grand opera house york Archives

October 5, 2026October 5, 2026

Coward’s Present Laughter moves to 1977 New York in Oberman’s re-imagining of Thirties’ comedy at Grand Opera House

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and Seb Carrington’s David Stillington in Present Laughter, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture Simon Annand

THEATRE Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions re-present Noël Coward’s provocative comedy Present Laughter in a new version, re-imagined by actress, playwright and columnist Tracy-Ann Oberman, at the Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow (6/10/2026).

Last seen in York as Shylock in her revamp of The Merchant Of Venice 1936 at the Theatre Royal in November 2023, on her return she is playing Geri Essendine: the first time the character has been performed by a female lead, after being originated on stage by Coward himself in 1939 and traditionally being portrayed as Garry Essendine.

Andrew Scott played self-obsessed actor Essendine as a gay man at the Old Vic, London, in North Yorkshireman Matthew Warchus’s 2019 production. Now comes EastEnders, Friday Night Dinner, Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre actress Oberman’s reinvention of Coward’s study of the temptations and pitfalls of theatrical celebrity in a reflection on fame, desire and loneliness, spun inside a “chaotic whirlwind of love, sex, panic and soul-searching” (as the Old Vic publicity put it).

Re-located from London to 1970s’ New York, Oberman’s Geri Essendine is a hugely successful actress who has been 39 for the best part of a decade. Her personality, wit and charm have earned her a legion of devoted fans, young and old, and a coterie of friends, acquaintances and hangers-on.

Set and costume designer Peter McKintosh’s design for Geri Essendine’s apartment in 1977 New York, featuring pastiche “Andy Warhol” portraits of actress Geri. Picture: Simon Annand

On the cusp of departing for a tour of Africa, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevy of would-be lovers, her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? What’s more, deep down, does she really want to?

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays,” said Oberman, when announcing the tour in June. “But when I looked at it more closely, I saw something beyond the sparkling comedy. I saw a portrait of the cost of celebrity — of a fragile ego trapped inside a gilded cage, desperately trying to hold back the one thing that catches up with every icon: time, and the fear of becoming irrelevant.”

“The moment I flipped the gender, the stakes suddenly became even more fascinating,” noted Oberman, who is working with director Lindsay Posner for the third time, having played Belinda Blair alongside Felicity Kendal’s Dotty Otley in the 40th anniversary production of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre, London, in 2022-2023 and appeared in Ryan Craig’s The Holy Rosenbergs at the Renier Chocolate Factory, London, from late-February to early-May this year.

“I think hopefully Tracy trusts the fact I can bring out her full potential as an actress, and we have that ‘shorthand’ between us that means we don’t have to tread as carefully as you would with anyone you don’t know already,” says Lindsay, whose directorial skills will be familiar to York audiences from his 2018 pop-up Elizabethan theatre productions of Richard III and Romeo And Juliet, set in 1980s’ Italy, for Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre at the Eye of York.

Present Laughter director Lindsay Posner

“I know how to connect with her and work with her big personality,” he adds. “Tracy approached me and floated her concept, asking me if I thought it would work – and I did. One of the reasons I hadn’t done Present Laughter before was because the play had started to feel politically dodgy, watching an older man seducing women in their 20s. That would now be creepy and tedious.

“Tracy’s idea liberated the play and allowed it to be performed again with a whole new resonance, just as the Old Vic liberated it by making Essendine a gay man, where Andrew Scott played him.”

Lindsay continues: “Updating it to the 1970s and setting it in New York liberates it from people’s preconceptions of Coward being all about mahogany furniture and people wafting cigarette holders around.

“Now, Geri is living in a New York apartment opposite Studio 54, where Andy Warhol has become a friend and has painted her portraits on the apartment walls. In some ways, Geri feels more isolated and in some ways she’s trying to blend in. It’s made her more hedonistic and sexually promiscuous.”

The poster for Present Laughter starring Tracy-Ann Oberman

In Lindsay’s verdict, Oberman’s take on Present Laughter is “still 96 per cent Coward”. “We’ve been faithful to Coward but changed certain names, place names and settings,, but the structure is still totally Coward and most of the language too,” he says.

“I do feel that if you just still set it in the 1930s with a woman as the lead, it wouldn’t have worked. You have to update it. I think it now gives it a slightly more substantial resonance in terms of sexual politics.”

The play’s profusion of “talking in the first half before becoming a farce in the second” makes Present Laughter “very difficult to direct”. “Structurally it’s not as adept as some of Coward’s other plays,” says Lindsay. “You have to find the balance to keep it funny and interesting while sticking to the structure.

“The interesting thing about the play existing in the Thirties and well as the Seventies is that it allows you to question boundaries between people, to think about truth telling, and for Geri it’s about identity and identifying true feelings from false, both as an actor and in real life.

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays,” says Tracy-Ann Oberman. Picture: Simon Annand

“In this play, there are people who are performing all the time. Geri is forced to perform [off stage] as she’s a celebrity and is expected to do that, which makes her more lonely, and that’s enhanced by bringing it into the 1970s.”

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Augusta Productions present Noël Coward’s Present Laughter, Grand Opera House, York, October 6 to 10, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know:

LINDSAY Posner is at the helm of Present Laughter after his West End triumphs directing Noises Off, starring Felicity Kendal, A View From The Bridge, starring Dominic West, and The Deep Blue Sea, starring Tamsin Greig.

Posner is directing the world premiere of Park Myung-Sung and Seensee Company’s production of Nero (book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik, the Tony Award-winning team behind Spring Awakening) at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London, from November 2 to December 5

Power, fame and excess combine in this new musical that reimagines the notorious figure of Nero for the modern age. Andrew Barth Feldman will play the Roman emperor who changed history forever. ruling from AD54 until his suicide in AD68.

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine and James Dreyfus’s Monty in a publicity shot for Present Laughter

Who will be joining Tracy-Ann Oberman in Lindsay Posner’s cast for Present Laughter?

JAMES Dreyfus will play Monty. Dreyfus is known for major roles in television sitcoms Gimme Gimme Gimme and The Thin Blue Line, as well as Mount Pleasant, more recently. He won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a musical for Lady In The Dark at the National Theatre; other notable stage roles include The Producers and Cabaret.

Adrian Lukis will play Len. Screen credits include Pride And Prejudice, The Crown, Judge John Deed, Peak Practice, and Black Mirror. His theatre work includes The Price in the West End, Orson’s Shadow at Southwark Playhouse, Being Mr Wickham – which he co-wrote and has performed in London, New York and on tour, with Original Theatre Company, playing the Haunted Season at York Theatre Royal in October in October 2021.

From February 27 to May 2 this year, he appeared in Lindsay Posner’s production of The Holy Rosenbergs at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Luk

In the company too will be Richenda Carey as Lady Saltburn, Seb Carrington as David Stillington, Eva Feiler as Rosina Maule, Gabriella Foley as Miss Erikson, Charlotte Randle as Henrietta, Jonathan Tafler as Morris, Perry Williams as Fred and Kit Young as Johannes.

Tracy-Ann Oberman on ‘flipping the gender’from Garry to Geri Essendine in Noël Coward’s comedy Present Laughter

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s Geri Essendine in Present Laughter: “For stars like Geri and her gang, the party is never just a party,” she says. Picture: Simon Annand

“THERE is a beautifully preserved myth surrounding Noël Coward. For many, he exists in a world of silk dressing gowns, perfectly enunciated vowels and silver cigarette cases.

“Present Laughter has always been one of my favourite plays. But when I looked at it more closely, I saw something beyond the sparkling comedy.

“I saw a portrait of the cost of celebrity — of a fragile ego trapped inside a gilded cage, desperately trying to hold back the one thing that catches up with every icon: time, and the fear of becoming irrelevant.

“In Coward’s original 1939 play, Garry Essendine is an ageing stage idol, prone to theatrical tantrums and ill-advised affairs, while those around him manage his chaos. But the moment I flipped the gender, the stakes suddenly became even more fascinating.

“Enter Geri Essendine – who has been thirty-nine for the best part of a decade. The idea of a badly behaved middle-aged actress, conducting herself every bit as outrageously as her male counterparts, immediately intrigued me.

“I thought of Mae West, who wrote and produced her own work and famously enjoyed the company of many of her leading men. Ithought of Joan Collins and her uniquely British glamour, of Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli. Women with agency, self-belief, power and unafraid to use their glamour and influence.

“But would it work in pre-war London? Or could another setting honour Coward’s original while allowing us to look at it through a different lens, without losing any of its wit, farce and brilliance?

“I found myself drawn to New York in 1977, at the height of Studio 54. The endless queues outside, the celebrities gliding into those hallowed VIP spaces (sometimes on horseback), where strong charismatic women were centre stage in a world of glamour, excess and an intoxicating sense of belonging to ‘the in crowd’. Where bad behaviour and egotismwas rife across all genders.

“And I began to wonder: what if Geri were an expatriate British actress? A hugely successful West End star who had arrived in America 15 years earlier with her chosen family – her dashing ex-husband, her fiercely loyal secretary and her producers – all determined that she would conquer Broadway and make all their fortunes.

“Geri needs them desperately, and they need her. Without each other, can they even exist? Can Monty, Len, Henrietta, Morris – and Geri herself – survive the arrival of the handsome Johannes, whose presence threatens to blow “the firm” apart?

“Get close to Geri and you enter the inner sanctum. Here is a woman who knows minor royalty, whose intelligence and talent have made her irresistible to everyone around her, and whose star power still burns brightly.

“Huge thanks must go to Alan Brodie and the Noël Coward Estate for giving me permission to explore the idea, and to Lindsay Posner, Danny Moar and Simon Beresford for encouraging me to see whether it might work.

“Setting Present Laughter in the world of Studio 54 throws a fresh light on questions that feel surprisingly contemporary. In an industry that has so often been harsher on women than men, ageing and relevance are notsimply matters of vanity. For performers whose lives have been shaped by applause and attention, the fear of losing the spotlight can feel overwhelming.

“But we haven’t broken Noël Coward’s masterpiece. Quite the opposite. Beneath the mirrored disco ball, Present Laughter remains what it has always been: a dazzling comedy about love, vanity, friendship and thestrange business of being adored.

“Because for stars like Geri and her gang, the party is never just a party.”

Tracy-Ann Oberman, June 2026

September 30, 2026September 30, 2026

REVIEW: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

On terror alert to the max: James Bye’s James and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

WHEN Paranormal Activity premiered at Leeds Playhouse in August 2024, the Playhouse website stated: “American couple James and Lou move to London to escape their past…we can’t say anything else.”

Obviously, a review has to say rather more than that, but the Playhouse poster’s instruction of “Shhh! No spoilers” remains pertinent two years later, even if Punchdrunk theatre director Felix Barrett’s immersive account of American playwright Levi Holloway’s self-contained offshoot from the movie franchise has since enjoyed a hit West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre.

Now the Melting Pot, Simon Friend and Hanna Osnolska touring production is in its early weeks, visiting York, the city that trades as the most haunted in Europe.

“Good horror is personal,” reads the headline in blood-red capitals to introduce writer Holloway’s programme note. “Good horror doesn’t rob you of your sleep, it rules it,” he writes. When the house lights go out, there are people waiting for you in the dark, he declares. “Later, when you try to bed down, when you close your eyes and the dark comes again, you know who to blame.”

Rest far from assured, when your reviewer wended his way to bedfordshire, the landing light remained on all night and no internal doors were closed.

The senses had been scrambled and fried by encountering Paranormal Activity, whose late opening – delayed by 15 minutes on opening night – only heightened the tension. Once Nirvana’s Lithium kicked in at deafening decibels, there would be no escape from sound designer Gareth Fry’s aural assaults, Barrett’s directorial sleights of hand, Anna Watson’s restless lighting and the tricks of the eye of Chris Fisher’s illusion designs that not even the interval could assuage.

The audience is cast into deepest darkness before that Lithium cacophony, an instantly unsettling feeling, whereupon we are invited to take in the full scope of Fly Davis’s two-storey house design: downstairs, an open-plan kitchen-cum-sitting room and dining area; upstairs, the main bedroom, a bathroom, and in between another bedroom, bare now, but potentially a child’s room, should newly-weds James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson), newly arrived in London from Chicago, make plans.

The stairway will be in constant use in horror movie tradition, and the profusion of doors may be more befitting of a farce, but Paranormal Activity is no laughing matter, albeit it that it starts that way with James (or Jimmy as everyone calls him) and Lou in playful mood, captured in the freedom of movement given to the actors by the director deliberately not “blocking” the opening scenes in rehearsal.

However, we know that the couple have left the USA to “escape their past”, and already the pipes are making funny noises, the lights and the television are playing up, and soon we learn that Lou is on medication for depression. The laughter starts to look nervously over its shoulder.

Each scene ends with being plunged into darkness, the black-out accompanied by the screech or hiss of distorted industrial sound, as deliberately disorientating as interrogation techniques, before the next scene opens with a heightened sense of blind terror,

Bye is appearing in his second psychological thriller of the year at the Grand Opera House after playing opinionated scientist Sam in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story in April. If that play was as much a commentary on the changing culture of living in modern-day London as a ghost story, booted with telegraphed jump scares, Paranormal Activity is not as socially savvy or quick-witted, but it lays its traps with greater subtlety, cranking up the nerve-shredding with delicious timing while consistently adding new layers of mystery, then shredding them before the devastating final revelations.

Jo Castleton’s spiritualist, Etheline Cotgrave, and Caroline Faber’s Carolanne, James’s hyper-religious mother, add to the intrigue, and as the surprises and the scares mount up, Bye and Sinclair Robinson (last seen in York in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms last October) fray at the edges as the couple disintegrates. The truth will out, the theatrical magic will ramp up, and you won’t experience a louder play in York this year.

One word of warning: it has come to your reviewer’s attention that according to one colleague “visibility was heavily restricted from further back in the Grand Circle, where the overhang from the ceilings on the set meant that you couldn’t see the actors’ faces unless they were in the front half of the set”. Bear that in mind when booking.

Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, no sleep until Saturday; performances at 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

September 30, 2026October 5, 2026

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 40, from Gazette & Herald

Bread & Circuses, by Sarah Hall Baqai, from her exhibition at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York

FROM the terrors of Paranormal Activity to circus art, York’s four-day jazz festival to Brian Bilston’s egg-laying poetry, Charles Hutchinson looks ahead to October cultural opportunities.

Exhibition opening of the week: Sarah Hall Baqai, Bread & Circuses, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb Road, Acomb, York, until November 19

YORK artist Sarah Hall Baqai’s new collection of artworks has the theme of Bread & Circuses, a phrase taken from Roman poet Juvenal’s work Satire X, written in 100AD. In a nutshell, “give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt”, on account of being distracted.

Distraction does not come brighter and more entertaining visually than Sarah’s paintings inspired by life behind the scenes at the circus (from her work with Gifford’s Circus and Fools Delight Circus at Ham Court, Bampton), complemented by lettering and graphic work celebrating York Minster and willow lanterns in the shape of jugglers’ sticks.

James Bye’s James arms himself with a baseball bat in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Credit: Johan Persson

Psychological thriller of the week: Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

IN a new story inspired by the worldwide horror phenomenon, Paranormal Activity is directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and written by Levi Holloway, the playwright behind Broadway hit Grey House.

When James (James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that places are not haunted, but people are. Can you hold your nerve in the face of this chilling production on its first British and Irish tour? Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Roham Bayat’s poster for the inaugural YorkJazzFest

Festival of the week: YorkJazzFest, tomorrow to Sunday

BEPPE Lombardo, soprano saxophone player in his Italian teenage days and supremo of Trinicria Sicilian Ristorante in Bishopthorpe Road for 15 years, is running the inaugural YorkJazzFest with funding from York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith.

Angel On The Green, York Arts Barge, Young Thugs Studio, the Phoenix Inn and The Winning Post play host to concerts on the first three days, culminating in the Bishopthorpe Road Car Park Finale on Sunday, topped off by sets by Dennis Rollins’ Funky-Funk and Ian Chalk. For full listings and tickets, go to: yorkjazzfestival.com.

Masked up: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus. Picture supplied

Devil in the detail of the week: Pop Yer Clogs Theatre in Doctor Faustus, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York , tomorrow to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK company Pop Yer Clogs Theatre delivers a devilishly clever new twist on Doctor Faustus, placing a woman, Doctor Joan Faustus, at the epicentre of Christopher Marlowe’s late-16^th century cautionary tale of ambition, temptation and damnation.

Director Lydia McCudden plays Faustus, who strikes a terrible deal by selling her soul to Lucifer in exchange for knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, only to encounter the Seven Deadly Sins. Cue masks, commedia dell’arte, dark comedy and gothic tragedy as Hell awaits. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ben Portsmouth: Performing Presley’s pearls with his Taking Care Of Elvis Band at York Barbican

King of The King tribute shows: Ben Portsmouth: This Is Elvis, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

REGARDED as the “closest living performer to the legendary Elvis Presley”, Ben Portsmouth has enjoyed success in more than 20 countries and became the first European to be crowned by Elvis Presley Enterprises as the Worldwide Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist in Memphis in 2012.

This Is Elvis takes an immersive journey through Presley’s greatest hits from his rockabilly roots to the dazzling Las Vegas years in the company of Portsmouth and the Taking Care Of Elvis Band. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican: Satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments from Barnsley

“Sexy knitwear” gig of the week: The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 7.30pm

FOUNDED in Barnsley Rock City in 2006 by their outspoken and energetic ringleader Scott Doonican, The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican are on a mission.

Anything but a typical folk ensemble, this collective of like-minded knitwear enthusiasts – Scott, Mo-Jo Doonican, Dave Doonican and the Reight Reverend Jeremiah Rickenbacker III – are determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps, keeping his legacy alive while Bar-Stewardising other famous people’s songs with satirical comedy lyrics on folk instruments, from Jump Ararnd to Goat Yoga. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Mark Harrison Band: Songs and stories at Helmsley Arts Centre

Where folk meets the blues: Mark Harrison Band, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm

MARK Harrison writes original songs for today in the spirit of the great troubadours, coupled with stories to make you smile, move and think in a world where blues, roots and folk collide.

Finger-picking and slide guitarist Harrison is joined by Charles Benfield on double bass and Ben Welburn on drums and percussion to create a rhythm section that defies convention, as heard on eight albums to date. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Alchemy Live: Performing the songs of Dire Straits at Kirk Theatre, Pickering

In Dire Straits: Alchemy Live, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Saturday, 7.30pm

ALCHEMY Live were formed in 2020 by life-long Mark Knopfler fans and full-time musicians Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, who used the Covid pandemic and resultant lockdowns to put their Dire Straits tribute project in motion. Rehearsals started in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic was over, their first show being scheduled in York for Friday the 13th of May 2022 (what could possibly go wrong)?

They have never looked back, progressing to playing theatres since 2023. “It’s always been our ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets,” says frontman Ledger. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Brian Bilston: Showcasing his latest poetry collection at Milton Rooms, Malton

Poet of the week: Brian Bilston, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, Milton Rooms, Malton, Sunday, 7.30pm

BRIAN Bilston, a poet with more than 500,000 followers on social media, returns to the stage this autumn with his latest book, How To Lay An Egg With A Horse Inside, as he takes a journey through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Bilston has published such collections as You Took The Last Bus Home, Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? and Days Like These, along with debut novel Diary Of A Somebody, poetry for younger readers and his 2025 album of poetry set to music, Sounds Made By Humans, recorded in collaboration with The Catenary Wires. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Olly Murs: Enjoying a Knees Up at Live At York Museum Gardens next July

Gig announcement of the week: Futuresound presents Olly Murs, Live At York Museum Gardens, July 9 2027

ESSEX singer-songwriter and The Voice UK coach Olly Murs is the first headline act to be confirmed for next summer’s Live At York Museum Gardens 2027 season, when the event will be expanded to two weekends for the first time. Special guests for that day’s bill are still to be announced.

Murs, 42, returns to the York outdoors after his hat trick of appearances at York Racecourse in 2010, 2017 and 2024. He rose to fame on The X Factor in 2009, since when he has released eight studio albums of pop, indie, ska and disco, the latest being last November’s Knees Up. Box office: York postcode pre-sale from today at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256?pre=postcode; general sale from Friday, 10am, at https://futuresound.seetickets.com/event/olly-murs/york-museum-gardens/3730256.

In Focus: Carlos Acosta’s Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque, York Theatre Royal, October 1, 7.30pm, October 2, 2pm, and October 3, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Acosta Danza in Cuban Baroque. Picture: Johan Persson

IN this new double bill from Acosta Danza, the lush artistry of the Baroque period intersects with the energy, creativity and vibrancy of Cuban dance. Emerging from the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the creative movement was characterised by deep colour, elaborate detail and intricate decoration.

Produced by Valid Productions in collaboration with York Theatre Royal, Cuban Baroque opens with the world premiere of Andonis Foniadakis’s new work Pearls, a journey to the rhythmic heart of Baroque, followed by choreographer and set designer Goyo Montero’s 2011 work Chacona.

Artistic director Carlos Acosta says: “I am very excited about this programme which will encapsulate the essence of Acosta Danza, fusing as it will, classical, Cuban and contemporary vocabularies and styles.

“I am, of course, a big fan of both choreographers and am delighted that Andonis will create a brand-new piece on my dancers. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming months.

“The flavour of the evening is summarised neatly by the title Cuban Baroque, but essentially this is a programme that anyone interested in any kind of dance can enjoy. I look forward, as always, to seeing how audiences react to the atmosphere this programme will create at its premiere in our first-ever visit to the wonderful York Theatre Royal.”

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “It is truly wonderful that York audiences will be the first to experience this phenomenally exciting dance programme on our stage and we are really looking forward to working in collaboration with Carlos Acosta and his company on the show.”

Set to Esteban Sallas’s Salve Regina, the work explores the classic chaconne-looping structure that circles through phases of acceleration, fracture and rebound. As the score shifts from Baroque lyricism toward Cuban drive, Foniadakis showcases the fusion between memory and contemporary.

Andonis Foniadakis says: “The piece is being built as a chaconne in the broadest sense: a looping architecture that keeps circling back to the same theme like a mantra, each return opening a new variation in colour, density and impulse.

Cuban rhythmic principles will seep into the texture (clave, layered pulses, dance-derived momentum) and begin to tilt the baroque theme from within — bringing Sallas’s music fully into the present.

“In this dialogue, contrast becomes fusion: baroque memory meets Cuban propulsion; choral breath meets percussive drive; live sound meets a discreet electronic halo — shaping a single energetic trajectory that stays clear, intense, and emotionally resonant.”

Closing the 1hr 20 min programme is Goyo Montero’s powerful Chacona, a piece that originally was created for the Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett during Montero’s 17-year tenure as director. Chacona is the final movement of Bach’s masterwork Partita No.2 in D Minor for violin, accompanied in this performance by guitar and piano. Physically and musically demanding, classical in sound and contemporary in heart, it requires total cohesion from the ensemble of 16 dancers.

Goyo Montero says: “This is going to be my fourth collaboration with Acosta Danza since 2015. To bring this work to them and adapt it to their fearless and exceptional dancers is something I am looking forward to very much. To restage this early work and revisit it for them will develop the work further and keep it alive, relevant and ever changing, a choreographer’s dream!”

A Q&A with the company will follow tomorrow’s performance. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.

The York Theatre Royal premiere of Cuban Baroque will be followed by performances at Sadler’s Wells in London and Norwich Theatre Royal with further 2027 dates to be added. Box office for shows and Open Class: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

A post-show discussion with the company will follow Thursday’s 7.30pm show. In addition, Acosta Danza will hold an Open Class on Saturday (3/10/2026) at 10am on the Theatre Royal stage in an exclusive opportunity to watch how the dancers warm up and prepare ahead of a performance. This non-participatory event is open to all ages.

September 30, 2026September 30, 2026

Pop Idol’s Will Young to play York Barbican and Sheffield City Hall on Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour. Tickets go on sale on…?

Will Young: The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour heads for York and Sheffield. Picture: Joseph Sinclair

POP Idol’s first winner, Will Young, will mark the silver jubilee of that landmark victory on the Evergreen 25^th Anniversary tour next year.

His celebratory 16-date itinerary with a full band will feature two Yorkshire venues: York Barbican on February 25 2027 and Sheffield City Hall on February 27. General sales for the York show open at 10am on October 2 at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/will-young-27/; for Sheffield, same time, same day, at https://www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk/will-young/.

Young, 47, says: “To reach 25 years is a privilege and an honour. Who knew entering a competition by cutting out a piece from the newspaper would lead to the most exciting 20 weeks of my life in Pop Idol and a relationship with the public that has lasted for so long.

“People voted and trusted me and that has forever been a dream come true. I can’t wait to celebrate with the full band and get to play Evergreen, as well as all the songs that have come since, from Light My Fire to You And I to Leave Right Now to Jealousy and onwards. Can’t wait to see everyone who trusted in me during Pop Idol and since at the anniversary shows.”

Wokingham-born and Wellington College, University of Exeter and Arts Educational School-educated Young was catapulted virtually overnight into international fame from winning the inaugural Pop Idol talent competition in 2002.

Soul-pop singer Young has carved a career in music, on stage in musical theatre (Cabaret and Strictly Ballroom The Musical) and on screen (Mrs Henderson Presents), earning two BRIT Awards, an Olivier Award nomination, four number one and 11 UK Top Ten albums.

He has 11 Top Ten singles to his name too: Anything Is Possible/Evergreen (number one); Light My Fire (number one); The Long And Winding Road (with Bradford’s Gareth Gates, number one); Don’t Let Me Down/You And I (number two); Leave Right Now (number one); Your Game (number three); Friday’s Child (number four); Switch It On (number five); All Time Love (number three ); Changes (number ten) and Jealousy (number five), his last Top Ten success in 2011. In the same year, Who Am I just missed out, peaking at number 11.

Will Young’s 16-date itinerary for his Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour next February and March

For the record, in 2021, he released a single called Elizabeth Taylor that failed to match its inspiration’s glittering career by not bothering the Top 100.

On the Evergreen 25^th Anniversary Tour, Young will play “all the hits across his two-decade-plus journey in music” that has seen him “captivate listeners through a diverse palette of original songs by Burt Bacharach, Sia, Groove Armada and Nithin Sawhney”.

To mark the tour announcement, Young has unveiled a new performance of Evergreen (Live from The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Sessions). Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWzflgKUQiw.

His 2002 debut hit Anything Is Possible/Evergreen sold more than 1.7 million copies, making it the second best-selling single of the 21st century in the UK and one of Britain’s Top 20 best-selling singles of all time.

The Evergreen 25th Anniversary Tour will be Young’s first since his intimate acoustic tour in 2024, in support of his August 2024 Top Five album, Light It Up, when he played the Grand Opera House, York, on September 8.

He last appeared at York Barbican on October 13 2022 on his 20 Years Tour, following his October 20 2019 performance there on his Lexicon Tour travels.

To complement his music career, Young is an author (Funny Peculiar: The Autobiography, To Be A Gay Man, Be Yourself And Happier: The A-Z Of Wellbeing), podcaster in the mental health, wellbeing and LGBTQ+ space and campaigner for animal welfare and rights.

He shares his passion for gardening through Will Young’s Garden Diary on social media, garnering more than 5.6 million views already. September 1 marked the debut of his Young’s first garden design, Out Of The Shadows, created in collaboration with designer Jamie Butterworth for the RHS Wisley Flower Show.

September 29, 2026September 30, 2026

Say hello to James Bye haunting York not once, but twice this year as he returns to Grand Opera House for Paranormal Activity

Gripping scene: James Bye’s James and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Lou in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

JAMES Bye is making a habit of spooking theatre audiences in York, the city that trades as “the most haunted in Europe”.

In April he played self-righteous, hyper-opinionated, sceptical but irritatingly always-right scientist Sam in Danny Robins’s smart, modern-day London supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story.

From tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, he returns to the Grand Opera House to play James in Paranormal Activity, the first British and Irish tour of a new story inspired by the horror film phenomenon, scripted by Levi Holloway, the Chicago writer, director, actor and teacher behind Broadway hit Grey House, and directed by immersive theatre pioneer and Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett.

When American couple James (Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson, last seen in York as Jess in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at the Theatre Royal) move from Chicago to London to escape their past, soon they discover that rather than places being haunted, people are.

“York is a fantastic city to host this show,” says James. “We’ll fit right in here! I think a theatre [building] definitely brings another dynamic to a performance, and we’re fortunate to be visiting some of the older theatres in the country on this tour. York [the Grand Opera House] is one of the oldest, and everyone will lean into that.”

Who…or what’s there? James Bye’s James in the doorway in Paranormal Activity. Picture: Johan Persson

As he prepares to return to York, how would James compare Paranormal Activity with 2:22 A Ghost Story? “For people who have not seen either or have seen 2:22 and are thinking about coming to Paranormal Activity, I would say 2:22 leans more towards being a thriller with jump scares, whereas with Paranormal Activity what we’re trying to achieve is straight-out old-school horror, where we want the audience to be on the edge of their seats,” says James.

“Not that we don’t want them to enjoy it but we really want to scare them, but it’s done in a more subtle way than in 2:22. This play has a very naturalistic style that is more like television, where the audience feel like they’re in the room with us.”

James continues: “The set design by Fly Davis in incredible: it’s an actual two-storey house, like a doll’s house, with a bedroom, empty bedroom and bathroom upstairs, stairs, and an open-plan kitchen and living area downstairs. We use the whole house, which is lit throughout, which really helps to bring the audience into the ‘room’.

“The audience will see the set before they see any actors and they all just love it! Their breath is taken away before we do anything.”

James joined the tour cast on the back of Paranormal Activity’s hit West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre. “I was asked if I wanted to see it, but I very deliberately said ‘No’ as I didn’t want to copy something subconsciously when it’s such a rich piece in its own right and it becomes very much my own creation,” he says.

James Bye’s Sam takes a vote on a point of debate with Shvorne Marks’s Jenny, Natalie Casey’s Lauren and Grant Kilburn’s Ben in 2:22 A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in April 2026

“It’s one of those shows that’s right up the audience’s street. It’s in the horror genre, but very funny too, keeping them entertained with comedy but then flipping it on its head, so the scares are for real.

“This is the challenge: doing something scary on stage while keeping the audience with you. which the director [Felix Barrett] has done brilliantly, blurring the line between 2D and theatre.

“The show absolutely has a cinematic element to it, and that’s very deliberate. We definitely want the audience to lean into that.”

Describing his American character in Paranormal Activity, James says: “He’s like a Labrador: high energy, always fun, trying to make his wife laugh all the time. They’re newly married, they’ve just moved to the UK and they’re super-happy together. He needs her so much and leans on her so much too.

“Then there’s another character, Jimmy’s mum, who’s still in America, so they have moments where they Zoom-call. He’s just a fun-loving guy, but as it progresses, you learn more about him and Lou, and maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought. Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.”

The poster for the 2026 tour of Paranormal Activity

Praising Levi Holloway’s script, James says: “It’s so well crafted: the way the audience laugh genuinely at the start, but then there’s a pitch change, where it becomes nervous laughter. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a show where the audience has been so vocal.

“It’s lovely to get that response from the audience, and I would ask anyone who’s thinking of coming to the show to feel they can vocalise their response , as we’re going on a journey together. You can really embrace being in a room together where it feels like more of an experience.

“Levi brings this super-naturalistic style to the play, where I couldn’t put the script down when I read it. It’s like a work of art how he takes you through the story, one minute making you laugh, the next, sob. I don’t have to force anything. I just have to trust it.”

James is working with Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett for the first time. “It’s very naturalistic style, where a lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that.

“A lot of time was spent on thinking about how does fear go through me, how does it affect me, and then the complete opposite: joy. How does joy affect me? It’s very freeing to be able to work like that, working on getting into an emotional state, where it’s all about being in the moment.”

*What awaits James Bye’s James on the other side of the door? Find out at the Grand Opera House from tonight until Saturday. Picture: Johan Persson*

James continues: “The first scene between Jimmy and Lou, which takes up the majority of Act One, is not blocked, so every night has been different. Sometimes Hannah and I just so playful because they’re such a super-fun couple. When we started, that could be quite scary, but we always trusted each other.

“Then there are parts of the play where it’s very specific that things have to happen at a certain time.”

Paranormal Activity, Grand Opera House, York, tonight (29/9/2026) to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Did you know?

JAMES Bye played market trader Martin Fowler in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from December 5 2014 to February 20 2025. The long-running character was killed off in a special live episode for the show’s 40th anniversary, dying of a cardiac arrest after a steel beam crushed him during an explosion at the Queen Victoria pub.

He competed in series 20 of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, reaching Week 6, Halloween Week, when he and professional partner Amy Dowden were the fifth couple to be eliminated, beaten in the October 30 dance-off by Fleur East and Vito Coppola.

“Maybe they’re not as much in love as we first thought,” says James Bye. “Maybe they’re not squeaky clean; maybe they’re living a lie with each other.” Picture: Johan Persson

September 19, 2026September 21, 2026

More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 38, from The York Press

Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey, by J.M.W. Turner, 1829, on loan from National Gallery, London, for Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman at York Art Gallery. Copyright: National Gallery, London

GHOSTLY sculptures in gardens, the best in class in brass bands, Mikron Theatre’s mobile library tribute and 60 years of Gilbert O’Sullivan are among Charles Hutchinson’s cultural highlights.

Exhibition opening of the week: Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman, York Art Gallery, on show until running until January 17 2027

J.M.W. Turner’s masterpiece Ulysses deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey, generously lent by the National Gallery, is making an epic journey north to go on display at York Art Gallery in the wake of the Odyssey’s comeback into popular culture in Christopher Nolan’s film.

Turner, Wedgwood Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman features an ‘Odyssey wall’ in an exhibition that reflects on the life and legacy of York-born sculptor, illustrator and designer John Flaxman (1755 –1826). Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk.

One of 70 ghosts in the Ghosts In The Gardens trail through York this autumn. Picture: Amy D’Agorne

Trail of the week: Ghosts In The Gardens, York, September 19 to November 1

GHOSTS In The Gardens is back for its sixth haunting season and this time the ghosts are bringing even more friends as 70 ghostly sculptures appear in gardens, on balconies, along the city walls and in unexpected corners of York city centre.

Ten new ghosts join familiar faces from York’s past, each sculpture offering a snapshot of history, bringing fascinating York people, creatures or stories back to life. Some ghosts will return to old haunts, others will be found somewhere new. Admission is free.

John Bramwell: Heading for Selby Town Hall

Humble agenda of the week: John Bramwell, Selby Town Hall, September 19, 7.30pm

AS the singer in I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014, John Bramwell achieved a Mercury Prize nomination for 2010’s The Sky At Night, a top ten chart position for 2013’s Let It All In, numerous UK and European tours and a triumphant orchestral farewell at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Now, as a solo artist, Bramwell travels a very different path, a path that criss-crosses the length and breadth of the UK with a humble agenda of taking his heartwarming songs to the stage for his devoted fans. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.

York Railway Institute Band: Taking part in National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at York Barbican. Picture: Keith Meadley Photography

Brass clashes of the week: National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2026, York Barbican, September 19 and 20 from 9am and 3pm each day

THE National Brass Band Championships bring more than 70 of the country’s finest brass bands to York for the Sections 1 to 4 national finals. Among the Yorkshire bands competing will be York Railway Institute Band, Wetherby Silver Band and Swinton & District Excelsior Band, all having qualified to compete for National honours. Tickets: Only available to buy in-person on the day. No advance tickets.

Piff the Magic Dragon and Penn Jillette in Piff & Pop’s Magic Shoppe at Grand Opera House, York

Magical show of the week: Piff & Pop’s Magic Shoppe, Grand Opera House, York, September 19, 7.30pm

LEGENDARY magician Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller fame, is touring the UK for the first time without his 50-year companion Teller, teaming up instead with London-born, Las Vegas-based comedy-magician phenomenon Piff the Magic Dragon (alias John van der Put), from America’s Got Talent.

Act One feature a solo act from both Pop (Penn) and Piff along with Mr Piffles, the world’s only magic-performing Chihuahua.. In Act Two, they blend into a one-of-a-kind double act. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Georgina Liley, left, Robert Took, Catherine Warnock and James McLean in Mikron Theatre’s Top Of The World, on tour at Clements Hall, York. Picture: Robling Photography

Touring theatre show of the week: Mikron Theatre in Top Of The World, Clements Hall, York, September 20, 2pm

MARSDEN’S travelling troupe Mikron Theatre makes its second visit of 2026 to York, this time with Maeve Larkin’s celebration of the importance of mobile libraries as sanctuaries, beacons of hope, public services that connect people and communities in a digital age where human connection is more important than ever.

Top Of The Wold invites audiences to hop aboard the charmingly quirky mobile library for a heart-warming journey via Bempton, Bridlington, Hornsea and Howden in an exploration of a region barely noticed by the nation it feeds, celebrating the forgotten, the resilient and the wonderfully eccentric. Tickets: available from Pextons, Bishopthorpe Road, York; Clements Hall, 01904 466086; by email to willyh@phonecoop.coop or 07974 867301.

Tim Key: Serving up Loganberry comical whimsy at York Theatre Royal

Unpredictable comedy gig of the week: Tim Key, Loganberry, York Theatre Royal, September 20, 8pm

TIM Key, from The Ballad Of Wallis Island and Tim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme, pops his suit on again to plod about in new show Loganberry. In Key’s own words, “Bit gutted he’s old. Guzzling continental lager. Magnetic LOL. Decent reviews for previous shows. Played a pigeon in Bong Joon Ho’s latest movie. Been on Richard Herring’s podcast. Book out: “L.A. Baby!”. Met Steffi Graf in 1998/9. This show has poems in, and he’ll stamp and howl.” Who knows what else may lie in wait on Sunday! Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Mark Thomas: “Taster menu of government and personal mayhem, jokes, rants and a state of the nation broadcast”

Comedy landmark of the week: Mark Thomas, 40 In Stand-Up Years, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, September 20, 8pm

WHAT?! Mark Thomas has been “standing up” for 40 years? Impossible! But how old does that make you…? Alas it is true: one of our oldest-surviving alternative comics celebrates 40 years at the mic as he takes his new show on the road this autumn.

Expect a taster menu of government and personal mayhem, jokes, rants and a state of the nation broadcast as Thomas tries to turn ‘what the **** is going on?’ into a cogent night of stand-up.Box office: leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/mark-thomas-2026/.

Gilbert O’Sullivan: Songs old and new at the Grand Opera House, York

Seventies’ chart topper of the week: Gilbert O’Sullivan, Celebrating 60 Years Of Music, Grand Opera House, York, September 22, 7.30pm

GILBERT O’Sullivan will celebrate 60 years of making music, revisiting his UK chart toppers, 1972’s Clair and 1973’s Get Down, as well as such O’Sullivan favourites as No Matter How I Try, We Will, Matrimony, Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day, Why, Oh Why, Oh Why and What’s In A Kiss?, his last of 16 Top 40 entries from August 1980. Then add further selections from his 21 studio albums, the latest, On The Record, being previewed ahead of its November 6 release. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Nish Kumar’s tour poster for Angry Humour From A Really Nice Guy

Political disquiet of the week: Nish Kumar, Angry Humour From A Really Nice Guy, Grand Opera House, York, September 23, Leeds Playhouse, October 3, Hull Truck Theatre, October 9 and Scarborough Spa Theatre, November 14

“THE world is in chaos,” laments political comedian Nish Kumar. “Inequality is widening, autocracy is rising and political parties are collapsing. In these divided times, what this country desperately needs is Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy. (In many ways it’s actually the last thing this country needs, but it’s what it’s getting, so tough luck).”

Pod Save The UK podcast co-host and former host of axed BBC Two show The Mash Report and Late Night Mash, Kumar has entered his 40s. His mind is breaking, his body is worse, “but audiences can still expect existential angst and political disquiet from comedy’s cheekiest boy”. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Ceramics by Emily Stubbs and paintings by Di Gomery at Tinker Gallery

Last chance to view: Di Gomery & Emily Stubbs, Fracture and Flow: Conversations in Paint and Clay, Tinker Gallery, Church Street, Ilkley, until September 26

THIS exhibition by York artists Di Gomery (paintings) and Emily Stubbs (ceramics) is into its final week. Gallery owner and artist Joanne Tinker has refreshed the show since much of the work sold. Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm; other times by appointment.

September 2, 2026September 2, 2026

Strangers On A Train to play Grand Opera House, York, from February 2 to 6 2027

The poster for Strangers On A Train’s tour travels

BILL Kenwright Ltd’s national tour of Craig Warner’s stage adaptation of Strangers On A Train will play the Grand Opera House, York, from February 2 to 6 2027.

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 psychological thriller and inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 film-noir classic, this new touring production will be directed by Roxana Silbert, former artistic director of Paines Plough, Birmingham Rep and Hampstead Theatre and associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The cast and creative team is to be announced.

David Gilbery, chief executive officer of Bill Kenwright Ltd, says: “We’re delighted to be working with the brilliant Roxana Silbert to bring Craig Warner’s gripping adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s celebrated novel to audiences across the UK.

“Few thrillers have stood the test of time quite like Strangers On A Train. Its tension, psychological complexity and relentless sense of suspense make it a hugely entertaining night at the theatre, and I can’t wait for audiences around the country to experience it.”

The production will be dedicated to the memory of Hollywood-born, Suffolk-based playwright and screenwriter Craig Warner, who passed away earlier this year. “I had been looking forward to sharing this journey with him and greatly treasured the conversations we had about the production and his exceptional adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel,” says David.

“Craig’s writing is elegant, gripping and profoundly theatrical, and it has been a privilege to revisit his work in preparing this production. His absence will be keenly felt throughout the rehearsal process and beyond. I hope this production stands as a celebration of his talent.”

In Strangers On A Train, two strangers meet on a train. Charles Bruno has an idea for the perfect crime. Two murders. Two strangers. No motive. No connection. No consequences.

Guy Haines dismisses it as a joke, but Bruno is not joking. As Bruno’s obsession spirals out of control, Guy finds himself trapped in a nightmare of guilt, manipulation and fear.

Dark, gripping and full of suspense, Strangers On A Train is a psychological thriller built on obsession, manipulation and the devastating consequences of a chance encounter.

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.

August 31, 2026September 3, 2026

More Things To Do in York & beyond from Aug 29 as Making Waves waves goodbye. Hutch’s List No. 35, from The York Press

Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, from Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print at York Art Gallery, on loan from Maidstone Museum

FROM Making Waves’ finale to 50 years of Aardman, a comic convention to a slapstick Three Musketeers, Charles Hutchinson highlights a diverse week ahead.

Last chance to see: Making Waves: A Closing Celebration, York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, York, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm

YORK Art Gallery marks the closing of the Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print with a two-day festival of music, workshops, creative activities and food and drink for all the family in the gallery and York Museum Gardens. Making Waves talks take place at 11am and 2pm each day; The Art of Kokedama in the Studio today has sold out but limited tickets are available for 11am tomorrow.

Highlights in the gardens include the Ippuku Tea Stand today, 10am to 5pm (free); Japanese Gardening Society today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm (free); face painting, today and tomorrow, 10am to 4.30pm; Paddle in the Surf: Mokuhanga printmkaing, today and tomorrow, 10.30am to 4.30pm; sun ring making, 10.30am to 4.30pm (free); Jiu Jitsu performance, today and tomorrow, 2pm (free); Taiko drumming performance, Sunday, 11am and 3pm, with interactive session at 1.30pm (all free), and Micklegate Choir performance of Sound Waves, tomorrow, 12 noon (free). Koto Japanese harp music performances will be at 10am, 11.20am, 12.40pm, 2pm and 3.15pm in the Foyer tomorrow (free). Exhibition admission tickets: yorkartgallery.co.uk.

York singer-songwriter Beth McCarthy: Opening August 29’s bill on The Grid Stage at Leeds Festival at Bramham Park. Picture: Leeds Festival

Festival of the week: Leeds Festival, Bramham Park, near Wetherby, continuing August 29 and 30

TODAY serves up York singer-songwriter Beth McCarthy (12.30pm to 1pm), James Marriott, Declan McKenna, Skepta, Charlie XCX and bill-topping Fontaines D.C. on The Grid. Catch Geese in The Gallery too. Sunday’s Grid finale features Absolutely, Slayyyter, Maisie Peters, Sombr, Raye and the festival-closing Dave. Box office for day tickets: leedsfestival.com/tickets.

Aardman In Concert: Celebrating 50 years of clay, comedy and creativity with a live orchestra at York Barbican

Film celebration of the week: Aardman In Concert, York Barbican, August 29, 1pm and 3.30pm

FIFTY years of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Timmy Time, Morph and Creature Comforts are marked in a heart-warming big-screen celebration, clay, comedy and creativity.

Presented in partnership with Aardman, Carrot Productions’ new show takes a joyful journey through five decades of stop-motion clay animation from the Bristol studio with its blend of treasured characters, oh-so British humour and music, climaxing with a screening of Wrong Trousers accompanied by a live orchestra. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

York Unleashed Comic-Con: Comics galore on the Knavesmire

Convention of the week: York Unleashed Comic-Con, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, August 30, 10am to 4pm

YORK Unleashed Comic-Con promises a cosplay-friendly atmosphere, Yorkshire artists and comic creators, traders, collectables and geeky merchandise, gaming and interactive zones, a comic book chill-out zone, family-friendly activities and accessible, inclusive spaces. Media guests include Alex Jordan, Harry McEntire, Alan Fletcher, Richard Price and Jamie Kenna. Tickets: unleashedtickets.co.uk.

The Rocket Man: Playing Elton John’s greatest hits on his Yellow Brick Road Tour at Grand Opera House, York

Tribute gig of the week: The Rocket Man – A Tribute to Sir Elton John, Yellow Brick Road Tour, Grand Opera House, York, August 30, 7.30pm

THE Rocket Man and his band travel down the Yellow Brick Road to perform two hours of Elton John hits, from Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting), Crocodile Rock, Daniel and Your Song to Philadelphia Freedom, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues and I’m Still Standing. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

The Dead South: Progressive bluegrass and alternative Americana at York Barbican

Recommended but sold out already: The Dead South, Europe 2026 The Return, York Barbican, August 31, doors 7pm

WHATEVER you call The Dead South’s music – progressive bluegrass, alternative Americana, country, folk or Western – people from different backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, languages and ages love it, clubbing together as the cosplaying “Good Company” at gigs.

Formed in 2012 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, the line-up comprises Nate Hilts, Scott Pringle, Danny Kenyon and Colton Crawford, always attired in bolo ties and custom brims. Carter Family meets Addams Family in songs that address themes of murder, disloyalty and ghosts while going from weepy to weird, wistful to wicked. Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra support. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Snake Davis: Celebrating the art of the sax solo at Pocklington Arts Centre

Saxophonist of the week: Snake Davis Band, Classic Sax Solos, Pocklington Arts Centre, September 3, 8pm

AN instrumental solo can break hearts, lift spirits, even change lives. Saxophone is the favourite instrument of many folk, and for good reason; so emotional, so passionate; it sings, screams, whispers. Step forward saxophonist to the stars Snake Davis, leading his five-piece band through more than 20 classics, from Baker Street, Careless Whisper, Respect and Yakety Yak to his own solos from Take That’s Million Love Songs, M People’s Moving On Up and Lisa Stansfield’s Change.

Davis reveals their background and history as well as playing them in context. What is their individual magic ingredient; what makes these solos classic? How did they emerge; how did the players produce that magic? Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

The poster for Pete the Temp’s Romantics, Mystics and Revolutionaries

Spoken-word gig of the week: Say Owt presents Romantics, Mystics and Revolutionaries by Pete the Temp, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

POET, author and comic Pete the Temp’s Romantics, Mystics and Revolutionaries is a spoken-word show about rebellion, resistance and wild imagination. The 1800s’ Romantic movement began as a rebellion: against empire, industry and the mechanisation of the soul. Yorkshire became the epicentre of its rebellion.

Tomorrow’s storytelling stage show fuses scholarship with music, comedy and poetry in a spellbinding history of riot, repression and psychedelic experimentation. As we face this age of despair, find out what we can learn from past dreams of freedom and renewal. Bangladeshi-Geordie spoken-word poet and creative practitioner Tahmina Ali supports with her explorations of identity, belonging, motherhood, mental health and cultural inheritance, viewed through a distinctly northern lens. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Our Star Theatre Company: Turning up the slapstick quotient in The Three Musketeers

Slapstick silliness of the week: Our Star Theatre Company in The Three Musketeers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, September 4, 7.30pm

OUR Star Theatre Company’s re-telling of The Three Musketeers is packed with humour, audience participation and energetically silly performances as a small troupe of performers gears up for its debut performance of Alexandre Dumas’s story.

However, what starts as a simple theatrical endeavour soon unravels into a whirlwind of confusion, mayhem and comical mishaps. From forgotten lines to chaotic set changes, the actors become entangled in a series of blunders. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Louisa Ashdown in rehearsal for her role as The Actor in Hephaestus Theatre’s Richard iii Redux

Introducing: Hephaestus Theatre in Richard iii Redux, The Basement, City Screen Playhouse, York, September 10, 7.30pm

UNIVERSITY of York theatre graduates Eleanor Doig (producer) and Louisa Ashdown (director and performer) introduce new York company Hephaestus Theatre in Kaite O’Reilly and Phillip Zarrilli’s dark comedy Richard iii Redux.

The company’s mission is to tell disabled stories and put disabled and neurodiverse actors on stage and behind the scenes, this time with Ashdown playing The Actor opposite Georgina Way’s Presenter (on film) in a journey to find who the real Richard iii was while exploring the challenges of being a disabled actor. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk.

August 19, 2026August 19, 2026

Gin up! Claire Sweeney to star as lush Miss Hannigan in Annie on tour at Grand Opera House. Tickets on sale from September 2

Claire Sweeney’s gin-guzzling Miss Hannigan in Nikolai Foster’s touring production of Annie. Picture: Paul Coltas

CORONATION Street and Brookside star Claire Sweeny will star as bitter, gin-drinking, child-hating New York City orphanage matron Miss Hannigan in Annie at the Grand Opera House, York, from January 12 to 16 2027.

Tickets will go on sale at atgtickets.com/york on Wednesday, September 2 at 10am for ATG members and 12 noon for general sales.

Sweeney last appeared at the Grand Opera House in April 2015, leading the cast as a relationship expert in Sex In Suburbia, an uplifting, revealing and raunchy comedy about dating disasters that she co-wrote with Mandy Muden.

Claire Sweeney, centre, in her last appearance at the Grand Opera House in Sex In Suburbia in 2015

In October 2010, she starred in a re-worked version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s song cycle Tell Me On A Sunday, charting the romantic misadventures of a young English girl newly arrived in New York.

Next January, Claire arrives in old York in Michael Harrison and David Ian’s tour of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan’s musical, set in 1930s’ New York in the mire of The Great Depression, where brave young Annie is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage.

Her luck changes, however, when she is chosen to spend a fairytale Christmas with famous billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Meanwhile, spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search for her true family.

Claire Sweeney’s Miss Hannigan on the orphanage rampage in Annie. Picture: Paul Coltas

Sweeney, 55, will be joined by Alex Bourne as Oliver Warbucks, Tanisha-Mae Brown as Grace Farrell, Christian Cooper as Rooster and Amber Kennedy as Lily St Regis.

In the company too will be Jack Buchanan, Harrison Burley, Zoë Canham, Sophie Elmes, Belle Kizzy Green, Issy Khogali, Yujin Park, Elliot David Parkes, Carl Sanderson, Michaela Stern, Matthew Sweet and Jessica Wright.

Victoria Alsina, Sophia Saravanan and June Young will share the role of Annie. The orphans will be Chloe Angiama, Freya Beer, Rachelle Bonfield-Bell, Olivia Brooks, Coco Chapman, Maddy Collings, Sienna Culm, Anna Deikalo, Dolly Ismail, Amber Koduah-Hutchison, Thandie Lalji, Jemima Lown, Kennedy-May McLeary, Mollie Moran, Myla Park, Blossom Rolston-Williams, Khit Thakhin and Marnie Rae Warren-Baker.

Amber Kennedy’s Lily St Regis, left, Claire Sweeney’s Miss Hannigan and Christian Cooper’s Rooster in Annie. Picture: Paul Coltas

Best known for It’s The Hard Knock Life, Easy Street, I Don’t Need Anything But You and Tomorrow, the Tony Award-winning Annie combines Strouse’s music with Charnin’s lyrics and Meehan’s book.

The touring production is directed by North Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster, artistic director of Curve, Leicester, with set and costume design by Colin Richmond, choreography by Nick Winston, lighting by Ben Cracknell and sound design by Richard Brooker.

Sweeney, from Walton, Liverpool, is an actress, singer and television presenter. She plays series regular Cassie Plummer in Coronation Street and appeared in Channel 4 soap opera Brookside as Lindsey Corkhill on and off from June 1991 until the final episode, broadcast in November 2003.

Claire Sweeney’s Miss Hannigan making her point to the orphans in Annie. Picture: Paul Coltas

Her TV credits include roles in Clocking Off, Holby City, Merseybeat, Candy Cabs, Scarborough, The Good Ship Murder and Benidorm.

Claire’s many West End roles include Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, playing opposite Patrick Swayze, at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Claire’s further stage credits take in starring roles in national tours of 9 To 5 The Musical, Crazy For You, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Legally Blonde, Hairspray and September In The Rain and the title role of lippy Liverpool hairdresser-turned-Open University student Rita in Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, playing opposite Matthew Kelly’s cynical, alcoholic tutor Dr Frank Bryant.

Claire Sweeney in the tour poster for Annie

Sweeney has appeared in Willy Russell’s classic Shirley Valentine, White Christmas, Shout!, a world tour of Fosse and The Play What I Wrote too.

Tanisha-Mae Brown’s theatre credits include Singin’ In The Rain at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Brigadoon at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Guys And Dolls at The Bridge Theatre, Evita at Curve, Leicester, UK and Ireland tours of The Lion King and Chicago, A Mother’s Song at the Lowry, Salford, and Pippin at the Garden Theatre.

Christian Cooper played Rolf Gruber in The Sound Of Music at Curve, Leicester, directed by Nikolai Foster. Amber Kennedy’s theatre credits include the UK tour of Sister Act The Musical, UK and international tours of Joseph And tThe Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the international tour of West Side Story and the pantomimes Dick Whittington and Sleeping Beauty, both at Theatre Royal Windsor.

Claire Sweeney in the photoshoot portrait announcing her role as Miss Hannigan in Annie

August 19, 2026September 30, 2026

Gilbert O’Sullivan to mark 60 years of songwriting on autumn tour. New album On The Record to follow on November 6

Gilbert O’Sullivan: New tour, new album this autumn. Picture: Park Promotions

TO listen to Charles Hutchinson and Graham Chalmers’ interview with Gilbert O’Sullivan on the Two Big Egos In A Small Car arts podcast, head to: https://twobigegos.buzzsprout.com/1187561/episodes/19758732

IN 1972 Gilbert O’Sullivan topped the American Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks with Alone Again (Naturally), a song later covered regularly by Morrissey in concert.

The Smiths frontman also has performed Nothing Rhymed and recorded I Didn’t Know What To Do, the B-side to somewhat obscure May 1971 single Susan Van Heusen, as the flipside to his 2018 single Back On The Chain Gang. “He sent me a recording with a full band – and he told me he liked my image too,” recalls Gilbert.

Dusty Springfield performed Nothing Rhymed on The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine on November 22 1971, while Alone Again (Naturally) has attracted at least 88 cover versions, from Nina Simone to Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond to Pet Shop Boys & Elton John, Diana Krall & Michael Buble to Donny Osmond, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass to Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Mathis to Andy Williams. No wonder CMAT has called it “the greatest Irish song ever made”.

Born in Waterford, Ireland, and long resident in Jersey, triple Ivor Novello Award winner Gilbert will be turning 80 on December 1, but before then he will celebrate 60 Years Of Music on an autumn tour that will visit four Yorkshire locations: York, Bradford, Doncaster and Harrogate.

It will be a chance to revisit his UK chart toppers, 1972’s Clair and 1973’s Get Down, as well as such O’Sullivan favourites as No Matter How I Try, We Will, Matrimony, Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day, Why, Oh Why, Oh Why and What’s In A Kiss?, the last of his 16 Top 40 entries from August 1980.

Gilbert O’Sullivan in his early songwriting days. Picture: Park Promotions

Then add selections from his multiple studio albums that bear witness to his enduring gift for endearing tunefulness, unabashed sentiment and existentialist musings, with his last three reaching the Top Ten, Top 20 and Top 30 respectively.

60 years, Gilbert: where has all that time gone? “I guess I don’t think about it because I always look ahead, with the imminent release of a new album on November 6,” he says. “So we’ve been working on that. All new material, and there’s a duet with the lead singer from The Corrs, Andrea. A song called Is That You?

“On the last studio album [July 2022’s Driven], we had duets with Mick Hucknall [Let Bygones Be Bygones] and K. T. Tunstall [Take Love], which were rock songs, and this time there’s no piano, just acoustic guitar, like a folk song.

“We thought, ‘who could we have singing on this?’, and it was suggested Andrea would be a good choice. So we approached her and she did it in her own way in her own studio because technology is really good for letting you do that now. That will be released as a single, hopefully before the album comes out.”

“Without ever having bothered to look it up, I’m told it will be my 21st studio album,” he says. It will be entitled On The Record (a title shared with a 1976 spoken-word album by controversial British politician Enoch Powell, according to AI Overview). “Between my daughters, my management, my wife and my record company, all my possibilities were rejected,” says Gilbert. “If there were five people arguing about it, this one had three supporting it.

Gilbert O’Sullivan with guitarist Bill Shanley, who will join him for the 60 Years Of Music tour

“We did the album artwork in Nashville, where I was playing the Grand Ole Opry after they got in touch with us and I was asked to go there to perform three songs, What’s In A Kiss, Nothing Rhymed and Alone Again (Naturally), one with a band and two with Bill [guitarist Bill Shanley], who’ll be playing on tour with me.”

After working with producer Ethan Johns on his self-titled 2018 album, Gilbert recorded Driven with Andy Wright, . “I feel that by having a different producer, you get that difference you want. He’d worked with Simply Red and Simple Minds, so this was Simply O’Sullivan!” he says.

O’Sullivan and Wright then made Songbook, a collection of key songs from Gilbert’s expansive catalogue accrued over 55 years, recorded at Lafayette, King’s Cross, London in late 2023 for release in September 2024.

For On The Record, “I decided to go with Andy again, letting him choose the musicians, with some of them having played on the last album,” says Gilbert who recorded the 13 tracks over five days in Eastcote Studios in London. “They know how I work. I play the song to them on the piano, we rehearse it a few times, and then we do a take. No rocket science involved.

“There’s an element of a Sixties feel to a couple of tracks that I really liked, re-mixed with another producer in the USA, Tony Hoffer, who’s well respected in the production field, and it’s worked out really well on the album.”

The poster for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s tour, Celebrating 60 Years Of Music. Picture: Park Promotions

One song in particular addresses the ageing process. “We have a track called Growing Old Disgracefully, which I was anxious to get done before anyone else pinched it!” says Gilbert.

“We also have a song with a choir, made up of studio singers, to sing the chorus to See Us Gone. That song deals with the end of the world, Putin, and what’s going on now. That fear that one day someone is going to press that bl**dy button and we’ll all be gone.

“That’s what I like when writing songs. My songs are like newspapers with the common denominators as headlines, so you can incorporate things that are going on in the world, like on Nothing Rhymed too.”

Heading out on his 22-date tour from September 1 to November 8, pianist Gilbert travels with his own keyboard, rather than relying on each venue to provide him with a piano. “This keyboard allows me to face the audience, and the sound I get is proper sounding, with electric piano for a couple of songs,” he says.

“I have eight versions of one keyboard instrument now, including one in Nashville, one in Ireland and one in Denmark. They’re kept by people I’m working with, who are happy to put them up.

“In the beginning, of course, I used a grand piano – like I do when writing songs – and my voice could sing in concert pitch, then one tuned one below concert pitch, and now I have buttons on my keyboard that allow me to be one tone below concert pitch and a semi-tone below concert pitch.

“Morrissey told me he liked my image,” says Gilbert O’Sullivan, pictured in his trademark Charlie Chaplin-inspired garb when first making his name. Picture: Park Promotions

“It helps me because, as you get older, your voice drops and you have to drop your singing voice. I have a good voice but limited range so I make sure I’m in the right key.”

Gilbert conducts vocal exercises before each concert. “If you don’t have a good voice, forget it,” he says. “I look after my voice. I’ve had no issues, thank goodness.”

He has lived on the island of Jersey for more than 30 years, having moved there with his wife, Aase, to raise their two daughters. “I love it here. It’s just home,” says Gilbert, who has a studio there. “I’m not a social animal. I go on my walks; home life is great.

“My daughters look after the business for me. Tara is on the internet, doing the social media, which is so important for musicians now.”

Summing up 60 years of songwriting, Gilbert concludes: “Why are we able to keep doing it? You do it because of your love of music. You love what you’re hearing. You hear the chords of Burt Bacharach? You want that. I’m a rhythm pianist, I can’t tinkle the ivories, but we have the ability to write music because we love what we hear.”

Gilbert O’Sullivan, 60 Years Of Music 2026 Autumn Tour, Grand Opera House, York, September 22, doors 7.30pm; St George’s Hall, Bradford, September 27, doors 7.30pm; CAST, Doncaster, October 1, 7.30pm (sold out); Harrogate Theatre, October 30. Box office: York, 0333 009 6690 or atgtickets.com/york; Bradford, 01274 432000 or bradford-theatres.co.uk/st-georges-hall; Doncaster, for returns only, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

The artwork for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 21st studio album, On The Record, to be released on November 6 on BMG

What is the track listing for On The Record?

1. It’s Me

2. I Suppose

3. Growing Old Disgracefully

4. Go The Way I Came

5. I Must Be Going

6. Don’t Shout

7. She Never Ceases To Amaze Me

8. Our Love Is Gonna Grow

9. Is That You? (featuring Andrea Corr)

10. Wait

11. Minus Is A Plus With You

12. No Place Like Home

13. See Us Gone