The full cast in the finale to John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
WHEN Monty Python alumnus John Cleese opened Fawlty Towers The Play at London’s Apollo Theatre in May 2024, he was “more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done”.
After two sold-out West End seasons, a ten-month 39-venue UK tour was launched in September 2025, visiting Leeds Grand Theatre in early January and now the Grand Opera House in York this week.
“I know all the lines,” said the lady in the stalls row behind your reviewer at Wednesday’s well-attended matinee. Such has been the permeation of the coastal hotel shenanigans of Cleese and Connie Booth’s beloved BBC sitcom, whose 50th anniversary was the trigger for Cleese to mount the stage show, directed with comedic elan by Caroline Jay Ranger.
Just as Eric Idle adapted the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail for the hit stage musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, so Cleese, now 86, is on to a winner with Fawlty Towers The Play. Hapless Spanish waiter Manuel may say “I know nothing”, but Cleese knows everything about how to transfer Basil and Sybil’s trials and tribulations from small screen to stage.
Whereas Idle affectionately subtitled Spamalot “A New Musical (Lovingly) Ripped Off From The Motion Picture”, Cleese has adapted three of the most cherished episodes – The Hotel Inspectors, Communication Problems and The Germans – to form two Acts, concluding the madcap proceedings with a new finale.
“The English do love a farce,” observed Cleese, whose play has the classic structure, physical silliness and comic verve of the works of Ben Travers, Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. He named Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors too, and you will be laughing equally as frequently at Basil’s antics in Fawlty Towers live on stage.
There is an added factor here: familiarity, a feeling as comforting as a well worn pair of slippers or a favourite sofa or the sound of Dennis Wilson’s TV theme tune. That familiarity begins the moment you settle in your seat and take in Liz Ascroft’s open-plan set design of the hotel reception desk, the stairs to Mrs Richards’ first-floor bedroom, the dining room and the doors to the kitchen.
Above, to one side, stands a model of the frontage of Fawlty Towers, in the English Riviera town of Torquay. In the middle is a cut-out of the roof; to the other side is the Fawlty Towers sign – and yes, the order of the letters will be changed for Act Two in the tradition of the TV series. The first word becomes ‘Flowery’; over to you to work out the second!
Ascroft’s design sticks faithfully to the British mid-Seventies, with its ghastly colour palette, and her costume design does likewise, from ill-fitting shiny suits for assorted men to Sybil’s trademark pink two-piece The Malcolm Macdonald-style massive sideburns of Adam Elliott’s Mr Walt are a particular retro joy.
Elliott is part of a 17-strong cast – so rare to have such a large troupe for a tour these days – that is led by Danny Bayne as the deluded, crane-legged hotel proprietor Basil Fawlty and Mia Austen as his acerbic, haughty, exasperated but exasperating wife Sybil.
Cleese once described bolshy Basil as “rude but inefficient”, and Bayne’s characterisation captures that essence, relishing Fawlty’s irascibility, his propensity to ingratiate guests one moment, then treat them as a verbal punch bag the next.
Throughout, Bayne’s Basil finds Austen’s always right Sybil to be the bane of his frustrated life, and the more you watch his pratfalls, the more it strikes you how he is the opposite of many comedy favourites.
We love Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin because they ultimately win, like Shakespeare’s clowning fools. Fawlty, by contrast, only worsens his situation, tripping himself up with every utterance and foiled plan, and he is all the funnier for that, sharing the loser status of Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder, albeit but without the intelligence and cunning to keep escaping.
Caroline Jay Ranger chalked up an earlier West End touring hit with the musical version of Only Fools And Horses that shared Fawlty Towers The Play’s sense of celebration of a British classic, while drawing performances from her cast that mirror the television versions but still bring new life to them too.
Especially so here from the veteran Paul Nicholas, still twinkling in marvellously mischievous comic form as the bumbling Major and Hemi Yerohem’s Barcelona waiter Manuel, the butt of so much Basil intemperance. Seeing such characters in the flesh adds still more to the comedic joy.
Joanne Clifton, swapping the song and dance of musical theatre for the straightest role here, is a delight as unflappable chamber maid Polly Sherman, echoing Connie Booth’s distinctive voice too. Jemma Churchill’s Mrs Richards, even grouchier than Basil, is the nightmare hotel guest personified, barking and snapping while refusing to turn up her hearing aid.
Look out too for the double-act cameos of Emily Winter and Dawn Buckland’s old ladies, Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby, and Greg Haiste’s Mr Hutchinson, Mrs Richards’ rival as Basil’s most irritating hotel guest.
Fawlty Towers The Play is fawltless: British comedy at its best, farcical and furious, utterly Seventies yet timeless too. Make a reservation, now.
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The full cast in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
FROM the hotel shenanigans of Fawlty Towers to the uplifting Yorkshire tale of Calendar Girls, Pixies’ 40th anniversary tour to Daniel Sloss’s bitter comic bite, Charles Hutchinson locates cultural hotspots aplenty.
Don’t mention the war: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm today, tomorrow and Saturday matinees
FIFTY years since John Cleese and Connie Booth’s chaotic hotel sitcom graced British television screens, Monty Python alumnus Cleese has adapted three vintage Fawlty Towers episodes for a stage play.
Following a sold-out West End season, Caroline Jay Ranger directs the 18-strong tour cast featuring Danny Byrne’s calamitous Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s exasperated wife Sybil, Joanne Clifton’s stoical chamber maid Polly and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pixies: Making their York debut after 40 years tonight
Recommended but sold out already: Pixies: Pixies 40, Celebrating 40 Years, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
PIXIES are playing York for the first time in their 40-year career, opening the 13-date British and European leg of the Pixies 40 tour at the Barbican, the only Yorkshire show. Celebrating four decades since their formation in Boston, Massachusetts, the American alt.rock band’s founding members, Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, are joined by bassist Emma Richardson. Gans support.
Jerron Paxton: Singing the blues at NCEM tonight
The Crescent and Brudenell Presents present Jerron Paxton, National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight, 8pm
SOUTH Central Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerron Paxton’s lived-in voice and California drawl underpin a stripped-down concoction of blues, ragtime, folk and old-time Black music styles that originated nearly a century ago, as heard on his latest album, Things Done Changed, released on Smithsonian Folkways in 2024.
“I write and sing about the culture I come from. It seems a bit neglected,” says New York-based Paxton, who plays guitar, banjo, piano and violin. As journalist Lynell George expresses in the liner notes: “It’s all there…you’ll discover context and background: the history of people and place and the come-what-may gamble of life-altering journeys.” Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Sandy Nicholson, front, left, Katie Melia and Alexa Chaplin in rehearsal for York Musical Theatre Company’s Calendar Girls The Musical
Yorkshire musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in Calendar Girls The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Cheshire childhood friends Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical account of the true story of a Yorkshire group of ordinary Women’s Institute members doing something extraordinary after the death of a much-loved husband.
When they decide to make an artistic nude calendar for a cancer charity, upturning preconceptions is a dangerous business, leading to emotional and personal ramifications that no-one could anticipate but bringing each woman unexpectedly into flower. Katie Melia’s Chris and Alexa Chaplin’s Annie lead the cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Dan Crawfurd-Porter in the role of Melchior in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
American musical of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre marks the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening’s off-Broadway debut in New York City by staging Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s raw, explosive coming-of-age musical in the matching week.
Cutting straight to the heart of youth, desire, repression and rebellion in 1890s’ Germany, Mikhail Lim’s actor-musician production follows a group of young people navigating sex, love and identity in a society that refuses to educate or protect them, drawing on German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to boot. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
1812 Theatre Company’s poster for Goodnight Mister Tom at Helmsley Arts Centre
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Goodnight Mister Tom, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JULIE Wilson directs Helmsley Arts Centre’s resident troupe, 1812 Theatre Company, in Goodnight Mister Tom. Adapted by David Wood from Michelle Magorian’s novel, the play is set during the Second World War, when sad, young William Beech is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and builds a remarkable and moving friendship with the elderly recluse Tom Oakley. All seems perfect until William is devastatingly summoned by his mother back to London. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Crumb of discomfort: Can castigated TV baking celebrity Petronella Parfait (Ellen Carnazza) mount a comeback in Badapple Theatre’s Crumbs? Picture: Karl Andre Photography
Bake-off of the week: Badapple Theatre Company in Crumbs, York Theatre Royal Studio, today until Saturday, 7,45pm, plus 2.30pm Thursday & Friday and 2pm Saturday matinees
FORMER TV baking celebrity Petronella Parfait is out of a job and out of her depth, trying to reinvent herself in the cut-throat world of social influencers. Can she keep the lights – and the oven – on as her live comeback show descends into delicious disaster? Expect big laughs, bold flavours, live bread making and a tasty treat for the audience at the end of Kate Bramley’s play as Green Hammerton’s Badapple Theatre Company returns to the Theatre Royal Studio. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Daniel Sloss: Acidic comedy at York Barbican tomorrow
Snappiest show title of the week gig of the week: Daniel Sloss, Bitter, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm
ACERBIC Scottish wit Daniel Sloss likes to keep his titles brief. After Jigsaw, Dark, X, Socio, Hubris, Now and Can’t, Sloss is Bitter in his 13th tour show, visiting York this weekend after playing 55 countries so far.
He has performed stand-up for more than half of his lifetime, sold out nine New York theatre seasons off-Broadway, appeared on the Conan show ten times on American television, broken Edinburgh Fringe box-office records and published his book Everyone You Hate Is Going To Die (Knopf/Penguin Random House) in 2021. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Wizard of York welcoming one and all to the magical WizardFest in York. Picture: The Story Of You
Magical event of the week: WizardFest, York, May 23 to 25
WIZARDFEST, York’s official Festival of Wizardry, waves its magic wand over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend as The Wizard of York conjures up spellbinding events, tours, trails, workshops, shows and fantastical food and drink.
Wizardry fans can book for the Wizard Walk of York, Brick Magic LEGO workshop, Wizard Family Rave, Giant Bubble Show or Wicked at City Screen Picturehouse. Expect owl appearances, dragons and the new Wizard Activity Zone on Parliament Street with wand making, face painting and more. Dress to impress for the free fancy dress parade from St Helen’s Square on Monday at 3pm. A digital map and full list of events with booking links can be found at wizardwalkofyork.com/wizardfest.
The Lightning Threads: Playing Ryedale Blues Club at Milton Rooms, Malton
Blues gig of the week: Ryedale Blues Club presents The Lightning Threads, Milton Rooms, Malton, May 28, 8pm
FORMED in 2019, The Lightning Threads are an energetic electronic blues-rock power trio from Sheffield, influenced by The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr, Cream and The Doors. They feature face-melting guitars, groove-ridden basslines and a multi-instrumentalist drummer simultaneously playing keys. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Joanne Clifton’s Polly stands behind the hotel reception desk with Fawlty Towers The Play writer John Cleese, the original Basil Fawlty
AFTER appearing in four American musicals at the Grand Opera House, Joanne Clifton is switching to a classic British sitcom on her fifth appearance at the York theatre from May 19 to 23.
The 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion is on tour in Fawlty Towers The Play, playing unflappable chamber maid Polly in John Cleese’s stage adaptation, marking the 50th anniversary of the chaotic capers, escapades and close shaves in a Torquay seaside hotel that spanned 12 beloved episodes on the BBC.
Lincolnshire-born Joanne, 42, starred previously at the Cumberland Street theatre as demure Kansas flapper girl Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie in February 2017; combustible Pittsburgh steel mill welder Alex Owens in Flashdance in November 2017; prim and proper college student Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show in June 2019 and feisty, convention-busting Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical in November 2023.
“It’s one of my favourite theatres,” she says. “I love old, traditional theatres, and York has such happy memories for me. It’s one of my favourite places to go on tour – and it’s also where I signed off on my first house in Dressing Room 2.”
“I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne Clifton of the impact of Fawlty Towers The Play, featuring three episodes from the beloved television series
Joanne is thoroughly enjoying her Fawlty experience. “I absolutely love the show,” says the 2013 World Ballroom Showdance champion. “Fawlty Towers was my West End debut, having always toured since 2017. I’ve only ever toured! It felt very strange, as it was a play as well [rather than a musical]. I never thought my West End debut would be a play, with no dancing, but I’m happy and honoured to be doing this show.”
The West End run at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, sold out and the tour has been following suit, not least at Leeds Grand Theatre in January. “The response has been amazing, selling out theatres up and down the UK, so it shows how loved the TV series was, and how many fans there are, after 50 years. I didn’t realise just how popular it is,” says Joanne.
“It could have been a massive risk, thinking you’ll never beat the original, a show so iconic that you don’t need to see the play, but it’s so well cast, and as the TV series was filmed in the studio, it feels almost like you are watching our show on set too.”
Cleese’s play brings together three of the most iconic episodes, Communication Problems, The Hotel Inspectors and The Germans, with Joanne taking on the role played by Cleese’s co-writer, Connie Booth. “Connie is American and had quite a strange accent in Fawlty Towers that I had to study really well because of it being this mid-Atlantic/British accent with a strange way of saying certain words,” she says.
The full cast in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, from tomorrow
“Polly is the one who holds it together at the hotel: she’s not the funny one, not the outrageous one, not the massive personality one, but she’s the glue , defending Basil, trying to get him out of difficult situations with Sybil.”
How has she approached playing Polly? “Well, it’s a tricky one, with something as iconic as this, you have to give the audience something they already love, as they know this character so well, but I’m not Connie Booth, as only she can do it as good as her, so we try to keep it as close to that as possible – and no dancing, no samba!
“Being a live theatre show, if anything goes wrong, we just have to deal with it, whereas you could re-shoot it in the TV studio. If it does go wrong, we just have to keep it in character.”
She is full of praise for both “such an incredible show” and her fellow cast members, led by Danny Bayne’s Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s Sybil, Hemi Yeroham’s Spanish waiter Manuel and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. “I’ve been doing the show since last May, and there are moments when I stand at the side of the stage watching as it’s so funny,” says Joanne. “We’ve become really close as a cast, with our rituals backstage, and we all have each other’s back.”
Joanne Clifton: Making her fifth appearance at the Grand Opera House
She will be on tour until August 1. What next? “I’m doing a short tour, marking the tenth anniversary of winning Strictly with Ore Oduba. It’ll be a week-long tour that we’re calling 10 – Champions Reignited, at the end of August,” she says.
“Ten years on, multiple musicals and plays later and finally we’re coming together again ! I cannot wait! Using the words we said to each other ten years ago, let’s just go out there, have the most fun possible, and show everyone just what we can do! “
Featuring song, dance and tales in a “celebration of elite performance, defining moments and the stories behind champions who continue to inspire audiences on stage”, the tour originally was scheduled to visit Leeds Grand Theatre on August 23, but that night’s performance now will be at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle.
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, Grand Opera House, York, May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Christopher Cross: Sailing into York Barbican tonight
FROM the hotel shenanigans of Fawlty Towers to the uplifting Yorkshire tale of Calendar Girls, Pixies’ 40th anniversary tour to Daniel Sloss’s bitter comic bite, Charles Hutchinson locates cultural hotspots aplenty.
Grammy winner of the week: Christopher Cross, supported by Chris Difford, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
AMERICAN singer-songwriter Christopher Cross plays York Barbican as the only Yorkshire venue on his nine-date UK tour. The multi-Grammy-winning artist, from San Antonio, Texas, now 75, is best known for Sailing, Ride Like The Wind and Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do). His special guest will be Chris Difford, co-founder of Squeeze. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Ebor Singers soloists Alisun Russell Pawley, top, left, Caroline Smith, Jason Darnell, bottom, left, and Jonty Ward
Classical concert of the week: Ebor Singers & Manchester Baroque, Baroque Gala Concert, Dixit Dominus, York Minster, tonight, 7,30pm
THE Ebor Singers unite with period instrument specialists Manchester Baroque to perform Purcell, Handel and Bach works in tonight’s two-hour Baroque Gala Concert in York Minster’s Quire. The soloists will be Alisun Russell Pawley (soprano), Caroline Smith (mezzo-soprano), Jason Darnell (tenor) and Jonty Ward (bass-baritone). Box office: 01904 557200 or yorkminster.org.
Tom Stade: Canadian mischief-maker
Mischievous comedy gig of the week: Tom Stade, Naughty By Nature, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 8pm
CANADIAN stand-up Tom Stade is back on the road with his 2025 Edinburgh Fringe hit, wherein he playfully dishes out more of his insightful observations in a night of mischievous and uncompromising comedy. His credits include the Have A Word Pod podcast, Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, The John Bishop Show and Live At The Apollo. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Willy Mason: Songs full of heart, philosophy and hope for humanity. Picture: Ebru Yildiz
The Crescent & Brudenell Presents gig of the week: Willy Mason, National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm (doors 6pm)
MARTHA’S Vineyard, Massachusetts singer-songwriter Willy Mason has been writing, recording and touring for 25 years, ever since his home demo of breakout single Oxygen became an unexpected hit. Treading a meandering path, he frequently shuns the limelight in favour of odd jobs and unexpected company.
When he does appear, however, it is always worth the wait to hear songs full of heart, philosophy and hope for humanity that draw on a deep well of melody and story passed on from songwriter parents. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173675325.
Chris McCausland: “Doing comedy for Yonks”
Scouse humour of the week: Chris McCausland, Yonks, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 8pm
YOU might have spotted him latterly on Strictly Come Dancing (2024 winner, no less), Would I Lie To You, Have I Got News For You, QI, Blankety Blank or The Last Leg, but this is no overnight success story. Liverpool humorist Chris McCausland has been doing comedy for Yonks. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Jonny Best: Leading Frame Ensemble at Magic and Motion: Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton In Concertat NCEM. Picture: Chris Payne
Film event of the week: Magic and Motion: Georges Méliès and Buster Keaton In Concert, with Frame Ensemble, National Centre for Early Music, York, May 19, 7.30pm
STEP into the cinematic dreamworlds of George Méliès and Buster Keaton with the improvised, spontaneous music of Northern Silents’ resident quartet Frame Ensemble (Jonny Best, piano, Susannah Simmons, violin, Liz Hanks,cello, and Trevor Bartlett, percussion) as two pioneers of visual fantasy meet in a specially created cine‑concert.
French filmmaker and actor Méliès’s technical ingenuity in his extravagant Théâtre Robert‑Houdin illusion shows in Paris carried cinema beyond the simple recording of everyday life, opening up its magical possibilities. A quarter of a century later, in 1924’s Sherlock Jr., vaudeville performer Buster Keaton plays a humble projectionist who steps into the film he is showing, tumbling through a world where the laws of physics yield to the imagination. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Paul Nicholas as the Major in John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play
Don’t mention the war: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers: The Play, Grand Opera House, York, May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
FIFTY years since John Cleese and Connie Booth’s chaotic hotel sitcom graced British television screens, Monty Python alumnus Cleese has adapted three vintage Fawlty Towers episodes for a stage play.
Following a sold-out West End season, Caroline Jay Ranger directs the 18-strong tour cast featuring Danny Byrne’s calamitous Basil Fawlty, Mia Austen’s exasperated wife Sybil, Joanne Clifton’s stoical chamber maid Polly and Paul Nicholas’s bumbling Major. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Pixies: Making York debut after 40 years
Recommended but sold out already: Pixies: Pixies 40, Celebrating 40 Years, York Barbican, May 20, doors 7pm
PIXIES are playing York for the first time in their 40-year career, opening the 13-date British and European leg of the Pixies 40 tour at the Barbican, the only Yorkshire show. Celebrating four decades since their formation in Boston, Massachusetts, the American alt.rock band’s founding members, Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, are joined by bassist Emma Richardson. Gans support.
In full bloom: York Musical Theatre Company in the sunflower-power musical Calendar Girls
Yorkshire musical of the week: York Musical Theatre Company in Calendar Girls The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Cheshire childhood friends Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical account of the true story of a Yorkshire group of ordinary Women’s Institute members doing something extraordinary after the death of a much-loved husband.
When they decide to make an artistic nude calendar for a cancer charity, upturning preconceptions is a dangerous business, leading to emotional and personal ramifications that no-one could anticipate but bringing each woman unexpectedly into flower. Katie Melia’s Chris and Alexa Chaplin’s Annie lead the cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Skye Pickford’s Ilse in Inspired By Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Picture: Dan Crawfurd-Porter
American musical of the week: Inspired By Theatre in Spring Awakening, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, May 20 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
YORK company Inspired By Theatre marks the 20th anniversary of Spring Awakening’s off-Broadway debut in New York City by staging Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s raw, explosive coming-of-age musical in the matching week.
Cutting straight to the heart of youth, desire, repression and rebellion in 1890s’ Germany, Mikhail Lim’s actor-musician production follows a group of young people navigating sex, love and identity in a society that refuses to educate or protect them, drawing on German Expressionism and folkloric imagery to boot. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Daniel Sloss: Acidic comedy at York Barbican
Snappiest show title of the week gig of the week: Daniel Sloss, Bitter, York Barbican, May 21, 8pm
ACERBIC Scottish wit Daniel Sloss likes to keep his titles brief. After Jigsaw, Dark, X, Socio, Hubris, Now and Can’t, Sloss is Bitter in his 13th tour show, visiting York this weekend after playing 55 countries so far.
He has performed stand-up for more than half of his lifetime, sold out nine New York theatre seasons off-Broadway, appeared on the Conan show ten times on American television, broken Edinburgh Fringe box-office records and published his book Everyone You Hate Is Going To Die (Knopf/Penguin Random House) in 2021. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Freida Nipples: Baps & Buns Burlesque bounces into view once more at Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb
Freida Nipples presents: Baps & Buns Burlesque, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, May 22, 8pm, doors 7pm
JOIN York’s burlesque queen, Freida Nipples, for a night of cabaret, drag, comedy and beyond at her latest Rise residency. Hosted by Ebony Silk, Friday’s bill features Sucre A La Creme, Cherie Bebe, Molly Ouse, Kiwi Adore and Freida herself. Box office: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/baps-buns-burlesque-tickets-1987497655991
Cheesy humour at Scarcroft Alllotments: Mikron Theatre Company’s James McLean, left, and Robert Took in Wensleydale Whey
In Focus: Mikron Theatre Company in Wensleydale Whey, Scarcroft Allotments, Scarcroft Road, York, Sunday (17/5/2026), 2pm to 4pm
IN its 54th year of touring, Marsden’s Mikron Theatre Company will be conducting the Grate Cheese Quest in Lucy Raine’s new play Wensleydale Whey.
On the road and water until October 24, this legen-dairy tale will transport audiences to the Yorkshire Dales, where the stakes are high. Monks from the Abbey are desperately seeking a living soul to resurrect their traditional Wensleydale cheese.
Raine’s fromage-fuelled musical journey delves into the rich history of cheese, featuring a whey-out cast of characters, ghosts, and grievances. True to Mikron’s signature style, the show promises a gouda time with a cheesy plot and a sprinkle of drama.
Artistic director Marianne McNamara says: “2026 is a milestone year for Mikron. The company remains one of the UK’s most prolific touring theatre companies, performing over 5,000 shows since 1972 by canal, river and road.
“We’re all big foodies here at Mikron, so a pitch for a show about cheese is not a hard sell for writer Lucie [who also wrote Mikron’s show Hush Hush last year]!”
Over five decades, Mikron has been delivering professional theatre to 137 different venues annually, from allotments and fish & chip shops to pubs, village greens and even the odd theatre.
Wensleydale Whey’s cast of actor-musicians James McLean, Georgina Liley, Robert Took and Catherine Warnock is directed by Elvi Pipe, with musical direction and arrangements of Amal El-Sawad’s original music by Robert Cooper and set and costume design by Celia Perkins.
BASED in Marsden, West Yorkshire, Mikron travels the country by van and narrow-boat [called Tyseley]. Over 54 years, the company has performed thousands of times to nearly half a million people.
Mikron is famous for performing in unconventional venues, including youth hostels, lifeboat stations and hives.
A significant portion of Mikron’s performances remain “pay what you feel” to ensure theatre remains accessible to everyone.
In Focus too: Pocklington Area Open Studios, today and tomorrow, 10am to 5pm
CREATIVES from around the heart of East Yorkshire are opening their doors to the public for a weekend celebration of the arts.
Pocklington Area Open Studios (PAOS) has rapidly become one of the premier events of its kind, this year featuring 30 artists at 19 locations, drawing visitors from far and wide.
This weekend’s art trail celebrates quality craftsmanship in its many forms, including painting, ceramics, printmaking, textiles, jewellery, sculpture and photography.
Visitors can meet a diverse and welcoming group of makers and painters in person, many in their own studios and creative surroundings.
Printed free brochures are available from The Feathers Hotel and Costa Coffee in Market Place, Pocklington, as well as shops, cafes and libraries and from participating artists.
The brochure and venue map can be downloaded at https://www.pocklingtonareaopenstudios.co.uk/info.html.
John Cleese with Danny Bayne, who is playing Basil Fawlty on tour in Fawlty Towers – The Play. Picture: Trevor Leighton
JOHN Cleese was “more confident about it than almost anything I’ve ever done”.
Here he is reflecting on the success of Fawlty Towers – The Play, having enjoyed two sold-out West End seasons and launched a ten-month, 39-venue UK tour in September 2025 that visits the Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23.
“I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny,” reflects Cleese, now 86. “And the English do love farce. Think Ben Travers. Think Brian Rix and Ray Cooney. Look at the success of Noises Off and One Man, Two Guvnors. Farce is universal.”
For all his quiet confidence that Basil Fawlty’s hotel escapades would be received enthusiastically in the theatre, he could not have predicted its rapturous reception.
Cleese does not try to hide his pride in this much-loved classic, co-created with first wife Connie Booth, but he shakes his head in mild wonder at the way it has rooted itself in the public consciousness.
John Cleese behind the Fawlty Towers reception desk with cast members Danny Bayne (Basil Fawlty), left, Mia Austen (Sybil Fawlty,) Joanne Clifton (Polly), Paul Nicholas (The Major) and Hemi Yeroham (Manuel). Picture: Trevor Leighton
“I was told not so long ago of a family who have a game where one of them tries to introduce a quote from Fawlty Towers into the conversation without the other three realising,” he says. “How great a compliment is that? For instance, if anyone says: ‘Don’t mention the war’, everyone knows its origin.”
The play opened at London’s Apollo Theatre in May 2024, directed niftily by Caroline Jay Ranger, who chalked up an earlier West End and touring hit with the musical version of Only Fools and Horses that played the Grand Opera House in October 2024.
As seen at Leeds Grand Theatre in early January, Fawlty Towers’ 18-strong tour cast features changes from the London runs, including Danny Bayne as the deluded, crane-legged Basil – once described by Cleese as “rude but inefficient” – and Mia Austen as his acerbic wife, Sybil.
Joanne Clifton, 2016 winner with Ore Oduba of the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball, takes on the role of Polly, the phlegmatic waitress and chamber maid who pretty much single-handedly prevents Fawlty Towers from collapsing like a pack of cards. Happily, Paul Nicholas remains as the bumbling Major.
The stage show combines three of the most cherished sketches, stitched together by Cleese with a new finale wrapping up proceedings. Miscommunication is the name of the game with a threatened visit by a brace of hotel inspectors, and later by a party of German tourists.
“I remember reading the finished script and thinking it was really funny,” says Fawlty Towers writer John Cleese. Picture: Dave J Hogan
In between comes Basil’s ongoing – futile, as it turns out – attempt to keep secret from Sybil his flutter on the horses with little or no help from Spanish waiter Manuel, played by Hemi Yeroham.
Last October, Headline published Cleese’s book Fawlty Towers: Fawlts And All – My Favourite Moments to celebrate 50 years of the comedy milestone.
He and younger daughter Camilla have been working on developing a reboot of a possible third TV series of Fawlty Towers, set in a Caribbean motel, where she will play opposite him as Basil’s illegitimate daughter.
In addition, Cleese and Camilla have been collaborating on a stage musical version of hit film A Fish Called Wanda, while a new film script, Lookalikes, is in development too, with the script now in the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Originally, it was going to be about those people who stand on Sunset Boulevard in LA [Los Angeles] pretending to be famous stars,” says Cleese. “That changed when someone came up with the brilliant idea of getting real superstars to play the lookalikes.”
People love laughing, reckons Cleese. Hence he has little time for much of what is shown on TV today. “I’ve never seen Game Of Thrones but I did catch a few minutes of something the other day where a dragon was tied to a chain. It wasn’t for me,” he says.
Paul Nicholas as The Major in Fawlty Towers – The Play
Fawlty Towers, he argues, is both funny and timeless. “And we were lucky with Monty Python. We made two good movies, one of them medieval [Monty Python And The Holy Grail], one of them set in the time of Christ [Monty Python’s Life Of Brian]. Neither is going to date.” Now talk is afoot of bringing Life Of Brian to the London stage.
Cleese turned down a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1996. “I asked the authorities if I could call myself Commander Cleese. Absolutely not, apparently,” he says. “Also, look at other people who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie and Michael Frayn and Alan Bennett and Albert Finney. I have respect for them.”
Fellow Python luminary Michael Palin accepted a knighthood in 2019. “And good luck to him. I was genuinely pleased,” says Cleese. “I now call him Sir Mickey: that’s how I always address my emails to him. He’s a lovely guy.”
Let’s be clear: if Cleese were to be offered a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List, he would turn it down? “I would. I don’t need that sort of validation,” he says. “It’s enough for me to know – because people kindly tell me sometimes – that I’ve helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. Which is delightful.
“They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers and the world doesn’t seem quite so bleak. That’s my reward. I think we need much more laughter in the world. I’m not advocating mean teasing. Just good old-fashioned laughter. There’s nothing to beat it.”
John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers –The Play runs amok at Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The closing scene from John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers – The Play, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from May 19 to 23. Picture: Hugo Glendinning
