Different theatrical conventions. Different songs. Different characters.

“There’s a line in the book that says Peter Pan takes children who die to Neverland, so there are darker elements to him, but he’s never a character who’s set in stone. There are suggestions in the book, so you can play him dark, or you can play him for his childish, playful qualities, but, yes, he has some demons.

“Sometimes, some of those darker elements are not the ones you want to put in, and certainly I don’t want to play sad Peter Pan. That would be the wrong choice.”

All New Adventures Of Peter Pan will run at York Theatre Royal from December 2 to January 2 2023. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.