Rachel Higgs’s Beth, left, Connie Howcroft’s Jo, Tess Ellis’s Amy and Catherine Foster’s Meg March in Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women – The Broadway Musical
WHARFEMEDE Productions emerged in butterfly form for the first time with Little Women after their chrysalis co-production of Browne’s The Last Five Years in tandem with fellow York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions last October.
Formed by chief artistic director Helen “Bells” Spencer and chief operating officer Nick Sephton, cornerstones of the York musical theatre scene, the company brought together similarly experienced leading players for a production bursting with impressive singing power.
Louisa May Alcott’s Alcott’s coming-of-age tale of the March sisters growing up in well-to-do New England during the American Civil War had never been staged in York on your reviewer’s four-decade theatre watch, until Juliet Forster’s free-flowing staging of screenwriter, novelist and playwright Anne-Marie Casey’s adaptation for the Theatre Royal last October.
You know the saying: like buses, you wait for ages for one, and then along come two in quick succession. On this occasion, the same story burst forth from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868–1869 two-volume novel, but now wrapped in all the Broadway trimmings the title proclaimed.
Helen Spencer’s Marmee reads a letter to the March daughters, Meg (Catherine Foster, left), Jo (Connie Howcroft), Beth (Rachel Higgs) and Amy (Tess Ellis)
Allan Knee, Mindi Dickstein and Jason Howland’s show shares Casey’s central focus on headstrong emerging writer Jo (Connie Howcroft) while not putting her fellow sisters, traditional Meg (Catherine Foster), timid, piano-playing Beth (Rachel Higgs) and romantic, impatient Amy (Tess Ellis), in the corner.
Spencer took on the role of the family drama’s emotional ballast as their beloved mother Marmee, holding everything together at home in Concord, Massachusetts, amid the discord of the American Civil War that has taken away their father to serve as a Union Army chaplain. Spencer has a way of making the world stop when she sings, and she did so twice here in songs that expressed feelings she could not reveal to her family.
The daughters, in turn, need to shed their fledgling feathers, travelling hither and thither in different directions, save for Beth, who is blighted by health problems. Songs served as a means to crystalising their feelings, their thoughts, their hopes, in heartfelt solos: always a strong suit in a character-driven musical.
Howcroft’s Jo had the pick of those songs, Astonishing, albeit that the majority were impactful in the moment under Matthew Clare’s musical direction, rather than memorable beyond the final curtain.
Connie Howcroft’s Jo and Rachel Higgs’s Beth in Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women – The Broadway Musical
Around those songs, the show took the form of a series of vignettes, chapters if you like, intercut with short stories from the wild imaginings of Jo in her attic studio, performed in humorously melodramatic fashion on the John Cooper Studio’s mezzanine level in a directorial flourish from Spencer that paid off to the max.
Howcroft’s fiery and fervent Jo encapsulated the show’s ability to both tug at the heart strings and locate the funny bone; Foster’s Meg was suitably unflappable; Higgs’s quiet Beth had a stillness to her, contrasting with the restless energy of Ellis’s Amy, so desperate to grow up too soon.
Rosy Rowley revelled in the disapproving air of starchy Aunt March, with a nod to those thespian dames, Maggie Smith and Edith Evans, while Spencer’s many hours devoted to character development with her cast paid off in the contrasting men in the Little Women’s lives: Nick Sephton’s slow-blossoming Professor Bhaer; Andrew Roberts’s good egg Mr Brooke, Chris Gibson’s sturdy Mr Lawrence and Steven Jobson, the pick of a very good bunch as eager Laurie.
The set design of house interiors had one particularly striking motif, whereby the individual clothing palette of each March daughter was matched by a drape from the balcony. When Beth died, spoiler alert, her drape fell to the floor. On such attention to detail did Spencer’s production make its mark.
Connie Howcroft rehearsing her role as Jo March in Little Women – The Broadway Musical. Picture: Matthew Warry
BURGEONING York company Wharfemede Productions will stage their first solo production, Little Women – The Broadway Musical, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from February 18 to 22.
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s 1868-1869 semi-autobiographical novel, the American musical focuses on the four March sisters – traditional Meg, wild, aspiring writer Jo, timid Beth and romantic Amy – and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts, while their father is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the American Civil War.
Vignettes wherein their lives unfold are intercut with several re-creations of the melodramatic short stories that Jo writes in her attic studio in a musical featuring a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Jason Howland.
“Rarely produced in the UK since its Broadway debut in 2005, this is a unique opportunity for musical and literary lovers to see this fabulous adaptation,” says director Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ chief artistic director and co-founder.
“Little Women is a character-driven musical with family and friendship at the heart of this beloved story. I fell in love with the musical the first time I listened to it and having never seen it on stage. The score is beautiful, rousing and reflects the traditional setting of the piece, with spectacular group numbers and heartfelt solos.”
Helen continues: “As Wharfemede’s first independent production, it was the perfect size company and we are incredibly lucky to have some of the best performers in York in our ten-strong cast.
Wharfemede Productions director Helen “Bells” Spencer, centre, rehearsing her role as Marmee in Little Women with Connie Howcroft’s Jo, left, Catherine Foster’s Meg, Rachel Higgs’s Beth and Tess Ellis’s Amy. Picture: Matthew Warry
“Leading our cast as the passionate and fiery Jo March will be the incredible Connie Howcroft. I knew that Connie had sung Astonishing, the most famous song from the show, in her graduation ceremony several years ago so, ‘some things are meant to be’.
“Having performed with Connie several times, there was no doubt in my mind that she was perfect for this challenging role, with her incredible vocals and strength as an actor.”
Connie was familiar with the musical from her student days. “I knew quite a lot about it because I explored it when I was studying for my musical theatre degree at Hull College of Arts [from 2014 to 2017],” she says.
“A friend used one of the songs in her singing assessment, and I thought, ‘ooh, that sounds really nice”! I already knew the book, researched the show and then sang Astonishing, in my degree final ceremony performance – which ‘Bells’ saw on YouTube!”
When “Bells” asked Connie if she would be interested in performing in Little Women, “I said ‘yeah, sure, it’s a great musical’, and so me and Jo March were brought together,” she says.
Did she always have her eyes on that particular role? “Absolutely, 100 per cent, because she’s just a great character! I have many similarities with her, which is helpful in playing a character,” she says.
“She’s so self-aware until she’s not; she knows what she wants until she doesn’t. When something in her life throws her off balance, she always strives to do more. She loves her family, but she wants more than that from her life, so she’s always pulled between her family and what she believes her dreams should lead to. Her passions are always being challenged.”
Rachel Higgs’s Beth March, left, and Connie Howcroft’s Jo March rehearsing a scene for Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women. Picture: Matthew Warry
Connie has to accommodate her acting passions while working full-time as an events lead for an education company, teaching leadership skills to teachers in Westminster and Central Hall, London. “I do the preparatory work from York, sometimes working with people remotely on Zoom, then travel to London to do the events,” she says. “For this show, I did have to miss one rehearsal in late-January for a two-day event.”
She needs the balance of work and play. “Without having some form of performance outlet in my life, I don’t feel happy,” says Connie. “I grew up singing in the Q church in York from the age of 16, putting on Christmas productions too.
“I feel I always need to have singing in my life, but I’m careful about how I spread my time, as I’m a mum as well, to Riley, who’s 13 – and he does lead the life of Riley!
“But when I commit to a performance, I’m 1,000 per cent into it to do everyone proud and to make sure the production is the best it can be.”
Like Connie, “Bells” Spencer has found the balance between her love of performance – once her professional career, running a theatre company – and her work as a doctor in York. “I’m very passionate about the work I do for the NHS but I also get to do the thing I love as a hobby, putting in 100 per cent to make a performance of a standard I would want and expect to see,” she says.
Formed by “Bells” and chief operating officer Nick Sephton, Wharefemede Productions made their debut last October, staging Jason Browne’s The Last Five Years in tandem with fellow York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions.
“The aim of Wharfemede Productions is to have a good time with a good work ethic, where it’s all about being supportive of each other and being a team,” she says.
Joining Connie in Little Women will be Catherine Foster as Meg; Rachel Higgs as Beth; Tess Ellis as Amy; Spencer herself as Marmee; Rosy Rowley as Aunt March; Steven Jobson as Laurie; Nick Sephton as Professor Bhaer; Andrew Roberts as Mr Brooke and Chris Gibson as Mr Lawrence.
“We’ve spent a lot of time working on the rich characters and building a bond in the cast that shines through on stage. I’m so excited for our audiences to see this moving and funny show,” says “Bells”.
Wharfemede Productions present Little Women – The Broadway Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Rachel Higgs, left, Connie Howcroft, Tess Ellis and Catherine Foster in rehearsal for Wharfemede Productions’ Little Women – The Broadway Musical. Picture: Helen Spencer
WHARFEMEDE Productions will stage their first solo production, Little Women – The Broadway Musical, at Theatre@41, Monkgate, from February 18 to 22.
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s 1868–1869 semi-autobiographical two-volume novel, Allan Knee, Mindi Dickstein and Jason Howland’s show focuses on the four March sisters – traditional Meg, wild, aspiring writer Jo, timid Beth and romantic Amy – and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts, while their father is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the American Civil War.
Vignettes wherein their lives unfold are intercut with several recreations of the melodramatic short stories that Jo writes in her attic studio in a musical featuring a book by Knee, lyrics by Dickstein and music by Howland.
“Rarely produced in the UK since its Broadway debut in 2005, this is a unique opportunity for musical and literary lovers to see this fabulous adaptation,” says director Helen “Bells” Spencer, Wharfemede Productions’ chief artistic director and co-founder.
Connie Howcroft (Jo March) and Steve Jobson (Laurie) in the rehearsal room. Picture: Matthew Warry
“Little Women is a character-driven musical with family and friendship at the heart of this beloved story. I fell in love with this musical the first time I listened to it and having never seen it on stage. The score is beautiful, rousing and reflects the traditional setting of the piece, with spectacular group numbers and heartfelt solos.”
Helen continues: “As Wharfemede’s first independent production, it was the perfect size company and we are incredibly lucky to have some of the best performers in York in our ten-strong cast.
“Leading our cast as the passionate and fiery Jo March will be the incredible Connie Howcroft. I knew that Connie had sung Astonishing, the most famous song from the show, in her graduation ceremony several years ago so, ‘some things are meant to be’.
“Having performed with Connie several times, there was no doubt in my mind that she was perfect for this challenging role, with her incredible vocals and strength as an actor.”
Andrew Roberts (Mr Brooke) rehearsing a scene from Little Women. Picture:Matthew Warry
The rest of the cast was “honestly, just as easy to fall into place”, reveals Helen. “I was extremely lucky that they all said Yes!”
Joining Connie in the company will be Catherine Foster as Meg; Rachel Higgs as Beth; Tess Ellis as Amy; Spencer herself as Marmee; Rosy Rowley as Aunt March; Steven Jobson as Laurie; Nick Sephton as Professor Bhaer; Andrew Roberts as Mr Brooke and Chris Gibson as Mr Lawrence.
“We have spent a lot of time working on the rich characters and building a bond in the cast that shines through on stage. I am so excited for our audiences to see this moving and funny show,” says Helen, who is working alongside musical director Matthew Clare, assistant directors Rosy Rowley and Henrietta Linnemann and choreographer Rachel Higgs in the production team.
Formed by Helen and chief operating officer Nick Sephton, Wharefemede Productions made their debut last October, staging Jason Browne’s The Last Five Years in tandem with fellow York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions at the National Centre for Early Music, York.
Wharfemede Productions present Little Women – The Broadway Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 18 to 22, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Who are Wharfemede Productions?
Wharfemede Productions chief operating officer Nick Sephton and chief artistic director Helen Spencer at last September’s company launch in the Wharfemede garden
CO-FOUNDED by chief artistic director, musical actress and psychiatrist Helen “Bells” Spencer and chief operating officer, musical actor and former Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company chair Nick Sephton last September, the innovative company takes its name from their home in Thorp Arch and is dedicated to bringing high-quality musical productions and events to Yorkshire, with respect and openness at the heart of its work.
Having gained a drama degree from Manchester University and then co-founded and company managed Envision Theatre Company, this new company marks a return to her roots for Helen.
Calling on decades of logistics, managerial and computing experience, Nick is excited to be founding a company that uses these skills, combined with his love for music and theatre.
Winter gruel charges: The Pick Me Up Theatre ensemble in Oliver Twist
BILLED as “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”, Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s turbulent tale of courage in adversity was first staged in Yorkshire as Hull Truck Theatre’s Christmas show in 2018.
Yes, ‘Christmas show’, as it comes booted with snippets of Victorian carols, folk tunes and John Biddle compositions. It is not a musical, and definitely not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, instead being a storytelling piece of theatre with music as an Greek chorus-style ensemble commentary and complement to the unfolding drama.
Producer Robert Readman’s set is dominated by a huge bridge, on a diagonal across the stage that divides the audience into a traverse configuration, used traditionally to heighten a sense of combat or conflict.
Helen Spencer’s Fagin in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist
There would be no taking sides here, however, as everyone will be rooting for young Oliver Twist (Logan Willstrop, sharing performances with Frankie Whitford).
Born in a workhouse to a mother who loses her life, Oliver takes a 70-mile journey to London and is sold into an apprenticeship before being recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld in his search for a home, a family and love.
Readman encloses Theatre@41’s black box Studio in wooden frames with a series of cloth “windows”, making the Victorian milieu all the more claustrophobic and imposing – and be warmed, look out for what will emerge through the cloth, even a Punch & Judy show.
The man in black: James Willstrop’s Bill Sikes casts his shadow over Oliver Twist
As ever with McAndrew, she combines well-sketched characterisation with detailed, evocative, fast-moving storytelling.
Hull Truck’s Fagin, my dears, was a woman, played by Flo Wilson. In Pick Me Up’s version, the thief chief is still performed by a woman, the show’s director Helen Spencer, but her Fagin is still referred to as “he”.
Spencer, who has had another splendid year astride the York stage, deepens her mezzo-soprano a tad, takes on a heavier physicality within a rags-and-riches coat and has something of the night about her. Having had to miss the first two performances with a “lost voice” she has certainly found it a terrific lead performance.
Playwright Deborah McAndrew
Jennie Wogan-Wells’s abused Nancy is striving against the odds to make her way in a male-dominated world, her light snuffed out by the brutal darkness around her.
Logan Willstrop’s Oliver is full of expression, resilience and enquiry, while the ever-reliable Tracey Rea and Nick Sephton are amusing company as the besotted Widow Corney and Mr Bumble, albeit that Sephton’s towering Bumble has his darker side too, as he slams his cane against the floor with a thunderous thud.
Neil Foster is on contrasting double duty, as the exploitative Mr Sowerberry and the kindly Mr Brownlow, and likewise Rhian Wells makes her mark as Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin.
Matthew Warry, one of York’s best developing young talents, is in typically fine form as the cocky Noah Claypole, while Rich Musk’s cuts the mustard as Dr Grimwig.
Neil Foster’s Mr Brownlow in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist
As with Hull Truck’s production, the Artful Dodger is still called “Jack” but is played here by both a lass, Libby Greenhill, and a lad, Reuben Baines, splitting performances. Your reviewer saw Greenhill: a Chaplinesque figure with comic timing and plenty of pluck.
Young Logan is not the only Willstrop in Pick Me Up’s cast. His father James is a tall, gaunt, black of heart, black of coat, pock-marked Bill Sikes: darker still than his Frederick Frankenstein in Readman’s production of Young Frankenstein in September last year.
Matthew Peter Clare leads the musical forces with typical dash and Spencer directs with drive and focus with excellent use of ensemble as well as individual expression in her principals. All in all, a Dickens of a good show.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Performances at 7.30pm, December 27, 28 and 30, plus Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Tracey Rea’s Widow Corney and Nick Sephton’s Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist
Helen Spencer’s Fagin in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
IN a new twist, the opening of Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, is being delayed by a day through cast illness.
All being well, the curtain will now rise on the York company’s winter production on Wednesday night.
At the show’s helm both on stage and off is Helen “Bells” Spencer, who is not only playing Fagin in Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, but also has taken over the director’s seat from producer and designer Robert Readman five weeks ago.
“Robert started rehearsals while I was still rehearsing Last Five Years [Black Sheep Theatre Productions and Wharfemede Productions’ November musical at the NCEM], so I wasn’t available until that was over, and then, after a while, he asked me to step in, taking over his vision.
“I’ve worked with Robert a lot over the last couple of years, so I know how his mind works. When Pick Me Up had to pull the original dates for Young Frankenstein, I took over the reins with Andrew Isherwood to re-mount the production, but this is a slightly different situation from that one, as we’re still working to Robert’s ideas.
Playwright Deborah McAndrew
“We have a lot of mutual respect, so I can crack on, but it’s certainly a challenge that so many young people are in it. We have two ‘teams’: two Olivers, two Dodgers, two Roses, two Bets and ‘Children’s’ roles too; there are about 12 young people in all, ranging from eight to 17, so I’m working with a big age differences in the young cast.”
Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, McAndrew’s stage adaptation “on the surface looks like an easy show, but it’s definitely not,” says Helen. “It’s incredibly complex, and one of the things that makes it harder is that no-one knows the songs in the way they do with Oliver! – and there are no recordings, bar for one song.”
Devised at the Bolton Octagon and staged at Hull Truck Theatre in December 2018 as “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist!”, McAndrew’s adaptation is an ensemble piece. “There’s a Greek-style chorus commenting on what’s happening and actors taking on different roles, so it’s quite a different way of working to what most people are used to in musical theatre,” says Helen.
“It’s not like coming on, singing a solo and going off, so the logistics have been more complex, especially when you have no familiarity with the score. I feel like what we got was the script and the basic score and we’ve tried to create our version with the actors we have and the musicians we have.
“I’m really glad I haven’t seen it before as we just want to do a version that makes sense to us, with the core adult cast pulling together to create the ensemble, and some of the adversity we’ve experienced has worked to our advantage.”
Into the dark: James Willstrop’s Bill Sikes
Readman has designed the set with a bridge across the stage. “We’ve been lucky to get into the theatre early enough to work on the show with the set in place. It will look fantastic, very atmospheric, and not what people might expect at all,” says Helen.
“The show will have Christmassy moments but it will have a darkness to it too to allow characters like James Willstrop’s Bill Sikes to be really horrible, which has been a real joy in rehearsals.
“When you think of actors like James, Jennie Wogan-Wells [who plays Nancy] and me, we’re very happy to do musical theatre, with James as the classic leading man, Jennie as the bright-eyed leading lady, and me doing comic parts, so I think people will be surprised to see us in these darker roles – though I used to do straight acting roles before musical theatre and I always enjoyed playing serious parts.”
Helen will play Fagin, who runs a band of pickpockets and thieves in London’s grimy Victorian underworld, where Oliver is the new recruit in his search for a home, family and love. “I suppose the most obvious thing to say is that I’m a female and the original was not,” she says.
“We had a discussion about whether I should play it as a woman, or a women playing a man, and we decided to lean into being a female taking on a male part, so all the references are still to ‘he’ and ‘him’. I’m playing him as an old man.
Tracey Rea’s Widow Corney and Nick Sephton’s Mr Bumble in a scene from Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist
“We decided to see how it would feel, and it does feel right. The way the script has been written, it is right to do it this way, rather than make it wholly appropriate to a woman. It’s so exciting to play a male character, which I would never do normally.
“To have the chance to do that, having a face-off and a bit of fisticuffs with Sikes, it’s so liberating, even though he’s an older, frailer man, because if you were an older woman you wouldn’t deliver it that way.”
Describing the music, Helen says: “What strikes me is that they’re not conventional songs; they are more conversational songs, no big numbers, but there are a couple of fun chorus bits. It’s very much about creating the atmosphere in the scenes, rather than through big numbers and big choreography.
“What we need is the actors’ expertise because the songs are difficult and the text is difficult, and that’s been a challenge for even our most experienced cast members, but everyone has risen to it.”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 18 to 30, 7.30pm, except December 23 to 26 and 29; Saturday and Sunday matinees, 2.30pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Who’s in Pick Me Up Theatre’s cast for Oliver Twist?
Frankie Whitford: Playing Oliver Twist in Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
Oliver Twist – Frankie Whitford/Logan Willstrop; Fagin – Helen Spencer; Mr Bumble – Nick Sephton; Widow Corney – Tracey Rea; Mr Sowerberry and Mr Brownlow – Neil Foster; Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin – Rhian Wells; Noah Claypole – Matthew Warry; Charlotte Sowerberry – Ruby Salter; Artful Dodger – Libby Greenhill/Reuben Baines; Nancy – Jennie Wogan-Wells; Bill Sikes – James Willstrop; Bet – Rosie Musk/Tempi Singhateh; Rose – Isla Whitford/Rosie Musk; Dr Grimwig – Rich Musk; Children – Lao Singhateh, Matilda Foster, Tempi Singhateh and Bea Wells.
The bliss before the blister: Chris Mooney’s Jamie and Helen Spencer’s Cathy in their wedding-day clench
THIS is the first of a brace of shows by Tony Award-winning Jason Robert Brown, maker of musical theatre reflecting modern-day America, presented by Matthew Peter Clare’s Black Sheep Theatre Productions.
The first, Brown’s emotionally charged, to-and-fro 2001 two hander The Last Five Years, is being staged this week in collaboration with Wharfemede Productions, the new York company set up by Helen “Bells” Spencer and Nick Sephton.
The second, Brown’s “very theatrical song cycle” from 1995, Songs For A New World, follows next Thursday to Saturday.
In one of those remarkably busy theatre and concert weeks that York loves to serve up, CharlesHutchPress caught the dress rehearsal, from a front-row table in St Margaret’s Church, home to the NCEM, with its desirably clear acoustics and hyper-sensitive sound system.
Bare walls and a stone floor are not a naturally theatrical setting, the venue being set up for concerts as its name would suggest, but singing feels very much at home, from the moment Helen Spencer and Chris Mooney stretch their cords with their vocal warm-ups.
Given its belated York premiere in November 2022 by White Rose Theatre’s cast of director Claire Pulpher and Simon Radford, Brown’s intense, fractious, intricately structured He Said/She Said love story suits a traverse setting, adding to the friction, the electric crackle, of two accounts of a five-year relationship, told on raised platforms – each sparsely equipped with one white seat and a black box – from opposite ends of the stage and time frame.
The background to The Last Few Years is that Brown drew on the trials and tribulations of his own failed marriage to Theresa O’Neill. So much so that she sued him on the grounds of the musical’s story violating non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements within their divorce decree by representing her relationship with Brown too closely.
For Brown, read successful young novelist Jamie Wellerstein, Random House’s rising poster boy. For, well, let’s not say O’Neill, but any struggling actress, read Cathy Hiatt, from Ohio.
Brown’s sung-through musical has the novel structure of Spencer’s Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while Mooney’s Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.
The songs take the form of internal monologues, alongside the occasional phone call, delivered mostly with the other partner having left the stage (for one of multiple costume changes), except for the burst of heart-pumping fireworks of a duet where they meet centre stage, touch for the first time, exchange marriage vows and rings and swap ends to continue on the same trajectory.
This alienating structure, so challenging to actors in how to evoke the bond, tactility and heat of love – the changes in the chemistry, physics and biology of a relationship – emphasises there will be no middle ground in this relationship, no alternative paths. In a storyline travelling in two directions, nothing can stop the crash.
In rehearsal with guest director Susannah Tresilian, Mooney and Spencer worked on breaching that chasm, the black hole, that had to be filled through vocal and facial expression, and sometimes by the other being present on stage, but doing their own thing silently.
The singing is demanding in that way so much of Stephen Sondheim’s repertoire can be, where melody takes a back seat to recitative, (the form of accompanied solo song that mirrors the rhythms and accents of spoken language), whether upbeat in Jamie and Cathy’s courtship songs or in broken-hearted ballads.
Under those tremors and volcanic outpourings, Clare leads his seven-piece from the keyboards, the waves of beautiful and mellifluous arrangements breaking against the rocks of the relationship in song.
The intensity of a two-hander magnifies how the relationship can be interpreted in different ways. In Simon Radford’s hands at Theatre@41, his peacock Jamie was more unreasonable, making you wonder whether these two would ever have lasted five years or whether they were polar opposites never meant to travel in the same direction.
More often, Jamie is portrayed as the one trying everything to save the relationship, to spark up Cathy, in a gentler interpretation of the role. This is where Mooney pitches his Jamie, aware of his foibles, unable to resist temptation as the fame blossoms, deceitful, yes, but regretful too. You can see why this is the well-worn path through this character, not so harsh.
Blessed with bags of stage presence and an ear for the importance of stillness, Spencer maker her Cathy a woman of stronger mettle, even if she has to open the show with her confidence shot, consumed by loneliness and insularity.
What gradually emerges from those broken wings is the butterfly, one who revels in flights of happiness, shows more than a flash of humour and handles the actor’s familiar lot of failed auditions stoically, until the searing pain of rejection delivered in Jamie’s parting letter.
A stark, frank reading of love’s vicissitudes, its sometimes all too brief candle, The Last Five Years makes for a more mature, adult relationship drama than Romeo And Juliet, although sharing its sense of the forlorn, as Brown’s songs and Money and Spencer’s performances draw you in without you taking sides.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions and Wharfemede Productions in The Last Five Years, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, today at 7.45pm. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/wharfemede-productions-ltd.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions presents: Songs For A New World, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, October 24 to 26, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office:Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/blacksheeptheatreproductions/.
Following the science? James Willstrop as Dr Frederick Frankenstein, creator of the Creature in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Young Frankenstein. Picture: Jennifer Jones
YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre’s delayed northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s comedy horror musical Young Frankenstein opens at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre next Wednesday.
Unforeseen circumstances had forced the late postponement of last autumn’s run at the Grand Opera House, but rehearsals re-started in York in early December under the direction of Andrew Isherwood.
All the original principal cast chosen by Pick Me Up artistic director and designer Robert Readman was still available, not least former squash world number one James Willstrop in the lead role of mad scientist Dr Frederick Frankenstein, first played by Gene Wilder in Brooks’s 1974 horror-movie spoof of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein.
“You hear of other shows where it’s happened, but it was a really sad feeling when we couldn’t do it as were just about to start our run,” recalls James.
“I was feeling pretty depressed afterwards, thinking ‘this show isn’t going to happen’ – and when people ask, ‘how are you feeling?’, it’s unusual to have to explain to anyone as it’s not ‘real life’, but you do feel really deflated.
Pick Me Up Theatre principals in Young Frankenstein: back row, from left, James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning; front row, Jack Hooper’s Igor and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga. Picture: Jennifer Jones
“But then we got this text from Bells [production management assistant and actress Helen Spencer] asking, ‘Can you do these dates?’, as Robert said we could go ahead with a new run.”
Out went Pick Me Up’s planned production of Chicago at the JoRo, replaced by Young Frankenstein. Rehearsals have been a matter of “going again”. “We had the best part of a month off when the last thing I was thinking of doing was listening to the soundtrack!” says James.
“It’s been a case of getting into the scenes again, with the choreography kept largely the same. Andrew has been really great on the detail, which actors love, and that’s been good. He’s trusted our instincts and he’s been very alive to the comedy.”
James, who made his Pick Me Up debut as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music in December 2022, has enjoyed becoming acquainted with Brooks’s parody songs.
“Going into the audition, I didn’t know a lot about the show, but I love Pick Me Up and working with Robert, and I loved the opening number, The Brain, which I decided to learn for the audition.
James Willstrop: Men’s doubles squash gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, his fifth Games
“A week out from the audition, I hadn’t been sure about the show, but by the time I did the audition, I was thinking, ‘this part is great, I’ve got to do it’!
“The first few times, listening to the soundtrack, it took me a while to get a feel for the songs, but then you realise they’re just great, simple songs. I love the tunes, they have a vaudeville quality, and the humour is always there.”
James, now 40, had first performed in “serious dramas” before branching out into musicals, and last year found him heading to the Cornish coast to play deluded mystery novel writer Charles Considine in Ilkley Playhouse’s production of Noel Coward’s supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit at the Minack Theatre.
“Doing that humorous role, and being tall [James is 6ft 4ins], with all the physicality that goes with that, just seemed to link perfectly to then playing Frederick Frankenstein,” he says.
. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,” says James Willstrop of Mel Brooks’s humour. Picture: Jennifer Jones
In Brooks’s spoof, the grandson of infamous scientist Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein, has inherited his family’s castle estate in Transylvania. Aided and hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor, Scandinavian lab assistant Inga, stern German Frau Blucher and needy fiancée Elizabeth, he strives to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life.
Cue comedy in the bold Brooks style. “It’s lovely to be doing something silly, full of innuendos and jokes that some people might hate but are just daft,” says James. “It’s not subtle but it’s a great comedy genre,”
James, whose father grew up in York, lives in Harrogate and now divides his time between coaching squash – and “still playing a bit” – at the Pontefract Squash and Leisure Club and performing on stage.
Coming next will be his role as recovering alcoholic Harry in Bingley Little Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Bingley Arts Centre, West Yorkshire, from July 1 to 6.
Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 31 to February 32024, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
Pick Me Up Theatre principals in Young Frankenstein: back row, from left, James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein, Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning; front row, Jack Hooper’s Igor and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga. All pictures: Jennifer Jones
YORK company Pick Me Up Theatre will stage the northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s musical Young Frankenstein in the New Year after the late postponement of last autumn’s run at the Grand Opera House.
Andrew Isherwood has picked up the directorial reins for this stage conversion of Brooks’s comedy horror movie, produced in York by artistic director and designer Robert Readman.
Rehearsals re-started in early December for the January 31 to February 3 run at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, with the original principal cast still in place and Helen Spencer assisting with production management.
“This show is by the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation The Producers,” says Robert. “The comedy genius Mel Brooks has adapted his legendary comedy film from 1974 into a brilliant stage show of Young Frankenstein. I saw the West End production and loved it.
Following the science: James Willstrop’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein
“Every bit as relevant to audience members who will remember the original as it will be to newcomers, the musical has all the of panache of the screen sensation with a little extra theatrical flair added. Young Frankenstein is scientifically proven, monstrously good entertainment.”
In Brooks’s spoof, the grandson of infamous scientist Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”, he insists), has inherited his family’s castle estate in Transylvania.
Aided and hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor (pronounced “Eye-gore”), leggy lab assistant Inga (pronounced normally), devilishly sexy Frau Blucher (“Neigh”!) and needy fiancée Elizabeth (“Surprise”!), Frederick finds himself filling the mad scientist shoes of his ancestor.
After initial reluctance, his mission will be to strive to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life. “It’s alive!”, he exclaims as his experiment yields a creature to rival his grandfather’s monster. Eventually, and inevitably, this new monster escapes.
Working in tandem with Thomas Meehan, Brooks gleefully reanimates his horror-movie send-up of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, with even more jokes, set-pieces and barnstorming parody songs that stick a pitchfork into good taste. Among those songs will be Puttin’ On The Ritz, Please Don’t Touch Me, He Vas My Boyfriend, The Transylvania Mania and There Is Nothing Like A Brain!, among many more Transylvanian smash hits.
Helen Spencer’s Frau Blucher and Jack Hooper’s Igor
Leading Pick Me Up’s cast will be former world squash champion James Willstrop, continuing his transfer from court to stage player as Dr Frankenstein after his Captain Von Trapp in Pick Me Up’s The Sound Of Music at Theatre@41, Monkgate, last Christmas.
Starring opposite him again will be Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson (Maria in The Sound Of Music), here cast as Inga, while Jack Hooper, Mr Poppy in York Stage’s Nativity! The Musical in November 2022, will be Dr Frankenstein’s puppy dog of an assistant, Igor, “the classic Hammer Horror sidekick with a hump that keeps moving around”.
Helen Spencer (Mother Abbess in The Sound Of Music and Dolly Levi in Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Hello, Dolly!) will play Frau Blucher, “the very stern housekeeper with surprising hidden depths”; Jennie Wogan-Wells, the Narrator in York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last May, will be ingenue Elizabeth Benning, Frankenstein’s fiancée from America. “Think Legally Blonde,” says Helen. “Very conscious of her image; very high maintenance, throwing a spanner in the works when she turns up.”
Craig Kirby (Tom Oakley in Pick Me Up’s Goodnight Mr Tom) will be in Monster mode and further roles will go to Tom Riddolls as Sgt Kemp, Sam Steel as Bertram Bartam and Andrew Isherwood, fresh from directing Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None for Pick Me Up last September, can be spotted as The Hermit as well as directing.
Rivals for Dr Frankenstein’s affections: Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Elizabeth Benning, left, and Sanna Jeppsson’s Inga
A supporting ensemble will play Transylvanians, students and more besides. Choreography is by Ilana Weets and the orchestra will be led by musical maestro Sam Johnson.
Readman had to call off Pick Me Up’s Halloween double bill of Emma Reeves and Lucy Potter’s The Worst Witch and Young Frankenstein at the Grand Opera House due to unforeseen circumstances. It has not been possible to re-mount Rosy Rowley’s production of The Worst Witch, featuring a young cast, but Young Frankenstein will take over the JoRo slot allocated originally to Pick Me Up’s now jettisoned production of Chicago, whose principal casting was in place, but whose rehearsals were yet to start.
Helen Spencer is relishing the resumption of rehearsals for Young Frankenstein. “Ilana had already put us through a huge amount of tap-dancing work: a very delayed return to tap in my case, having not done it since school, and she’s been very patient,” she says. “We’re having such fun again.
“Young Frankenstein is very silly with some brilliant numbers and really vibrant comedy, and we’re very lucky to have such amazing actors. Robert says it’s the best principal cast he could have wished for, such a safe pair of hands and so skilled that it would have been such a shame not to have done it. Thankfully we’re going ahead in January.”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 31 to February 32024, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk
NEWSFLASHES…Curtains…The Hollywood Sisters…Joseph Rowntree Theatre Musical Theatre Awards…Musicals In The Multiverse…
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members for Curtains poke their heads out from beneath the JoRo curtain, which will fom part of the musical mystery whodunit’s set in February, along with the auditorium at large
JOSEPH Rowntree Theatre Company’s next show will be Curtains, the 2007 Broadway musical mystery comedy with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander and additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes.
What’s the plot? Boston’s Colonial Theatre is host to the opening night performance of a new musical in 1959. When the leading lady – a fading Hollywood star and diva, who has no right to be one – dies mysteriously on stage, the entire cast and crew are suspects.
Enter a local detective – and musical theatre fan to boot – who tries to save the show, solve the case, and maybe even find love before the show reopens, all without being killed.
Delightful characters, a witty and charming script and glorious tunes await you from February 7 to 10 at 7.30pm nightly plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee. In the cast will be Steven Jobson, Jennifer Jones, Jennie Wogan-Wells, Rosy Rowley, Jonathan Wells, Paul Blenkiron, Ben Huntley, Jennifer Payne, Anthony Gardner, Chris Gibson and Jamie Benson, among others.
Proceeds from ticket sales on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk will go to the JoRo.
The Hollywood Sisters: from left, Helen Spencer, Henrietta Linnemann, Rachel Higgs and Cat Foster
AFTER raising £1,000 for York Mind at their sold-out December 1 concert at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York close-harmony quartet The Hollywood Sisters – Helen Spencer, Cat Foster, Rachel Higgs and Henrietta Linnemann – willreturn there for another charity Christmas show with special guests next December. Watch this space for further details.
THE inaugural Joseph Rowntree Theatre Musical Theatre Awards will be launched formally in January. Watch this space.
Set up by the JoRo, the awards will run annually. “We’ve put out requests to all the companies that do full-book musicals in York, not specifically at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre,” says York actress, singer and director Helen Spencer, who is helping to run the awards with co-founder Nick Sephton. “At least seven companies have said they want to be involved.
“The way it works, each company nominates a judge; the judges will get together at the end of the year to decide who the winners are, with such categories as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Choreographer, and then the awards ceremony will be held at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Oscars style, in January.”
Explaining the concept behind the awards, Helen says: “The idea is to celebrate the amazing musical theatre scene we have in York and the amazing community we have that puts on these shows. This is a chance to celebrate all that creativity in our city.”
Scarlett Rowley in the first edition of Musicals In The Multverse at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in June 2023
TO quote CharlesHutchPress, from the June 30 review, “Musicals In The Multiverse turns out to be out of this world. A sequel will surely follow.”
Happy to report that this Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company revue will return to the JoRo in June 2024, dates yet to be confirmed.
Directed by Helen Spencer, the show’s modus operandi is “playful, radical too, and has the potential to be rolled out again,” as CharlesHutchPress wrote of June’s inaugural two-night run.
“Imagine alternative worlds – a multiverse – where musical favourites take on a new life with a change of gender, era, key or musical style, arranged with glee, joy and flourish after flourish by musical director Matthew Peter Clare for his smart band”. More details of the sequel will follow.
Squashbuckling: World champ James Willstrop swaps from court to stage to perform for Pick Me Up Theatre
PICK Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman will direct the northern premiere of Mel Brooks’s stage conversion of Young Frankenstein at the Grand Opera House, York, over Hallowe’en.
The York company’s rehearsals are progressing well for the all-singing, all-dancing horror-movie spoof musical that will run from October 31 to November 4.
“From the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation The Producers comes this monster new musical comedy,” says Robert. “The comedy genius, Mel Brooks, has adapted his legendarily funny 1974 film into a brilliant stage creation of Young Frankenstein. I saw the West End production and loved it.”
Grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, Dr Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”) inherits his family’s castle estate in Transylvania.
Sanna Jeppsson: Playing lab assistant Inga in Young Frankenstein
Aided yet hindered by hunchbacked sidekick Igor (pronounced “Eye-gore”), leggy lab assistant Inga (pronounced normally), devilishly sexy Frau Blucher (Neigh!) and needy fianceeElizabeth, Frederick finds himself filling the mad scientist shoes of his ancestors, striving to fulfil his grandfather’s legacy by bringing a corpse back to life.
“It’s alive!” he exclaims as his experiment yields a creature to rival his grandfather’s monster. Eventually, and inevitably, this new monster escapes. “Hilarity abounds,” promises Robert, in Young Frankenstein’s combination of madcap success and monstrous consequences.
Working in tandem with Thomas Meehan, Brooks gleefully reanimates his horror-movie send-up of Mary Shelley’s novel with even more jokes, set-pieces and barnstorming parody songs that stick a pitchfork into good taste. Among those songs will be Puttin’ On The Ritz, Please Don’t Touch Me, He Vas My Boyfriend, The Transylvanian Mania, There Is Nothing Like A Brain! and many more Transylvanian smash hits.
Leading Readman’s cast will be erstwhile world squash champion James Willstrop, continuing his transfer from court to stage after playing Captain Von Trapp in Pick Me Up’s The Sound Of Music last Christmas.
Helen Spencer: From Hello, Dolly! to hello, Frau Blucher
Starring opposite him again will be Swedish-born Sanna Jeppsson (Maria in The Sound Of Music), here cast as Inga. Jack Hooper, Mr Poppy in last year’s Nativity!, will be Igor; Helen Spencer, seen latterly as the Mother Abbess and Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, will play Frau Blucher; Jennie Wogan-Wells, the Narrator in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, will be Elizabeth Benning.
Craig Kirby, Mr Tom in Goodnight Mr Tom, will be in Monster mode and further roles will go to Tom Riddolls as Sgt Kemp, Sam Steel as Bertram Bartam and Andrew Isherwood, fresh from directing Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, as The Hermit. A supporting ensemble will play Transylvanians, students and more besides.
“Every bit as relevant to audience members who will remember the original as it will be to newcomers, Young Frankenstein has all the of panache of the screen sensation with a little extra theatrical flair added,” says Robert. “Young Frankenstein is scientifically proven, monstrously good entertainment.”
Pick Me Up Theatre in Young Frankenstein, Grand Opera House, York, October 31 to November 4, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Hospital drama: Dan Crawfurd-Porter’s bed-ridden Whizzer with Helen Spencer’s Dr Charlotte, left, Rachel Higgs’s Cordelia, Chris Mooney’s Marvin, James Robert Ball’s Mendel, Nicoloa Holliday’s Trina and Matthew Warry’s Jason (seated)
FALSETTOS, William Finn and James Lapine’s “very Jewish, very gay” 1992 Tony Award winner, had been made unavailable for the British stage after a London production met with opposition over a lack of authenticity and accuracy.
However, negotiations spanning two years have paid off for “art with a point” York company Black Sheep Theatre Productions, whose director, Matthew Clare, has acquired exclusive UK rights to present the off-Broadway hit.
It would be good to see such persistence rewarded at the box office, but York theatregoers’ resistance to try out unfamiliar works is long established. Nevertheless, the support from Wednesday’s audience was admirably vocal from start to finish.
Matthew Warry’s Jason makes a move on the chess set. Is he a pawn in a game between his father, Chris Mooney’s Marvin, and his mother, Nicola Holliday’s Trina?
Falsettos pairs 1981’s March Of The Falsettos, a humorous study of men’s immaturity, with 1990’s Falsettoland, a graver piece penned in reaction to the devastating impact of the Aids epidemic on New York’s gay community.
In 1979, New Yorker Marvin (Chris Mooney) leaves his wife Trina (Nicola Holliday) and son Jason (Matthew Warry, aged 13) to live with Whizzer (Dan Crawfurd-Porter), his younger lover. They have known each other for nine months, says Whizzer; ten, insists the older, more hooked Marvin. They are arguing already.
Naively, Marvin expects to retain a tight-knit family. A subject he has discussed with his psychiatrist, the neurotic, insomniac Mendel (James Robert Ball), who in turn becomes a listening ear for latest client Trina. So much so, they marry, setting up the family unit Marvin had envisaged.
Nicola Holliday’s Trina with James Robert Ball’s Mendel mid-exercise
All this is expressed in song in a sung-through musical full of Sondheim emotional truths and vexatious Woody Allen humour (especially in Ball’s Mendel). All have their say, not only Marvin and the fast-exiting, exasperated Whizzer, but Trina and Jason too. Mendel listens and listens, cross-legged and looking as awkward as the conversations.
On opening night, sound balance favoured band over voice in this first act, meaning not everything was clear to the ear, for all the heart-felt, often beautiful singing. Such a hindrance to comprehending fully what was going on was detrimental to the show’s impact at this juncture, and the standalone March Of The Falsettos number in luminous white only added to that sense of bafflement.
Ollie Kingston’s choreography was fun here, but that scene came and went like a ghost. Such are the limitations of a sung-through structure, where more narrative would be helpful.
Fresh impetus in Falsettoland: Rachel Higgs’s Cordelia. left, and Helen Spencer’s Dr Charlotte
Post-interval, frustration vanishes. The voices can be heard far better; the singing is more dramatic; the songs are superior, as two storylines play out two years later in 1981: Jason’s preparation for his bar mitzvah and Whizzer’s reunion with Marvin under the spreading cloud of Aids.
Into the story, and very welcome too, come Marvin and Whizzer’s lesbian neighbours, Dr Charlotte (Helen Spencer), struggling with the rising tide of Aids patients, and girlfriend Cordelia (Rachel Higgs), forever cooking up another nibble.
Just as Marvin and his family learn to grow up, so Falsettoland is a far more mature piece than March Of The Falsettos. It is better balanced too with the presence of Charlotte and Cordelia being all important. Spencer brings gravitas; Higgs, puppyish devotion, amid the “hospital bed humour”.
Performances all round settle down as the night progresses to match the high quality of the singing. Ball’s Mendel is the comic driving force; Jarry delights as Jason, being pulled hither and thither but remaining single-minded too; Holliday’s resolute Trina handles the big ballads with aplomb.
Black Sheep Theatre’s poster for Falsettos
In a heightened drama without conventional heroes and villains, the gay characters of Marvin and Whizzer are depicted with three-dimensional complexity, devoid of any stereotyping. They play chess, they play squash, they bicker, they learn, their love blossoms, and in turn the stage chemistry of Mooney and Crawfurd-Porter grows too.
Staging Falsettos has been a passion project for Matthew Clare, who leads his four-piece band with suitable conviction from the keyboards, while Kingston’s choreography is alive to both humour and dramatic effect and the building-block set design is practical and amusingly adaptable.
Art with a point? Yes, indeed. Black Sheep Theatre Productions and the JoRo are to be commended for bringing Falsettos to York’s attention. The more variety there is to the city’s theatre portfolio, the better, when playing safe would be the easier path.
Black Sheep Theatre Productions perform Falsettos at 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, tomorrow. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
