The full cast in the finale to John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
WHEN Monty Python alumnus John Cleese opened Fawlty Towers The Play at London’s Apollo Theatre in May 2024, he was “more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done”.
After two sold-out West End seasons, a ten-month 39-venue UK tour was launched in September 2025, visiting Leeds Grand Theatre in early January and now the Grand Opera House in York this week.
“I know all the lines,” said the lady in the stalls row behind your reviewer at Wednesday’s well-attended matinee. Such has been the permeation of the coastal hotel shenanigans of Cleese and Connie Booth’s beloved BBC sitcom, whose 50th anniversary was the trigger for Cleese to mount the stage show, directed with comedic elan by Caroline Jay Ranger.
Just as Eric Idle adapted the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail for the hit stage musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, so Cleese, now 86, is on to a winner with Fawlty Towers The Play. Hapless Spanish waiter Manuel may say “I know nothing”, but Cleese knows everything about how to transfer Basil and Sybil’s trials and tribulations from small screen to stage.
Whereas Idle affectionately subtitled Spamalot “A New Musical (Lovingly) Ripped Off From The Motion Picture”, Cleese has adapted three of the most cherished episodes – The Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans – to form two Acts, concluding the madcap proceedings with a new finale.
“The English do love a farce,” observed Cleese, whose play has the classic structure, physical silliness and comic verve of the works of Ben Travers, Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. He named Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors too, and you will be laughing equally as frequently at Basil’s antics in Fawlty Towers live on stage.
There is an added factor here: familiarity, a feeling as comforting as a well worn pair of slippers or a favourite sofa or the sound of Dennis Wilson’s TV theme tune. That familiarity begins the moment you settle in your seat and take in Liz Ascroft’s open-plan set design of the hotel reception desk, the stairs to Mrs Richards’ first-floor bedroom, the dining room and the doors to the kitchen.
Above, to one side, stands a model of the frontage of Fawlty Towers, in the English Riviera town of Torquay. In the middle is a cut-out of the roof; to the other side is the Fawlty Towers sign – and yes, the order of the letters will be changed for Act Two in the tradition of the TV series. The first word becomes ‘Flowery’; over to you to work out the second!
Ascroft’s design sticks faithfully to the British mid-Seventies, with its ghastly colour palette, and her costume design does likewise, from ill-fitting shiny suits for assorted men to Sybil’s trademark pink two-piece The Malcolm Macdonald-style massive sideburns of Adam Elliott’s Mr Walt are a particular retro joy.
Elliott is part of a 17-strong cast – so rare to have such a large troupe for a tour these days – that is led by Danny Bayne as the deluded, crane-legged hotel proprietor Basil Fawlty and Mia Austen as his acerbic, haughty, exasperated but exasperating wife Sybil.
Cleese once described bolshy Basil as “rude but inefficient”, and Bayne’s characterisation captures that essence, relishing Fawlty’s irascibility, his propensity to ingratiate guests one moment, then treat them as a verbal punch bag the next.
Throughout, Bayne’s Basil finds Austen’s always right Sybil to be the bane of his frustrated life, and the more you watch his pratfalls, the more it strikes you how he is the opposite of many comedy favourites.
We love Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin because they ultimately win, like Shakespeare’s clowning fools. Fawlty, by contrast, only worsens his situation, tripping himself up with every utterance and foiled plan, and he is all the funnier for that, sharing the loser status of Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder, albeit but without the intelligence and cunning to keep escaping.
Caroline Jay Ranger chalked up an earlier West End touring hit with the musical version of Only Fools And Horses that shared Fawlty Towers The Play’s sense of celebration of a British classic, while drawing performances from her cast that mirror the television versions but still bring new life to them too.
Especially so here from the veteran Paul Nicholas, still twinkling in marvellously mischievous comic form as the bumbling Major and Hemi Yerohem’s Barcelona waiter Manuel, the butt of so much Basil intemperance. Seeing such characters in the flesh adds still more to the comedic joy.
Joanne Clifton, swapping the song and dance of musical theatre for the straightest role here, is a delight as unflappable chamber maid Polly Sherman, echoing Connie Booth’s distinctive voice too. Jemma Churchill’s Mrs Richards, even grouchier than Basil, is the nightmare hotel guest personified, barking and snapping while refusing to turn up her hearing aid.
Look out too for the double-act cameos of Emily Winter and Dawn Buckland’s old ladies, Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, and Greg Haiste’s Mr Hutchinson, Mrs Richards’ rival as Basil’s most irritating hotel guest.
Fawlty Towers The Play is fawltless: British comedy at its best, farcical and furious, utterly Seventies yet timeless too. Make a reservation, now.
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The full cast in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
FROM the hotel shenanigans of Fawlty Towers to the uplifting Yorkshire tale of Calendar Girls, Pixies’ 40th anniversary tour to Daniel Sloss’s bitter comic bite, Charles Hutchinson locates cultural hotspots aplenty.
Don’t mention the war: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm today, tomorrow and Saturday matinees
FIFTY years since John Cleese and Connie Booth’s chaotic hotel sitcom graced British television screens, Monty Python alumnus Cleese has adapted three vintage Fawlty Towers episodes for a stage play.
Following a sold-out West End season, Caroline Jay Ranger directs the 18-strong tour cast featuring Danny Byrne’s calamitous Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s exasperated wife Sybil, Joanne Clifton’s stoical chamber maid Polly and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pixies: Making their York debut after 40 years tonight
Recommended but sold out already: Pixies: Pixies 40, Celebrating 40 Years, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
PIXIES are playing York for the first time in their 40-year career, opening the 13-date British and European leg of the Pixies 40 tour at the Barbican, the only Yorkshire show. Celebrating four decades since their formation in Boston, Massachusetts, the American alt.rock band’s founding members, Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, are joined by bassist Emma Richardson. Gans support.
Jerron Paxton: Singing the blues at NCEM tonight
The Crescent and Brudenell Presents present Jerron Paxton, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 8pm
SOUTH Central Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerron Paxton’s lived-in voice and California drawl underpin a stripped-down concoction of blues, ragtime, folk and old-time Black music styles that originated nearly a century ago, as heard on his latest album, Things Done Changed, released on Smithsonian Folkways in 2024.
“I write and sing about the culture I come from. It seems a bit neglected,” says New York-based Paxton, who plays guitar, banjo, piano and violin. As journalist Lynell George expresses in the liner notes: “It’s all there…you’ll discover context and background: the history of people and place and the come-what-may gamble of life-altering journeys.” Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Sandy Nicholson, front, left, Katie Melia and Alexa Chaplin in rehearsal for York Musical Theatre Company’s Calendar Girls The Musical
Yorkshire musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in Calendar Girls The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Cheshire childhood friends Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical account of the true story of a Yorkshire group of ordinary Women’s Institute members doing something extraordinary after the death of a much-loved husband.
When they decide to make an artistic nude calendar for a cancer charity, upturning preconceptions is a dangerous business, leading to emotional and personal ramifications that no-one could anticipate but bringing each woman unexpectedly into flower. Katie Melia’s Chris and Alexa Chaplin’s Annie lead the cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Dan Crawfurd-Porter in the role of Melchior in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
American musical of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre marks the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening’s off-Broadway debut in New York City by staging Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s raw, explosive coming-of-age musical in the matching week.
Cutting straight to the heart of youth, desire, repression and rebellion in 1890s’ Germany, Mikhail Lim’s actor-musician production follows a group of young people navigating sex, love and identity in a society that refuses to educate or protect them, drawing on German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to boot. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Goodnight Mister Tom at Helmsley Arts Centre
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Goodnight Mister Tom, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JULIE Wilson directs Helmsley Arts Centre’s resident troupe, 1812 Theatre Company, in Goodnight Mister Tom. Adapted by David Wood from Michelle Magorian’s novel, the play is set during the Second World War, when sad, young William Beech is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and builds a remarkable and moving friendship with the elderly recluse Tom Oakley. All seems perfect until William is devastatingly summoned by his mother back to London. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Crumb of discomfort: Can castigated TV baking celebrity Petronella Parfait (Ellen Carnazza) mount a comeback in Badapple Theatre’s Crumbs? Picture: Karl Andre Photography
Bake-off of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Crumbs, York Theatre Royal Studio, today until Saturday, 7,45pm, plus 2.30pm Thursday & Friday and 2pm Saturday matinees
FORMER TV baking celebrity Petronella Parfait is out of a job and out of her depth, trying to reinvent herself in the cut-throat world of social influencers. Can she keep the lights – and the oven – on as her live comeback show descends into delicious disaster? Expect big laughs, bold flavours, live bread making and a tasty treat for the audience at the end of Kate Bramley’s play as Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company returns to the Theatre Royal Studio. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Daniel Sloss: Acidic comedy at York Barbican tomorrow
Snappiest show title of the week gig of the week: Daniel Sloss, Bitter, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm
ACERBIC Scottish wit Daniel Sloss likes to keep his titles brief. After Jigsaw, Dark, X, Socio, Hubris, Now and Can’t, Sloss is Bitter in his 13th tour show, visiting York this weekend after playing 55 countries so far.
He has performed stand-up for more than half of his lifetime, sold out nine New York theatre seasons off-Broadway, appeared on the Conan show ten times on American television, broken Edinburgh Fringe box-office records and published his book Everyone You Hate Is Going To Die (Knopf/Penguin Random House) in 2021. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Wizard of York welcoming one and all to the magical WizardFest in York. Picture: The Story Of You
Magical event of the week: WizardFest, York, May 23 to 25
WIZARDFEST, York’s official Festival of Wizardry, waves its magic wand over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend as The Wizard of York conjures up spellbinding events, tours, trails, workshops, shows and fantastical food and drink.
Wizardry fans can book for the Wizard Walk of York, Brick Magic LEGO workshop, Wizard Family Rave, Giant Bubble Show or Wicked at City Screen Picturehouse. Expect owl appearances, dragons and the new Wizard Activity Zone on Parliament Street with wand making, face painting and more. Dress to impress for the free fancy dress parade from St Helen’s Square on Monday at 3pm. A digital map and full list of events with booking links can be found at wizardwalkofyork.com/wizardfest.
The Lightning Threads: Playing Ryedale Blues Club at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The Lightning Threads, Milton Rooms, Malton, May 28, 8pm
FORMED in 2019, The Lightning Threads are an energetic electronic blues-rock power trio from Sheffield, influenced by The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr, Cream and The Doors. They feature face-melting guitars, groove-ridden basslines and a multi-instrumentalist drummer simultaneously playing keys. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Joanne Clifton’s Polly stands behind the hotel reception desk with Fawlty Towers The Play writer John Cleese, the original Basil Fawlty
AFTER appearing in four American musicals at the Grand Opera House, Joanne Clifton is switching to a classic British sitcom on her fifth appearance at the York theatre from May 19 to 23.
The 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion is on tour in Fawlty Towers The Play, playing unflappable chamber maid Polly in John Cleese’s stage adaptation, marking the 50th anniversary of the chaotic capers, escapades and close shaves in a Torquay seaside hotel that spanned 12 beloved episodes on the BBC.
Lincolnshire-born Joanne, 42, starred previously at the Cumberland Street theatre as demure Kansas flapper girl Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie in February 2017; combustible Pittsburgh steel mill welder Alex Owens in Flashdance in November 2017; prim and proper college student Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show in June 2019 and feisty, convention-busting Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical in November 2023.
“It’s one of my favourite theatres,” she says. “I love old, traditional theatres, and York has such happy memories for me. It’s one of my favourite places to go on tour – and it’s also where I signed off on my first house in Dressing Room 2.”
“I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne Clifton of the impact of Fawlty Towers The Play, featuring three episodes from the beloved television series
Joanne is thoroughly enjoying her Fawlty experience. “I absolutely love the show,” says the 2013 World Ballroom Showdance champion. “Fawlty Towers was my West End debut, having always toured since 2017. I’ve only ever toured! It felt very strange, as it was a play as well [rather than a musical]. I never thought my West End debut would be a play, with no dancing, but I’m happy and honoured to be doing this show.”
The West End run at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, sold out and the tour has been following suit, not least at Leeds Grand Theatre in January. “The response has been amazing, selling out theatres up and down the UK, so it shows how loved the TV series was, and how many fans there are, after 50 years. I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne.
“It could have been a massive risk, thinking you’ll never beat the original, a show so iconic that you don’t need to see the play, but it’s so well cast, and as the TV series was filmed in the studio, it feels almost like you are watching our show on set too.”
Cleese’s play brings together three of the most iconic episodes, Communication Problems, The Hotel Inspectors and The Germans, with Joanne taking on the role played by Cleese’s co-writer, Connie Booth. “Connie is American and had quite a strange accent in Fawlty Towers that I had to study really well because of it being this mid-Atlantic/British accent with a strange way of saying certain words,” she says.
The full cast in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow
“Polly is the one who holds it together at the hotel: she’s not the funny one, not the outrageous one, not the massive personality one, but she’s the glue , defending Basil, trying to get him out of difficult situations with Sybil.”
How has she approached playing Polly? “Well, it’s a tricky one, with something as iconic as this, you have to give the audience something they already love, as they know this character so well, but I’m not Connie Booth, as only she can do it as good as her, so we try to keep it as close to that as possible – and no dancing, no samba!
“Being a live theatre show, if anything goes wrong, we just have to deal with it, whereas you could re-shoot it in the TV studio. If it does go wrong, we just have to keep it in character.”
She is full of praise for both “such an incredible show” and her fellow cast members, led by Danny Bayne’s Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s Sybil, Hemi Yeroham’s Spanish waiter Manuel and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. “I’ve been doing the show since last May, and there are moments when I stand at the side of the stage watching as it’s so funny,” says Joanne. “We’ve become really close as a cast, with our rituals backstage, and we all have each other’s back.”
Joanne Clifton: Making her fifth appearance at the Grand Opera House
She will be on tour until August 1. What next? “I’m doing a short tour, marking the tenth anniversary of winning Strictly with Ore Oduba. It’ll be a week-long tour that we’re calling 10 – Champions Reignited, at the end of August,” she says.
“Ten years on, multiple musicals and plays later and finally we’re coming together again ! I cannot wait! Using the words we said to each other ten years ago, let’s just go out there, have the most fun possible, and show everyone just what we can do! “
Featuring song, dance and tales in a “celebration of elite performance, defining moments and the stories behind champions who continue to inspire audiences on stage”, the tour originally was scheduled to visit Leeds Grand Theatre on August 23, but that night’s performance now will be at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle.
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, Grand Opera House, York, May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Christopher Cross: Sailing into York Barbican tonight
FROM the hotel shenanigans of Fawlty Towers to the uplifting Yorkshire tale of Calendar Girls, Pixies’ 40th anniversary tour to Daniel Sloss’s bitter comic bite, Charles Hutchinson locates cultural hotspots aplenty.
Grammy winner of the week: Christopher Cross, supported by Chris Difford, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AMERICAN singer-songwriter Christopher Cross plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue on his nine-date UK tour. The multi-Grammy-winning artist, from San Antonio, Texas, now 75, is best known for Sailing, Ride Like The Wind and Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do). His special guest will be Chris Difford, co-founder of Squeeze. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ebor Singers soloists Alisun Russell Pawley, top, left, Caroline Smith, Jason Darnell, bottom, left, and Jonty Ward
Classical concert of the week: Ebor Singers & Manchester Baroque, Baroque Gala Concert, Dixit Dominus, York Minster, tonight, 7,30pm
THE Ebor Singers unite with period instrument specialists Manchester Baroque to perform Purcell, Handel and Bach works in tonight’s two-hour Baroque Gala Concert in York Minster’s Quire. The soloists will be Alisun Russell Pawley (soprano), Caroline Smith (mezzo-soprano), Jason Darnell (tenor) and Jonty Ward (bass-baritone). Box office: 01904 557200 or yorkminster.org.
Tom Stade: Canadian mischief-maker
Mischievous comedy gig of the week: Tom Stade, Naughty By Nature, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm
CANADIAN stand-up Tom Stade is back on the road with his 2025 Edinburgh Fringe hit, wherein he playfully dishes out more of his insightful observations in a night of mischievous and uncompromising comedy. His credits include the Have A Word Pod podcast, Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, The John Bishop Show and Live At The Apollo. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Willy Mason: Songs full of heart, philosophy and hope for humanity. Picture: Ebru Yildiz
The Crescent & Brudenell Presents gig of the week: Willy Mason, National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm (doors 6pm)
MARTHA’S Vineyard, Massachusetts singer-songwriter Willy Mason has been writing, recording and touring for 25 years, ever since his home demo of breakout single Oxygen became an unexpected hit. Treading a meandering path, he frequently shuns the limelight in favour of odd jobs and unexpected company.
When he does appear, however, it is always worth the wait to hear songs full of heart, philosophy and hope for humanity that draw on a deep well of melody and story passed on from songwriter parents. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173675325.
Chris McCausland: “Doing comedy for Yonks”
Scouse humour of the week: Chris McCausland, Yonks, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 8pm
YOU might have spotted him latterly on Strictly Come Dancing (2024 winner, no less), Would I Lie To You, Have I Got News For You, QI, Blankety Blank or The Last Leg, but this is no overnight success story. Liverpool humorist Chris McCausland has been doing comedy for Yonks. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Jonny Best: Leading Frame Ensemble at Magic and Motion: Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton In Concertat NCEM. Picture: Chris Payne
Film event of the week: Magic and Motion: Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton In Concert, with Frame Ensemble, National Centre for Early Music, York, May 19, 7.30pm
STEP into the cinematic dreamworlds of George Méliès and Buster Keaton with the improvised, spontaneous music of Northern Silents’ resident quartet Frame Ensemble (Jonny Best, piano, Susannah Simmons, violin, Liz Hanks,cello, and Trevor Bartlett, percussion) as two pioneers of visual fantasy meet in a specially created cine‑concert.
French filmmaker and actor Méliès’s technical ingenuity in his extravagant Théâtre Robert‑Houdin illusion shows in Paris carried cinema beyond the simple recording of everyday life, opening up its magical possibilities. A quarter of a century later, in 1924’s Sherlock Jr., vaudeville performer Buster Keaton plays a humble projectionist who steps into the film he is showing, tumbling through a world where the laws of physics yield to the imagination. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Paul Nicholas as the Major in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play
Don’t mention the war: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play, Grand Opera House, York, May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
FIFTY years since John Cleese and Connie Booth’s chaotic hotel sitcom graced British television screens, Monty Python alumnus Cleese has adapted three vintage Fawlty Towers episodes for a stage play.
Following a sold-out West End season, Caroline Jay Ranger directs the 18-strong tour cast featuring Danny Byrne’s calamitous Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s exasperated wife Sybil, Joanne Clifton’s stoical chamber maid Polly and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pixies: Making York debut after 40 years
Recommended but sold out already: Pixies: Pixies 40, Celebrating 40 Years, York Barbican, May 20, doors 7pm
PIXIES are playing York for the first time in their 40-year career, opening the 13-date British and European leg of the Pixies 40 tour at the Barbican, the only Yorkshire show. Celebrating four decades since their formation in Boston, Massachusetts, the American alt.rock band’s founding members, Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, are joined by bassist Emma Richardson. Gans support.
In full bloom: York Musical Theatre Company in the sunflower-power musical Calendar Girls
Yorkshire musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in Calendar Girls The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Cheshire childhood friends Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical account of the true story of a Yorkshire group of ordinary Women’s Institute members doing something extraordinary after the death of a much-loved husband.
When they decide to make an artistic nude calendar for a cancer charity, upturning preconceptions is a dangerous business, leading to emotional and personal ramifications that no-one could anticipate but bringing each woman unexpectedly into flower. Katie Melia’s Chris and Alexa Chaplin’s Annie lead the cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Skye Pickford’s Ilse in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
American musical of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre marks the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening’s off-Broadway debut in New York City by staging Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s raw, explosive coming-of-age musical in the matching week.
Cutting straight to the heart of youth, desire, repression and rebellion in 1890s’ Germany, Mikhail Lim’s actor-musician production follows a group of young people navigating sex, love and identity in a society that refuses to educate or protect them, drawing on German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to boot. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Daniel Sloss: Acidic comedy at York Barbican
Snappiest show title of the week gig of the week: Daniel Sloss, Bitter, York Barbican, May 21, 8pm
ACERBIC Scottish wit Daniel Sloss likes to keep his titles brief. After Jigsaw, Dark, X, Socio, Hubris, Now and Can’t, Sloss is Bitter in his 13th tour show, visiting York this weekend after playing 55 countries so far.
He has performed stand-up for more than half of his lifetime, sold out nine New York theatre seasons off-Broadway, appeared on the Conan show ten times on American television, broken Edinburgh Fringe box-office records and published his book Everyone You Hate Is Going To Die (Knopf/Penguin Random House) in 2021. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Cheesy humour at Scarcroft Alllotments: Mikron Theatre Company’s James McLean, left, and Robert Took in Wensleydale Whey
In Focus: Mikron Theatre Company in Wensleydale Whey, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday (17/5/2026), 2pm to 4pm
IN its 54th year of touring, Marsden’s Mikron Theatre Company will be conducting the Grate Cheese Quest in Lucy Raine’s new play Wensleydale Whey.
On the road and water until October 24, this legen-dairy tale will transport audiences to the Yorkshire Dales, where the stakes are high. Monks from the Abbey are desperately seeking a living soul to resurrect their traditional Wensleydale cheese.
Raine’s fromage-fuelled musical journey delves into the rich history of cheese, featuring a whey-out cast of characters, ghosts, and grievances. True to Mikron’s signature style, the show promises a gouda time with a cheesy plot and a sprinkle of drama.
Artistic director Marianne McNamara says: “2026 is a milestone year for Mikron. The company remains one of the UK’s most prolific touring theatre companies, performing over 5,000 shows since 1972 by canal, river and road.
“We’re all big foodies here at Mikron, so a pitch for a show about cheese is not a hard sell for writer Lucie [who also wrote Mikron’s show Hush Hush last year]!”
Over five decades, Mikron has been delivering professional theatre to 137 different venues annually, from allotments and fish & chip shops to pubs, village greens and even the odd theatre.
Wensleydale Whey’s cast of actor-musicians James McLean, Georgina Liley, Robert Took and Catherine Warnock is directed by Elvi Pipe, with musical direction and arrangements of Amal El-Sawad’s original music by Robert Cooper and set and costume design by Celia Perkins.
BASED in Marsden, West Yorkshire, Mikron travels the country by van and narrow-boat [called Tyseley]. Over 54 years, the company has performed thousands of times to nearly half a million people.
Mikron is famous for performing in unconventional venues, including youth hostels, lifeboat stations and hives.
A significant portion of Mikron’s performances remain “pay what you feel” to ensure theatre remains accessible to everyone.
In Focus too: Pocklington Area Open Studios, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
CREATIVES from around the heart of East Yorkshire are opening their doors to the public for a weekend celebration of the arts.
Pocklington Area Open Studios (PAOS) has rapidly become one of the premier events of its kind, this year featuring 30 artists at 19 locations, drawing visitors from far and wide.
This weekend’s art trail celebrates quality craftsmanship in its many forms, including painting, ceramics, printmaking, textiles, jewellery, sculpture and photography.
Visitors can meet a diverse and welcoming group of makers and painters in person, many in their own studios and creative surroundings.
Printed free brochures are available from The Feathers Hotel and Costa Coffee in Market Place, Pocklington, as well as shops, cafes and libraries and from participating artists.
The brochure and venue map can be downloaded at https://www.pocklingtonareaopenstudios.co.uk/info.html.
Cone, by Alison Jagger, on show at WET Bar & Plates, York
FROM street photography to Jack The Ripper investigations, German comedy about the English weather to Canadian naughtiness, Charles Hutchinson highlights all manner of cultural delights ahead.
Photographic show of the week: Alison Jagger, After The Crowds, WET Bar & Plates, Micklegate, York, until June 3
AS a lone traveller and self-confessed free spirit, York street photographer Alison Jagger draws inspiration from the urban landscape, whose vitality she loves to capture with her mobile phone camera.
“There is nothing better than waking up in an unfamiliar city and recording its character, colour and vibrancy through my curious lens,” says Jagger. After The Crowds is the second in RARE Collective’s programme of solo exhibition at James Wall and Ella Williams’ indie wine bar and restaurant in aid of SASH (Safe and Sound Homes), the York youth homelessness charity.
Pink Moors, oil on canvas, by Louise Davies
Exhibition of the week: Louise Davies and Glassmakers, Journey In Colour, Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until July 4
PAINTINGS and etchings by South East London artist and printmaker Louise Davies are complemented by glass by Allister Malcolm, Madeleine Hughes, Margaret Burke, Charlie Burke and Amelia Burke.
Davies, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, combines fluid lines and rich colour in vibrant landscape prints and oil paintings. Gallery owner Terry Brett drove to Stourbridge to pick up glass works by Malcolm and his workshop assistant, Hughes. Margaret Burke, son Charlie and his wife, hot glass specialist Amelia, run the hand-blown glass studio E&M Glass at The Old Bakery, Sarn Bridge, Malpas, Cheshire.
Martha Godber’s Jesse North in her new play Jesse North Is Broken. Picture: Ian Hodgson
Solo show of the week:John Godber Company presents Martha Godber in Jesse North Is Broken, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight,7.45pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm & 7.45pm
JESSE North, 25, from Hull, is a carer on minimum wage, keeping the elderly alive while trying to live her own messy, chaotic life. Told over one night, writer-performer Martha Godber’s play follows Jesse from care shift to the dance floor, from the late-night kebab to an early-morning call-out as she battles the system that undervalues her and the city that shapes her, all while her ADHD-fuelled thoughts and anxious mind crave order in the chaos.
“Both political and personal, the show shines a light on working-class survival in Britain today – where carers are underpaid, the care system is crumbling and young women are left to piece themselves together in a society that keeps breaking them,” says Martha, whose solo play is directed by Millie Gaston. A post-show discussion follows tonight’s performance. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The poster for James Morrison’s 20 Years Of Undiscovered Tour, bound for York Barbican
Anniversary of the week: James Morrison, 20 Years Of Undiscovered, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
UNDISCOVERED was the number one debut album that changed everything for Rugby soul singer-songwriter and guitarist James Morrison (or James Morrison Catchpole to give him his full name). Back then, he was fitting carpets by day, playing open mics by night and driving up and down to London at any spare moment, taking meeting after meeting with multiple record companies.
On his 18-date May and June tour, 2007 British Male Solo Artist BRIT award winner Morrison is playing Undiscovered in its entirety in a set taking in big hits such as You Give Me Something and Wonderful World, fan favourites The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore and This Boy, rarely performed gems One Last Chance and How Come and highlights from his six-album songbook, topped off by 2025’s Top Five success Fight Another Day. Cordelia supports. Tickets update: limited availability at yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Wehn and where: Henning squeezing every German joke out of the British weather at Grand Opera House, York
York comedy gig of the week: Henning Wehn, Acid Wehn, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
GERMAN Comedy Ambassador Henning Wehn takes an unbiased look at climate change. “It’s a topic sure to delight audiences and no surprise,” he says. “After all, everyone loves talking about the weather. Rain or shine, all will be fine. Or maybe it won’t. Who knows?! Come along. Or else.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster for Stephen Morgan’s show An Evening With Jack The Ripper
Reopening the greatest unsolved case in criminal history: Steve Morgan in An Evening With Jack The Ripper, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow, 7.30pm
PRODUCER and broadcaster Steve Morgan conducts Ripper walks through London’s East End, where he retraces the steps of the notorious killer through the Whitechapel streets he stalked in 1888, when a series of women were murdered brutally between August and November.
The identity of the killer remains a mystery. Was he a doctor, a sailor, a soldier or some kind of religious zealot intent on ridding the streets of vice? Now Morgan has adapted his walk talk for the stage to explore the Ripper’s motives and investigate how he escaped detection. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
York Chamber Music Festival director and cellist Tim Lowe
Festival launch of the week: Tim Lowe (cello) & Stephen Gutman (piano), Gems Of The Romantic Cello, National Centre for Early Music, York, Friday, 7.30pm
DIRECTOR and cellist Tim Lowe previews the 2026 York Chamber Music Festival (September 11 to 13) in concert with pianist Stephen Gutman in a passionate exploration of expressive and beautiful works from the cello and piano repertoire.
Their programme will be the same as they played at St Mary le Strand, London, last Wednesday: Beethoven’s 12 Variations on See The Conquering Hero Comes from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus; Saint-Saëns’ Cello Sonata No 1 in C Minor; Richard Strauss’s Cello Sonata in F Major and Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.
Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman: Hand in hand for folk night at Helmsley Arts Centre
Folk gig of the week: Kathryn Roberts and Seth Lakeman, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
KATHRYN Roberts and Sean Lakeman’s creative bond spans 30 years, from being young trailblazers in 1990s’ folk supergroup Equation to twice being named Best Duo at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Their live shows are brimful of charm, wit and musical mastery of songs of emotional depth, as captured on 2025’s Another Day At The Circus, their first live concert album. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Tom Stade: Naughty By Nature mischief-making
Ryedale comedy gig of the week: Tom Stade, Naughty By Nature, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 8pm
CANADIAN stand-up Tom Stade is back on the road with his 2025 Edinburgh Fringe hit, wherein he playfully dishes out more of his insightful observations in a night of mischievous and uncompromising comedy. His credits include the Have A Word Pod podcast, Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, The John Bishop Show and Live At The Apollo. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The poster for Scarborough Theatre Company’s first visit to Kirk Theatre, Pickering, with Joseph & The Technicolor Dreamcoat
Musical of the week: Scarborough Theatre Company in Joseph & The Technicolor Dreamcoat, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, May 22, 7.30pm; May 23, 2.30pm and 7.30pm; May 24, 2.30pm
DIRECTED by Alex Weatherhill, Scarborough Theatre Company will be performing in Pickering for the first time, presenting Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s debut musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with a combination of unforgettable songs, dazzling costumes and electrifying energy.
Having staged The Addams Family, Kinky Boots, White Christmas and The Wizard Of Oz on the East Coast, now Weatherhill oversees a tale of betrayal, hope and triumph in a story that continues to inspire audiences of all ages, driven by pastiches of many musical styles. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
John Cleese with Danny Bayne, who is playing Basil Fawlty on tour in Fawlty Towers – The Play. Picture: Trevor Leighton
JOHN Cleese was “more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done”.
Here he is reflecting on the success of Fawlty Towers – The Play, having enjoyed two sold-out West End seasons and launched a ten-month, 39-venue UK tour in September 2025 that visits the Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23.
“I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny,” reflects Cleese, now 86. “And the English do love farce. Think Ben Travers. Think Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. Look at the success of Noises Off and One Man, Two Guvnors. Farce is universal.”
For all his quiet confidence that Basil Fawlty’s hotel escapades would be received enthusiastically in the theatre, he could not have predicted its rapturous reception.
Cleese does not try to hide his pride in this much-loved classic, co-created with first wife Connie Booth, but he shakes his head in mild wonder at the way it has rooted itself in the public consciousness.
John Cleese behind the Fawlty Towers reception desk with cast members Danny Bayne (Basil Fawlty), left, Mia Austen (Sybil Fawlty,) Joanne Clifton (Polly), Paul Nicholas (The Major) and Hemi Yeroham (Manuel). Picture: Trevor Leighton
“I was told not so long ago of a family who have a game where one of them tries to introduce a quote from Fawlty Towers into the conversation without the other three realising,” he says. “How great a compliment is that? For instance, if anyone says: ‘Don’t mention the war’, everyone knows its origin.”
The play opened at London’s Apollo Theatre in May 2024, directed niftily by Caroline Jay Ranger, who chalked up an earlier West End and touring hit with the musical version of Only Fools and Horses that played the Grand Opera House in October 2024.
As seen at Leeds Grand Theatre in early January, Fawlty Towers’ 18-strong tour cast features changes from the London runs, including Danny Bayne as the deluded, crane-legged Basil – once described by Cleese as “rude but inefficient” – and Mia Austen as his acerbic wife, Sybil.
Joanne Clifton, 2016 winner with Ore Oduba of the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball, takes on the role of Polly, the phlegmatic waitress and chamber maid who pretty much single-handedly prevents Fawlty Towers from collapsing like a pack of cards. Happily, Paul Nicholas remains as the bumbling Major.
The stage show combines three of the most cherished sketches, stitched together by Cleese with a new finale wrapping up proceedings. Miscommunication is the name of the game with a threatened visit by a brace of hotel inspectors, and later by a party of German tourists.
“I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny,” says Fawlty Towers writer John Cleese. Picture: Dave J Hogan
In between comes Basil’s ongoing – futile, as it turns out – attempt to keep secret from Sybil his flutter on the horses with little or no help from Spanish waiter Manuel, played by Hemi Yeroham.
Last October, Headline published Cleese’s book Fawlty Towers: Fawlts And All – My Favourite Moments to celebrate 50 years of the comedy milestone.
He and younger daughter Camilla have been working on developing a reboot of a possible third TV series of Fawlty Towers, set in a Caribbean motel, where she will play opposite him as Basil’s illegitimate daughter.
In addition, Cleese and Camilla have been collaborating on a stage musical version of hit film A Fish Called Wanda, while a new film script, Lookalikes, is in development too, with the script now in the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Originally, it was going to be about those people who stand on Sunset Boulevard in LA [Los Angeles] pretending to be famous stars,” says Cleese. “That changed when someone came up with the brilliant idea of getting real superstars to play the lookalikes.”
People love laughing, reckons Cleese. Hence he has little time for much of what is shown on TV today. “I’ve never seen Game Of Thrones but I did catch a few minutes of something the other day where a dragon was tied to a chain. It wasn’t for me,” he says.
Paul Nicholas as The Major in Fawlty Towers – The Play
Fawlty Towers, he argues, is both funny and timeless. “And we were lucky with Monty Python. We made two good movies, one of them medieval [Monty Python And The Holy Grail], one of them set in the time of Christ [Monty Python’s Life Of Brian]. Neither is going to date.” Now talk is afoot of bringing Life Of Brian to the London stage.
Cleese turned down a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1996. “I asked the authorities if I could call myself Commander Cleese. Absolutely not, apparently,” he says. “Also, look at other people who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie and Michael Frayn and Alan Bennett and Albert Finney. I have respect for them.”
Fellow Python luminary Michael Palin accepted a knighthood in 2019. “And good luck to him. I was genuinely pleased,” says Cleese. “I now call him Sir Mickey: that’s how I always address my emails to him. He’s a lovely guy.”
Let’s be clear: if Cleese were to be offered a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List, he would turn it down? “I would. I don’t need that sort of validation,” he says. “It’s enough for me to know – because people kindly tell me sometimes – that I’ve helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. Which is delightful.
“They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers and the world doesn’t seem quite so bleak. That’s my reward. I think we need much more laughter in the world. I’m not advocating mean teasing. Just good old-fashioned laughter. There’s nothing to beat it.”
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers –The Play runs amok at Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The closing scene from John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers – The Play, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
Eileen Walsh in rehearsal for her lead role as Sheila Gold in the world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
DYSON and Nyman’s world premiere dark thriller and women sporting Holmes & Watson waxed moustaches tickle Charles Hutchinson’s fancy in his recommendations for the week ahead.
World premiere of the week: The Psychic, York Theatre Royal, until May 23
“IS any of it real,” ask Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman in The Psychic, the latest spook-fest from the writer-director duo behind Ghost Stories. In their twisted new thriller, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan, costing her not only her reputation but also a fortune in legal fees.
When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, she senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed, leading her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Writer-directors Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in the rehearsal room for The Psychic. Picture: Manuel Harlan
Cutting-edge music and art collaboration of the week: York Late Music presents Late Music Ensemble: Picture This!, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate York, tonight, 7.30pm
INSPIRED by the relationship between visual art and music, Picture This! explores how composers have responded to artworks across time, from Modest Mussorgsky to the present day.
Today’s audience is invited on a promenade through an imagined exhibition, where works by Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Bridget Riley and John Martin, alongside sculpture by Alexander Calder, are reflected in a musical programme featuring a new arrangement of Pictures At An Exhibition, Igor Stravinsky’s miniature tribute to Pablo Picasso, songs by Don van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and David Byrne, plus new works. Nick Williams gives a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
Feeling his collar: Tom Davis in Spudgun, full of freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics
Comedy gig of the week: Tom Davis in Spudgun, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm
CROYDON comedy turn, actor and podcaster Tom Davis is back on the road, firing out his freshly cooked observations on life’s hot topics. Co-host of the Wolf And Owl podcast with Romesh Ranganathan, star of BAFTA and Royal Television Society award-winning comedy series Murder In Successville and BBC One comedy King Gary, he also has his own Sky and NOW TV special, Underdog. “Get ready,” he says. “This one is fully loaded.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Hank, Pattie & The Current: Innovative twist on traditional bluegrass at Selby Town Hall
Bluegrass gig of the week: Hank, Pattie & The Current, Selby Town Hall, tonight, 7.30pm
HARD-HITTING bluegrass pickers who moonlight as symphonic classical musicians, Hank, Pattie & The Current approach their string band much as they would a string quartet. The Raleigh, North Carolina four-piece are led by Hank Smith’s banjo and Pattie Hopkins Kinlaw’s fiddle in an innovative twist on traditional bluegrass flavoured with classical, Motown, jazz and pop. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Steve Cassidy: Leading his band through rock and country numbers at the JoRo
Vintage performance of the week: Steve Cassidy Band, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
THE Steve Cassidy Band return to their favourite home-city venue with guests in tow for a night of rock and country music chosen to appeal to all age groups. Steve, a three-time winner on New Faces, recorded with John Barry as a teenager and performed on shows with legends of the music industry. His line-up features John Lewis, guitar, George Hall, keyboards, Mick Hull, bass, guitar and ukulele, and Brian Thomson, percussion. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Katherine Priddy: Showcasing new album These Frightening Machines at Pocklington Arts Centre
Folk gig of the week: Katherine Priddy, Pocklington Arts Centre, Sunday, 8pm
AFTER writing and recording two songs with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and appearing on Later…With Jools Holland, Birmingham folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy released her third album, These Frightening Machines, in March on Cooking Vinyl.
Priddy’s new compositions explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold on to connections in a world that sometimes divides and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves confronting. Northallerton singer-songwriter George Boomsma supports. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Farewell tour for opera impresario and director Ellen Kent
Exit stage left: Ellen Kent, The Farewell Tour, Madama Butterfly, May 3, 7.30pm, and Carmen, May 4, 7.30pm, both at Grand Opera House, York
OPERA impresario and director Ellen Kent is on the road with her farewell tour, presented by Senbla, featuring Opera International Kyiv, from Ukraine, in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Bizet’s Carmen.
Sung in Italian with English surtitles, Madama Butterfly’s heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant will be led by sopranos Elena Dee and Viktoria Melnyk, mezzo-soprano Yelyzaveta Bielous and tenors Oleksii Srebnytskyi and Hovhannes Andreasyan. Sung in French with English surtitles, Carmen promises passion, sexual jealousy, death and unforgettable arias, performed by Dee, Melynk and Mariia Davydova. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson, left, and Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskerville
Mystery thriller of the week: Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOIN York company Neon Crypt for side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror in Jamie McKeller’s staging of Peepolykus co-artistic director John Nicholson’s incredibly high-brow adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
Sherlock Holmes (Laura McKeller) and Dr Watson (Laura Castle) must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found dead on his estate with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body. Look out for Michael Cornell popping up as Sir Henry and Sir Charles Baskerville and Yokel 2. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster artwork for K-Pop All Stars, bound for Grand Opera House, York
Tribute gig of the week: K-Pop All Stars, Grand Opera House, York, May 6, 7pm
RIDE the global K-pop wave with K-Pop All Stars’ explosive live celebration of the music, artists and Korean culture that is taking over the pop world. Feel the power of stadium-sized anthems, razor-sharp choreography and a cast that delivers every beat with precision and passion, performing hits by Blackpink, NewJeans, Katseye, BTS, Itzy, Stray Kids, Twice, Jung Kook and more. Cue light sticks glowing in the crowd. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Dervish: Traditional Irish folk music at National Centre for Early Music. Picture: Tim Jarvis
Recommended but sold out already: Dervish, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, May 6, 7.30pm
LEGENDARY Irish traditional folk music band Dervish, recipients of a BBC lifetime achievement award in 2019, have recorded and performed all over the world, playing at festivals from Rio to Glastonbury. Fronted by singer Cathy Jordan. the line-up of fiery fiddle, flute, bouzouki, mandola, bodhran and accordion delivers vibrant sets of tunes and compelling songs. Box office for returns only: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Michael Cornell’s Sir Henry Baskerville, Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes, centre, and Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
YORK Gothic humorists Neon Crypt will serve up The Hound Of The Baskervilles with side-splitting stupidity, hot dog disguises and absolute terror at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from May 5 to 9.
Expect a relentlessly silly, very funny and very fast-paced show suitable for all ages, albeit with some mild peril, as Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell tackle a typically high-brow, 120-minute adaptation by Peepolykus co-founder John Nicholson, in the wake of staging Nicholson and Le Navet Bete’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth last May.
Directed by Jamie McKeller, alias York ghost walk supremo Dr Dorian Deathly of Deathly Dark Tours, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes story is given a madcap makeover as Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles.
To do so, they must unravel the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, who is found dead on his estate, with a look of terror still etched on his face and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body.
The Hound Of The Baskervilles director Jamie McKeller in Dr Dorian Deathly ghost walk guide mode
“Our memories of The Hound Of The Baskervilles in York go way back to York Theatre Royal doing it with panto villain David Leonard as Holmes [in 2016],” says Jamie. “Within Neon Crypt, there are four of us, and we get together to throw it around the room, saying ‘you read this part’, ‘you read that part’, and it ended up landing the way it has with the two Lauras as Holmes and Watson and Michael playing Sir Henry Baskerville, Sir Charles Baskerville, Dr Mortimer, a cabbie and multiple meat-wielding Yokels.
“We knew one of us would direct the show, and the general feeling was that it would go a certain way, but it didn’t go the way we thought it would! I thought I’d end up as Holmes because he’s so stoic, but then Laura [McKeller] read the part and nailed the arrogance and Basil Rathbone air of ‘Britishness’.
“Laura [Castle] has such an everyman quality to her acting, and she started to read Dr John Watson in an Received Pronunciation English accent, but I said, ‘no, give me Bradford, give me the moors, give me West Yorkshire’, and that’s how she’s now playing him.”
Laura C will focus on Watson and a Yokel, while Laura M will be even busier in her multi-role-playing duties than Cornell. “She’s doing at least ten roles because Holmes is not always present. She’ll be Mr and Mrs Barrymore; the train guard; Cecile Stapleton; Jack Stapleton and Slasher Selden, ‘the Notting Hill murderer’, among others,” says Jamie.
Laura McKeller’s Sherlock Holmes in hot dog disguise in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of he Baskervilles
“She has to go off, change character and be back on in a heartbeat – and our stage manager, Rebecca Payne, will be multi-rolling too with all the scenes changes, costume changes and props, so she’s as much a character in the show as the other three. Though she doesn’t say anything, she has to do a lot on stage, with the running joke of the cast tipping her every time she comes on but becoming more and more begrudging about doing that.”
Analysing The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ abiding popularity, Jamie says “It’s a good sleuth story where the audience feels ‘Let’s go sleuthing’. If anything, in this version, the story is on the backburner, so there are moments when the sleuthing is going on, where we have to find the chance to hit the brakes to say to the audience, ‘Are you keeping up?’.
“We’re staging it on a thrust set design, so the audience are invited into the action straightaway. Within 30 seconds, the house lights are up and the audience are involved.
“The show is right up our street in terms of silliness, and though we place it in the late-1800s, with Watson in a Victorian two-piece and Holmes in a deer stalker and cape, the cast can break out of the period setting, like the moment when they pull out a mobile phone.”
No smoke without (gun) fire: Laura Castle’s Dr John Watson in Neon Crypt’s The Hound Of The Baskervilles
The two Lauras wore Holmes and Watson’s waxed moustaches in rehearsal for the first time last night (30/4/2026). “But Laura M is no stranger to having moustaches and mono-brows on stage,” says Jamie. “Laura C likes to do her nails with themed symbols on: bats for her Dracula last time; now moustaches on blue nails for Doctor John Watson!”
From Star Wars music in one scene to the bubbling bromance of Holmes and Watson, anything could happen in Neon Crypt’s show. “I think there’s permission that if anyone ‘cracks’ on stage in a preposterous comedy, it’s not the end of the world,” posits Jamie. “It makes it feel more grounded, and you’re at such close quarters with the audience at Theatre@41 that it’s a really transformative venue, where you can have it anyway you want.”
Jamie has plenty on his thespian plate, by the way. “I’ll be playing Frank in Jim Paterson’s production of Educating Rita for Black Treacle Theatre in June, and with the volume of lines in each show, I couldn’t have done both Sherlock and Frank,” he says.
Neon Crypt in The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Florence Poskitt: Playing hairdresser and Open University Eng Lit student Rita in Black Treacle Theatre’s June production of Educating Rita
YORK company Black Treacle Theatre will present Educating Rita, Willy Russell’s warm, witty and moving two-hander about the power of education to change lives, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 9 to 13.
Company founder and director Jim Paterson will direct Jamie McKeller and Florence Poskitt in Russell’s tale of Rita, a working-class hairdresser hungry for something more, signing up for an Open University literature course.
There she meets Frank, a disillusioned academic whose passion for teaching has long faded. Their weekly tutorials become a battle of ideas, humour and honesty as Rita’s confidence blossoms and heavy-drinking Frank wrestles with his demons and the possibility of a second chance.
As Rita discovers the worlds of art, culture and self-expression, she begins to question the life others expect her to live. Change, however, comes with difficult choices, whereupon both teacher and student must reconsider who they are and who they want to be. Tickets for the 7.30pm performances are on sale attickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Coming next from Neon Crypt
NEON Crypt will stage The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Danny Robbins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in Halloween week.
“Nick Hern Books contacted us to say the rights were becoming available from midday that day and would we be interested?” says Neon Crypt artistic director Jamie McKeller, who will feature in the cast alongside Laura McKeller, Laura Castle and Michael Cornell, directed by Alex King.
More details will follow.
Dr Dorian Deathly: Making the Grand Opera House his latest haunt for ghost stories
Deathly Dark Tours to go behind scenes at Grand Opera House on May 25
DR Dorian Deathly, alias Jamie McKeller, is teaming up with the Grand Opera House, York, for a “unique experience on stage and behind the scenes after dark” as visitors investigate the Cumberland Street theatre’s 120-year history with the York ghost walk host on May 25.
Deathly Dark Tourssupremo Dorian will lead ghost-walkers on a backstage tour replete with stories of people connected with the theatre’s past. Tours will start at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Jalen Ngonda: Returning to York for the first time since Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July. Picture: Paul Rhodes
SHAKESPEARE is in the spotlight with international guests and a York nightclub rom-com while artists and makers open their studios, as Charles Hutchinson’s diary bulges with inviting opportunities aplenty.
Soul show of the week: Jalen Ngonda, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AFTER appearing on Nile Rodgers & CHIC’s bill at Futuresound’s Live At York Museum Gardens last July, willowy soul singer and pianist Jalen Ngonda opens his seven-date spring tour at York Barbican. Originally from Maryland and now based in Liverpool, Ngonda’s voice and music recall the best of the great Sixties and Seventies’ soul artists, delivered with a contemporary edge. Deptford Northern Soul Club support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Pink rocks: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Made At Curve’s Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm
STRICTLY Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies plays Elle Woods in the 2026 tour of Legally Blonde The Musical, joined by York Theatre Royal pantomime villain Jocasta Almgill as Brooke Wyndham, after she appeared as wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty last winter.
Davies had been set to appear as Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman The Musical at the Grand Opera House in February 2024, but Sydnie Hocknell understudied that week. Hannah Lowther, otherwise playing Margot, will step in for Davies at the April 23 matinee. North Yorkshireman and Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster directs the uplifting, totally pink tale of Elle’s transformation from ‘It Girl’ fashionista to legal ace at Harvard Law School, all in the name of love. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Common Ground Theatre’s Nathan Brocklebank and Lydia Keating in rehearsals for Hamlet, bound for York International Shakespeare Festival. Picture: Magdalini Brouma
Festival of the week: York International Shakespeare Festival, until May 3
YORK plays host to two weeks of world premieres, unmissable performances, enlightening talks and world-class exhibitions, bringing together artists from Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Poland and United States, along with British creatives and York talent, in celebration of Shakespeare’s impact across the globe.
Highlights include festival artist-in-residence Lisa Wolpe’s show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, York St John University Creative Centre, tonight, 7.30pm; Common Ground Theatre’s Hamlet, Creative Centre, April 25, 7.30pm, and April 26, 4pm; Petty Men – ShakeSphere Selection 2026, Theatre@41, Monkgate, April 29, 7.30pm, and Olga Annenko’s Codename Othello, performed in English and Ukrainian, Creative Centre, May 2, 6pm, and May 3, 2pm. Full festival programme and box office: yorkshakes.co.uk.
1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition
Folk opera of the week: 1812 Youth Theatre in Hadestown: Teen Edition, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
NATASHA Jones and Freya Popplewell direct 1812 Youth Theatre in Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s intriguing and beautiful folk opera that intertwines two love stories, young dreamers Orpheus (Mani Brown) and Eurydice (Ava Woolford) and immortal King Hades (Koen-Leigh Brown/Jay Stevens) and Persephone (Lena Chorazyk).
Hadestown: Teen Edition invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back in a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
York Shakespeare Project’s cast on the dance floor in rehearsal for Anna Gallon’s nightclub version of Love’s Labour’s Lost
York nightlife drama of the week: York Shakespeare Project in Love’s Labours Lost, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
FOUR Wheel Drive co-founder and artistic director Anna Gallon directs York Shakespeare Project for the first time in Love’s Labour’s Lost as Shakespeare’s comedy of wit, wordplay, vows and romantic mischief meets the 1990s’ club scene in an immersive new take on the Bard’s early comedy, set in the heat and heighted passions of urban nightlife.
Her playful reinvention mixes verse, rhythm, dance and striking visuals to create a fresh and contemporary celebration of love, temptation and folly, wherein the King of Navarre and his three companions are DJs who once ruled York’s club scene but now have renounced the wild world of drink, dance and late nights, committing themselves instead to a retreat of abstinence: no women, no drink and definitely no dance floors. However, when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, their solemn vows begin to unravel. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Collage and mixed media artist Donna Maria Taylor: Taking part in York Open Studios at South Bank Studios this weekend
Art event of the week: York Open Studios, York and beyond, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
AS many as 150 artists and makers within York and a ten-mile radius of the city are welcoming visitors to 107 workplaces and studios this weekend.
This annual event offers the chance to gain a sneak peek into where the artists work, their methods and inspirations, whether a regular contributor or the 27 new participants, spanning traditional and contemporary painting and print, illustration, drawing, ceramics, mixed media, glass, sculpture, jewellery, textiles and photography. For more information, visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk; access the interactive map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk/map.
The Manfreds: Sixties’ hits, jazz and blues at Milton Rooms, Malton
Ryedale gig of the week: The Manfreds, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday,7.30pm
ORIGINAL Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness are joined by Marcus Cliffe, Simon Currie, Pete Riley and Mike Gorman in The Manfreds’ two-hour performance of Sixties’ hits, dynamic jazz and powerful blues. Get Your Kicks On Tour ’26 features such favourites as 5-4-3-2-1, Pretty Flamingo, Mighty Quinn and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, alongside rhythm & blues-inspired gems and solo successes. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The poster artwork for Labyrinth: In Concert: On tour at York Barbican
Film and music collaboration of the week: Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, York Barbican, April 27, 7.30pm
JIM Henson’s musical fantasy film Labyrinth is on tour in concert in celebration of its 40th anniversary, transporting audiences to Goblin City in a fusion of film on a large HD cinema screen and live music on stage, performed by a band playing David Bowie and Trevor Jones’s soundtrack score and songs in sync with Bowie’s original vocals.
Taking on an ever-growing cult status since its release on June 27 1986, Labyrinth stars Bowie as principal antagonist Jareth the Goblin King, who rules the goblin kingdom, kidnaps protagonist Sarah’s baby brother and presents a charming yet menacing challenge, appearing as a rock star-like figure who lures and influences her journey. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Amber in pink: Amber Davies’s Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
LEGALLY Blonde The Musical was last decorating a York stage in pink only 14 months ago in York Light Opera Company’s York Theatre Royal production. Now the 2011 Olivier Awards Best New Musical winner returns, even pinker and perkier, in North Yorkshireman Nicolai Foster’s hands in a fizzing, fabulous show shaped at Curve, Leicester, and now touring in tandem with ROYO.
Strictly Come Dancing 2025 finalist Amber Davies leads Foster’s cast in Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach’s musical spin on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film that charts the path of jilted Malibu fashion merchandising student Elle Woods (Davies) as she follows ex-lover Warner (Jamie Chatterton) to Harvard Law School with her cute Chihuahua Bruiser (Sprout) in tow.
Legally Blonde is a sugar rush of an all-American show, bursting with energy and joy, but beneath that E-number surface and the Omigod You Guys excitability, it also releases a surge of female empowerment and delivers a message of self-belief and self-discovery.
Hence the preponderance of women in the full house at Tuesday’s press night, drawn to Elle’s tale of staying doggedly true to herself as her sunshine-suffused Californian positivity rubs up against New York cynicism and Ivy League snobbery, enabling her to defeat all preconceptions to cut the legal mustard.
Welsh actress Davies, winner of the 2017 series of Love Island, brings that winning personality to playing It Girl fashionista-turned-budding legal ace Elle, revelling in all shades of pink, eschewing convention and countering her vulnerability on new terrain with her vitality, warmth and sassy humour.
Amber Davies’s Elle Woods, second from right, with the “Greek chorus” in Legally Blonde, Rosanna Harris’s Serena, left, Hannah Lowther’s Margot and Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar. Picture: Matt Crockett
Davies’s Elle is fun company for audience and fellow students alike (aside from Chatterton’s stuffed-shirt Warner and his judgemental, sourpuss new girlfriend, Annabelle Terry’s Vivienne Kensington). You know from her Strictly exploits that she will move well in Leah Hill’s choreography, while her singing grows more powerful, the more the performance progresses.
You will enjoy how Elle’s burgeoning legal nous is rooted in uncanny instinct and her knowledge of fashion trends and hair culture, rather than in quoting textbooks by rote. This does not make her a law unto herself, but shows how unconventional thinking can win the day, especially when bolstered by her determination to defy stereotypical “blonde” pigeonholing and leap over obstacles, whether preppy Warner and Vivienne or cynical, predatory Harvard professor Callahan (Adam Cooper).
Davies’s Elle has plenty of friends, old and new, to counter her foes. Closest to home are the Greek chorus (Rosanna Harris’s Serena, Remi Ferdinand’s Pilar and Hannah Lowther’s Margot), her Delta Nu sorority sisters, who now represent her inner thoughts in the style of American sports’ cheerleaders. They sizzle in Hill’s choreography in their ever-changing, brightly coloured attire, topped off by their lippy patter.
Elle bonds with fellow Harvard interloper, George Crawford’s principled, corduroy-clad Emmett, and especially with Karen Mavundukure’s trailer-trash hairdresser Paulette Bonafonte, who matches no-nonsense frankness in conversation with powerhouse singing with all the thunder of Ruby Turner.
Ty-Reece Stewart rather underplays the humour in cool-dude USP delivery stud muffin Kyle, Paulette’s sudden, unexpected love interest: a missed opportunity. By contrast, the camp swagger bubbling away throughout surfaces gloriously in the comedic high point of the courtroom number Gay Or European?, as Jamie Tait’s Nikos and Bradley Delarosbel’s Carlos celebrate their love so flamboyantly.
Resident director Jocasta Almgill leading the skipping-rope exercise session as murder suspect and fitness guru Brooke Wyndham in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Jocasta Almgill’s pantomime villain Carabosse in York Theatre Royal’s Sleeping Beauty last winter is still fresh in the memory, and now she brings bags of character and high energy to exercise-video guru Brooke Wyndham, who is standing trial for murder.
Act Two surpasses Act One, not least because Almgill’s Brooke gives it such an adrenaline boost with the opening skipping number Whipped Into Shape, danced with her fellow inmates. Still to come is the best-known routine, Bend And Snap, wherein Davies’s Elle teaches Mavundukure’s Paulette the moves so resolutely.
Foster’s direction is full of panache and punch, even a sprinkling of pathos, and Hill’s choreography crackles like electricity, while Colin Richmond’s set design savours the power of pink and Tom Rogers’ costumes embrace every colour, without ever putting pink in the shade. Cerys McKenna’s musical direction brings out the fizz in effervescent songs that are almost giddy with excitement.
Nikolai Foster’s Legally Blonde will leave you feeling tickled pink.
Made At Curve presents Legally Blonde The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Holding court: Adam Cooper’s Harvard lawyer Callahan, right, with law school students Warner (Jamie Chatterton), centre, Vivienne (Annabelle Terry) and ensemble member James Lim in Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
