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Magic in the air as Dani Harmer plays Fairy Bon Bon on panto return to York in Beauty And The Beast at Grand Opera House

Dani Harmer as Fairy Bon Bon on the Grand Opera House stage in Beauty And The Beast. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

BAFTA award-winning Dani Harmer will appear in Beauty And The Beast for a second time on a York stage from Saturday.

Best known for playing the title role in the CBBC series Tracy Beaker and its sequel Tracy Beaker Returns, from the age of 13, and later My Mum Tracy Beaker in 2021, Harmer will wave her wand as Fairy Bon Bon in UK Productions’ third pantomime season at the Grand Opera House.

In March 2015, she had played Beauty in two performance of the Easter pantomime at York Barbican, where she had taken the title role in Cinderella in December 2012, when she had to miss two shows that clashed with her commitments competing in BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing that season.

In the “craziest fortnight of my life”, Dani had to combine rehearsing each morning at the Barbican and spending each afternoon and evening at the University of York, practising routines with partner Vincent Simone, first for the semi-final, then three for the final: a tango, jive and show dance (Bohemian Rhapsody). “It’s been the best thing I have ever done,” she said at the time.

“I’m super excited to be back in my favourite panto of all time, Beauty And The Beast, which I’d be happy to do each year!” says Bracknell-born Dani, who appeared in the same role at Mansfield Palace Theatre last winter. 

Beauty And The Beast principals and ensemble in rehearsals at Central Methodist Church, including Dani Harmer, second from right, back row

“For those that don’t know, I have always been completely obsessed with this story, so it’s a real joy for me to be bringing it to life on stage. And I adore playing the loveable and slightly bonkers Fairy Bon Bon, so cannot wait to put on my wings once more.

“And it’s even more exciting to be coming to the gorgeous city of York! I’m very, very happy to be here. I can’t think of a better place to be spending the Christmas period. So, bring on the Yorkshire puddings.”

Dani has a long history of performing in pantomime. “My first panto was when I was six, as a juvenile. I’m 35 now,” she says. “I went to theatre school from the age of six. It didn’t put me off! Most of what I learnt was on the job.

“I grew up on camera. Your teenage years can be your most difficult, but all my teenage days were spent on camera [filming Tracy Beaker] – and I’m very grateful that social media was not around then. I don’t know if I’d still be an actor now if it had been.”

Now she is waving her wand as Fairy Bon Bon for the second year running. “Playing Fairy, you can take the role two ways. You can be a Fairy Godmother, like a mother figure to a princess, or you can go the more non-traditional fairy route, where I’m loud and energetic and not quite sure what’s going to come out of my mouth!

Dani Harmer as Beauty in Beauty And The Beast at York Barbican in 2015

“So you can expect the unexpected with this show. You get the story but there are also twists and turns you won’t expect.”

The script comes from the pen of 2019 Great British Pantomime Award winner Jon Monie. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with him a few times,” says Dani. “He was my Buttons when I was Cinderella – I just adore that man.”

Dani will forever be associated with Tracy Beaker, the childhood role she resumed as an adult in My Mum Tracy Beaker. “We were one of the first shows to go back into the studio after the pandemic, having been postponed,” she recalls.

“Playing Tracy again was like wearing a nice, comfy pair of slippers. I loved playing her. I’m a fan, like everyone else, where I’m desperate to see where she goes next!”

What first made Tracy so popular, Dani? “I think she just came around at a good time when TV was male dominated and comedy was male dominated, where we grew up with the Chuckle Brothers – I was a fan – but along came this female-led series, just when Grange Hill had finished,” she says.

Beauty And The Beast cast members Phil Reid, Dani Harmer, Leon Craig and Phil Atkinson pose by Clifford’s Tower. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

“I was 13 years old and Jacqueline Wilson’s stories were just magical. You always found something to relate to – and the way the BBC adapted stories, they just nailed it in the scripts. It might make me feel old now but I love the stories and there’s a lot to be said for nostalgia.”

Dani recalls an eye-opening role that brought her to Yorkshire in 2013 to play timid, naive but maybe not-so-innocent Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Show in 2013 at Leeds Grand Theatre. “She really does go through a transition, doesn’t she!” she says.

“It was such a joy to do because it couldn’t have been further from anything I’d done before, going from being a teenage lass on a TV show to being in my underwear on stage with a transvestite scientist seducing me!

“The producers took a leap of faith with me and my fans loved it! Rocky Horror fans will stick with you so I was really thankful that they loved it as they’ll tell you when they don’t rate you!”

UK Productions presents Beauty And The Beast at Grand Opera House, York, from December 7 to January 5 2025. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.  


Meet the Grand Opera House pantomime stars: Phil Atkinson’s Hugo Pompidou, left, Jennifer Caldwell’s Belle, Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon, Leon Craig’s Polly La Plonk, Samuel Wyn-Morris’s Prince and Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk

Copyright of The Press, York

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom and Daisy Brown at Tytania with the children of A Midsummer Night’s Dream cast as Fairies. Picture: Richard H Smith

THIS is the second revival of Martin Duncan’s 2008 production. It was seen again five years later and now, 16 years on from its genesis, it reappears under the supervision of Matthew Eberhardt, who is building an impressive portfolio as an assistant director in Leeds. So it can be said to have stood the test of time.

The magic behind its success is not hard to find. Large-cast productions have become a speciality at Leeds, where chorus-members regularly step up into smaller roles. But Duncan has also looked back at 1960, when A Midsummer Night’s Dream was premiered, and built on a legitimate modernity behind it.

It is not merely night music, but dream music, drug-induced at that. Ashley Martin-Davis’s pseudo- psychedelic costumes for the lovers reveal them to be flower children. The child-fairies are identically clothed in white, with black wings and blonde, fringed wigs, the product of a dream-world, flitting around like bees seeking pollen. Oberon and Tytania gleam in shiny metal discs, like sci-fi chain mail.

Camilla Harris’s Helena and James Newby’s Demetrius. Picture: Richard H Smith

Reinforcing the otherworldly theme are the tall ‘trees’ of translucent Perspex surmounted by oval ‘clouds’, all brought to life by Bruno Poet’s lighting. Not quite your traditional dream, in other words.

Equally transparent is Garry Walker’s exceptionally delicate treatment of the score. He conjures from his players an intimacy that exactly complements the goings-on above, sometimes to an almost erotic degree. Naturally this dissipates into something more earthy when the artisans are at play.

These two worlds, alongside the high voices of the fairies’ realm, offer clear differentiation between the drama’s three groups, just as Britten intended, with Daniel Abelson’s lively Puck as go-between, his trumpet-and-drum motif sectionalising the score. Such clarity is magical indeed. James Laing’s commanding Oberon, a stalwart from 2008, is well matched by Daisy Brown’s yearning Tytania.

The outstanding performance of the evening comes from Henry Waddington as a blustering Bottom, the other veteran holdover from the production’s start; he is positively Falstaffian in his donkeydisguise.

Daniel Abelson as Puck in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith

Colin Judson, the original Flute, reappears as Snout here, alongside Dean Robinson as Quince, Nicholas Watts as Flute, Frazer Scott’s Snug and Nicholas Butterfield’s Starveling, an excellent team.

There is also exceptional teamwork – and beautiful singing – from the dozen children as fairies, who are spearheaded by Kitty Moore, Dougie Sadgrove, Lucy Eatock and Jessie Thomas as Peaseblossom, Moth, Mustardseed and Cobweb respectively.

Nor is there is any shortage of passion from the four lovers. They are distinct personalities, Camilla Harris a flighty Helena as opposed to Sian Griffiths’s determined Hermia, with Peter Kirk’s Lysander and James Newby’s Demetrius more like rutting stags when they clash. All bar Griffiths are making their company debuts. The aristocrats, Theseus and Hippolyta, are given due gravitas by Andri Björn Róbertsson and Molly Barker.

The wit and wisdom we had first enjoyed in 2008 is resuscitated in spades.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Nicholas Butterfield as Robin Starveling, Frazer Scott as Snug, Nicholas Watts as Francis Flute, Henry Waddington as Nick Bottom, Colin Judson as Tom Snout and Dean Robinson as Peter Quince in Opera North’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Richard H Smith
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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in Ruddigore, Leeds Grand Theatre

Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd (seated) with Chorus of Opera North members as the ghosts of Ruddigore in Ruddigore. Picture: Richard H Smith

ANYONE sniffing at the idea of a professional company devoting time to Gilbert & Sullivan will experience a tasty riposte in this Jo Davies production, revived here by James Hurley.

Unveiled nearly 15 years ago, it was originally (1887) billed as “entirely original supernatural opera”. That seems to have intimidated Victorian audiences more than modern ones and Davies/Hurley really go to town in this escapist revival, unabashed at any idea that Ruddigore is somehow outside the mainstream.

 The show ticks two other boxes as well. It fits neatly into the autumnal charm offensive under the company’s new regime: witness the pre-curtain pep-talks at all three productions.

Xavier Hetherington as Richard Dauntless with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

In these straitened times – when are they not so? – it also makes sense to schedule a show dependent on teamwork. With no major lead roles, many could be taken by members of the company’s versatile chorus. So we have Amy Freston returning as Rose Maybud, just as naïve and gullible as before but vocally more flexible too.

 Similarly, Claire Pascoe steps into the redoubtable shoes of Anne-Marie Owens as Dame Hannah and makes them her own, not least when greeting her old flame Sir Roderic as “Roddy Doddy”. He is the other returnee – a regular here, although not a chorus member – Steven Page, even more proudly military and stentorian than before.

Updating the action from the 18th century to the 1920s means that the cloaks swirled and the moustaches sprouted, in true silent cinema fashion, which plays right into the hands of John Savournin’s dastardly Sir Despard. Never one to downplay comic opportunities, Savournin is in his element – and making every word count in a firm baritone.

Helen Évora as Mad Margaret with John Savournin as Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

This means even more when he meets his match in Helen Évora’s delightfully capricious Mad Margaret, reacting compliantly to his ‘Basingstoke’ commands; they play off each other superbly.

They also combine winningly with Dominic Sedgwick’s Robin – now Sir Ruthven – in Act 2’s unique patter song. This marks the point at which Sedgwick returns to the comfort zone he inhabited as a genial Robin, a transition as tricky as any in the Savoy operas.

 Xavier Hetherington brings a bright tenor and boundless gusto to the role of Dick Dauntless, while Henry Waddington’s Old Adam is both gruff and bumbling, notably as ‘valet de chambre’. Gillene Butterfield adds a neat cameo as Zorah.

Henry Waddington as Old Adam Goodheart and Dominic Sedgwick as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd. Picture: Richard H Smith

Anthony Kraus contributes a vigour and determination that not only inspires his orchestra but enlivens the singers into the bargain. He shows an unerring instinct for colour, mining Sullivan’s orchestration at every turn and making When The Night Wind Howls a highlight.

Special mention must also go to Kay Shepherd’s choreography and the way it is so crisply delivered, despite the addition of only three professional dancers. Dance has had a thin time of it in opera recently and this is a welcome return of an essential ingredient in the G & S recipe.

The chorus revels in its opportunities, the ladies as professional bridesmaids, the men as Murgatroyds from the past. Richard Hudson’s set for the castle picture gallery, allied to Anna Watson’s darkly evocative lighting, makes Act 2 memorable – proving Sullivan’s ability not merely to parody, but to create, real opera.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Dominic Sedgwick as Robin Oakapple and Amy Freston as Rose Maybud in Opera North’s Ruddigore.Picture: Richard H Smith
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REVIEW: Dear Evan Hansen, Leeds Grand Theatre, ends today. Shows at 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Leedsheritagetheatres.com or 0113 243 0808 *****

Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen

DEAR Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why. If you miss this week’s run at Leeds Grand Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse touring production of Benji Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson’s musical will be visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from June 22 to 25 2025. Tickets go on general sale from Tuesday (12/11/2024) at atgtickets.com/york.

Promoted by ATG Productions, this is the first British production of the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award-winning Best Musical to utilise an ensemble. Busy stage, and very busy Leeds Grand auditorium too on press night, a performance that crackled with excitement at the first chance to experience the Olivier, Tony and Grammy Award winner close to home. Not least because Pasek and Paul were the Oscar-gilded composers of The Greatest Showman and La La Land

“I am beyond thrilled with the talented cast we have assembled: an exciting mix of musical theatre legends and rising stars,” said director Adam Penford of a stellar company led by Ryan Kopel (from Newsies) as Evan Hansen, Lauren Conroy (Into The Woods) as Zoe Murphy and West End luminary Alice Fearn (Wicked, Come From Away) as Evan’s mum, Heidi. Today is going to be a good day to reveal all three are scheduled to play York too. Hurrah.

“It’s been nine years since the original show premiered, and it’s an honour to be the first production to re-imagine this powerful story through a contemporary lens,” Penford added.

That lens focuses on Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen: a friendless, bullied, 17-year-old American high school senior struggling with social anxiety and depression, who would like nothing more than to fit in and befriend Zoe Murphy. Especially with his mother Heidi (Fearn) always being too busy with her work to see him and his father long absent.

Evan’s therapist (the never-seen Dr Sherman) asks him to write letters to himself – the Dear Evan Hansen letters of the title – as a therapeutic exercise to explore his feelings and boost his positivity when courage and words desert him in the presence of others.

“Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day, and here’s why,” each letter should start. Except that for Evan, they either don’t start at all or when one finally does, today is going to be anything but a good day. That letter is snatched off him by fellow friendless school outsider, Zoe’s brother, Connor (Killian Thomas Lefevre), Dear Evan Hansen’s riff on Heathers’ JD.

It will be the last words Connor ever reads, spoiler alert. When Connor’s parents (Helen Anker’s Cynthia and Richard Hurst’s baseball-loving American jock Larry) assume it to be his suicide note, Evan tries to explain otherwise, but words fail him, and so, trouble this way lies…

…And lies and lies again as the lies pile up, a form of self-preservation that utilises Puck-like family friend Jared Keinman’s (Tom Dickerson) writing skills to concoct past text messages from the outsiders’ “secret friendship” and social media “ambulance chaser” Alana Beck’s (Vivian Panka) drive to set up a fundraising appeal to reopen an orchard where the two teens met.

In doing so, he deceives Connor’s parents and Zoe, as she starts to warm to him. The thing is, it’s not that simple. Yes he is lying, but he is doing so to comfort them, to make them feel better, to build a full picture that puts the destructive, nihilistic Connor in a better light.

The thing is, it’s not that simple either, because suddenly he has Zoe where he always wanted her to be, with him.  Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma! What would you have done in these circumstances?

Pasek and Paul’s wonderful songs and Leversen’s witty, sharp, probing dialogue addresses his predicament with admirable complexity. Not only his mother will tell him he is not a bad lad; chances are you will feel that way too, and the compassion that ultimately prevails does not seem unreasonable.

In her opening speech at this week’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York, festival director Cherie Federico called for everyone to be kind to each other. Not the usual content on such an occasion, but Cherie had a point. One that resonated all the more when watching Dear Evan Hansen, especially in the wake of Trump’s vainglorious return to the presidency.

Recalling Joshua Jenkins’s remarkable performance as neuro-divergent schoolboy Christopher Boone in the National Theatre’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time – although Christopher was incapable of lying – Ryan Kopel gives the outstanding lead performance of the year in a touring musical. So much pent-up energy, so much inner turmoil, expressed in movement, expression, vocal mannerisms and angelic, pure singing voice.

Conroy’s Zoe excels too, part rose, part thorn; Fearn brings West End star quality to Heidi; Lefevre’s Connor has haunting, gothic presence; Dickerson amuses as prankster Jared; Panka’s Alana is as persistent as a bee trying to escape from a window; you absolutely connect with Anker and Hurst’s struggling parents too.

Michael Bradley’s band are on top form, especially the beautiful strings, in a score of powerful, emotive, melodic song after song from the heart. Top marks too to Penford’s exhilarating, emotionally-layered direction; Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s brisk, punchy choreography to rival her work in SIX The Musical;  Morgan Large’s set (and costume) design, with its use of sliding, see-through doors, and the state-of-the-art video design by Ravi Depres. Do not miss the Generation Z musical with far wider appeal.

Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here’s why. If you can’t wait until the newly added run at the Grand Opera House, you can catch Dear Evan Hansen at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, April 8 to 12, or Hull New Theatre, April 22 to 26 next year. Leeds Grand Theatre, today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: leedsheritagetheatres.com or 0113 243 0808.

Did you know?

THIS Nottingham Playhouse production of Dear Evan Hansen is partnering with The Mix, the digital charity for under-25s. The musical deals with sensitive topics, relevant to young people today, and this partnership will ensure that anyone affected by the issues explored in the show knows where to find support. 

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in The Magic Flute, Leeds Grand Theatre, September 28

Opera North in James Brining’s revival of The Magic Flute. Picture: Tristram Kenton

FOR the start of her first full year as general director, Laura Canning is presiding over an autumn of three revivals, of which this production by James Brining is the first.

Doubtless she had no say in the schedule, but it still looks cautious, especially when viewed in the wake of, for example, Buxton Festival’s five new productions this summer.

Brining operates as artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, just a short walk away from the Grand Theatre, and this had been his first full operatic production. It still shows signs of over-calculation.

Before the curtain we are treated to a welcome designed to embrace newcomers. Old-stagers might have regarded it as patronising but, seen alongside a bare-bones outline in the programme of what constitutes opera in the first place, it is arguably a useful introduction to an artform that too many have found intimidating: an attempt to cast the audience net more widely, in other words.

This process must be treated gingerly, however, if the company’s core audience is not to be deterred. The overture is intended as an introduction, presenting themes and building anticipation.

All of that is dissipated when it is overlaid with a dumb show, based on Bergman’s cinematic view of the whole work being a child’s dream/nightmare, that has little or nothing to do with Mozart. So, overture and dumb show are at odds with one another: in our screen-obsessed age, the eyes take over and the overture goes for naught.

As it was, Christoph Koncz, making his Leeds debut, opened the overture very slowly and followed with an extremely rapid allegro, which the orchestra – now under its new leader Katie Stillman – handled with panache. Thereafter Koncz impresses with the transparency of the textures he conjures.

Egor Zhuravskii has graduated from Fenton in Falstaff to Tamino here, and does so smoothly enough. Narrow at the start, his tone opens out over time but remains a little dry, albeit stylish. There is not much genuine feeling between him and Claire Lees’s admirable Pamina, but she entrances with every appearance and sounds ready for greater things.

Leaning heavily on his Welsh lilt, Emyr Wyn Jones makes an affable dunderhead of Papageno, almost taking the pantomime route, while Anna Dennis makes an imposing Queen of Night, edgy, determined and accurate.

Msimelelo Mbali, as Sarastro, lacks the gravitas shown by Andri Björn Robertsson’s Speaker, but his bass grows in authority in Act 2. Colin Judson offers an apt irritant as Monostatos, in place of the repellent figure we had last time.

Pasquale Orchard makes a charming Papagena, although she is introduced to Papageno early and deprived of her ‘old lady’ disguise. Many of the lesser roles are ably assumed by members of the chorus, proving its versatility.

Colin Richmond’s flexible set proves its worth once again, as does Douglas O’Connell’s high-impact video effects.

Brining envisaged Blakean poles of innocence and experience. He might instead have allowed Mozart and Schikaneder – in Jeremy Sams’s colloquial translation – to speak for themselves. The plot is complicated enough as it is.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Performances: Leeds Grand Theatre, February 12, 13, 15 and 22 2025, 7pm. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com. Hull New Theatre, March 27 and 29 2025, 7pm. Box office: hulltheatres.co.uk.

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SIX queen Jen Caldwell and Les Miserables star Samuel Wyn-Morris join Grand Opera House panto cast for Beauty And The Beast

Who’s who in Beauty And The Beast: from left, Phil Atkinson’s Hugo Pompidou, Jen Caldwell’s Belle, Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon, Leon Craig’s Polly la Plonk,  Samuel Wyn-Morris’s The Beast and Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk

WHO will play the lead roles – the last to be announced – in the Grand Opera House pantomime, Beauty And The Beast, in York?

Producers UK Productions have confirmed that SIX The Musical star Jen Caldwell will be heading back to the Cumberland Street theatre after her fun-loving Yorkshire-voiced minx Anne Boleyn was head and shoulders the stand-out in Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s pop concert musical in October 2022.

“I am so excited to be returning to York and the beautiful Grand Opera House after having a wonderful time there with SIX back in 2022,” says Jen. “I can’t wait to meet all the wonderful panto audiences and spread some festive joy.” 

Welsh actor Samuel Wyn-Morris, whose role as Enjolras in Les Miserables brought him to Leeds Grand Theatre in November 2022, will be The Beast in the December 7 to January 5 2025 run.

New addition: Jen Caldwell’s Belle in Beauty And The Beast

“I am thrilled to be returning to Beauty And The Beast and to pantoland this Christmas,” says Samuel, who starred in the Sunderland Empire’s version last winter. “To be in beautiful York over the festive period is exciting and I’m looking forward to it greatly.”

Caldwell and Wyn-Morris will be joining the previously announced Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer’s Fairy Bon Bon, Phil Atkinson’s villainous Hugo Pompidou, Leon Craig’s dame, Polly la Plonk, comedian Phil Reid’s Louis la Plonk and David Alcock’s Clement, the villain’s sidekick.  

Martin Dodd, UK Productions’ managing director and producer, says: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Samuel and Jen to the company of Beauty And The Beast. Both are amazing West End musical theatre talents and bring a wealth of experience to what we can promise will be the most musical, and magical, of all pantomimes.”

Heading for a beheading: Jen Caldwell’s Anne Boleyn in SIX The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, in October 2022. Picture: Pamela Raith

What lies in store in the first pantomime since the final curtain for Dame Berwick Kaler’s three-year residency at the Grand Opera House? “This year’s panto brings a larger-than-life range of characters together with side-splitting comedy, stunning sets and costumes, and with an award-winning script by Jon Monie, this will be a magnificent must-see musical adventure,” says the publicity machine.

“With additional morning performances for schools and suitable for all ages, this is not to be missed, with tickets from just £15.”

Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House theatre director, says: “From the West End to York, this year our pantomime is set to be like nothing seen before at the Grand Opera House. We can’t wait to welcome families and friends to join us for this festive spectacular and I know the talented cast will wow our audiences and create memories for years to come.” 

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york. 

Jen Caldwell: the back story

Jen Caldwell

TRAINED at London School of Musical Theatre.

Credits include: Cover/resident director in Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder (West End); Emmeline Pankhurst in Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (UK tour); Anne Boleyn in Six The Musical (UK, Ireland & Korea tour & West End); alternate Anne Boleyn & Katherine Howard in Six The Musical (UK & Ireland tour),

Swing/cover Heather/resident director in Green Day’s American Idiot (UK and Ireland tour); swing/cover Emily in Knights Of The Rose, (Arts Theatre); Flick in The Rhythm Method workshop, (The Bush Theatre and The Landor Space); Dyanne in Million Dollar Quartet (Indian tour); cover Dyanne/resident director/resident choreographer in Million Dollar Quartet (UK and Ireland tour); cover Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical (UK and Ireland tour) and cover Sophie and Ali in Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales and Novello Theatres).

Samuel Wyn-Morris: the back story

Samuel Wyn-Morris in his role as The Beast

TRAINED at Guildford School of Acting.

Best known for his role as Enjolras in Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Miserables.

Theatre credits include: Beauty & The Beast (Sunderland Empire); Frederick Fleet in Titanic The Musical (China tour); Enjolras in Les Misérables (UK tour); Feuilly/Understudy Jean Valjean & Enjolras in Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Feuilly/Understudy Enjolras in Les Misérables – The Staged Concert (Sondheim Theatre); Ensemble in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Divide (Old Vic Theatre).

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Ema Nikolovska/Joseph Middleton, Leeds Lieder Festival 2024

Ema Nikolovska and Joseph Middleton. Picture: Leeds Lieder Festival

Leeds Lieder Festival 2024: Ema Nikolovska/Joseph Middleton, Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Grand Theatre, April 20

MACEDONIAN-CANADIAN mezzo soprano Ema Nikolovska, partnered by festival director Joseph Middleton, brought a delightful potpourri to her evening recital, in which they teamed Schubert and Debussy with rarities by Margaret Bonds and Nicolas Slonimsky alongside the premiere of a festival commission by Tansy Davies.

Nikolovska’s clean, nicely focused tone is allied to a lively personality that illuminates the poetryof her songs. There was a freshness to her opening Schubert group, not least in Im Frühling (In Spring).

After its penultimate verse, there was a pronounced rallentando and a long pause before she resumed. Not so long ago that would have been considered unstylish, but she made it seem natural. One could only admire, too, her treatment of the dramatic scena Der Unglückliche (The Forlorn One), a poem from Karoline Pichler’s novel Olivier. It has been called pastiche, but Nikolovska handled its emotional roller-coaster with immense conviction.

In answer to a commission from Leeds Lieder, celebrating its 20th anniversary, Tansy Davies chose to set Nick Drake’s The Ice Core Sample Says, taken from his collection The Farewell Glacier, about climate change. The poem deals memorably with the “chronicle of lost time” revealed in an ice core, with an overarching nostalgia in what is essentially a lament over mankind’s mistreatment of our planet.

Davies’s response is unexpected. Against an accompaniment that explores the extremes of the keyboard, she takes the voice slowly from very low to very high in each of a series of phrases. Later in the piece, which lasts about eight minutes, the vocal line becomes very jagged, as the narrator shows agitation at the shocking revelations coming from the ice.

Great demands are made upon the singer here, in what is essentially an instrumental line, quite the opposite of cantabile. Nikolovska was equal to them all, indeed she gave the impression of being comfortable.

Towards the end she also shakes something like maracas, as “Now the great narrator Silence takes over”. This powerful poem, replete with images, which was commendably read out beforehand, is arguably too complex for vocal setting. But Davies and Drake between them certainly made an impact.

The American composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was a new name to me. Although a pianist, the bulk of her works were for solo voice; several of her spirituals were commissioned and sung by Leontyne Price. Her early Songs Of The Seasons (1935-6), settings of her favoured poet Langston Hughes, proved a delightful antidote to the Davies work, and elicited considerable virtuosity from Middleton.

Thereafter we were on more familiar ground. Debussy’s six Verlaine settings, Ariettes Oubliées, which really put him on the mélodie map, found her in idiomatic vein. She sustained a pleasing legato through Il Pleure dans Mon Cœur against the rippling piano, and ideally evoked the ennui of Spleen.

But in two Medtner songs in Rachmaninov style – Twilight with its flavour of a bar-room ballad and the sweeping lines of Sleeplessness – she showed plenty of heft.

A return to wry delicacy was the order of the day in Slonimsky’s Five Advertising Songs, commercial jingles by any other name, but with a few extra twists. This was immaculate caricature, from ‘falling asleep’ with pillowcases to grand sweeping lines for toothpaste. Nikolovska has a great sense of humour and proved it here. She topped it all off, however, with a touching Macedonian folk-song encore, which came right from the heart.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, until May 11 (book ****, songs ***)

Sara Poyzer’s pilot Beverley in Come From Away

“COME from away” is the term Newfoundlanders use for someone who is visiting there or lives on the island but was born elsewhere.

Rather more polite and welcoming than the Cornish nickname for tourists or outsiders in each summer’s influx of visitors: “Emmet”. Meaning? Ant!

On one day, the 10,000 population of Gander, Newfoundland, grew by more than a third when nearly 7,000 airline passengers found themselves stranded in the small Canadian town after 38 planes were grounded. That day was September 11 2001, the fateful day of 9/11.

Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical is the true story of how the Canadian community welcomed the “come from away” strangers into their homes for five days in this temporary new-found land.

The political world was in turmoil, but at such times the best of humanity comes through too, times where we find common ground – in acts of kindness – amid the threat of heightened global division.

Come From Away is billed as a “life-affirming, uplifting celebration of hope, humanity and unity”: characteristics ripe for the musical format, but vital too is the storytelling, the narrative drive, that encapsulates connection and communication between town and world, rooted as much in humour as the desperate uncertainty of what may have befallen loved ones in New York or Washington DC.

Directed by Christopher Ashley, Come From Away is first and foremost an ensemble piece, its cast omnipresent, all pulling together to mirror the well-told, well-judged, big-hearted story with its balance of comforting comic relief and sadness, rousing spirit and silent shock, good deeds and grief.

Kirsty Hoiles’s Diane and Daniel Crowder’s Nick in Come From Away

Within that collective structure, Sankoff and Hein weave the individual tales of the resolute town mayor Claude (Nicholas Pound); the first female American Airlines captain (Sara Poyzer’s pilot Beverley); the mother of a New York firefighter (Bree Smith’s Hannah); the young local news reporter thrown in at the deep end (Natasha J Barnes’s Janice) and an animal welfare devotee (Rosie Glossop’s Bonnie).

Love plays its part too: blossoming in the case of Daniel Crowder’s typically stiff Englishman Nick and Kirsty Hoiles’s Diane; fracturing, however, for Mark Dugdale’s Kevin and Jamal Zulfiqar’s Kevin.

The opening ensemble number Welcome To The Rock sets the musical tone, with its high-energy, righteous fusion of Irish and folk vibrancy under Andrew Corcoran’s musical direction, with band members in view in the wings and sometimes bursting into the limelight centre stage later in the show.

The pace in Ashley’s direction and Kelly Devine’s musical staging is relentless, albeit with ballads for breathing space and reflection; everything a rush, a scramble of emotions, a need for instant practical measures, countered by the agony of awaiting dreaded news.

That sense of unnatural speed in unnatural circumstances is enhanced by a running time of only 100 minutes with no interval.  The songs tend to rush by too, full of zest and zing in the moment, but largely without the melodic classicism of Broadway’s golden era, although Beverley’s ballad, Me And The Sky, flies high.

Maybe that deficiency in earworms will matter to you, but judging by the standing ovation on press night, the hum of humanity triumphs.

Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com

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Phoenix Dance Theatre to perform Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love triple bill at York Theatre Royal tonight and tomorrow

Terms Of Agreement: Marcus Jarrell Willis’s first work for Phoenix Dance Theatre

PHOENIX Dance Theatre will perform artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis’s first work for the Leeds company as part of the Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love triple bill at York Theatre Royal tonight and tomorrow.

Terms Of Agreement is the Texas-born choreographer’s third work of his Terms & Conditions series. Featuring original written compositions by Tomos O’Sullivan and music by popular artist, this one focuses on the more ethereal, spiritual and kismet perspectives to unravel the eternal question: what is true love? “Further to understanding this, once you have negotiated the terms, will you accept the agreement?” he asks.

“Building upon the resounding success of Phoenix Dance Theatre’s last tour, which fittingly reflected on the company’s remarkable 40th anniversary, Phoenix is directing its focus forwards. Marking this latest chapter for the company we are embarking on a tour of new choreographic works, including two world premieres,” says Marcus, who took up his post last October.

“I am thrilled to be contributing my own creation to this versatile programme, and it has been a privilege for me working with our exceptionally gifted dancers to craft my first work for Phoenix.”

Phoenix Dance Theatre performing Dane Hurst’s Requiem. Picture: Drew Forsyth

Terms Of Agreement forms part of a “powerfully visceral and thought-provoking triple bill exploring the nuances of human experience by three exciting international dance makers”: world premieres by Miguel Altunaga and Marcus Jarrell Willis, complemented by the Leeds company’s first touring performances of former artistic director Dane Hurst’s Requiem (Excerpts).

South African choreographer Hurst’s Requiem is a “powerful reimagining of Mozart’s awe-inspiring choral masterpiece in an emotional response to the grief experienced by so many around the world during the pandemic”.

The work was premiered at Leeds Grand Theatre last year as part of Leeds 2023: Year of Culture in a co-production with Opera North and South African partners Jazzart Dance Theatre and Cape Town Opera.

In his first stage commission for Phoenix, Afro-Cuban choreographer Miguel Altunaga premieres his daring new work, Cloudburst, set to a new score by composer David Preston. 

World premiere: Phoenix Dance Theatre in Miguel Altunaga’s Cloudburst

Altunaga first collaborated with Phoenix in 2022 to create the dance film EBÓ as part of the company’s inaugural digital programme. Now, in a continuation of that work, Cloudburst explores mankind’s relationship to tribe and community, mythology and spirituality, ritual and surrealism, and how choices made by our ancestors shape our culture as well as our very being.

“I believe that this mixed bill will speak to every audience member at each theatre we visit,” says Marcus. “The emotions we feel during the different stages of our life and the questions we ask about our past, present, and future shape who we are and inform our sense of belonging.

“The sentiments expressed through these three works will resonate differently with each individual present in the audience, allowing space for both an impactful and memorable experience.”

York Theatre Royal is the final venue of Phoenix’s first British tour since 2022. Tickets for performances at 7.30pm tonight and 2.30pm and 7.30pm tomorrow are on sale at 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in Ryedale, York and beyond comedy & climate change. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 13, from Gazette & Herald

Vera Chok’s Lauren and Jay McGuiness’s Ben in a scene from 2:22 – A Ghost Story, on tour at Grand Opera House, York, this week

JUST a normal week? No, paranormal, more like, as a ghost story pumps up the spooks. Fear not, a hope-filled musical, dances of love, loss and legacy and soul, folk and funk gigs are Charles Hutchinson’s picks too.  

New ghost to haunt “Europe’s most haunted city”: 2:22 – A Ghost Story, Grand Opera House, York, spooking until Saturday, 7.30pm fright-nightly; 2.30pm today (1/5/2024) and Saturday; 3.30pm, Friday

JENNY believes her new London home is haunted, hearing a disturbance every night at the same time, but husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben.

Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is drawing closer, so they decide to stay up… until 2:22 in the morning… and then they’ll know in The Battersea Poltergeist podcaster Danny Robins’s paranormal thriller, wherein secrets emerge and ghosts may, or may not, appear. Fiona Wade, George Rainsford and Vera Chok join The Wanted singer Jay McGuiness in Matthew Dunster & Isabel Marr’s cast. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Come From Away: Award-winning musical of hope, humanity and unity on tour at Leeds Grand Theatre

Musical of the week: Come From Away, Leeds Grand Theatre, running until May 11, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Thursday and Saturday matinees

IRENE Sankoff and David Hein’s four-time Olivier Award-winning musical tells the remarkable true story of 6,579 air passengers from around the world being grounded in Canada in the wake of 9/11. Whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these ‘come from aways’ into their lives with open hearts.

As spirited locals and global passengers come together to forge friendships, we meet first female American Airlines captain, the quick-thinking town mayor, the mother of a New York firefighter and the eager local news reporter in a celebration of hope, humanity and unity. Box office: 0113 2430808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

The poster for Alexander O’Neal’s farewell tour, Time To Say Goodbye, bound for York Barbican on Friday

Farewell tour of the week: Alexander O’Neal, Time To Say Goodbye, York Barbican, Friday, 7.30pm

AFTER nearly five decades, Mississippi soul singer Alexander O’Neal is hitting the road one final time at 70 on his Time to Say Goodbye: Farewell World Tour, accompanied by his nine-piece band.

O’Neal will be undertaking a journey through his career with the aid of never-before-seen-photos, testimonies and tributes, all set to the tune of such hits as Criticize, Fake and If You Were Here Tonight. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Phoenix Dance Theatre in Dane Hurst’s Requiem, part of the Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love programme at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Drew Forsyth

Dance show of the week: Phoenix Dance Theatre in Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love, York Theatre Royal, Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm

YORK Theatre Royal is the final venue on Leeds company Phoenix Dance Theatre’s first British tour since 2022 with a visceral triple bill of works by international dance makers Dane Hurst, Miguel Altunaga and Phoenix artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis.

Belonging: Loss. Legacy. Love opens with South African choreographer and former Phoenix artistic director Hurst’s reimagining of Mozart’s Requiem in response to pandemic-induced grief. Two world premieres follow: Afro-Cuban choreographer Altunaga’s first Phoenix commission, the daring Cloudburst, and Texas-born Jarrell Willis’s Terms Of Agreement. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The Milton Rooms’ poster for the Comedy vs Climate workshops this weekend in Malton

Workshop of the week: Comedy vs Climate Change, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday and Sunday

THIS weekend Comedy vs Climate Change hosts a brace of workshop projects for 18 to 30-year-olds from North Yorkshire with the aim of raising awareness of climate issues and funds for environmental causes, as well as finding hope in climate humour that shapes a greener, better and fairer future.

Saturday’s 2pm to 5pm session provides an introduction to stand-up and joke writing; Sunday’s 10am to 1pm session focuses on improv and character development. Both use humour to explore environmental issues based around local rivers. Ring 01653 696240 or go to themiltonrooms.com to book a place.

Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Playing dub, funk and world music at Pocklington Arts Centre

Funkiest gig of the week: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 9, 8pm

SUPREME bassist Jah Wobble’s two-hour show takes in material from his work with John Lydon in Public Image Ltd and collaborations with Brian Eno, Bjork, Sinead O’Connor, U2’s The Edge, Can’s Holger Czukay, Ministry’s Chris Connelly and Killing Joke’s Geordie Walker.

Born John Wardle in 1958, he was renamed by Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who struggled to pronounce his name correctly. Wobble has combined elements of dub, funk and world music, especially Africa and the Middle East, in his songwriting and has written books on music, politics, spirituality and Eastern philosophy too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Gigspanner Trio: Led by fiddler Peter Knight at Helmsley Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Gigspanner Trio, Helmsley Arts Centre, May 10, 7.30pm

IN the wake of his departure from Steeleye Span, fiddle player Peter Knight has turned his full attention to the Gigspanner Trio, a ground-breaking force on the British folk scene.

Knight, who first performed with the fledgling Steeleye line-up in 1970, is joined in his trio by percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack. Together, they combine self-penned material with arrangements of music rooted in the British Isles and beyond. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly: On tour at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

Half-term show announcement of the week: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, May 28, 2.30pm

FIRST written as a song in 1953, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly was a chart-topping hit for singer and actor Burl Ives before being adapted into a best-selling book by Pam Adams a few years later, one still found in schools, nurseries and homes across the world.  

To mark the nursery rhyme’s 50th anniversary, children’s author Steven Lee has created a magical musical stage show for little ones to enjoy with their parents that combines the charming nonsense of the rhyme with his own “suitably silly twists”. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.