Tag: Hannah Shaw

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REVIEW: York Light Opera Company in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until July 4 ***

Rosa Burns’ Marcy Park in a defiant outburst in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

IN a spelling bee competition, contestants are asked to spell words aloud, letter by letter, with no backtracking, one by one, in order, on a loop. 

Participants are eliminated if they misspell a word, indicated by the death-knell ding of a bell, and the contest will continue until only one winner is still standing uncorrected.

The word “bee”, by the way, has nothing to do with the honey-making insect. Instead, in American English, the “bee” once referred to a community gathering where neighbours worked together on a specific task.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has been causing a buzz as a Tony and Drama Desk Awards Best Book-winning musical since 2004, a buzz that has spread belatedly to York 22 years later for York Light’s summer production at Theatre@41, Monkgate.

Sweltering in the June heat wave, the John Cooper Studio’s black box theatre has been converted into a school gymnasium with a basketball on the back wall to emphasise the American setting.

James Dickinson’s Chip Tolentino in one of his “over-excited” moments at the microphone in York Light Opera Company’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Provided by theatre staff, hand-held fans were being wafted feverishly in the clammy night air by grateful audience members, but Neil Wood’s cast had no such wind assistance on Wednesday, Hannah Shaw’s Olive Ostrovsky gamely wearing a pink jumper throughout. The show must go on, as they say.

Six awkward “mid-pubescent” spelling champions gather for the chance to make the national final, joined at each show by four audience members who volunteer to join the linguistic gymnastics (mirroring the stars of stage and screen being the guest spellers in the latest off-Broadway revival of Rebecca Feldman, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical in New York).

Taking part are the geeky one with a health condition (Stephen Wright’s William Barfee); the alpha-male one (James Dickinson’s Chip Tolentino); the zany, off-the-rails one (Daniel Wood’s Leaf Coneybear); the proto-politician one with two pushy dads (Lotty Farmer’s lisping, asthmatic Logainne SchwartzandGrubenniere); the already career-driven future businesswoman one (Rosa Burns’ Marcy Park) and the neglected one, with the adoring but always too busy parents (Shaw’s Olive Ostrovsky).

One by one, we learn their back stories, the home life that shapes them, as we observe the characteristics that will mark them in adulthood and root for their spelling prowess.

To avoid the question-and-answer format of the competition becoming repetitive, the show’s writers find ways to keep it on the move, to build an ever faster pace, both in dialogue and in song, helped hugely by the input of the question master, Neil Foster’s increasingly irascible vice-principal, Douglas Panch, whose past troubles re-surface in his erratic behaviour, expressed in his waspish tongue.

If he is the “bad cop”, the “good cop” is the kind-hearted, beatific contest hostess, Katie Brier’s one-time champion, Rona Lisa Piretti. On hand with a consoling pat on the back and a box of fruit juice for each losing contestant is Mikhail Lim’s scene-stealing “comfort counsellor”, whose manner can be as discomfiting as comforting, closer to intimidating on occasion as he sings of the contest descending into pandemonium.

Lim, Foster and Wright in particular capture the offhand, offbeat humour of Sheinkin’s book, matched by the wit of Finn’s lyrics – typified by the rhyme of ‘protuberance’ with ‘exuberance’ – while the adult cast transforms into sometimes troubled tweens with elan under Wood’s smart direction.

What Spelling Bee lacks is knockout tunes to go with the knockabout laughs and astute social observation, although pianist Martin Lay’s four-piece band plays spiritedly throughout with Katie Maloney on reeds, Rosie Morris on synths and Jez Smith on percussion.

To bee or not to bee? It is always good to check out a “quirky little” musical new to York, and the combination of a snappy script and humorous, heartfelt performances works well, even if the show falls short of being spell-binding.  

York Light Opera Company in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 25 to 27, then June 30 to July 4, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 2pm Sunday matinee (28/6/2026). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Feel the tension as York Light enters The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Daniel Wood, left, Stephen Wright, Lotty Farmer, Rosa Burns, Hannah Shaw and James Dickinson in in York Light Opera Company’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

SIX awkward spelling champions learn that winning – and losing – is not everything in York Light Opera Company’s summer production, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Rachel Sheinkin, the 2004 American musical will be staged at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 24 to July 4 under the direction of Neil Wood and musical direction of Martin Lay, at the helm of a four-piece band.

Be prepared for a riotous ride as an eclectic group of six “mid-pubescents” battle for the spelling championship of a lifetime in a fast-paced, wildly humorous show replete with audience participation.

While candidly disclosing touching stories from their home life, the tweens spell their way through a series of – potentially made-up – words, each hoping to never hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing ding of the bell that signals a spelling mistake.

Rosa Byrne’s Marcy Park rehearsing for York Light’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Taking part will be Lotty Farmer’s Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre; Hannah Shaw’s Olive Ostrovsky; Rosa Burns’ Marcy Park; Daniel Wood’s Leaf Coneybear; James Dickinson’s Chip Tolentino and Stephen Wright’s William Barfeé.

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee promises unforgettable entertainment with a heart-warming message highlighting themes of friendship, identity and perseverance, all while celebrating the awkwardness and excitement of growing up,” says Neil, as York Light looks to build on the success of Eurobeat and Annie, Martyn Knight’s final production in the director’s chair.

“I love this quirkly little show that was first done as a workshop show in 2004 and then played off-Broadway and made its Broadway debut in 2005. Spelling Bee is one of those shows that invites the audience into the world of the spellers to cheer, to laugh, to cry and just have a wonderful evening. It’s back in New York, playing off-Broadway, winning every award insight, playing in a complex with six productions going on in one building.

“It has top-quality writing and is just as relevant today from when it was first performed and we’ve upated with a reference to President Trump! With a show that has such a cult following, once you see it, you will want to come back over and over again!”

Vice-principal Douglas Panch (Neil Foster), left, watching the contestants, James Dickinson’s Chip Tolentino, front, left, Daniel Wood’s Leaf Coneybear, Lotty Farmer’s Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre and Stephen Wright’s William Barfeé, in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Part of the fun will be audience members’ opportunity to be guest spellers in each performance. “I’ll be chatting beforehand, saying, ‘do you fancy trying out your spelling’? It’s not compulsory, but I’m confident we will find people to do it,” says Neil.

The show has echoes of Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills and Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers in having adult actors play children. “The six main spellers in the competition are 12/13-year-old adolescents, and most people will be able to recognise themselves in at least one of them,” says Neil.

“There’s a geek;  a zany, off-the-rails one; an alpha-male; a future businesswoman, already looking career driven; a young politician, being brought up by two dads, and a girl whose parents adore her but they’re always busy pursuing their own lives. I think the audience will end up rooting for the one they identify with the most.

“There’s a proper plot in this character-centred show, whereas there wasn’t in Eurobeat, which was more like ‘an experience’. The three adults running the event are important too: the one-time champion (Katie Brier’s Rona Lisa Piretti), the vice-principal (Neil Foster’s Douglas Panch) and the comfort counsellor (Mikhail Lim’s Mitch Mahoney), who is there to look after the children, should they not success in the spelling bee. They all have a back story, and the stories intertwine with little bits of flashback.”

Mikhail Lim’s comfort counsellor Mitch Mahoney in rehearsal

The fact that the children are played by adults, “you just get transfixed by them,” suggests Neil. “It calls on a totally different skill set for the actors , and one of the things that we’ve really worked on is the consistency of the characters as they’re on stage all the time, so they have to hold those characters traits at all times.”

Should you be wondering, Neil’s research reveals there are no fewer than nine Putnam Counties in the United States. “But then there are 20 different Springfields there by the way, including the one in Missouri in The Sopranos and the town in The Simpsons!” he says.

“We’ve given it over to the company members to find their accents for our show, which is set at a regional heat before the national final in Washington,”

The setting will be a school gymnasium, where the young spellers must exercise their minds. “We’ll have a basketball hoop on the set to give a sense of a gym,” says Neil.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s opening, he enthuses: “What I love about the show is how the audience can forget about the outside world for two hours, when they’ll smile, they’ll be moved by the story, they’ll have fun – and you’ve got to have fun at the theatre!

“We giggle at rehearsals from start to finish, and you have to do that with this piece because, if we’re not having fun, nor will the audience, but I guarantee they will come out with grins on their faces.”

York Light Opera Company in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 24 to 27 & June 30 to July 4, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 2pm Sunday matinee (28/6/2026). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Katie Brier’s Rona Lisa Piretti, left, and Hannah Shaw’s Olive Ostrovsky in a scene from York Light’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

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REVIEW: Rowntree Players in The Importance Of Being Earnest, going Wilder at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York ***

Jorja Cartwright’s Algernon Moncrieff, in Ernest mode, right, woos Katie Shaw’s Cecily Cardew in Rowntree Players’ The Importance Of Being Earnest. All pictures: Jamie McKeller

LIKE the best cucumber sandwiches, Oscar Wilde’s “trivial comedy for serious people” can be sliced in different ways, but always with the crusts, not the upper crust, removed.

The dust has not long settled on Stephen Fry’s Lady Bracknell in the National Theatre production at the Noel Coward Theatre, a role David Suchet had played on the London stage a decade earlier.

Cross-dressing comedy duo Hinge & Bracket went Wilde in 1977, as did satirical duo Lip Service in 2001, when the late Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding set the Victorian comedy of manners in the 1950s.

In 2015, Nigel Havers’s Algernon Moncrieff and Martin Jarvis’s John Worthing teamed up with Siân Phillips’s Lady Bracknell for the Bunbury Company of Players’ “golden-oldies” version, playing the Grand Opera House on tour that November.

Lizzie Lawton’s yearning Jack Worthing and Bethan Olliver’s enamoured Gwendolen Fairfax in Rowntree Players’ The Importance Of Being Earnest

In September 2022, Denzel Westley-Sanderson sassy co-production for English Touring Theatre, Leeds Playhouse and Rose Theatre, Kingston, “melded Wilde’s wit with chart-toppers, shade and contemporary references”.

Setting Oscar’s satire of dysfunctional families, class, gender and sexuality in Black Victorian high society, he cast Daniel Jacob, alias drag queen Vinegar Strokes, as Lady Bracknell and added to the gender fluidity with Dr Chasuble being played by Anita Reynolds, bonding in a lesbian relationship with Joanne Henry’s Miss Prism.

All this is by way of introduction to Hannah Shaw’s LGBTQ+ exploration of gay playwright  Wilde’s comedy for Rowntree Players, where she introduces new young players to the company too. This re-invention is not far-fetched, by the way, as a quick search reveals that “Importance” is “widely interpreted by critics and scholars as having a significant queer subtext, acting as a ‘gay play’ encoded for contemporary audiences”.

To further quote “AI Thinking”, “while the plot revolves around heterosexual romances, it is celebrated for its camp style, irony and subtle references to same-sex desire, often termed ‘Bunburying’.”

Checking the diary: Katie Shaw’s Cecily Cardew, left, and Bethan Olliver’s Gwendolen Fairfax

And there’s more: ‘Bunburying’ is “a code for leading a secret life to pursue forbidden, potentially gay, sexual activity”; the name “Earnest” was “a late-Victorian euphemism for a homosexual or queer man”; the play is “a foundational work of queer literature”.

Until now, your reviewer has been in Wilde’s “serious people” mode, but Hall’s light and bright production is very much in the spirit of “trivial comedy”, having as much fun and games as possible by going Wilder in the country, even when stretched to Wilde’s original four-act, three-hour version, reconstructed by Vyvyan Holland, at the request of the Rowntree Players committee.

From Stephanie Cullingford  & Hannah Shaw’s costumes, all vintage lines yet modern too, to Nathan Kirby’s classical instrumental arrangements of pop  nuggets such as Abba’s I Do, I Do, I Do and Sabrina Carpenter’s Nonsense, Shaw’s show straddles Wilde’s dapper past and today’s dandy designs.

Algernon’s London abode is dominated by heavy curtains, complemented by an old lamp shade, a timeless hat stand and modern sofas. Max Palmer’s butler, Lane, is thoroughly modern in attire, but old school in demeanour.

Jorja Cartwright’s Algernon Moncrieff, in the guise of Ernest, evoking Gentleman Jack in The Importance Of Being Earnest

Jorja Cartwright’s Miss Algernon Moncrieff, in tassled boots, dark trousers and waistcoat, is working her way through the cucumber sandwiches, awaiting effervescent, financially reckless bachelor friend Jack Worthing (Leeds Conservatoire graduate Lizzie Lawton (they/them)). Therein lies Shaw’s gender exploration and LGBTQ+ integration into Wilde’s mannered comedy.

Both must lead double lives, Algernon inventing an ever-ailing friend Bunbury to escape dull duties; Jack engineering a fictional younger brother, Ernest, to facilitate his partying in London and wooing of Gwendolen Fairfax (Leeds Conservatoire third-year student Bethan Ollivier), rebellious daughter of Lady Bracknell.

Lady Bracknell has always been a snob, a stickler for social niceties, a dragon snorting disdain, but here, as played with burning acidity by Jeanette Hambridge, she becomes a social climber, a successful businesswoman, in Shaw’s vision,  working her way up from nothing to be the breadwinner for the stay-at-home Lord Bracknell, never shedding her London accent  in her rise up the ladder.

In this guise, she is more cynical, on occasion sarcastic, her manner perma-frosty, putting a more poisonous sting into Wilde’s waspish wit.

Lizzie Lawton’s Jack Worthing checking the military records for the importance of being Ernest

Olliver’s Gwendolen has all the trappings and airs of a posh education, bursting with over-excitement at the mention of the name “Ernest”, even growling playfully; all part of turning Wilde wilder. Likewise, Lawton, so dextrous both vocally and physically, so joyously energetic, so top of the fops, has a tendency to take exaggerated movement into clowning territory.

By contrast, Jorja Cartwright, arriving on the York scene via Greater Manchester, favours a less gaudy acting style, a flick of a leg here, an elegant clamber over a sofa there. Miss Algernon Moncrieff  becomes Mr Ernest when wooing Jack’s ward, Cecily Cardew (Londoner Katie Shaw) in country matters behind Jack’s back, by now in tassled boots, white trousers and a brocade waistcoat, blond locks in a ponytail.

If you are picking up Gentleman Jack/ Ann Lister vibes, then Cullingford and Shaw’s work is done here. Cartwright is outstanding, her voice playful, her movement just right, even when talking while filling her face with muffins.

Katie Shaw’s Cecily Cardew writing her latest gushing diary entry

Katie Shaw’s diary-keeping Cecily is to the spoilt-ingenue manner born, behind the pretty frills, and her spat over tea and cake with Olliver’s Gwendolen is a comedic high point as they climb ever higher on chairs to assert their claims to each being betrothed to Ernest Worthing.

Palmer’s brace of long-suffering butlers, Lane and not-so-Merriman, adds cameo dry humour, while the slow-burning romance of Wayne Osguthorpe’s bookish Reverend Canon Chasuble  and Rebecca Thomson’s moral novel-writing tutor Miss Prism warms pleasingly in the background, played in a lower key to match Hambridge’s underwhelmed Lady Bracknell.

Under the Shaw touch, The Importance Of Being Earnest bends willingly to the gender agenda, bringing fresh fun and freedom to Wilde’s Victorian social satire, but Lady Bracknells of yore would surely give short shrift to this nouvelle-riche arriviste, more snotty than snooty.

Rowntree Players, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 2pm and 7.30pm today (21/3/2026). Box  office for “last few tickets”: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Jorja Cartwright’s Algernon Moncrieff makes a hasty exit. You will not be seeking to do likewise, even though Rowntree Players’ four-act The Importance Of Being Earnest runs to three hours

NEWFLASH 23/03/2026

HANNAH Shaw will direct Rowntree Players’ production of Marc Camoletti’s French farce Boeing Boeing in Beverley Cross’s English adaptation at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from July 23 to 25.

In Paris, in 1960, Bernard, a successful architect living abroad, reckons he can juggle his three flight attendant fiancées with ease. All it demands is a question of timing and a little help from his trusted housekeeper, who reluctantly plays “romantic air traffic controller”. Tickets are on sale on 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: York Stage in Company, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow at 2.30pm & 7.30pm ****

Girl trouble: Gerard Savva’s Booby being given a hard time by Hannah Shaw’s Amy, back left, Alexandra Mather’s Susan, Julie Anne Smith’s Joanne, Jo Theaker’s Jenny, front, left, Mary Clare’s Sarah and, under the covers, Florence Poskitt’s April. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

ON Bobby’s 35th birthday, his friends all have one question on their mind. Why is he not married?

On Gerard Savva’s return to the stage for the first time since 2008 to play Bobby, the question is: where has he been all these years?!

“He just applied from our social media posts and came down to audition for us!” explained York Stage director, choreographer and designer, when your reviewer asked him where he had discovered Savva’s talents. “I knew from his energy and initial chemistry that he was our Bobby!”

Just to re-emphasise the point: Savva isn’t just making a test-the-waters return in a chorus line: he is playing the lead, the suave, sleek Bobby, a charmer certainly, if elusive in the marriage stakes. He looks the matinee idol part too: tanned, immaculately coiffured, sharp suited and glittery in his T-shirt detail.

Briggs is in supreme form, not only in his casting – Savva is in good company in Company – but in his staging too, brightening the Theatre@41 black box with the prettiest of drapes and colourful boxes with ribbon that serve as both birthday presents and for standing on. Boxes, coincidence or not, have been prevalent in this autumn’s production in York and beyond, making for quick scene changes.

Company is Stephen Sondheim at his very best, here teaming up with George Furth for a bravura, sophisticated and wittily insightful 1970 American musical comedy that follows Savva’s Bobby as he “navigates the world of dating and being the third wheel to all of his now happily and unhappily married friends”. Where will his exploration of the pros and cons of settling down and leaving his single life behind lead him? Ultimately into a celebration of being alive in Savva’s vocal high point.

The music has the pitter-patter of patter songs, a typically steep challenge, but one met brilliantly by Briggs’s company, in particular by Hannah Shaw’s Amy in Getting Married Today – the unbelievably fast one – and Julie Anne Smith’s heavy-drinking Joanne in The Ladies Who Lunch.

Florence Poskitt, ever the comic gem on the York musical theatre scene, is sublime as ditzy air hostess April, her bedroom scene with Savva’s Bobby receiving the biggest cheer on press night.

Couple after couple delight: Jack Hooper’s Harry and Mary Clare’s ever-questing Sarah; Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s  pot-stirring Peter and Alexandra Mather’s hippy-chic Susan; Stu Hutchinson’s David and Jo Theaker’s Jenny; Robbie Wallwork’s Paul and Hannah Shaw’s outstanding Amy, and Matthew Clarke’s Larry and Julie Anne Smith’s intemperate Joanne. Kelly Stocker’s Kathy and Lana Davies’s Marta add to the fun too.

Briggs’s costumes and choreography are full of panache; musical director James Robert Ball and his band play gorgeously, and lighting designer Adam Moore, sound designer Ollie Nash and hair and make-up artist Phoebe Kilvington are at the top of their game too. Don’t miss this savvy, snazzy, snappy New York classic; you will be in the best of Company if you go. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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REVIEW: York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

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

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Eat mindfully, go to the gym, rehearse, psychology student Reuben is ready for York Stage’s Joseph at Grand Opera House

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.

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REVIEW: York Stage in Festive Feast, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, ends Friday ****

Putting the East into Festive Feast: Finn East with Carly Morton, left, and York Stage newcomer Jess Parnell. All pictures: Kevin Coundon

YORK Stage director Nik Briggs likes to try out different shows for the Christmas season.

Whether staging the company’s one-off pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk, in the Covid winter of a socially distanced 2020 at Theatre@41, or his sparkling, exuberant Elf The Musical at the Grand Opera House in 2021, he has come up trumps.

This winter, he is presenting not one, but two shows, back at Theatre@41. By day, Mick Liversidge’s Mr Claus and Joanne Theaker’s Mrs Claus are to be found in their very busy house, preparing for the big day but still finding time to entertain children with 45 minutes of sing-a-longs, Christmas stories, interactive wonderment and Christmas songs aplenty each day until Saturday in Santa’s Sing-A-Long.

By night, diverse York Stage vocal talent is serving up a Festive Feast of Christmas songs, ranging from the traditional chestnuts to modern pop, washed down with lashings of musical theatre favourites, under the musical direction of Adam Tomlinson.

Always on hand with quips or quiz questions at the keyboard, he is accompanied by Rosie Morris on bass and Alex Woolgar on drums to one side of the raised end-on stage in an auditorium bedecked with festive lighting, a red bow and grey backdrop, decorations, ceiling baubles, a wood burner, Christmas stockings, tinsel tassels and assorted Christmas trees. Merry Christmas reads the lettering above the mantlepiece.

Jess Main, left, Hannah Shaw and Katie Melia up front in an ensemble number in York Stage’s Festive Feast

To the other side are gathered 11 singers, who will be a constant presence, either seated on chairs or stools and gazing stage-wards supportively, when not singing, or leaping up to take centre stage in solos, duets, trios or quintets or to share in an ensemble number.

In glittering party frocks, York Stage regulars Katie Melia, Jess Main, Tracey Rea, Cyanne Unamba Oparah, Hannah Shaw and Carly Morton are joined for the first time by Guildhall School of Music & Drama student Jess Parnell.

Alongside the bow-tied, dinner-jacketed Matthew Clarke, Stuart Hutchinson and Jack Hooper is Finn East, all in black at Friday’s performance, adding a Jack Black in School Of Rock vibe to the festive formality around him. Welcome back Finn. So pleased to see you restored to the York Stage ranks; we have missed you, big fella.

The first half opens with That Time Of Year (Olaf’s Frozen Adventure), a chance for all the company to loosen their vocal chords, before Matthew Clarke confirms It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and Finn East reaches for his guitar in Chris Rea’s winter warmer Driving Home For Christmas.

The Festive Feast company, bar Stuart Hutchinson: Hannah Shaw, left, Carly Morton and Matthew Clarke; middle, Jess Main, left, Jack Hooper and Jess Parnell; back, Cyanne Unamba Oparah, Tracy Rea, Katie Melia and Finn East

Musical theatre is represented in the spot-on choice of Turkey Lurkey Time from Burt Bacharach and  Hal David’s Promises, Promises, and those promises are certainly delivered by Carly Morton, Katie Melia and Jess Parnell.

Oh, what fun it is for Hutchinson, Clarke, Jess Main, Cyanne Unamba Oparah and Tracey Rea to sing James Lord Pierpont’s Jingle Bells, surely the jolliest ride to Christmas of all the seasonal favourites.

Rea’s rendition of Christmas Song, full of diva drama, leads off a run of solo numbers. Unamba Oparah, in red, turns up the heat in the cheeky Santa Baby, then Hannah Shaw impressively rides the Weimar cabaret-style twists & turns and mood changes of a woman scorned in Surabaya Santa, from Jason Robert Brown’s 1997 musical Songs For A New World: another inspired pick for a set list with room to surprise and seek out less familiar pearls. Whereupon Jess Parnell announces a new talent to watch with Christmas Lullaby, pure and midnight clear.

Songs from Christmas films are heralded by, what else, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas from 1942’s Holiday Inn, in a dreamy duet for a crooning Clarke and Melia. Bags of personality filter through the combative You’re A Mean One Mr Grinch, Jack Hooper and East jousting ever more grouchily with each retort from behind magic light books in the show’s comedic high point.

Hip hippo hooray: Breathless excitement from Katie Melia in I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

A Christmas at the Movies Medley, arranged delightfully by Tomlinson, sees out the first half in the merriest Christmas spirit.

Bohemian Rhapsody might not be an obvious choice for a Festive Feast, but Queen’s rock-operatic behemoth twice topped the Christmas chart, in 1975 and 1991, a month after Freddie Mercury’s death. What an second-half opener it proves in an ensemble number that showcases the company’s singing chops, nods to the iconic video’s torch-lit operatic Galileo section, then rocks out gloriously.

Another Christmas number one, 1983’s Only You, is transformed from the Flying Pickets’ a cappella sextet to Only Stu, Hutchinson flying solo with all the bleak midwinter yearning of Vince Clarke’s paean to lost love.

Melia seeks out a reviving cocktail mid-song in the breathless rush of the daffy I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas and Shaw’s Holly Jolly Christmas sure is perky and bright. Parnell excels again in the Basque folk carol Gabriel’s Message, to Tomlinson’s minimalist accompaniment, as the mood turns more reflective, and magical too, in the ensemble performance of another folk carol, Gaudete, as popularised in Steeleye Span’s 1973 a cappella hit. Stepping out from behind the keys, Tomlinson extracts spine-tingling choral interplay from his singers.

Carly Morton: Outstanding renditions of River and All I Want For Christmas Is You

Joni Mitchell’s River, from 1971’s Blue album, was never released as a single but has become her second-most covered song. Here, company leading lady Carly Morton’s gorgeous version re-emphasises why, capturing the heartbroken Mitchell’s wish for a river she could skate away on.

Christmas can be a season of tears as much as good cheer, as represented in Festive Feast’s programme, but it feels right that the home straight should accentuate the joys, from Hooper’s It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year to Unamba Oparah and Shaw’s all-female reinvigoration of Baby It’s Cold Outside, a song that some considered to be coercive in its original man-cajoling-woman call-and-respond format.

Jess Main’s A Place Called Home is as warming as that wood burner looks on stage, and now is the time for what Tomlinson calls “a bit of a Christmas banger”. “I’ll try” says Morton, as she starts to climb the vertiginous vocal slopes of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You…and duly hits the peaks, joined in joyful celebration by her fellow singers.

No better way to finish than with We Wish You A Merry Christmas, served a cappella, as York Stage revels in parading vocal prowess beyond the realms of musical theatre.

York Stage in Festive Feast, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Further performances, Tuesday to Friday, 8pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk (for Santa’s Sing-A-Long too).