Heaven help us: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior seeking divine intervention in Sister Act
DELIGHTED to be back in the habit as Deloris Van Cartier, Landi Oshinowo “would like to thank her God and her church”, says her programme profile.
By comparison, lounge singer Deloris is uncomfortable at being given rosary beads by one of the sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow in 1977 Philadelphia.
Oshinowo’s Deloris is more a lady of perpetual motion and commotion, a lippy livewire first seen in sparkling dress and very big hair belting out Take Me To Heaven. Instead, her volatile mobster lover, Curtis Jackson (Ian Gareth-Jones) is taking her closer to hell, denying her the big break she craves.
On witnessing him kill an informant, she must flee from the Mafia’s clutches and into the church’s safe refuge as the unconventional meets the convent, clashing from the off with the formidable, dry-witted, disapproving Mother Superior (Sue Cleaver, in a break from Coronation Street for her first stage role in 30 years).
Placed in protective custody by gun-shy cop Eddie Souther (Alfie Parker), Deloris kicks the habits into shape, transforming the sisters’ singing from off-key shambolic to soul and gospel bliss as she blossoms into a divine diva.
Impressing Monsignor O’Hara (Phillip Arran) rather more than the exasperated Mother Superior, Deloris re-invigorates the rundown neighbourhood’s church services and coffers and rekindles the flame in Eddie’s schooldays crush.
Sister Act, A Divine Musical Comedy, plays to the effervescent spirit, irreverence and delightful daftness of Emile Ardolino’s 1992 movie, now bolstered by the Motown and Philly soul, funk, disco and rap pastiches of Little Shop Of Horrors’ Alan Menken and sassy lyrics of Glenn Slater.
Sue Cleaver: First stage role in 30 years for Coronation Street stalwart as Mother Superior
The book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellener revels in camping up the camp and giving the sisters bags of personality, from Eloise Runnette’s putative rebel Sister Mary Robert (in The Life I Never Had) to Isabel Canning’s boulder of sunshine Sister Mark Patrick and Julie Stark’s rasping, rapping Sister Mary Lazarus.
Callum Martin’s Joey, Michalis Antoniou’s Pablo and understudy Harvey Ebbage’s TJ are comic stooges to the manner born, their bungling mobster act peaking with Lady In The Long Black Dress (with its nod to The Floaters’ 1977 hit Float On). Better still is Parker’s Eddie Souther, ever humorous as the protective cop who craves stepping out of the background to live his soul singer dreams.
Cleaver brings more down-to-earth humour to the Mother Superior than past performers while retaining her serenity and air of authority, while Oshinowo is a joy as Deloris, funky, funny and feisty, equally at home in the heavenly ballads, Seventies’ soul struts and retro dance numbers.
Bill Buckhurst’s bright and boisterous direction brings out the best in all the characterisation and comical situations. At every opportunity, Alistair David’s choreography celebrates the glorious, ever-funny sight of sisters abandoning themselves to the joy of dancing, and Tom Slade’s band is in full swing and in the mood throughout.
Morgan Large’s set and costume designs are living it as large as his name would suggest, glittering finale et al. The American Seventies burst out of his sets for club and stained-glass convent alike, evoking Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever, Pam Grier and Shaft.
In a nutshell, Sister Act is divine entertainment to take you to musical heaven.
Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sculptor Tony Cragg with his bronze work Outspan in the Great Hall at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham
FROM landscape sculptures to community cinema screenings, a circus company’s novel assignment to a soap star’s heavenly musical role, Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead is taking shape.
Exhibition of the week: Tony Cragg at Castle Howard, near York, until September 22
SCULPTOR Tony Cragg presents the first major exhibition by a leading contemporary artist in the house and grounds of Castle Howard. On show are new and recent sculptures, many being presented on British soil for the first time, including large-scale works in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium and fibreglass.
Inside the house are works in bronze and wood, glass sculptures and works on paper in the Great Hall, Garden Hall, High South, Octagon and Colonnade. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
The Lapins: Celebrating travel, exploration and adventure in music at the Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York
World premieres of the week: York Late Music, Unitarian Chapel, St Saviourgate, York, Mike Sluman, oboe, and Jenny Martins, piano, Saturday (4/5/2024), 1pm; The Lapins, Saturday (4/5/2024), 7.30pm
MIKEY Sluman highlights the range of the oboe family – oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais and bass oboe – in his lunchtime programme of Lutoslawski, Talbot-Howard and Poulenc works and world premieres of Desmond Clarke’s Five Exploded Pastorals and Nick Williams’s A Hundred Miles Down The Road (Le Tombeau de Fred).
The Lapins examine ideas of space, place and time in an evening programme that extols the joys of travel, exploration and adventure through the music of Brian Eno, Stockhausen and Erik Satie, the world premiere of James Else’s A Tapestry In Glass and the first complete performance of Hayley Jenkins’s Gyps Fulvus. Tickets: latemusic.org or on the door.
The poster for The Groves Community Cinema festival at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Film event of the week: The Groves Community Cinema, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 5 to May 11
THE third Groves Community Cinema film festival promises a wide variety of films, from cult classics and music to drama and animated fun. Supported by Make It York and City of York Council, the event opens with Sunday’s Arnie Schwarzenegger double bill of The Terminator at 6.30pm and T2 Judgement Day at 8.45pm.
Monday follows up Marcel The Shell With Shoes at 2.30pm with Justine Triet’s legal drama Anatomy Of A Fall at 6.30pm; Tuesday offers Ian McKellen’s Hamlet at 7.30pm; Wednesday, Yorkshire Film Archives’ Social Cinema, 6.30pm, and Friday, cult classical musical Hedwig And The Angry Inch, 8pm. To finish, next Saturday serves up the animated Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse at 2.30pm and Jonathan Demme’s concert documentary Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense at 7.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Steve Cassidy: Performing with his band and friends at the JoRo
Nostalgic gig of the week: Steve Cassidy Band & Friends, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Sunday (5/5/2024), 7.30pm
VETERAN York frontman Steve Cassidy leads his band in an evening of rock, country and ballads, old and new, with songs from the 1960s to 21st century favourites in their playlist.
Cassidy, a three-time winner of New Faces, has recorded with celebrated York composer John Barry and performed in the United States and many European countries. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Let us pray: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday
SUE Cleaver takes holy orders in a break from Coronation Street to play the Mother Superior in Sister Act in her first stage role in three decades. Adding Alan Menken songs to the 1992 film’s storyline, the show testifies to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music in its humorous account of disco diva Deloris Van Cartier’s life taking a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.
Placed in protective custody, in the disguise of a nun under the Mother Superior’s suspicious eye, Deloris (Landi Oshinowo) helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess in Ockham’s Razor’s circus theatre production of Tess at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Kie Cummings
“Bold new vision” of the week: Ockham’s Razor in Tess, York Theatre Royal, May 8 to 11, 7.30pm
CIRCUS theatre exponents Ockham’s Razor tackle a novel for the first time in a staging of Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles that combines artistic directors Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey’s adaptation of the original text with the physical language of circus and dance.
Exploring questions of privilege, class, consent, agency, female desire and sisterhood, Tess utilises seven performers, including Harona Kamen’s Narrator Tess and Lila Naruse’s Memory Tess, to re-tell the Victorian story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Night of dub, funk and world music at Pocklington Arts Centre
Funkiest gig of the week: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 9, 8pm
SUPREME bassist Jah Wobble’s two-hour show takes in material from his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd and collaborations with Brian Eno, Bjork, Sinead O’Connor, U2’s The Edge, Can’s Holger Czukay, Ministry’s Chris Connelly and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.
Born John Wardle in 1958, he was renamed by Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who struggled to pronounce his name correctly. Wobble combines dub, funk and world music, especially Africa and the Middle East, in his songwriting. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
“Charming nonsense”: Steven Lee’s There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly at the SJT, Scarborough
Half-term show announcement of the week: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 28, 2.30pm
FIRST written as a song in 1953, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly was a chart-topping hit for singer and actor Burl Ives before being adapted into a best-selling book by Pam Adams a few years later, one still found in schools, nurseries and homes across the world.
To mark the nursery rhyme’s 50th anniversary, children’s author Steven Lee has created a magical musical stage show for little ones to enjoy with their parents that combines the charming nonsense of the rhyme with his own “suitably silly twists”. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Anton Lesser and Orchestra Of The Swan in a performance of Red Sky At Sunrise. Picture: Lucy Barriball
AUTHOR Laurie Lee’s extraordinary story is to be told in a captivating weave of music and his own words in Red Sky At Sunrise at the Grand Opera House, York, on May 26.
Actors Anton Lesser (from Endeavour, Wolf Hall and Game Of Thrones) and Charlie Hamblett (Killing Eve, Ghosts and The Burning Girls) play the role of Laurie Lee, older and younger, along with a rich array of other characters.
Together, they celebrate Lee’s engaging humour, as well as portraying his darker side, in a performance that has startling resonance with modern events.
Actor Charlie Hamblett in the role of Laurie Lee, younger. Picture: Lucy Barriball
Red Sky At Sunrise follows Stroud-born Laurie Lee through his much-loved trilogy, Cider With Rosie, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment Of War, when Lee famously walked out of the Slad valley one midsummer morning and ended up fighting with the International Brigades against General Franco’s forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Devised as a show by Judy Reaves, the text by Lee has been adapted by Deirdre Shields, to be accompanied by David Le Page’s musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan.
His programme weaves around Lee’s writing, from the lush Gloucestershire countryside that Lee made famous in Cider With Rosie, to the dry landscapes of Spain, via the music of Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Elgar, Britten, Grainger, Albeniz, Turina and De Falla. Guitarist Mark Ashford will be performing Asturias, Sevilla and Spanish Romance too.
David Le Page: Put together the musical programme for Orchestra Of The Swan for Red Sky At Sunrise. Picture: Lucy Barriball
Anton Lesser reflects: “It has been a joy to discover more of Laurie Lee’s sublime writing. In many ways, his account of what was happening in Spain in the 1930s is prescient of what is playing out now in Europe.
“There is a heartbreaking moment when Lee writes: ‘Did we know, as we stood there, our clenched fists raised high, and scarcely a gun between three of us, that we had ranged against us the rising military power of Europe, and the deadly cynicism of Russia? No, we didn’t. We had yet to learn that sheer idealism never stopped a tank’.”
Red Sky At Sunrise, Laurie Lee in Words and Music, starringAnton Lesser, Charlie Hamblett and Orchestra Of The Swan, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, May 26. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Guitarist Mark Ashford playing at a Red Sky At Sunrise performance. Picture: Lucy Barriball
In the spotlight: Anton Lesser on Laurie Lee, Red Sky At Sunrise, playing villains, Endeavour and favourite roles
What do you enjoy about Laurie Lee?
“I enjoy a sweet resonance I feel with Laurie Lee’s writing, a kind of recognition of something apparently difficult to access, but which mysteriously becomes available through great storytelling.”
What can the audience expect from Red Sky At Sunrise?
“The audience can expect to be taken on a journey, (which reflects Laurie’s actual travels from rural Gloucestershire to Spain, but also his inner journey from boyhood to maturity), all in the company of great musicians playing sublime music.”
How does performing a combination of words and music work for an actor?
“To be asked to read great writing, and to read it aloud is a privilege. To read it aloud supported by magnificent music is something more – I would call it a blessing. The words and the music combine, hopefully deepening and enriching the experience for both audience and practitioners.”
Can you be carried away by the music?
“Yes, I’m often so carried away by the musicians that I’m a bit of a liability – sometimes needing a bit of a nod or nudge to come in on cue!”
“I enjoy a sweet resonance I feel with Laurie Lee’s writing,” saysactor Anton Lesser
You played the villainous advisor Qyburn in the HBO fantasy drama Game Of Thrones. Do you enjoy playing villains?
“It’s not so much that I enjoy playing ‘villains’ – I like to think that I approach every role without limiting their identity to a single label like good or bad – but I think it’s more that those characters tend to be more complex and interesting.”
True or false? When you did your first day’s shoot on Endeavour, Shaun Evans could not stop laughing?
“Yes, Sean did have a problem with me – for some reason in the first episode he couldn’t look at me without laughing. I like to think this was a manifestation of love, respect and huge professional admiration; sadly I suspect it had more to do with the ridiculous hat I was made to wear.”
On Endeavour, you and Roger Allam were renowned for being cheeky together?
“Roger and I got away with a modicum of bad behaviour simply because we were very old. Two theatre actors in gentle competition for the best ‘light’ or close-up must have been a sad and sorry spectacle, and an example for younger actors how not to behave on set – but it was great fun and all in the best possible taste!”
Favourite roles?
“My favourite role is usually the one I’m currently working on, but I can point to one or two which I remember as being particularly enjoyable. Feste in Twelfth Night (working with the wonderful Richard Briers), Serge in Art and more recently Benedict in The Two Popes. Vernon Marley in the TV series Better was especially fulfilling – a great character.”
Kitchen think drama: Vera Chok’s Lauren, left, Jay McGuiness’s Ben and Fiona Wade’s Lauren in Danny Robins’s 2:22 – A Ghost Story
THIS is turning into a boom year for thrillers as much as musicals at the Grand Opera House. First, The Woman In Black, then Sleuth, now 2:22 – A Ghost Story, and still to come, the courtroom drama Twelve Angry Men in May and The 39 Steps in July.
York, Europe’s self-proclaimed “most haunted city”, loves ghost stories. Here is a new one, a smart invader from modern-day London in a breathtaking show that has all the quality of an award-winning West End production, transferred to the tour circuit without any loss of capital-city gloss.
Just look at that state-of-the-art, open-plan, glass-encased kitchen, in Anna Fleischle’s desirable set design, topped off by the social and cultural wit of a James Graham comedy and a sleight of hand worthy of Derren Brown’s mind games.
Everything is right from the start. A packed auditorium is humming with excitement, nervous too, the tension cranked up by the dizzying, speeding turnover of numbers on the electronic clock – anything but 2:22! – to the accompaniment of Ian Dickinson’s propulsive sound design, setting the pulse racing too.
Throughout, Dickinson and lighting designer Lucy Carter will work in wickedly gleeful tandem, interjecting at regular intervals with sudden sounds, screams, blinding lights and a framing of the proscenium arch in red light at the start of each scene. You will judder, you will shudder, you may well shreak, jolted by the yelps of foxes doing what foxes do in the garden.
From the imagination of The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny podcaster, broadcaster and journalist Danny Robins comes the paranormal tale of teacher-on-maternity-leave Jenny (Fiona Wade) and always-right scientist Sam (George Rainsford) hosting their first dinner party since becoming the latest “posh tw*ts” to move into a newly gentrified Greater London neighbourhood.
Sam will be heading back from a work trip on the Isle of Sark. For several nights, however, Jenny has been disturbed at 2:22am precisely by the sound of someone moving around the house and a man’s voice crying, picked up via the baby monitor in daughter Phoebe’s bedroom. Convinced the house is haunted, we join her as she whiles away the hours painting until that time arrives. Cue more Dickinson and Carter fun and games.
Robins, with delicious timing throughout, is stirring the ingredients of a classic thriller with Hitchcockian elan, just as guest Lauren (Vera Chok), Sam’s best friend since university days, is stirring the risotto (it just would be risotto, wouldn’t it!).
Smoke screen: Jay McGuiness’s Ben at the glazed door, seeking supernatural truths in 2:22 – A Ghost Story. Picture: Johan Persson
Lauren has brought along her latest boyfriend, builder Ben (The Wanted’s Jay McGuiness): a streetwise, working-class counter to the yuppie London intellectuals.Last to arrive is George Rainsford’s Sam, a self-righteous, sarky, magniloquent sceptic, apologising for losing his phone on Sark. So begins class warfare on what turns out to be big Ben’s old turf before Sam and Jenny stripped out everything, just like in all the houses around there,each ending up with the same soulless kitchen, Ben notes.
Sam is a non-believer in ghosts, insisting more logical reasons must explain the noises. Ben believes in the supernatural; Vera could be persuaded either way. Let’s stay up to 2:22am, Jenny suggests, as the trendy wine flows and arguments rise – as ultimately does the sexual heat – in an echo of the tensions of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf or a Tennessee Williams play.
2:22 – A Ghost Story has the spooks to rival A Woman In Black, but now through the application of modern technology (a baby monitor, an unpredictable Alexa) and the illusion wizardry of Magic Circle member Chris Fisher. What lifts it to five-star status is the brilliance of Robins’s state-of-the-nation character study: the choices of wine, the risotto; Sam’s dinner party playlist (Massive Attack) and Jenny’s too (The XX); the reference to Sam and Lauren working together for a charity in Africa; the discussion about the lizard, mouse and monkey sections of our brain and how fear, rather than love, is our most powerful emotion.
You will love the way Robins fills the hours until 2:22am; the relationship revelations; the debate over the existence or non-existence of ghosts; the Charles Lindbergh story behind the invention of the baby monitor, and ultimately the séance conducted by Ben. Does a ghost appear? No comment, but Ben is like a ghost of the street’s past that, as with Lady Macbeth’s damned spot, cannot be erased, no matter the aspirational revamp.
2: 22: A Ghost Story has ample shocks and alarms, but above all it is uncomfortably, truthfully funny, and all the better for all that intellectual jousting. All four performances are terrific, the dialogue sometimes almost too hot to touch under the combustible direction of Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr.
It feels wrong to highlight one performance, but it has to be said that Jay McGuiness, already boy band chart topper, Strictly champ, musical theatre leading man and young adult novelist, takes to “straight” theatre mightily impressively, every line a winner.
“Shhh, please don’t tell” requests a neon-lit message after the “reveal”. Hush, hush, promises Hutch, but please DO tell everyone to make the Grand Opera House their number one haunt this week.
2:22 – A Ghost Story spooks Grand Opera House, York, until May 4, 7.30pm nightly plus 3pm, Friday, and 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
“A chance to take on a role like this feels like heaven,” says Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver as she plays theMother Superior in Sister Act
SUE Cleaver is taking the holy orders in a break from Coronation Street to play the Mother Superior in the 2024 tour of Sister Act in her first stage role in three decades.
Swapping the cobbles for the convent, the Rovers Return for rosary beads, after 23 years as Eileen Grimshaw in Corrie, she will play the Grand Opera House, York, from May 6 to 11.
‘‘I’m thrilled to be stepping into the habit and joining the incredible company of Sister Act on tour,” says Sue, 60. “It’s been over 30 years since I’ve been on stage, but theatre has always been my first love. A chance to take on a role like this feels like heaven.”
Based on Emile Ardolino’s 1992 American comedy film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act is a testament to the universal power of friendship, sisterhood and music in its story of Deloris Van Cartier, a disco diva whose life takes a surprising turn when she witnesses a murder.
Placed under protective custody, Deloris Van Cartier (Landi Oshinowo) is hidden in the one place she should not be found: a convent. Disguised as a nun and under the suspicious watch of Cleaver’s Mother Superior, Deloris helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she unexpectedly rediscovers her own in a joyous show replete with original music by Alan Menken and songs inspired by Motown, soul and disco.
Making a habit of it: Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act
“I’m loving it,” says Sue of her stage return that opened in Brighton and has since taken her to Manchester, Cork, Belfast and Glasgow. “Theatre is where I started. I played lots of different reps [repertory theatres] early in my career, and then TV and film took over, but I’m very happy to be back.
“Just having a live audience there, the adrenaline and fear that goes with that, and getting a great response from them – that’s what most actors would say is why they do it. Actually, thinking about it, it’s adrenaline, rather than fear. Every night is different; every performance is different.”
Sue had never seen the musical. “I was going in blind, but I decided I wasn’t going to see other performers, as you want to create your own version,” she says. “Because of my [Coronation Street] schedule, I had only four and a half days’ rehearsal with the musical director and director [Bill Buckhurst] and two members of the cast, so I’m pretty proud of myself, going on after one run-through.
“It’s a big thing to take on in that short amount of time, but you get through that initial feeling of fear and just get on with it.”
Now eight weeks into the run, Sue has been comparing notes with Lesley Joseph, who preceded her in the Mother Superior’s role on tour before switching to playing Sister Mary Lazarus alongside Ruth Jones’s Mother Superior in the West End production at the Dominion Theatre. “We often do a WhatsApp catch-up in the interval in our habits!” she says.
Clash of worlds: Landi Oshinowo’s Deloris Van Cartier and Sue Cleaver’s Mother Superior in Sister Act
“I’ve not played a nun before, but the Mother Superior is just a great character. She’s a traditional, stern character who cares about the sisters and the convent, so it’s a clash of different worlds with Deloris as they navigate their way around each other and learn from each other. It’s a journey of discovery for both of them.”
Reflecting on diving into the deep end with Sister Act, Sue continues: “I feel it’s really important to take risks, to get out of your comfort zone. It’s why I said ‘yes, I’ll do it’. The timing was right for me, having concentrated very much on Corrie and bringing up my son, who’s now flown the nest. Hitting 60, this decade is about having fun!”
Fun to be had by all: “It’s just lovely to see audiences up on their feet and dancing. Right now, people are looking to go out and have a good time, and musicals provide that for all ages,” says Sue. “We all need that after the last few years. The world isn’t a great place at the minute, but if you can escape for a few hours of fun on stage, why not?”
Sue will be returning to the Coronation Street studios next month. “Eileen’s just popped off to see Thailand – it’s very useful to have a son in the show who’s gone off to the other side of the world!” she says. “I’m back in Corrie as soon as I finish this tour, going back to filming in June.”
Sister Act, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm, Wednesday and Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Copyright of The Press, York
Why did Sue Cleaver say ‘Yes’ to doing I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Here! in 2022?
Sue Cleaver: Spilling the beans on her time in the I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! jungle in 2022, when she finished ninth
“I ALWAYS said ‘No, I’ll never do it’, and then I said, ‘why am I saying ‘No’?’. It was only fear – and that wasn’t a good enough answer.
“So I did it! It was very tough, but we had a good group of people, who are still in touch, making friends for life. You can’t do that kind of show without making deep connections.”
Editing versus reality?
“The viewer sees 19 minutes out of every 24 hours, and we have absolutely no say in how things are knitted together. None of us have watched it because it will be the edited version and all that entails.
“We know what our journey was. You couldn’t re-create it. We all lived it. I lost two stone; some of the lads lost three stone.”
Daily food rations in the jungle
“Three table spoons of beans, three table spoons of rice, and then you win everything else. You’re getting up at six in the morning and your food doesn’t fly in until eight at night, so you’re very tired at the end of the day, which is the aim of it.
“We were lucky that we were a very solid group: it was a world of grown-ups in there.”
Lessons learnt in the Aussie jungle?
“Well, I never went back to putting salt on food because I had way too much salt before. I don’t miss it. Now I’m completely off it. I don’t even put it on chips.
“I never want to eat wholegrain rice again either.
“I came back thinking, ‘I’ll never sleep in a jungle in a little camp bed again’, but as long I can take my own packed lunch I’d go back to sleeping in a camp bed.
“I’ve done my fair share of camping. Occasionally we have a camping trip from Corrie, though we’ve not done that yet this year.”
Vera Chok’s Lauren and Jay McGuiness’s Ben in a scene from 2:22 – A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, this week
JUST a normal week? No, paranormal, more like, as a ghost story pumps up the spooks. Fear not, a hope-filled musical, dances of love, loss and legacy and soul, folk and funk gigs are Charles Hutchinson’s picks too.
New ghost to haunt “Europe’s most haunted city”: 2:22 – A Ghost Story, Grand Opera House, York, spooking until Saturday, 7.30pm fright-nightly; 2.30pm today (1/5/2024) and Saturday; 3.30pm, Friday
JENNY believes her new London home is haunted, hearing a disturbance every night at the same time, but husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben.
Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is drawing closer, so they decide to stay up… until 2:22 in the morning… and then they’ll know in The Battersea Poltergeist podcaster Danny Robins’s paranormal thriller, wherein secrets emerge and ghosts may, or may not, appear. Fiona Wade, George Rainsford and Vera Chok join The Wanted singer Jay McGuiness in Matthew Dunster & Isabel Marr’s cast. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Come From Away: Award-winning musical of hope, humanity and unity on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre
Musical of the week: Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, running until May 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees
IRENE Sankoff and David Hein’s four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tells the remarkable true story of 6,579 air passengers from around the world being grounded in Canada in the wake of 9/11. Whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these ‘come from aways’ into their lives with open hearts.
As spirited locals and global passengers come together to forge friendships, we meet first female American Airlines captain, the quick-thinking town mayor, the mother of a New York firefighter and the eager local news reporter in a celebration of hope, humanity and unity. Box office: 0113 2430808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
The poster for Alexander O’Neal’s farewell tour, Time To Say Goodbye, bound for York Barbican on Friday
Farewell tour of the week: Alexander O’Neal, Time To Say Goodbye, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm
AFTER nearly five decades, Mississippi soul singer Alexander O’Neal is hitting the road one final time at 70 on his Time to Say Goodbye: Farewell World Tour, accompanied by his nine-piece band.
O’Neal will be undertaking a journey through his career with the aid of never-before-seen-photos, testimonies and tributes, all set to the tune of such hits as Criticize, Fake and If You Were Here Tonight. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Phoenix Dance Theatre in Dane Hurst’s Requiem, part of the Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love programme at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre in Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
YORK Theatre Royal is the final venue on Leeds company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s first British tour since 2022 with a visceral triple bill of works by international dance makers Dane Hurst, Miguel Altunaga and Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis.
Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love opens with South African choreographer and former Phoenix artistic director Hurst’s reimagining of Mozart’s Requiem in response to pandemic-induced grief. Two world premieres follow: Afro-Cuban choreographer Altunaga’s first Phoenix commission, the daring Cloudburst, and Texas-born Jarrell Willis’s Terms Of Agreement.Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Milton Rooms’ poster for the Comedy vs Climate workshops this weekend in Malton
Workshop of the week: Comedy vs Climate Change, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday and Sunday
THIS weekend Comedy vs Climate Change hosts a brace of workshop projects for 18 to 30-year-olds from North Yorkshire with the aim of raising awareness of climate issues and funds for environmental causes, as well as finding hope in climate humour that shapes a greener, better and fairer future.
Saturday’s 2pm to 5pm session provides an introduction to stand-up and joke writing; Sunday’s 10am to 1pm session focuses on improv and character development. Both use humour to explore environmental issues based around local rivers. Ring 01653 696240 or go to themiltonrooms.com to book a place.
Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Playing dub, funk and world music at Pocklington Arts Centre
Funkiest gig of the week: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 9, 8pm
SUPREME bassist Jah Wobble’s two-hour show takes in material from his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd and collaborations with Brian Eno, Bjork, Sinead O’Connor, U2’s The Edge, Can’s Holger Czukay, Ministry’s Chris Connelly and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.
Born John Wardle in 1958, he was renamed by Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who struggled to pronounce his name correctly. Wobble has combined elements of dub, funk and world music, especially Africa and the Middle East, in his songwriting and has written books on music, politics, spirituality and Eastern philosophy too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Gigspanner Trio: Led by fiddler Peter Knight at Helmsley Arts Centre
Folk gig of the week: Gigspanner Trio, Helmsley Arts Centre, May 10, 7.30pm
IN the wake of his departure from Steeleye Span, fiddle player Peter Knight has turned his full attention to the Gigspanner Trio, a ground-breaking force on the British folk scene.
Knight, who first performed with the fledgling Steeleye line-up in 1970, is joined in his trio by percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack. Together, they combine self-penned material with arrangements of music rooted in the British Isles and beyond. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly: On tour at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Half-term show announcement of the week: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 28, 2.30pm
FIRST written as a song in 1953, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly was a chart-topping hit for singer and actor Burl Ives before being adapted into a best-selling book by Pam Adams a few years later, one still found in schools, nurseries and homes across the world.
To mark the nursery rhyme’s 50th anniversary, children’s author Steven Lee has created a magical musical stage show for little ones to enjoy with their parents that combines the charming nonsense of the rhyme with his own “suitably silly twists”. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Vera Chok and Jay McGuiness in a scene from 2:22 – A Ghost Story, haunting the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday
JUST a normal week? No, paranormal, more like, as a ghost story pumps up the spooks. Fear not, a Led Zeppelin legend, country-town teen days, a hope-filled musical and dances of love, loss and legacy are Charles Hutchinson’s picks too.
New ghost to haunt “Europe’s most haunted city”: 2:22 – A Ghost Story, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm fright-nightly; 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday; 3.30pm, Friday
JENNY believes her new London home is haunted, hearing a disturbance every night at the same time, but husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben.
Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is drawing closer, so they decide to stay up… until 2:22 in the morning… and then they’ll know in The Battersea Poltergeist podcaster Danny Robins’s paranormal thriller, wherein secrets emerge and ghosts may, or may not, appear. Fiona Wade, George Rainsford and Vera Chok join The Wanted singer Jay McGuiness in Matthew Dunster & Isabel Marr’s cast. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Robert Plant’s Saving Grace: Playing Harrogate Royal Hall on Tuesday
Gig of the week outside York: Robert Plant’s Saving Grace, Harrogate Royal Hall, Tuesday, 8pm
ERSTWHILE Led Zeppelin singer and lyricist Robert Plant, now 75, leads the folk, Americana and blues co-operative Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian (vocals), Oli Jefferson (percussion), Tony Kelsey (mandolin, baritone, acoustic guitar, and Matt Worley (banjo, acoustic/baritone guitars, cuatro), on their 15-date Never Ending Spring itinerary. South Carolina singer-songwriter Taylor McCall supports. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Country matters: Henry Madd’s Henry and Marc Benga’s Jake in Land Of Lost Content at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Touring play of the week: Henry Madd’s Land Of Lost Content, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Sunday, 7.30pm
NIC Connaughton, the Pleasance’s head of theatre, directs Land Of Lost Content, Henry Madd’s autobiographical insight into friendship, adolescence, forgiveness and life not going to plan in an empowering coming-of-age story about the trials of growing up in a small country town and its ongoing effects on two estranged mates.
Henry (Madd) and Jake (Marc Benga) were bored friends who grew up in Ludlow, where friendships were forged in failed adventures, bad habits and damp raves as they stumbled through teenage days looking for something to do. Then Henry moved away. Now he is back, needing to face up to the memories and the people he left behind. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Come From Away: Award-winning musical of hope, humanity and unity on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre
Musical of the week: Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, Tuesday to May 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees
IRENE Sankoff and David Hein’s four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tells the remarkable true story of 6,579 air passengers from around the world being grounded in Canada in the wake of 9/11. Whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these ‘come from aways’ into their lives with open hearts.
As spirited locals and global passengers come together to forge friendships, we meet first female American Airlines captain, the quick-thinking town mayor, the mother of a New York firefighter and the eager local news reporter in a celebration of hope, humanity and unity. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.
Claire Morley: Directing York Shakespeare Project in Sunday’s rehearsed reading of John Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
Battle of the sexes, round two: York Shakespeare Project in The Tamer Tamed, Creative Arts Centre Auditorium, York St John University, tomorrow (28/4/2024), 5pm
YORK Shakespeare Project complements this week’s run of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew at Theatre@41, Monkgate, with a rehearsed reading of John Fletcher’s Jacobean riposte to the Bard’s most controversial comedy, directed by Claire Morley.
In Fletcher’s sequel, the widowed Petruchio has a new wife and a new challenge as he discovers that he is not the only one who can do the taming. Fletcher borrows characters from Shakespeare and Ben Jonson and a key plot device from Ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes’s Lysistrata for his exploration of marriage and relationships. Box office: parrabbola.co.uk or yorkshakes.co.uk.
The poster for Alexander O’Neal’s farewell tour, Time To Say Goodbye, bound for York Barbican on May 3
Farewell tour of the Week: Alexander O’Neal, Time To Say Goodbye, York Barbican, May 3, 7.30pm
AFTER nearly five decades, Mississippi soul singer Alexander O’Neal is hitting the road one final time at 70 on his Time to Say Goodbye: Farewell World Tour, accompanied by his nine-piece band.
O’Neal will be undertaking a journey through his career with the aid of never-before-seen-photos, testimonies and tributes, all set to the tune of such hits as Criticize, Fake and If You Were Here Tonight. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk
Phoenix Dance Theatre in Dane Hurst’s Requiem, part of the Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love programme at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth
Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre in Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love, York Theatre Royal, May 3, 7.30pm; May 4, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
YORK Theatre Royal is the final venue on Leeds company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s first British tour since 2022 with a visceral triple bill of works by international dance makers Dane Hurst, Miguel Altunaga and Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis.
Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love opens with South African choreographer and former Phoenix artistic director Hurst’s reimagining of Mozart’s Requiem in response to pandemic-induced grief. Two world premieres follow: Afro-Cuban choreographer Altunaga’s first Phoenix commission, the daring Cloudburst, and Texas-born Jarrell Willis’s Terms Of Agreement.Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The Cult: Marking 40th anniversary with the 8424 tour this autumn. Picture: Jackie Middleton
Gig announcement of the week: The Cult, The 8424 Tour, York Barbican, October 29
SINGER Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy mark the 40th anniversary of The Cult, the Bradford band noted for their pioneering mix of post-punk, hard rock and melodramatic experimentalism, by heading out on The 8424 Tour.
Once dubbed “shamanic Goths”, Astbury and Duffy will perform songs from The Cult’s 11-album discography, from 1984’s Dreamtime to 2022’s Under The Midnight Sun, in a set sure to feature She Sells Sanctuary, Rain, Love Removal Machine, Wild Flower and Lil’ Devil. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jay McGuiness’s Ben in a clinch with Vera Chok’s Lauren in 2:22 A Ghost Story
WHEN Jay McGuiness, boy band singer, songwriter, Strictly champion, musical theatre actor and fantasy novelist, saw 2:22 A Ghost Story, he knew what he wanted to do next.
“I turned to my manager [Damien Sanders] and said, ‘I’ve got to do that’,” recalls The Wanted vocalist, who is now touring in Danny Robins’s supernatural thriller. Next stop York, visiting the Grand Opera House from April 30 to May 4.
“Damien is a very convincing Cockney fella! He called up the casting agent, and after a successful reading, they said, ‘in you go’ – and then I had to wait five months for the new cast to start. It was like waiting for Christmas to come around!
“We had four weeks of rehearsals, which is more than enough for a play. We had time to get to know each other, whereas with musicals, you’re being whisked from one room to another, with lots of irons in the fire, dancing, doing your lines, trying on costumes.”
Newark-born Jay’s career in musicals had led indirectly to his participation in 2:22 A Ghost Story. “I saw the play because I did a musical with Girls Aloud’s Kimberley Walsh: BIG! The Musical, based on the Tom Hanks film. We went to see Cheryl [Cole, from Girls Aloud], who was in the show.”
Was it scary? “I jumped out of my skin!” says Jay, 33. Next week you can find out why when he plays Ben alongside Vera Chok as Lauren, Fiona Wadeas Jenny and George Rainsfordas Sam in the show’s seventh cast.
Written by the award-winning Danny Robins, creator of the BBC podcast The Battersea Poltergeist, and directed by Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr, 2:22 is billed as “an adrenaline-filled night where secrets emerge and ghosts may, or may not, appear” as Robins asks: “What do you believe? And do you dare discover the truth?”
Tensions rising in the kitchen: Jay McGuinness’s Ben with Vera Chok’s Lauren, left, and Fiona Wade’s Jenny in Danny Robins’s 2:22 A Ghost Story
“I continue to be blown away by the success of this play,” says Danny. “It demonstrates a huge appetite and curiosity for all things paranormal. This fabulous seventh cast for the 2024 leg of the tour will bring their own energy to these characters, telling the story anew for audiences across the UK.
“It’s always exciting to see the play come to life again in this way. It’s such a fun night out, and if chills give you thrills, you’re in for a treat.”
In 2:22, Jenny believes her new home is haunted, claiming she hears something every night at the same time, but her husband Sam is not having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben.
Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is drawing closer, so they decide to stay up…until 2:22 in the morning… and then they will know. “I tend not to be awake at that time,” says Jay.
He met his fellow cast members at the start of rehearsals, “but I knew of them,” he says. “When you start, it’s like the first day of school, getting the jitters out of the way. It’s natural that after five years of being in a band, suddenly auditioning again was a big adjustment, thinking, ‘how have I got myself into this situation again?’! But once you try to make someone jump or laugh, it’s fun.”
Ben is Jay’s first role in a play rather than a musical, having appeared in Rip It Up, BIG! and Sleepless, a second show rooted in a Tom Hanks film. “I’ve absolutely loved it, especially being able to focus on the script, which facilitated us getting to know each other and find out everyone’s opinions on each character. It was like being back at drama school,” he says.
“Then getting out in front of an audience each night, when you have to make sure they’re laughing at the right moment, jumping at the right moment.”
No smoke without fire: Jay McGuiness lighting up in 2:22 – A Ghost Story. Picture: Johan Persson
Robins’s play is built around tensions brought on by class differences. “You can feel the different reactions in different theatres around the country!” says Jay, who wiull be on the road from January to June. “I’m playing a working-class man who feels out of place at this dinner party, somewhere fancy in London, where most of the houses are newly gentrified, so he puts his foot in it with ill-judged comments, and the way he talks to women is very old-school Cockney.
“It’s good that people in places like Norwich really connected with him, whereas it was a very different response in Cambridge.”
Jay is enjoying the collective thrill of a fright night at the theatre. “There’s something very exciting about it that’s different from something that’s introspective. It’s raw, and there’s plenty to chew on about class, ghosts and believing in the supernatural,” he says. “There’s fun to be had in hearing people around you screaming or laughing.”
Jay, who loves the ghost walks in Edinburgh, has plenty more to choose from on his return to York for the first time since The Wanted ambled down Shambles on their reunion two years ago. “I remember that shop with all the ‘ghosts’ in the window and the queue outside,” he says.
2:22 A Ghost Story spooks Grand Opera House, York, from April 30 to May 4, 7.30pm nightly plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday; 3pm, Friday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
The poster for 2:22 A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York
Ghostly goings-on at the Grand Opera House, York
IN “Europe’s most haunted city”, 2:22 A Ghost Story will be playing at the Grand Opera House, a theatre and former corn exchange with its own paranormal stories.
When asked about the ghostly goings-on in the Cumberland Street building, Paranormal Research York follows up its visit to the theatre by saying: “Our team encountered a variety of supernatural experiences. The Grand Opera House continues to intrigue and captivate with its haunting mysteries, each time we investigate.”
Laura McMillan, the Opera House’s theatre director, says: “With over 100 years of history, the Grand Opera House certainly has a few spooky tales to tell that make us the perfect host for 2:22 A Ghost Story.
“York is known worldwide for its ghost stories and I know that audiences are going to love being on the edge of their seats with 2:22 as they experience a night of adrenaline-filled entertainment.”
Jay McGuiness: the back story
Jay McGuiness: Singer, songwriter, actor, 2015 Strictly Come Dancing champion and fantasy novelist. Picture: Seamus Ryan
Born: Newark, Nottinghamshire, July 24 1990.
Training: Attended “normal Catholic secondary school” in Mansfield. Started Tuesday afternoon dance classes at Charlotte Hamilton’s Dance School at 13 when “voice had started squeaking at that point!” Later attended Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama in Nottingham.
Best known for: Member of boy band The Wanted. Debut single All Time Low topped UK charts in 2010, as did Glad You Came in 2011. Further Top Five singles with Heart Vacancy, Gold Forever, Lightning, Chasing The Sun, I Found You and Walk Like Rihanna and Top Ten hits with We Own The Night and Show Me Love (America).
Band re-formed in 2021, releasing greatest hits album Most Wanted and embarking on 12-date UK arena tour in Spring 202.
TV success: After taking break from The Wanted, he won Glitterball trophy with Russian-Kazakh professional dancer Aliona Vilani on 2015 series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing. Jive routine to You Never Can Tell and Misirlou, from Pulp Fiction, amased eight million hits on YouTube. Voted Strictly’s Best Ever Dance by BBC viewers in December 2020
Musicals: Starred in lead role of Josh Baskin in musical version of Tom Hanks’s movie Big! in Dublin in 2016. Reprised role in West End at Dominion Theatre, London, in 2019. Took West End lead role of Sam in Sleepless, A Musical Romance at Troubadour theatre, London, based on Tom Hanks’s movie Sleepless In Seattle, in 2020.
More theatre work: Rip It Up, 1960s’ song-and-dance show at Garrick Theatre; London, lead role of Bob Wallace in touring production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in 2022.
Television work: Won celebrity version of Channel 4 show, Hunted, raising money for Stand Up To Cancer. Won weekly battle to take champion’s trophy in Richard Osman’s House Of Games. Presented regular features for BBC’s The One Show, fronting films on topics such as music education in schools and veganism.
Book: Debut fantasy novel for young adults, Blood Flowers, a story of love, witchcraft, betrayal and murder, published worldwide by Scholastic on January 8 2024.
The cover artwork for Jay McGuiness’s debut novel Blood Flowers
Gold top performance: Reuben Khan’s Joseph in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick
AFTER Lee Mead, Keith Jack, Joe McElderry and Union J’s Jaymi Hensley, Joseph’s coat of many colours fits Reuben Khan delightfully lightly at the Grand Opera House.
The University of York psychology student, from Burnley, has plenty on his mind: third-year studies; his debut York Stage title role and applications to London drama schools to do a Masters degree in musical theatre.
On the evidence of his assured performance at 23, especially vocally, his future looks as bright as the Technicolor Dreamcoat that had him “saying the colours of Jospeh’s coat before I could spell them” on car journeys with his mum.
Director, producer and designer Nik Briggs returns to Lloyd Webber and Rice’s early musical for the first time since his “Joseph as you’ve never seen it before” show at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in November 2018 with its cast of 50 and Joseph in pyjamas.
Performing on crutches: Finn East’s Simeon singing with the Brothers
The Grand Opera House offers the opportunity to deliver a production on a bigger scale, not in cast size, but in lighting, staging and visual impact, aided by the fabulous parade of costume designs from Charades Theatrical Costume, St Helens.
The stage is built from scratch, as first the Narrator, Hannah Shaw, then Joseph and children from York Stage School (divided into Team Canaan and Team Egypt) oversee the creation of the world of Canaan, home to Jacob and his 11 sons (some of them daughters in Briggs’s company).
It looks so inviting, you want to book a holiday there. All it needs now to complete the scene is a camel. Oh, and here comes a camel on wheels, pretty much life-size!
From the off, this sung-through pop musical moves at a lick: typified by Finn East’s Simeon defying his injured knee to speed around on crutches, popping up everywhere and taking on a second role too as the Snake.
Hannah Shaw, who studied music at York St John University, sets the tone and style in glittering dress and shiny boots, engaging with the children like a teacher, driving the show forward and singing with oomph, both in her high notes and a lower register.
Storyteller in song: Hannah Shaw’s Narrator
Reuben Khan’s Joseph sings like a dream, whatever a song demands, whether tenderness, drama, power, or emotion further heightened by standing atop a ladder on a stage suddenly full of them in one of Briggs’s most striking designs.
Khan’s characterisation of Joseph has to be expressed largely through Rice’s narrative lyrics, and he does so particularly strongly in the dark ballad Close Every Door, while Any Dream Will Do is as irresistible as ever.
Lesley Hill’s choreography is as playful, fun and camp as this glitterball of a musical demands, at its best in the glorious ensemble number Joseph’s Coat, where Adam Moore’s lighting design matches every change of colour in the lyric.
Briggs’s company revels in playing old favourites with a knowing campness that has only increased with the passing of the years, especially in Jacob (Martin Rowley) and the brothers’ cod rendition of the sad chanson Those Canaan Days, exaggerated French accents et al.
The York Stage company in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Benjamin’s Calypso is even dafter, full of Caribbean joy as Cyanne Unamba-Oparah’s Judah has the brothers walking on sunshine.
Pop hit after pop hit hits home in all manner of musical styles, from Alex Hogg leading the brothers in the One More Angel In Heaven hoedown to Matthew Clarke’s vainglorious Potiphar luxuriating in the richness of his self-titled song.
In the absence of Carly Morton with shingles (get well soon, Carly), Amy Barrett takes on the rock’n’roll role of Pharaoh, traditionally played in sequinned-Elvis-in-Las-Vegas style. Not so much Elvis as Elvira here, but her Song Of The King is still a peach (one of the 29 colours in Joseph’s coat, by the way).
Adam Tomlinson’s 15-piece orchestra is on top form throughout, savouring the multitude of song styles and pumping up the beat for the Joseph Megamix finale as the party vibe suffuses the cast and cheering audience alike.
York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight, Wednesday and Thursday; 5pm and 8pm, Friday; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Lighting up the lead role: Reuben Khan as Joseph in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
REUBEN Khan will play the lead role for York Stage for the first time in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from tomorrow (12/4/2024).
Not that the third-year University of York psychology student is a stranger to stepping into the spotlight in a Nik Briggs production at the Grand Opera House, York.
“I had more than a week’s notice this time, that’s the main difference,” says Reuben, 23, seated with his Technicolor attire behind him in Dressing Room No 1 ahead of Tuesday’s rehearsal.
“For Beautiful [the Carole King musical], Nik called me a week before the show opened to say, ‘look, you wouldn’t happen to be free, to play Gerry Goffin in the early performances, would you?’.”
Frankie Bounds had been rehearsing the role of King’s co-songwriter, husband and ‘serial womaniser’ for his last performance in York before starting studies at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
“He’d checked with Mountview early on that it would be OK, but then suddenly Frankie was told he’d have to go down to the theatre school in the first week, and that’s why I stepped in. That was an interesting experience,” recalls Reuben.
“I didn’t know much about the show, I hadn’t seen it before. So I had to learn a few songs and learn the lines as quickly as possible, and l loved doing it. Obviously the music is phenomenal, the story moves at a pace and it’s just a great show – and it was nice to have the chance to watch Frankie when he came back during the second week.”
Reuben, from Burnley, has past experience of appearing in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph. “I did the show twice when I was 12, once at my school, Unity School, and then with Basics Junior Theatre School. Both times I played Judah [one of Jacob’s sons], and there was a crossover between the two productions. I finished one and, not long after, I did the other.”
He is delighted to be taking on the title role, performing alongside Hannah Shaw’s Narrator and Amy Barrett’s Pharaoh, among others.
“It’s one of those shows where the vast majority of people have come into contact with it, whether it’s at school or, in my case, my mother having the songs on in the car,” says Reuben. Then there’s the film, and there’s always a tour going on or a local production – or people may know the Bible story of Joseph.
Reuben Khan performing in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
“I knew the vast majority of songs already, so I feel like I’ve barely touched the book because the songs were ingrained in me!”
Following in the sandal steps of the likes of Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Donny Osmond, Lee Mead and Joe McElderry holds no fears for Reuben. “Honestly, it’s great fun. It’s a funny role to some extent, as you can kind of understand some of the qualms that his brothers have about him! Joseph is flawed, and you think, if I was one of his brothers, I’d be having problems with him,” he says.
“But at the same time, he represents the everyman. Yes he’s flawed but he tries his best, people around him either like him or they don’t, and there’s something nice about playing a character who the audience is rooting for. It’s good fun.”
Reuben has enjoyed responding to the direction of Nik Briggs. “He has this overarching vision that he puts across incredibly well, to get the best out of us by directing in a very fluid, creatively free way, which is massively important, without micro-directing us,” he says. “He also has this ability to stay level-headed, which is such a skill, something that I’ve not seen in a lot of people in his position.”
Reuben’s preparations have stretched beyond rehearsals to ensuring he will be in peak fitness for a role that involves “wearing not a lot of clothes” (except when he is in his “day to day” coat or the Technicolor dreamcoat of the title).
“It’s all part of the tongue-in-cheek side of the show that Joseph is this half-dressed man! When I knew I would be doing the role, initially it was at the back of my mind, but in the past two months it’s been very much to the front – and at the same time, I’m trying to focus on the third year of my university studies too!
“I’ve never spent so much time keeping an eye on what I’m eating, going to the gym most days of the week for six weeks, to be in the best shape – just in time for the summer!”
On top of his Joseph rehearsals and university studies, Reuben is in the middle of auditioning for drama schools. “I’m studying psychology, but I want to go into musical theatre, and the second I say I’m studying psychology, they say, ‘oh, that’s really interesting’!” he says of his auditions at Associated Studios and the Royal Academy of Music in London to do a Masters degree in musical theatre.
“I guess it’s because psychology is all about understanding people, and that’s the same with acting, understanding a character.”
Now, after such roles as Rapunzel’s Prince in Into The Woods and Bobby in Company for the university’s Central Hall Musical Society, Reuben is ready to go, go, go, Joseph from tomorrow.
York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
