Tag: grand opera house york

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 30, from Gazette & Herald

Stephen Webb’s Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, doing the Time Warp again at the Grand Opera House, York

TOM Jones on the coast, Knavesmire’s music showcase weekend, a not-so-sweet Transylvanian transvestite and a French farce promise variety aplenty in Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.

Musical of the week: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, tonight and tomorrow, 8pm; Friday & Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm

STEPHEN Webb leads the cast as Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show’s latest return to the Grand Opera House, joined by comedian Jackie Clune as the Narrator. Directed by Christopher Luscombe, Richard O’Brien’s outré musical tells the story of squeaky-clean American college sweethearts Brad and his fiancée Janet’s very frank encounters at the freaky doctor’s Transylvanian castle after their car breaks down.

Cue an adventure full of fun, frolics, frocks and frivolity, bursting with timeless songs and outrageous outfits as O’Brien combines science-fiction, horror, comedy and music while encouraging audience participation. Those audiences are sure to dress up in the most outrageous fancy dress. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Lou Bass’s artworks for Bring Me Sunshine at Helmsley Arts Centre

Exhibition of the week: Bring Me Sunshine, Paintings by Lou Bass and Adam King, Helmsley Arts Centre, until September 4

SCARBOROUGH artists Lou Bass and Adam King have teamed up for a joint exhibition, Bring Me Sunshine. A regular North Yorkshire Open Studios participant at Beeforth’s Hive, Lou’s vibrant paintings are brought to life with help from playful and poignant characters, such as Donkey, Crow, Angry Man, Bandit Cat, Dog and Fox, as she explores emotions and situations through simple narratives.

Painter and printmaker Adam has been painting for more than 35 years, holding exhibitions and doing residencies throughout Yorkshire. Educated at Leeds Met, York St John and Huddersfield, he led the Foundation Art and Fine Art degree courses when lecturing at Harrogate College before painting full time. His work is marked by a fresh approach to image making, combining simplicity with sophistication and a sureness of composition.

Andrew O’Neill: Looking to Escape at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on Friday. Picture: Andrew O’Neill

Fringe shows of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, presents Dylan Howells in Forget About Me (Work In Progress), tonight, 7.30pm; Joe Sellman-Leava in Copycat (Work In Progress), tomorrow, 7.30pm; Andrew O’Neill: Escape, Friday, 8pm

IN a remote, northeast village, something lurks in the bathroom: something Dylan struggles to remember, which even his dad’s deadly DIY skills can’t fix, as designer-performer Dylan Howells weaves psychological illusions and fragmented memories into a magical, chilling tale of a home that won’t stay still.

Part magic show, part ghost story, tonight’s show Forget About Me isn’t your typical conjuring act: mind-bending mentalism and spine-tingling effects blur the line between reality and fiction in a twisted tale designed to get under your skin.

DOES AI spell the end of humanity, or the dawn of a new utopia, ponders Fringe First winner Joe Sellman-Leava tomorrow. He might be a technophobe, but he is determined to find out by using innovative design and a whirlwind of uncanny impressions to tell the story of a teacher, a student and a copycat dictator to examine the links between art, fascism and rapid technological change. 

HOW do we get out of this mess, asks cult comedian Andrew O’Neill on Friday in his surreal, political show, Escape, about the ways in which we disagree with each other, while suggesting some ways we can find our way out. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Jorja Cartwright’s German flight attendant Gretchen in rehearsal for Rowntree Players’ Boeing Boeing

Farce of the week: Rowntree Players in Boeing Boeing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm

MARC Camoletti’s high-flying 1960s’ French farce Boeing Boeing is cleared for take-off in Hannah Shaw’s English-language production for Rowntree Players. Meet self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German and American fiancées, each one a beautiful airline hostess with frequent “layovers.”

He keeps “one up, one down, and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris, and to Bernard’s apartment, at the same time. Shaw’s cast features Max Palmer as Bernard, Lizzie Lawton as Robert, Rebecca Thomson as Berthe, Jorja Cartwright as Gretchen, Bethan Olliver as Gloria and Val Debenedetti as Gabriella. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Welsh pop legend Tom Jones: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Saturday

Coastal concerts of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, An Evening with James Taylor and His All-Star Band, Friday; Tom Jones, with Stone Foundation, Saturday; gates open at 6pm

MASSACHUSETTS singer, songwriter and guitarist, Laurel Canyon folk luminary, six-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame inductee James Taylor, 78, draws on six decades of songs, from his self-titled 1968 debut to 2021’s 19th studio album, American Standard, on Friday night.

Tom Jones, or Sir Tom Jones since 2006, to be more formal, returns to Scarborough this weekend at 85 to perform such favourites as It’s Not Unusual, What’s New Pussycat?, Delilah, Green, Green Grass Of Home, A Boy From Nowhere, Kiss, Mama Told Me Not To Come and Sex Bomb. Joining Sir Tom will be the eight-piece soul collective Stone Foundation. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Holly Taymar: Performing Eva Cassidy’s songbook at Helmsley Arts Centre

Tribute show of the week: Holly Taymar Sings Eva Cassidy, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

YORK singer-songwriter Holly Taymar delivers a warm, authentic performance that blends Eva Cassidy’s folk, jazz and blues material in renditions of Fields Of Gold, Songbird, Over The Rainbow and Autumn Leaves.

In a show of appreciation for Eva’s life and career, rather than imitation, Taymar combines intimate guitar accompaniment, mesmerising stage presence, melody and emotional truth. Singer-songwriter David Swann supports. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Craig David: TS5 DJ set after Friday evening’s race card at York Racecourse

Race day concerts of the week: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, York, Craig David presents TS5, Friday, and Tom Grennan, Saturday

SOUTHAMPTON singer-songwriter and DJ Craig David presents his TS5 DJ set on Music Showcase Friday’s double bill of racing and old-skool anthems, from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, plus current House hits, when he combines his song and MC skills.

Tom Grennan: Saturday live set at York Racecourse

BEDFORD singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is Saturday’s post-racing performer, drawing on such hits as Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together, Remind Me, Here and How Does It Feel, plus songs from his number one albums Evering Road, What Ifs & Maybes and Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be and top-five debut Lighting Matches. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.

York tenor Ashley Stillburn: Making his York Proms debut on Sunday

Picnic concert of the week: York Proms, York Museum Gardens, Sunday 5.30pm

RUN by classical chart-topping York soprano Rebecca Newman and now in its ninth year, York Proms features music from the world of classical and opera, film soundtracks and show songs. Increasing the orchestra size this summer will enable the inclusion of iconic John Williams cinema compositions.

The soloists are York-born tenor and West End musical actor Ashley Stillburn in his York Proms debut and British/Irish soprano Jennifer Coleman, making her third appearance. Tickets update: Still available at yorkproms.com/collections/tickets-2026.

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Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap set for return to Grand Opera House next June

The poster for the 75th Anniversary Tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, playing Grand Opera House, York, next summer

THE world’s longest-running play, Agatha Christie’s thriller The Mousetrap, will return to the Grand Opera House, York, from June 21 to 26 2027 on its 75th Anniversary Tour.

Christie’s iconic play first played the Cumberland Street theatre on the Diamond Anniversary Tour when the mouse first escaped its London trap in 2013 and last visited York in March 2023 on its 70th anniversary travels.

Producer Brian Fenty has announced that Nicholas Bailey and Susan Penhaligon will star as Major Metcalf and Mrs Boyle respectively in Christie’s 1952 murder mystery, famed for its silent clues, shifting shadows and the best-kept secret in theatre history. Watch this space for news of further casting and the creative team.

Nicholas Bailey: Cast as Major Metcalf in 75th Anniversary Tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

A shocking murder rattles London. Far from the chaos, a remote country guesthouse welcomes seven strangers seeking refuge, but when a police sergeant battles through a deadly snowstorm with a warning no-one expects, it becomes clear the threat is already within their walls.

Every whisper hides a clue, every story masks a lie, and as suspicion tightens its grip, one question chills the room: who among them is capable of murder?

Nicholas Bailey is best known for his portrayal of Dr Anthony Trueman in BBC One’s EastEnders since 2000, returning to the role on several occasions, most recently in 2025.

The 2023 cast for Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap on its last visit to the Grand Opera House, York

Bailey has enjoyed a varied career across stage, screen and radio. His theatre credits include Richard Eyre’s King Lear (National Theatre), Macbeth (Mercury Theatre, Colchester), Dreamgirls (West End), Jackie – The Musical (UK tour), Mother Courage And Her Children (UK tour), Life Is A Dream (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Barbican Centre and BAM, New York) and Julius Caesar (Royal Exchange).

His television credits include Coronation Street, Casualty, Doctors, Death In Paradise, House Of Anubis and Holby City and he played Carl Lawrence in BBC Radio 4’s long-running rural drama The Archers from 2012.

Susan Penhaligon first came to prominence in the landmark television drama Bouquet Of Barbed Wire drama before becoming a household name as Helen Barker, younger sister to Dame Judi Dench’s linguist Laura Dalton in the ITV sitcom A Fine Romance from 1981 to 1984.

Susan Penhaligon: Cast as the volatile Mrs Boyle in the 75th Anniversary Tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

Her television credits include Emmerdale, Doctors, Casualty, Bergerac, Doctor Who, Upstairs, Downstairs and the BBC’s adaptation of Dracula.

Penhaligon has appeared extensively on stage in the West End and across the UK, with credits including The Real Thing (Strand Theatre), Three Sisters (Albery Theatre), Of Mice and Men (Mermaid Theatre), Broken Glass (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and UK tours of Cabaret, The Importance Of Being Earnest, And Then There Were None and Fisherman’s Friends – The Musical. Her film work includes The Land That Time Forgot, Patrick, Count Dracula, Soldier of Orange and The Uncanny.

She last appeared on the York stage in April-May 2019 in Moira Buffini’s political drama Handbagged, playing The Queen (Elizabeth II) opposite Sarah Crowden’s Margaret Thatcher, at York Theatre Royal.

Susan Penhaligon as The Queen, with Sarah Crowden as Margaret Thatcher, in Handbagged at York Theatre Royal in 2019

For the chance to Step into Monkswell Manor and solve the great British murder mystery that has kept the world guessing for generations, tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

On March 19 2025, The Mousetrap celebrated its 30,000th performance in the West End and was presented with a Guinness World Records certificate for the world’s longest theatrical run. 

Sharing its name with the play within the play in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Agatha Christie’s murder mystery opened in 1952 and continues to enthral audiences at London’s St Martin’s Theatre, now booking into its 75th year in 2027.

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REVIEW: The Rocky Horror Show, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

Stephen Webb’s Dr Frank N Furter: Third time at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: David Freeman

MARCH 2022, October 2024, now July 2026. The time to do the Time Warp again at the Grand Opera House comes around ever more quickly. Once it was every three years, then 31 months, now 21.

No doubt Rocky Horror aficionados will be delighted by that acceleration, making their pilgrimage to Richard O’Brien’s schlock-horror rock’n’roll musical comedy sextravaganza time and time again to enact the time-honoured rituals established since 1973 in gothic fancy dress.

Likewise, new converts as wide-eyed and innocent as O’Brien’s American sweetheart college nerds Brad Majors and Janet Weiss sign up for their rites-of-passage initiation to the cult of Rocky Horror.

This time, Stephen Webb is doing a Time Warp of his own, back in Dr Frank N Furter’s fishnets on tour, having played the role at the Grand Opera House in 2019 and 2022. The swagger, the grace and the fruity decadence are now accompanied by a doomed sense of impending tragedy, especially in his rendition of Don’t Dream It, Be It.  

Christopher Luscombe is still on directorial duty too, cracking the whip – like Frank in Act Two – to sustain its fast and increasingly furious pace, to push the tongue ever further into the cheek, to make it a visual and sensual feast in tandem with set designer Hugh Durrant.

Nothing can rectify the dip in quality of songs in Act Two or the mad rush to the finishing line, more in keeping with a Jacobean tragedy’s pile-up of dead bodies, but the 2026 production has increased momentum. On opening night, too, it overcame a sudden stoppage, when Bethany Amber Perrins had to take over from Daisy Steere as Columbia after a 20-minute hiatus. As ever, the show must go on, and indeed it did, quickly re-establishing its rhythm.

For any newcomers, the storyline opens with newly engaged, squeaky-clean American college couple  Brad (James Bisp) and prim prom queen Janet (2022 returnee Haley Flaherty) losing their way in a storm and then their cherry under the seductive allure of Webb’s castle-dwelling transvestite scientist, Dr Frank N Furter, all framed in a bravura send-up of horror and sci-fi B-movies, heightened by O’Brien’s raucous pastiche of Fifties’ rock’n’roll music.

His show is driven by song, set-piece, outre characters and carnal pleasure, not quite disguising the flimsy plot with its shameless riff on Frankenstein in Frank N Furter’s desire to forge a new life in the form of glitter-dusted beefcake Rocky (Morgan Jackson).

All the while, the audience plays its part, not only in its dress code of Fifties’ waitress outfits, scientist cloaks, Frank N Furter fishnets and tattoos, gold shorts and blond wigs,  but in participating in the ritual interjections, focused heavily on the salacious and salty shout-outs (after rice, confetti, lighter flames and water pistols were given the red card).

Most are directed at the unflappable Narrator, on this occasion the actor, stand-up comedian and author Jackie Clunes, who consistently outwitted the audience, especially in her anatomical proclamations and acerbic topical asides. She shows originality in her retorts and quips, contrasting with the often crude “scripted abuse” from the stalls, although one shout of “Prince Andrew” made you crave more such impromptu cries.

For the rituals to work at their best, they need more participants than at Monday’s more-reserved- than-usual show, where the insults sometimes could not be discerned if watching from the Dress Circle. Clunes, nevertheless, worked the crowd skilfully, ever responsive but one thought ahead too.

What strikes you more and more after 50 years is how the sartorially and sexually audacious Rocky Horror fits with our gender-fluid times far more than in its earliest form, with its themes of transvestism, freedom of self-determination and homosexuality chiming ever louder alongside the old chestnuts of infidelity, the price of ambition and loss of innocence.

The Rocky Horror Show, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, Wednesday and Thursday, 8pm; Friday & Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 29, from The York Press

Danger, danger for a ranger at close quarters with a dinosaur’s teeth in Dinosaur Adventure Live: Danger On T-Rex Mountain at York Theatre Royal

DINOSAUR adventures and Knavesmire’s music showcase weekend, a not-so-sweet Transylvanian transvestite and a French farce promise variety aplenty in Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.

Children’s show of the week: Dinosaur Adventure Live, Danger On T-Rex Mountain, York Theatre Royal, today, 2.30pm

SIXTY-FIVE million years in the making, Dinosaur Adventure Live brings a fusion of family-friendly storytelling, puppetry and roarsome science to the stage as the ancient world of dinosaurs crashes back to life for gasps, giggles and occasional jump-scares.

From a shadowy raptor on the loose to baby dinosaurs that you can feed (carefully!), Mike Newman’s show blends humour, thrills and hands-on learning into an interactive stage experience. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Liz Foster: Exhibiting her abstract artworks in Arnup Studios’ first collective show at Pyramid Gallery

Exhibition launch of the week: Arnup Studios at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, today, 11am to 2pm, then running until September 27

CERAMICIST Hannah Arnup, landscape and natural world artist Michelle Galloway, abstract artist Liz Foster, plein-air and studio artist Kate Pettitt, British wildlife ceramicist Penny Phillips and handmade jewellery designer Emma Welsh will be on hand at today’s opening of Holtby-based Arnup Studios’ first collective exhibition at Pyramid Gallery. Gallery opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday.

Justine Warner with exhibits from today’s showcase of experimental textiles and mixed media at Laburnum Cottage, Sheriff Hutton 

Art showcase of the week: Experimental Textiles and Mixed Media, Laburnum Cottage Art Studio, West End, Sheriff Hutton, near York, today, 10am to 5pm

NORTH Yorkshire Open Studios textile and mixed-media artist, Landscape Artist Of The Year 2022 contestant, teacher and workshop tutor Justine Warner plays host to an exhibition of one year of student work, showcasing skills, workbooks and final pieces based on a wide range of experimental textile techniques that employ exciting and unusual materials in creative ways.

Look at how Bondaweb, Lutradur, soluble fabrics, metal, foils, gel printing, transfer printing, batik, tetra pack printing, block printing and heat-shrink can be used and  speak with some of the students who experimented with them.

Rowan Armitt-Brewster’s introverted office worker Thomas struggling with his bothersome briefcase in Skedaddle Theatre’s A Brief Case Of Crazy

Silent love story of the week: Skedaddle Theatre & Shoddy Theatre present A Brief Case Of Crazy, York Theatre Royal Studio, today, 2pm & 7pm

INSPIRED by the timeless genius of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Mr Bean,Rowan Armitt-Brewster, Samuel Cunningham and Lennie Longworth’s physical comedy A Brief Case Of Crazy is a silent love story with a very loud heart, told through slick choreography, mime, clowning and puppetry.

Meet Thomas, an awkward, introverted office worker with a quiet crush on his equally shy colleague, Daisy. His quest for love must contend with a boisterous boss named Simon and a rather bothersome briefcase that drags an awkward introvert into extraordinary events. Will his quest for love fail? Or will he discover that what’s on the inside counts most? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Age guidance: Five upwards.

Dominic Goodwin in a triptych of his myriad roles in Twice Nightly

Recalling variety’s golden days: Pyramus and Thisbe Productions present Dominic Goodwin in Twice Nightly, Friargate Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm

RYEDALE writer, performer and pantomime dame Dominic Goodwin is touring his first one-man comedy show, directed by York director and actor Thomas Frere.

Twice Nightly follows the story of struggling comedian Freddie Francis in 1956 as the final curtain hovers over variety. Many acts of the time are highlighted, including Norman “Over The Garden Wall” Evans (said to be an influence on Les Dawson) Stockton comic Jimmy James, wartime star Robb Wilton and the iconic Max Miller. Box office: York, 01904 655317 or ridinglights.org/friargatetheatre.

CMAT: Songs of identity, grief and beauty standards at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tonight 

Coastal gig of the week: CMAT, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, today, gates 6pm

CMAT, alias Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, burst on to the music scene six years ago with her debut single Another Day (KFC). The Dublin-born, County Meath-raised singer and songwriter has since released three bitingly humorous, emotionally honest albums, 2022’s If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, 2023’s Crazymad, For Me and 2025’s  Mercury Prize-nominated Euro-Country, her exploration of identity, grief and beauty standards, exemplified by Take A Sexy Picture Of Me. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.co.uk.

Stephen Webb’s Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, doing the Time Warp again at the Grand Opera House next week. Picture: David Freeman 

Musical of the week: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grand Opera House, York, July 20 to 25, Monday to Thursday, 8pm; Friday & Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm

STEPHEN Webb leads the cast as Dr Frank N Furter on The Rocky Horror Show’s latest return to the Grand Opera House, joined by comedian Jackie Clune as the Narrator. Directed by Christopher Luscombe, Richard O’Brien’s outré musical tells the story of squeaky-clean American college sweethearts Brad and his fiancée Janet’s very frank encounters at the freaky doctor’s Transylvanian castle after their car breaks down.

Cue an adventure full of fun, frolics, frocks and frivolity, bursting with timeless songs and outrageous outfits as O’Brien combines science-fiction, horror, comedy and music while encouraging audience participation. Those audiences are sure to dress up in the most outrageous fancy dress. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Lenny Pearce: Techno for toddlers at York Barbican 

Techno dance moves for children: Lenny Pearce, Toddler Rave World Tour Part 2, York Barbican, July22, 3.30pm

LENNY Pearce is a force in family entertainment, captivating a global audience as the pioneer of Toddler Techno. Driven from his passion as a father, and his strong commitment to his home life, Lenny makes songs and videos and performs live shows where he spins children’s favourites, remixed into modern hits that keep young ones and parents alike dazzled. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Andrew O’Neill: Looking to Escape at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Picture: Andrew O’Neill 

Fringe shows of the week: Halfway To Edinburgh at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, presents Joe Sellman-Leava in Copycat (Work In Progress), July 23, 7.30pm; Andrew O’Neill: Escape, July 24, 8pm

DOES AI spell the end of humanity, or the dawn of a new utopia, ponders Fringe First winner Joe Sellman-Leava. He might be a technophobe, but he is determined to find out by using innovative design and a whirlwind of uncanny impressions to tell the story of a teacher, a student, and a copycat dictator to examine the links between art, fascism and rapid technological change. 

HOW do we get out of this mess, asks cult comedian Andrew O’Neill in his surreal, political show, Escape, about the ways in which we disagree with each other, while suggesting some ways we can find our way out. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Airline hostesses at the treble: Bethan Olliver as Gloria, left, Val Debenedetti as Gabriella Jorja Cartwright as Gretchen in Rowntree Players’ Boeing Boeing 

Farce of the week: Rowntree Players in Boeing Boeing, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, July 23 to 25, 7.30pm

MARC Camoletti’s high-flying 1960s’ French farce Boeing Boeing is cleared for take-off in Hannah Shaw’s English-language production for Rowntree Players. Meet self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German and American fiancées, each one a beautiful airline hostess with frequent “layovers.”

He keeps “one up, one down, and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris, and to Bernard’s apartment, at the same time. Shaw’s cast features Max Palmer as Bernard, Lizzie Lawton as Robert, Rebecca Thomson as Berthe, Jorja Cartwright as Gretchen, Bethan Olliver as Gloria and Val Debenedetti as Gabriella. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Craig David: TS5 DJ set at York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend next Friday

Outdoor concerts of the week: York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Knavesmire, York, Craig David presents TS5, July 24, and Tom Grennan, July 25

SOUTHAMPTON singer-songwriter and DJ Craig David presents his TS5 DJ set on Music Showcase Friday’s double bill of racing and old-skool anthems, from R&B to Swing Beat, Garage to Bashment, plus current House hits, when he combines his song and MC skills.

Bedford singer-songwriter Tom Grennan is Saturday’s post-racing performer, drawing on such hits as Little Bit Of Love, Let’s Go Home Together, Remind Me, Here and How Does It Feel, plus songs from his number one albums Evering Road, What Ifs & Maybes and Everywhere I Went Led Me To Where I Didn’t Want To Be and top-five debut Lighting Matches. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk; no booking fees; free parking on race day.

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Peter Polycarpou to play Hercule Poirot in The Hollow, Lucy Bailey’s fifth Agatha Christie production for Fiery Angel at Grand Opera House from May 18 to 22 2027

Peter Polycarpou’s Hercule Poirot in the poster for Fiery Angel’s tour of The Hollow

TWO-TIME Olivier Award nominee Peter Polycarpou will play Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the 2026-2027 UK & Ireland tour of The Hollow, playing the Grand Opera House, York, from May 18 to 22.

After sold-out tours of And Then There Were None, Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile, producers Fiery Angel and director Lucy Bailey will team up again to present another of Christie’s psychologically complex mysteries from this autumn.

The Hollow will be toured in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby, whose credits include Future Conditional (Old Vic Theatre) and Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre).

Renowned detective Hercule Poirot expected a quiet break in the country; instead he is drawn into one of the most unsettling cases of his career at The Hollow, an elegant country estate, where a glamorous circle of guests gathers one summer evening.

Beneath the sunlit charm, something darker coils. Old passions refuse to die. New rivalries ignite. Dangerous infatuations take hold. Then a shot rings out. A body is discovered, then a smoking revolver in an unsteady hand. The scene appears almost staged, but what looks to be a shockingly straightforward crime turns out to be anything but.

Looking forward to directing her fifth Christie classic, Bailey says: “The Hollow is one of Agatha Christie’s most powerful and arresting plays. At first glance, it appears to be a classic country-house mystery, but it’s something far richer: a family ruthlessly clinging to the past, failed relationships and illicit love.

Director Lucy Bailey. Picture: Manuel Harlan

“Christie gathers a circle of brilliantly drawn characters to an English country estate and lets long-buried family tensions simmer until a sudden act of violence shatters the idyll. When the unthinkable happens, it falls to the incomparable Hercule Poirot to unravel the truth.

“Equally comic and tragic, it’s a play about people trapped between the lives they have and the lives they longed for. That tension makes The Hollow feel startlingly contemporary.”

The Hollow will be produced by Fiery Angel in association with Agatha Christie Limited and the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Joining Bailey in the production team will be costume designer Joanna Parker, lighting designer Chris Davey and sound designer and composer Nick Powell. Casting is Ginny Schiller.

James Prichard, of Agatha Christie Limited, said: “We are thrilled to be working once again with Lucy Bailey and Fiery Angel on this bold new production of The Hollow. A sharply observed and unsettling drama, it showcases a fascinatingly different facet of my great grandmother’s storytelling, and we are excited for audiences across the UK and Ireland to experience it anew.”

Lead actor Polycarpou’s stage credits include Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry and Hello, Dolly!, while his screen work includes House Of The Dragon, Birds Of A Feather, The Diplomat, The Brutalist and Evita. He received Olivier nominations for his performances in Oslo and The Band’s Visit.

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.

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The frocks & shocks of The Rocky Horror Show return to Grand Opera House with Stephen Webb as Dr Frank N Furter

Stephen Webb’s Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. Picture: David Freeman

STEPHEN Webb leads the cast as lascivious Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show’s latest return to the Grand Opera House, York, from July 20 to 25

Directed by Christopher Luscombe, Richard O’Brien’s outré musical tells the story of Brad and his fiancée Janet, two squeaky-clean American college sweethearts, who meet Dr Frank N Furter by chance when their car breaks down outside his creepy Transylvanian castle while on their way to visit their favourite professor.

Cue an adventure they will never forget, full of fun, frolics, frocks and frivolity, bursting with timeless songs and outrageous outfits as O’Brien combines science-fiction, horror, comedy and music while encouraging audience participation. Those audiences, by the way, need no encouragement to dress up in the most outrageous fancy dress.

The Narrator’s role will be played by actress, stand-up comedian, cabaret act, writer, drama lecturer, singer and television presenter Jackie Clune, who played Mrs Lamb in the BBC sitcom Motherland.

She will be joined by James Bisp as Brad; Haley Flaherty as Janet; Ryan Carter-Wilson as Riff Raff; Laura Bird as Magenta/Usherette; Daisy Steere as Columbia; Morgan Jackson as Rocky and Edward Bullingham as Eddie/Dr Scott.

Completing the cast are Phantoms Jesse Chidera, Nathan Zach Johnson, Tyla Dee Nurden and Bethany Amber Perrins, plus on-stage swing/dance captain David Peter-Brown and on-stage swing/assistant dance captain Lucy Aiston.

Producer Howard Panter says: “This new cast brings an extraordinary energy and freshness to our legendary show. The thrilling mix of talent will continue to delight audiences across the country. The Rocky Horror Show is a guaranteed party night after night – it’s fierce, fearless and not to be missed!”

Stephen Webb’s Frank N Furter in doctor’s garb, centre, with fellow principals in The Rocky Horror Show. Picture: David Freeman

Here Stephen Webb discusses career ambitions, the challenges of playing sweet transvestite Dr Frank N Furter,  his favourite costume and the Rock Horror phenomenon .

Was there a moment when you realised you wanted to be a professional performer?  

“I was obsessed with John Travolta in Grease. I went to watch it in London when it first opened. I was obsessed. I thought, ‘I need to be in theatre’. That changed it for me really. I used to watch the film all the time.”

How did you react when you learned you would be playing Dr Frank-N-Furter?

“Well, I couldn’t believe it first of all. When I originally wanted to audition for Rocky, I thought I’d be up for Brad and then they said, ‘No, we want to see you for Frank’. When I got it, I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe that I got this role. But in the next moment, I was really anxious because it’s such an iconic role. I just want to live up to the legacy.”

How do you bring your own twist to the role while honouring the legacy of past performances?

“I remember that Christopher Luscombe, the director, said, ‘We don’t want you to do an impersonation of Tim Curry, we want to see your version’, which actually settled me.

“I portray Frank using an American accent, instead of an English accent. Obviously, Frank’s costume is quite feminine,so I do inject an element of masculinity into my performance. My take on it is a little bit rough around the edges. The audience has mixed feelings about Frank, which I love. He is a lovable psychopath!

“Because the character was written during the ‘70s Glam Rock era, I take inspiration from David Bowie, T. Rex and Queen. But I always find something new every performance, which makes playing this role so exciting.”

What is your favourite part of performing as Frank each night?

“There are two moments. One is my entrance. I’m not on stage for the first 20 minutes and the audience are waiting for Frank to come on. There’s a big drum beat before I enter and I’ve got this big old cloak on.

“I walk down centre stage and sing ‘Sweet Transvestite’, whip off my cloak and reveal my crazy costume. The audience goes absolutely berserk for it. It doesn’t matter if I’ve had the worst day in the world – it goes away as soon as I’m on that stage.

“Another special moment for me is when you see the vulnerable side of Frank. It’s like he’s taken off his mask and you’re seeing the true side of him.”

Do you have a favourite audience interaction or reaction so far?

“There are loads of shouts throughout the show. The audience are very much part of the show; they are almost another character. I’ve heard pretty much all of them now, so they don’t tend to catch me out. When I’m talking to Rocky, when he first comes out, there are a few shouts that are quite rude, and I love them! I think they’re really funny.”

James Bisp’s Brad and Haley Flaherty’s Jane in The Rocky Horror Show. Picture: David Freeman

What is the most challenging part of playing Frank, either physically or emotionally?

“It’s not wearing the heels – I absolutely love wearing those – it’s actually wearing the black corset because it doesn’t give. Singing and dancing in a corset means I must make sure that I eat and drink enough at the right time before doing the show, otherwise I struggle throughout the show.”

Do you have a favourite outfit on stage?

“My finale red sequin corset. I absolutely love it. It really fits me like a glove – and it changes colour. If you push it up, it goes black, if you push it down, it goes red.”

If you could keep one piece of Frank’s wardrobe for yourself, what would it be?

“I do a few scenes with a leather jacket with tassels on it. I’m a motorcyclist so would love to steal it and ride my bike wearing it!”

The Rocky Horror Show has been pushing boundaries for more than five decades. Why do audiences keep coming back after all these years?

“It’s a show that celebrates what it means to be different, to follow your dreams, like the song ‘Don’t Dream It, Be It’. There are amazing songs; I don’t think you could ever get bored with the ‘Time Warp’ or ‘Sweet Transvestite’! It’s got a lot of heart, it’s extremely funny, and it allows people to be part of it. There’s no other show like it.”

Do you have any pre-show rituals before stepping into Frank’s heels?

“I don’t really have any pre-show rituals but I do love make-up. Before Rocky Horror, I never liked using make-up, now I absolutely love it. As soon as I start putting the make-up and wig on, it transforms me, like I’ve got an alter ego!”

Finally, what do you hope audiences will take away from experiencing The Rocky Horror Show?

“I think everyone who comes will have fun. It’s unique, liberating, funny, fierce and sexy. It’s a brilliant night out where everyone can be who they want to be. It’s one great big party!”

The Rocky Horror Show, Grand Opera House, York, July 20 to 25, Monday to Thursday, 8pm; Friday & Saturday, 5pm and 8.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Content warning: Rude parts. Age guidance: 12 plus.

The Rocky Horror Show: the history bit

BEGAN life in 1973 in front of an audience of 63 people in the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs, in Chelsea, London. Transferred to Chelsea Classic Cinema, then King’s Road Theatre, 1973 to 1979, and Comedy Theatre in the West End, 1979-80.

The Rocky Horror Show has enjoyed the longest continuous run of a contemporary
musical anywhere in the world, being watched by 35 million people in more than 30 countries and translated into 20 languages.

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REVIEW: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

As smart as ever…or is he? Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson

AS Harold Wilson once said, in the white heat of a lobby briefing to journalists in 1964, a week is a long time in politics.

As it turns out, it is a long time on a theatre tour too. Both the role of Prime Minister (imminent exit stage left Sir Keir Starmer) and of the former Prime Minister in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister have undergone a change since the tour opened.

Sir Keir resigned on June 22; the next night, Robert Kitson took over from Simon Rouse as Jim Hacker at Cheltenham Everyman, Rouse having had to withdraw from the rest of the itinerary through illness.

Kitson had understudied Griff Rhys Jones in the West End run and York marks his third week of working in tandem with Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby: a partnership now well into its comic groove as the blustering Jim and erudite Sir Humphrey joust in familiar point-scoring mode.

Writers Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay’s beloved BBC political satire, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister had run between 1980 and 1988, followed by the 2010 play, Yes, Prime Minister.

Robert Kitson: Taking over as Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister

Now, writer-director Lynn picks up the solo baton for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, a final chapter that began at The Barn Theatre in 2023 as I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, I Can’t Quite Remember, a title that indicated the vulnerabilities of ageing for the now venerable Hacker and Sir Humphrey.

This is no nostalgia trip for a treasured double act, however, but a freshly crafted comedy as politically sharp as ever in this age of cancel culture, with lessons to be learned by both the former political leader and his Civil Service nemesis, Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey.

Kitson’s Jim Hacker is now Lord Hacker, “older, but perhaps not wiser”, befuddled by the modern world, suffering from arthritis, back pain and congestive heart failure, and in need of a carer, as well as a stair lift.

“Care worker,” Princess Donnough’s Sophie corrects him at her interview to take on the role. It will not be his only politically incorrect utterance to meet her disapproval.

Indeed Jim’s indiscreet tongue is in trouble with rather more than former English Literature student Sophie at Hacker College, Oxford, where he is the long-serving Master after the college was set up in his name with a benefactor’s funding.

Princess Donnough’s care worker Sophie in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Danny Kaan

Since being forced to resign as Prime Minister, he has dabbled in journalism, written a book (6,000 sales in the first week, none since), turned up every so often for his attendance allowance and expenses at the House of Lords, but now he faces “the ultimate modern crisis: being cancelled by the college committee after his support of Cecil Rhodes’s statue staying in place, among other pronouncements against the tide of change.

Hostile students and equally hostile Fellows want him to be ousted: a P45 delivered by William Chubb’s gaunt college Visitor, Sir David, arriving in Grim Reaper black hood.

Jim will not go quietly into the night, re-establishing contact with Sir Humphrey, by now consigned to a “home for the elderly deranged” by his daughter-in-law, to draw on his skills of negotiation, eloquent, elaborate obfuscation and love of a Latin phrase.

Francis, reprising the role he first played at the Barn Theatre and then in the West End, is a master of comic timing, exquisite line delivery and tongue-twisting double-speak monologues, yet there are frayed edges to Sir Humphrey’s piercing intelligence and bureaucratic chess play. Immaculate suit, ever-present briefcase, superior air, are all present and correct, but could the first signs of dementia be kicking in as he loses the thread of his thinking in one of his magniloquent obstructive set-pieces.

Jim and Sir Humphrey must not only seek to outmanoeuvre Sir David but also face the modern thinking of Donnough’s formidable, frank and fearless Sophie. As well as politics, the world of education is dissected with a scalpel by Lynn as rising student fees and “offensive” words in literature come under fierce discussion.

Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby and Simon Rouse’s Jim Hacker in a publicity shot for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Simon had to leave the tour through illness

Lynn has the measure of politics and education alike in the kind of wise, waspish and witty satire now all too rare on the British stage in a play as full of King Lear pathos as comedy, where there is a sadness to Jim and Sir Humphrey, now past their pomp.

Yet the comedy still prevails amid the melancholia, directed so astutely by Lynn and co-director Michael Gyngell in a high-class production where Lee Newby’s set design of Jim’s unkempt college rooms evokes academia, widower loneliness and a political past. Snow dusts the skyline in Leo Flint’s window video projections in a further nod to Jim and Sir Humphrey being in their winter years.

Physical comedy plays its part too, riffing on the ageing of the two protagonists, whether in a mobile-phone-going-off-in-a-pocket joke or the stair lift’s brief turn in the spotlight at the opening to Act Two.

Everything is so well balanced in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, always giving both sides of the argument, showing the fault lines in Jim and Sir Humphrey alike, culminating in the warmth of the fitting finale – the recognition of the need for supportive friendship – that is genuinely moving.

The Barn Theatre presents I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 28, from Gazette & Herald

Becca Magson’s Rita and Joe Gregory’s Frank in 1812 Theatre Company’s Educating Rita. Picture: Lauren Wyeth

RYEDALE Festival and 1812 Theatre’s Educating Rita, compact Shakespeare and Live At York Museum Gardens are uppermost in Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations amid the July heatwave.

Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Educating Rita, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm

SAMANTHA Hughes directs Helmsley Arts Centre resident troupe 1812 Theatre Company in Willy Russell’s comedy Educating Rita, wherein Frank (Joe Gregory) is a tutor of English Literature in his 50s whose disillusioned outlook on life drives him to drink and bury himself in his books.  

Enter Rita (Becca Magson), a forthright 26-year-old hairdresser who is eager to learn. After weeks of cajoling, she slowly wins over the hesitant Frank with her highly original insights and refusal to accept “No” for an answer. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk. Picture: Lauren Wyeth.

Michael Flatley’s Irish dancers in the 30th anniversary tour of Lord Of The Dance, in action at York Barbican tonight. Picture: Brian Doherty

Dance show of the week: Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, tonight, 7.45pm

THE 30th anniversary tour of Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance promises a grand celebration of the revolutionary Irish dance production’s legacy, after captivating more than 60 million fans in 60 countries since its 1996 debut.

The 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour features “brand-new choreography, stunning costumes, state-of-the-art special effects and cutting-edge lighting, ensuring that the production continues to push boundaries and deliver an unforgettable experience”.  Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/lord-of-the-dance-30th-anniversary/.

Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson

Political drama of the week: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

JIM Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim (Robert Kitson, replacing the indisposed Simon Rouse) instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction.

Can Humphrey and Jim outmanoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”? Brimming with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series is written and directed by Jonathan Lynn,co-directed byMichael Gyngell and presented by The Barn Theatre, Cirencester. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), squeezing into York Theatre Royal this week

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

MARKING 30 years of performances in the UK, the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour company of Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and Kiran Raywilliams presents Hamlet told backwards, a micro-condensed Othello scored to a ukulele, a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus presented as a YouTube cookery tutorial and the History Plays as a manic football game, passing the crown from king to king.

Californian co-founders Adam Long,  Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield have re-booted, re-imagined, reinvented and updated the restless comedy for a new generation to undertake a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s First Folio of plays. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Stephen Smith’s Claude Monet in A Montage Of Monet at York Medical Society. Picture: Amie Barton-Young

Storytelling actor of the week: Threedumb Theatre presents Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, tonight, 7.30pm and July 11, 3pm; One  Man Poe world premiere, July 11, 7.30pm

THREEDUMB Theatre artistic director and actor Stephen Smith performs Joan Greening’s new play exploring French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s life and loves: his two marriages, his first wife’s devastating death, his lover’s erratic behaviour, his suicide attempt, his thoughts on fellow Impressionists and the torment of his failing eyesight. The 55-minute Monet montage combines projection design and Joe Furey’s music with Smith’s storytelling in  two York performances.

Smith also presents the world premiere of his latest Poe double bill (The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar) ahead of his Edinburgh Fringe residency. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits concert at Live At York Museum Gardens

Rock and pop festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, tomorrow, gates 5pm; Self Esteem, Friday, gates 5pm, and Super Furry Animals, Saturday, gates 4pm

WIRRAL synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark open Futuresound’s third season of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts tomorrow with a Summer of Hits bill featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and rising Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.

Mercury Prize nominee Self Esteem, aka Rotherham singer, songwriter and actress Rebecca Lucy Taylor, tops Friday’s line-up, featuring London indie group The Big Moon, South African ghetto funk musician Moonchild Sanelly and Nigerian-born musician and spoken-word artist Joshia Idehen.

Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals are Saturday’s headliners, joined by singer-songwriter Baxter Dury, indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, Nottingham alt-country band Divorce and North Wales psychedelic act Pys Melyn.  Box office for July 10 and 11: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

Ross Noble: Playing York Comedy Festival at Live At York Museum Gardens on Sunday

Comedy event of the week: Futuresound presents York Comedy Festival, Live at York Museum Gardens, York, Sunday, gates 3pm

TOPICAL comedian Russell Howard (9.30pm), from Russell Howard’s Good News, and Geordie surrealist Ross Noble (8.35pm) take top billing at the second open-air York Comedy Festival, promoted by Futuresound.

In Sunday’s line-up too will be Irish stand-up and podcast sensation Joanne McNally (7.40pm); stand-up and presenter Russell Kane (7.10pm); Big Kick Energy podcaster and comedian Suzi Ruffell (6.15pm); Barry From Watford (5.45pm), the 82-year-old comic creation of Alex Lowe; cult stand-up hero and viral sensation Jeff Innocent (4.50pm)  and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Nabil Abdulrashid (4.20pm), all hosted by Jared Christmas. Box office: yorkcomedyfestival.com.

The Gesualdo Six: Performing Wishing Tree: A Choral Journey at St Lawrence’s Church, York, on July 14 at 3pm as part of Ryedale Festival. Picture: Ash Mills

Festival of the week: Ryedale Festival, July 10 to 26

RYEDALE Festival presents 60 events this month in 40 different venues, including Tenebrae, pianist Junyan Chen, The Gesualdo Six, Dunedin Consort, John Wilson & Sinfonia of London’s An English Summer, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Opera North.

Taking part too are tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Christopher Glynn, Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, Eliza Carthy and The Restitution, soprano Erika Baikoff, cellist Laura van der Heijden, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band. For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: ryedalefestival.com.

Hannah Davies and Jack Woods: Re-imagining of the selkie myth in a not-too-distant future in The Ballad Of Blea Wyke. Picture: Matt Jopling

Dystopian vision of the week: Hannah Davies & Jack Woods in The Ballad of Blea Wyke, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, York, July 10, 8.30pm; Helmsley Arts Centre, July 17, 7.30pm

IN North Yorkshire writer and storyteller Hannah Davies and musician Jack Woods’ dystopian re-imagining of the selkie myth in a not-too-distant future, a young woman wants to see the sea. A stranger stands on a cliff. The last grey seal swims towards the shore. 

On her 18th birthday, tough care-leaver Cerys breaks the city’s lockdown and travels to the coastal cliffs that birthed her, the crumbling landscape drawing her back to her mythic past. Cue a haunting interweaving of story, music, poetry and song. Box office: York, https://bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise; Helmsley, 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

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I’m Sorry, Prime Minister brings down curtain on Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey’s clashes as Robert Kitson steps into role

Robert Kitson: Replacing Simon Rouse in the role of Jim Hacker in I’m Sorry Prime Minister

SIR Keir Starmer is not the only Prime Minister being replaced.

More precisely, ex-Prime Minister, in the case of the 2026 tour of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister after illness forced Simon Rouse out of the cast a fortnight ago, to be replaced by Robert Kitson, who is playing Jim Hacker for the remaining dates, including this week’s visit to the Grand Opera House, York.

“It’s very sad that Simon had to leave the show, and we send him our best wishes for a speedy recovery,” says Robert. “He was so loved by the company while he was here, but it’s now a fortunate opportunity for me.

“I wasn’t Simon’s understudy for the tour but I did understudy Griff Rhys Jones as Jim Hacker in the West End, and because I knew the part and we’d done an understudy run during the six months in London [at the Apollo Theatre), I was asked to take over.

“One of the other understudies did a couple of dates, before I arrived last Monday (June 22) to open at the Cheltenham Everyman that Tuesday. “

Robert continues: “I’m very delighted to be having this extended run, where I’ve played Cheltenham and Milton Keynes and York, Brighton, Southend and Malvern are still to come.

“I haven’t  appeared on the York stage before, but I love the city and I’m really looking forward to doing the play there.”

Written and directed by Jonathan Lynn and co-directed by Michael Gyngell, I’m Sorry, Prime Minister is the long-awaited final chapter of the British political satire that brought BAFTA awards for the television series Yes, Minister (1980 to 1984) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986 to 1988), when co-written with Antony Jay.

The Times, they are a’changing for Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson

Jim Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee.

Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Clive Francis, reprising his West End role), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction in a finale replete with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing.

“Do you know what, you can really feel the affection the audiences have for the characters,” says Robert. “Before Sir Humphrey comes on, you can hear an ‘ooh’ from the audience when I mention his name.

“People loved the TV series, and the relationship between Sir Humphrey and Jim, but this play is set later and so the relationship is now different. A lot of the play is about these people re-finding themselves and coping with their lives now.

“It makes for a very different dynamic where the audiences are initially surprised but then they do get into it. This is only my personal opinion, but I think the re-discovery and re-defining of the relationship, when seeing each other again after a long time, is what works so well, as they’re now older men, infirm, and they no longer have the resources they did when they were in their peak years.”

Robert further elucidates: “There are two levels to it. They have to cope with the fact they don’t have the status they once did, and although Sir Humphrey was always the cleverer once, the more sly and conniving one, sometimes Jim got the better of him and that  now continues in old age where they still spar with each other.”

When on understudy duty in London, Robert had enjoyed watching Clive and Griff working together. “They were different in their styles, so it was like a masterclass observing them,” he says.

Clive Francis’s Sir Humphrey Appleby, left, and Simon Rouse’s Jim Hacker at the promotional photoshoot for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Simon has had to leave the tour through illness

“Clive is a master craftsman in his coming timing and delivery, and now that it’s the two us, I’m finding that just as important is how every performance is different because the audience laughter can come in different places, so there’s that the  unexpected element, which is the essence of live theatre.”

In addition, Robert has drawn on his experience of being present when writer-director Jonathan Lynn gave notes to the London cast both in rehearsal and after the early performances.

“I got the benefit of that as everything is written with particular weighting and he’s particular about how lines should be said,” he says, further praising the director and Michael Gyngell for their ability to bring the company together. “It’s been great for me to have all people around me, on or off the stage, who are so good at what they do.”

Sir Keith Starmer’s imminent departure from Number 10 could not be better timed for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. “It’s really interesting because we’ve found the play has resonance that’s reflecting what’s going on at the moment,” says Robert.

“The fact that the Prime Minister’s post has changed over the past two weeks can’t help but have an echo on stage.”

One further factor is Jim Hacker’s politics and behaviour in 2026. “Jim says and does some awful things and has some unacceptable views – and that’s interesting for the audience too,” says Robert.

“You have to give it 100 per cent in rehearsals and on stage, leaving your own beliefs at the [dressing room] door.”

The Barn Theatre production of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister plays Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 27, from The York Press

SledOne’s mural, What Walks Amongst Us, taking shape at AcombFest. Picture: Art of Protest

MURALS in Acomb, early music beyond borders, Mystery Plays on waggons, a political swansong and compact Shakespeare keep Charles Hutchinson’s thoughts off the July heatwave.

Art event of the week: AcombFest, Acomb, York, today and tomorrow

CURATED by Art of Protest, York’s first international street art festival continues today and tomorrow with its theme of A Return To Nature, featuring 20 art installations, live murals, RARE Collective’s Paint Jam, spray battles and more than 30 bands, DJs and performers, across 22 venues.

Look out too for interactive family-friendly workshops, an art market, history walks and talks, special events and tastings and a community cinema. Muralists taking part include SMUG, from Australia, Sheffield muralist Peachzz, wildlife artist Curtis Hylton and Acomb’s very own SledOne. For full details, go to: https://acombfest.co.uk/.

Baroque collective Solomon’s Knot: Performing Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns’ St Mark Passion, directed by Jonathan Sells, at The Quire, York Minster, on July 10

50th anniversary event of the summer: 2026 York Early Music Festival, Beyond Borders, until July 11

THE premier British early music festival marks its 50th anniversary with a celebration of “just how far early music has travelled – beyond the borders of the myriad historic venues of our city to a worldwide audience,” says director Delma Tomlin.

The festival welcomes The Sixteen, B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort, Imago Mundi, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, Solomon’s Knot and NCEM Platform Artists Anacronia and Contre le temps, among others. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk/yemf.

Bodhan Pitel’s Herod in DSpace Ukrainian Theatre’s The Massacre of the Innocents in the York Mystery Plays 2026. Picture: John Saunders

Theatrical outdoor event of the week: 2026 York Mystery Plays, streets of York, tomorrow, 10.30am to 4.50pm

THE four-yearly staging on the York Mystery Plays on pageant waggons takes place at four locations across the city: free viewing at the Minster Refectory Gardens, Deansgate, (from 10.30am) King’s Square (from 11.10am), St Sampson’s Square (from 11.50am) and ticketed seats at Dean’s Park (from 12.30pm). Ten core plays will be complemented by further extracts to tell the story from The War In Heaven to Doomsday. For full details, go to yorkmysteryplays.co.uk; tickets, ticketsource.com/york-festival-trust.

Clive Francis as Sir Humphrey Appleby in I’m Sorry, Prime Minister. Picture: Johan Persson

Political drama of the week: I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, Grand Opera House, York, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

JIM Hacker is back, older, but perhaps not wiser, and still utterly baffled by the real world. Hoping for a quiet retirement from government as the master of Hacker College, Oxford, Jim (Robert Kitson, replacing Simon Rouse) instead finds himself facing the ultimate modern crisis: cancelled by the college committee. Enter Sir Humphrey Appleby (Clive Francis), who has lost none of his love for bureaucracy, Latin phrases and well-timed obstruction.

Can Humphrey and Jim outmanoeuvre the hostile students, the Fellows and reality itself? Or is it finally time to say “I’m Sorry, Prime Minister”? Brimming with wit, nostalgia and more double-speak than a press briefing, the final chapter in the evergreen comedy series is written and directed by Jonathan Lynn,co-directed byMichael Gyngell and presented by The Barn Theatre, Cirencester. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour cast for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Shakespeare shake-up of the week: Reduced Shakespeare Company in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), York Theatre Royal, July 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

MARKING 30 years of performances in the UK, the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s 2026 tour company of Efé Agwele, Woogie Jung, Tom Pavey and Kiran Raywilliams presents Hamlet told backwards, a micro-condensed Othello scored to a ukulele, a carnage-filled Titus Andronicus presented as a YouTube cookery tutorial and the History Plays as a manic football game, passing the crown from king to king.

Californian co-founders Adam Long,  Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield have re-booted, re-imagined, reinvented and updated the restless comedy for a new generation to undertake a rollercoaster ride through all 37 of the Bard’s First Folio of plays. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Stephen Smith’s Claude Monet in A Montage Of Monet

Busiest actor of the week: Threedumb Theatre presents Stephen Smith in A Montage Of Monet, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, July 8, 7.30pm and July 11, 3pm; One Man Poe, Ripon Theatre Festival, Ripon Arts Hub, July 10, 8pm; One  Man Poe world premiere, York Medical Society, July 11, 7.30pm

THREEDUMB Theatre artistic director and actor Stephen Smith performs Joan Greening’s new play exploring French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s life and loves: his two marriages, his first wife’s devastating death, his lover’s erratic behaviour, his suicide attempt, his thoughts on fellow Impressionists and the torment of his failing eyesight. The 55-minute Monet montage combines projection design and Joe Furey’s music with Smith’s storytelling in  two York performances.

Smith also presents four of Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic horror  works (The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Black Cat and The Raven) in Ripon, followed by the world premiere of his latest Poe double bill (The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar) in York. All six, amounting to 18,000 Poe words, will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Ripon, ripontheatrefestival.org.

Musical of the week: Top Hat and Tails Theatre in Little Shop Of Horrors!, Friargate Theatre, York, July 9 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

MEEK floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he calls Audrey II, a foul-mouthed carnivore that promises him fame and fortune if he keeps feeding it with blood. Over time, however, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s plans for global domination in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s sci-fi B-movie monster spoof, presented here with a live band and professionally hand-crafted puppets.  Box office: ridinglights.org.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys: Summer of Hits show at York Museum Gardens on Thursday

Music festival of the week: Futuresound presents Live At York Museum Gardens, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, July 9, gates 5pm; Self Esteem, July 10, gates 5pm, and Super Furry Animals, July 11, gates 4pm

WIRRAL synth-pop pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark open Futuresound’s third season of Live At York Museum Gardens concerts on Thursday with a Summer of Hits bill featuring Heaven 17, China Crisis and rising Newcastle singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin.

Mercury Prize nominee Self Esteem, aka Rotherham singer, songwriter and actress Rebecca Lucy Taylor, tops Friday’s line-up, featuring London indie group The Big Moon, South African ghetto funk musician Moonchild Sanelly and Nigerian-born musician and spoken-word artist Joshia Idehen.

Welsh psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals are next Saturday’s headliners, joined by singer-songwriter Baxter Dury, indie-pop septet Los Campesinos!, Nottingham alt-country band Divorce and North Wales psychedelic act Pys Melyn.  Box office for July 10 and 11: futuresoundgroup.com/york-museum-gardens-events.

If I Knew The Way, I Would Take You Home, by Matt Sewell

In Focus: Birds of the week: Matt Sewell exhibition for RARE Collective at WET, Micklegate, York, until mid-July

SHROPSHIRE artist, illustrator and author Matt Sewelll is the latest street art luminary to be showcased in RARE Collective’s collaboration with WET wine bar, in Micklegate, York, in aid of SASH (Safe and Sound Homes), the York youth homelessness charity.

“We’re really chuffed to have Matt return to York with his fabulous Riso prints,” says RARE Collective exhibition organiser Sharon McDonagh. “If you came to the Vandalfest charity street art show last year, you would have seen his cracking bird mural on Floor 3 of the big disused office block in Low Ousegate.

Artist Matt Sewell at work

Sewell is an avid ornithologist, contributing regularly to the Caught By The River website and publishing the books Our Garden Birds, Our Songbirds, Our Woodland Birds, Owls, Penguins and A Charm Of Goldfinches And Other Collective Nouns.

He has illustrated for the Guardian, Barbour, V&A Museums, BBC, National Trust, Greenpeace, Big Issue and Levi’s and painted walls for Helly Hansen, Puma and the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). He has exhibited in Great Britain, New York, old York, Tokyo and Paris.  

Cuckoo Cuckoo Cuckoo, by Matt Sewell

Under RARE Collective’s partnership with WET, artists and photographers exhibit their work in a six-week solo show.  As well as at WET, work can be bought online both during and after the exhibition run at rarecollective.co.uk.

In addition, a selection of Sewell’s prints is featuring in RARE Collective’s exhibition for AcombFest at The Crooked Tap, on show until August 15 in support of SASH.

Matt Sewell’s wall of bird prints for sale at WET

Exhibiting too are: spAm (Sharon McDonagh), Sola, Alison Jagger, Al Murphy, Anthony Appleyard, Boxxhead, HazardOne, Lady Mkei, Lincoln Lightfoot, Liskbot, Michael Dawson, Nicolas Dixon, Slice Of Lino, STATIC and Stephen Bottrill.

“RARE are working in collaboration with the Art of Protest Project, after being invited by AcombFest curator Jeff Clark and the AOP team to curate the live PaintJam at the Carlton Tavern, in Acomb Road, Holgate, today and tomorrow,” says RARE Collective curator Sharon McDonagh.

“This will involve nine artists painting live from 10am to 4pm each day (Boxxhead, HazardOne, Lady Mkei, Lincoln Lightfoot, Liskbot, Nicolas Dixon, Sola, spAm and VYZ); live DJ sets by Alilou, Bob Yenz, Conor Rogan, Free Da Karlos and Sola plus guests, audiovisual artists Fred DWolf, Sonas and JohnManBand on a huge screen, cocktails and mixology by Tulum Spirits Collective and street food by El Chappo, all in support of SASH.”

Did you know?

MATT Sewell is also a musician, performing as Sewell &The Gong with Chris Tate and as the deep-cut compiler of the compilation series A Crushing Glow.

Matt Sewell’s work environment

In Focus too: Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance, 30th Anniversary Tour, York Barbican, July 6 to 8, 7.45pm

THE 30th anniversary tour of Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance promises a grand celebration of the revolutionary Irish dance production’s legacy after captivating more than 60 million fans in 60 countries since its 1996 debut.

The 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour will feature “brand-new choreography, stunning costumes, state-of-the-art special effects and cutting-edge lighting, ensuring that the production continues to push boundaries and deliver an unforgettable experience”. 

Creative manager James Keegan says: “Michael Flatley has taught me that there are no boundaries in the creative space. When he burst onto the scene in the mid-90s, he took traditional Irish dancing to a place nobody had ever dreamed of, and that has been the key to the show’s success.

“Michael often says in rehearsals that we need to push the boundaries as much as we can, and if it’s too far or doesn’t work, we can always pull it back. That mindset is what keeps Lord Of The Dance evolving.”

Lord Of The Dance on its 30th anniversary tour. Picture: Brian Doherty

Keegan believes that the core elements of Flatley’s visionary production – choreography, music and storytelling – remain timeless while still evolving. “What made Lord Of The Dance famous 30 years ago is still what makes it work today: 40 of the greatest Irish tap dancers in the world performing in one line in perfect sync. It’s a spectacle that never loses its magic,” he says.

Reflecting on Flatley’s impact, Keegan says: “Professional Irish dancing didn’t really exist until Michael created his shows and added a more entertaining twist to the art form.

“He wasn’t just a dancer; he was a highly tuned athlete who could perform at astonishing levels for a full two-hour show, seven days a week. Today, we see young competitive dancers around the world striving to reach the levels he set.”

But beyond the footwork and the spectacle, Keegan reckons Flatley’s greatest legacy is his ability to inspire. “Michael’s motto has always been, ‘Nothing is impossible.’ He took an already intricate dance form and pushed it even further, breaking records like 38 taps per second and incorporating upper body movements that defied tradition,” he says.

Michael Flatley

“I’ve seen it time and time again: a dancer who never thought they could be a lead receives Michael’s encouragement, and before long, they are fulfilling their dream on stage.”

For Keegan, one moment stands out above the rest. “In 1997, I was a ten-year-old competitive Irish dancer in Manchester, struggling with the name-callers and the challenges of being a young male dancer,” he says.

“Then Lord Of The Dance came to town. Watching Michael and the cast that night at the Apollo Theatre changed everything for me. The masculinity, the precision, the energy, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

“I met Michael at the stage door, and suddenly, I knew that being an Irish dancer could mean being a superstar. Nineteen years later, I had the honour of sharing his final show with him at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in 2016. It was a full-circle moment I will never forget.”

Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance dancers

As Lord Of The Dance embark on its 30th anniversary tour, Flatley reflects on the journey. “The magic of Lord Of The Dance lives on in the hearts of our audience, and I am thrilled to bring this iconic show back to the UK in 2026,” he says.

“30 Years of Standing Ovations celebrates the incredible journey we’ve shared with fans over the years. It’s a tribute to the enduring power of dreams, the joy of dance and the unwavering support of our audience. This tour is our way of saying thank you for three decades of unforgettable memories.”

Although Flatley, now 67, retired from performing during his final tour in 2016, he has remained at the helm of Lord Of The Dance, guiding its evolution while preserving its timeless magic.

Now, as the production prepares for its biggest celebration yet, fans can look forward to a breathtaking spectacle that honours the past, embraces the present, and inspires the future of Irish dance.

The 30th anniversary tour also visits Hull New Theatre, July 22 to 25, and Sheffield City Hall, August 20 to 23. For full tour dates and ticket information, go to lordofthedance.com. York tickets:  https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/lord-of-the-dance-30th-anniversary/.