Tag: neighbours

Posted on

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 32, from Gazette & Herald

Harvey Stephens’ Jamie New, front left, with his Sheffield schoolmates in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

FROM dazzling dancing to doodling, disco favourites to an orchestral festival debut, Charles Hutchinson highlights summer delights that lie ahead.

Musical of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AT 16, Sheffield schoolboy Jamie New has no interest in pursuing a traditional career. He wants to be a drag queen. Supported by his loving mum and encouraged by friends, can Jamie overcome prejudice, beat the bullies and step out of the darkness into the spotlight?

Written by Tom MacRae and The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie Sells, this joyous underdog story is staged by York company Pick Me Up Theatre with Harvey Stevens, 15, and Gemma McDonald leading the cast. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Helmsley Arts Centre’s poster for Doodle Fest’s creative workshops

Summer holiday activity of the week: Doodle Fest, The Art of Doodling Art Festival Creative Workshops, Helmsley Arts Centre, today, 10am to 3pm, ages eight to 11; tomorrow, 9.30am to 11am, ages five to seven; tomorrow, 1pm to 4pm, ages 12 to 16

ARTIST Nicola Hutchinson guides participants through taking doodling skills to the next level, from experimenting with different forms and techniques to discovering new ways to express yourself through art. Turn your sketches into articulated characters; design giant doodled picture frames to showcase your masterpieces; let your imagination run wild as your doodles come to life in beautiful works of art.

All materials will be provided, but bring a sketchbook if you have one at home. All levels and abilities are welcome; snacks and drinks are provided; dress to get messy. Tickets: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Sharleen Spiteri: Fronting Texas at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Coastal gigs of the week: TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Judas Priest, tonight; Texas, Saturday. Gates open at 6pm

JUDAS  Priest, formed in Birmingham in 1969, are still receiving a Grammy nomination in 2025 for Best Metal Performance, on top of being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, appointed by shock rocker Alice Cooper, in 2022. Their 19th studio album, Invincible Shield, was released in March 2024. Tonight’s support act will be Phil Campbell & The B**stard Sons.

This weekend, Sharleen Spiteri leads Glasgow band Texas through five decades of hits, from I Don’t Want To Be A Lover, Say What You Want and Summer Sun to Inner Smile, Mr Haze and Keep On Talking. Rianne Downey supports. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Steve Steinman’s Love Hurts: Feel the power of ballads and anthems at Grand Opera House, York

Jukebox show of the week: Steve Steinman’s Love Hurts, Power Ballads & Anthems!, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm

FROM  the producers of Anything For Love and Vampires Rock comes the latest Steve Steinman venture, this one built around power ballads and anthems performed by a powerhouse cast of singers and a seven-piece band.

Love Hurts embraces Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Aerosmith, Tina Turner, Cutting Crew, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Rainbow, Van Halen, Europe, Air Supply and more. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: On course for the York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend

Dancefloor double bill of the week: Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Natasha Bedingfield, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Friday. Gates, 4pm; first race, 5.30pm; last race, 8.23pm

AT the only evening meeting of the Knavesmire racing calendar, kitchen disco queen  Sophie Ellis-Bextor and fellow Londoner Natasha Bedingfield each play a set after the seven-race sporting action.

Ellis-Bextor, 46, draws on her five top ten albums and eight top ten singles, such as Murder On The Dancefloor and Take Me Home. Bedingfield , 43, has the hits Unwritten, Single, These Words, I Wanna Have Your Babies and Soulmate to her name. For race-day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Fifties and Sixties’ tribute gig of the week: Music Masters, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, Friday, 7.30pm

MUSIC Masters’ time machine of a five-piece band transport Friday’s audience back to 1950s and 1960s’ pop with their dedication to vintage vocal harmonies, instrumental prowess and revival of the spirit of a golden age when music was the heartbeat of a generation. As the old saying goes, “be there or be square”. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Ronan Keating: Returning to York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend on Saturday

Irish craic of the week: Ronan Keating, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, Saturday. Gates open at 11.15am; first race, 1.25pm; last race, 5pm

IRISH singer, presenter and talent-show judge Ronan Keating returns to the York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, back on the Knavesmire track where he performed with Boyzone in July 2018.

Expect both solo and boy band favourites. “If you’re going to a festival or a racecourse, you have to give the people what they want, what they’re expecting, and because of the Boyzone documentary that’s on Sky and NOW TV, I’ll be doing more Boyzone hits than normal this time,” he says. For race-day tickets, go to: yorkracecourse.co.uk.

Helena Mackie: Soloist for Mozart’s Oboe Concerto at Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Ryedale Festival debut

Ryedale Festival finale: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Final Gala Concert, Hovingham Hall, Sunday, 6.30pm

THE ‘Liverpool Phil’ make their Ryedale Festival debut this weekend, exploring the Italian vistas of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 4, complemented by Mozart’s Oboe Concerto(featuring soloist Helena Mackie), Faure’s serene Pavane and Poulenc’s mischievous, charming Sinfonietta. For the full festival programme and tickets, go to: ryedalefestival.com. Box office: 01751 475777.

Alan Fletcher: Heading to Pocklington with his band in September

Show announcement of the week: Alan Fletcher, Pocklington Arts Centre, September 19, 8pm

NEIGHBOURS soap star Alan Fletcher will swap Ramsay Street for Pocklington Arts Centre for an evening of song. Known to millions as Dr Karl Kennedy in the long-running Australian series, he has carved out a career as a musician too, first fronting rock band Waiting Room, then as an Americana and alt-country singer-songwriter.

In 2024, singer and guitarist Fletcher’s five-piece band sold out 22 British dates promoting his album The Point. Now they return to showcase latest album Back To School. His compositions blend humour (For The Love Of Lager, How Good Is Bed) and poignant reflections on love, life and everything in between (Hey You, The Point, Back To School). Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Kate Rusby: Performing with the Singy Songy Session Band at Ryedale Festival. Picture: David Angel  

In Focus: Ryedale Festival, Kate Rusby, When They All Looked Up, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 25, 7pm, sold out

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby makes her Ryedale Festival debut on Friday, performing songs from her new album with her Singy Songy Session Band.

Released on Pure Records on April 25, When They All Looked Up is Kate’s first studio set of new material since 2019’s Philosphers, Poets & Kings. In that time, she has delivered the Christmas albums Holly Head in 2019 and Light Years in 2023 and the covers collection Hand Me Down in 2020.

Combining original compositions with re-imagined traditional songs, When They All Looked Up spans a dynamic sonic landscape, from intimate acoustic arrangements to rich, immersive soundscapes, on intimate, uplifting, joyous and profoundly moving songs that explore human stories, themes of resilience, self-discovery and connection.

First single Let Your Light Shine is a heartfelt message to Kate’s teenage daughters, Daisy and Phoebe, and to all in need of encouragement, elevated by the addition of Barnsley Youth Choir’s Senior Choir. 

The album cover artwork for Kate Rusby’s When They All Looked Up

“This song is my advice to my daughters, but also to anyone who might need to hear it,” says Kate. “It’s about embracing who you are, having faith in your unique gifts, and letting the world see your light. Be strong, be positive and be kind.”

The full track listing is: How The World Goes; Today Again; Ettrick; Let Your Light Shine; The Moon Man; Judges And Juries; The Barnsley Youth And Temperance Society; The Girl With The Curse; Master Kilby; The Yorkshire Couple and Coal Not Dole.

On December 20, Kate will bring her Christmas Is Merry tour – her 20th anniversary celebration of festive folk joy – to York Barbican. As ever, she will perform traditional South Yorkshire carols, Christmas chestnuts and her own winter songs, drawn from her six Christmas albums, in the company of her regular band and the “Brass Boys” at 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Posted on

REVIEW: Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York

The Seven Dwarfs and Muddles (Martin Daniels, right) attend to the poison apple-drugged Snow White (Louise Henry) in the Grand Opera House pantomime. Picture: David Harrison.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4 2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york.

THIS is Three Bears Productions’ fourth Grand Opera House pantomime, written, directed and co-produced by Chris Moreno, a canny veteran of commercial theatre.

He has made two significant additions this year, bringing a York flavour to his familiar panto template of a serviceable script and set design. First, “York’s very own” Louise Henry, 22, from Knaresborough, was picked from more than 30 hopefuls for the title role, in a year when she has impressed as Liesl in York Stage Musicals’ The Sound Of Music at the same theatre  and in Rigmarole Theatre Company’s apocalyptic When The Rain Stops Falling last month.

Playing Snow White marks her professional debut, a step up she handles with aplomb and poise, in song, dance and bonding with fellow York panto debutant Jonny Muir’s upstanding Prince Rudolph and the Seven Dwarfs (played by two alternating teams of children, the Magic Mirrors and Magic Apples). Louise Henry will be back, for sure.

The second smart move was to invite one of York’s most familiar voices, Minster FM breakfast show co-host Ben Fry, to reprise his official role as York’s Town Crier, ringing his bell and making proclamations, as he has since May, but this time on stage. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah,” he says. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” comes the audience’s reply without hesitation or invitation.

Fry, spoiler alert, also pops up as the ageing King and has plenty of fun with North Eastern entertainer and magician Martin Daniels’ Muddles in the time-honoured Busy Bee water slapstick scene: one of those moments that can be played off the cuff by two performers tuned into quick thinking.

There is room for more such impromptu outbreaks, in particular for Steve Wickenden’s southern dame, Nurse Brexit, a divisive name but never a divisive character in his fourth Grand Opera House panto. The Brexit joke gets done once and then disappears even more quickly than Boris Johnson hopes to conclude his oven-ready deal.

Last year, after Ken Morley was taken ill in the very first performance of Cinderella, Wickenden turned himself into both Ugly Sisters, a solo double act that was twice the pleasure. This time, by comparison, he is a little underused, although his version of Avenue Q’s I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today is an inspired, unexpected choice, delivered with panache, and his wardrobe is as peachy as ever.

Getting Nurse Brexit done: Steve Wickenden’s dame in: Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Picture: David Harrison.

Rather than topical satirical comment, big names are occasionally dropped in, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, Donald Trump and Gordon Ramsay, for example. Much of the comedy is rooted in traditional pantomime routines, putdowns and daft one-liners, although Daniels’ Muddles, the show’s very reliable glue in his jester’s hat, has room to roam into adlibs while being the children’s favourite. His magic ingredient is his cheeky nous, but he has magic tricks up his sleeve too.

Daniels and Wickenden have become important to the Grand Opera House panto, continuity being the third factor in establishing the Three Bears brand.

Star names always play their part too. Say ’Allo, ’Allo! to Vicki Michelle as the vampy, vain Wicked Queen Titania (“You can call me Titty,” she says) and comedian and presenter Mark Little, once of Neighbours, now her Australian sidekick in the land of Much Piddling.

Little had been expecting to play the Evil Sorcerer when the cast first gathered for the press launch but he is now billed as Lord Chamberlain of Trumpville, one of those evil, but actually not evil roles that inevitably loses some of his bite. Little and not so larger than life, in other words. That said, his duet of Elvis Presley’s Trouble with Michelle is one of the musical high spots.

Musical director Aaron Nice has chosen the ballads and cheesy pop hits well, from the opening ensemble number Nicest Kids In Town; through the Dwarfs’ signature song, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), and the Snow White-led Whistle Whistle; to the crowd pleasers, Live While We’re Young and especially Shutup And Dance.

Emily Taylor’s choreography is bright and bubbly, driven by dynamic bursts of movement, amusingly so when the Dwarfs join in. Played in the past by dwarves from the actors’ union, the roles now tend to go to puppets or, as is the case here, children with adult voiceovers and movement to give them character.

Strictly speaking, look out too for a familiar fairy face in the mirror, Debbie McGee, seeking out the fairest in the land, and you can’t say fairer than that.

Charles Hutchinson

Copyright of The Press, York

See the latest Grand Opera House pantomime trailer here: https://youtu.be/VlrxLhF09so

Posted on

Neighbours’ Mark Little turns evil in York for panto sorcery in Snow White

Mark Little at the press day to launch Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: David Harrison

MARK Little has to decide on the colour for his pantomime goatee beard when playing the evil Lord Chamberlain in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs at the Grand Opera House, York.

“It was purple two years ago, green last Christmas, maybe black and white this time,” says the ex-pat Australian actor, comedian, writer, television presenter and 2019 Dancing On Ice contestant, who will be appearing in his 15th panto from tomorrow (December 12) to January 4.

After starting out playing the “silly billy” daft lad, he has since settled into the baddie’s role. “You get to an age in pantomime where you become a bit old for the fool, which needs a lot of energy,” says Mark. “I reached a point where I thought, ‘where do I fit in’? Ah, the baddie.”

Now 60, Snow White will be his eighth panto since switching to the dark side. “My villains tend to be crazed rather than evil. Unhinged. More Maggie on acid, than Boris! Unnerving,”  he says.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

“I don’t make my baddies creepy. I call the children ‘stinkers’, and the more I insult them, the more angry they get with me, and they know the more they show dissent, the more I react, but they know that good has to triumph over evil, so I love to hear them booing.

“There’s a lot going on right now to make us want to boo, but theatre is a safe environment to do it. That’s one of the reasons theatre is there for, especially panto, to mock things we don’t agree with, celebrate things we love and reflect on where we’re going.

“So I like to ‘place’ my baddie in that present time. Like Trump not being acceptable, and we have a licence to openly mock that.”

After making his name as Joe Mangel in the Australian soap Neighbours from 1988 to 1991, Mark has lived in Britain for 25 years, 20 of them in Brighton before moving to Wood Green, London, to be close to his grandchildren.

The great cape: A swirling Mark Little in evil Lord Chamberlain mode for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Picture: David Harrison.

He has presented The Big Breakfast, appeared regularly on The Wright Stuff and Big Brother’s Bit On The Side and toured his one-man show Defending The Caveman, playing the Grand Opera House in 2007 and York Theatre Royal in 2010. Pantomime has become a fixture on his calendar in Britain, but back in Australia, it is a different story.

“There’s no such thing. Australia doesn’t have theatre in its DNA. Sport, yes, but culture’s put to one side. It’s all sport. You have to have a number on your back! But here in the UK, Brits are going to the theatre from the age of six and playing football. You do both.

“As I was growing up, all our television came over from Britain. It’s not a mystery that I ended up living here because we were brought up on all that culture.”

Gradually Australia sought its identity through film, whereas “even Neighbours took a while for Australia to connect with,” says Mark. “It wasn’t heralded the same way it was over here. It was ‘the show with the sets that wobbled’. But it was celebrated here.”

Neighbours went from being “the soap that no-one noticed in Australia” to,” whoosh, a show that really took off”. Mark arrived in Britain to perform his own comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe just as the first series began to be aired over here, two years behind Australia.

“I wasn’t ready for what happened next. Joe Mangel took over!” he says. “That’s a phenomenon I’ll never recover from. If the Brits get into something they love, they hold on hard and strong. Joe Mangel will live with me forever.

“I ended up presenting The Big Breakfast, having done that type of TV in Australia on Zoo TV, and they thought I could do the same thing here. My style of comedy is fairly crazy, anarchic, plenty of mayhem. People trusted Joe Mangel, so I was ‘Johnny Foreigner taking the mick and mocking British culture’, which they don’t like usually here, but they’d taken to Joe Mangel, so they loved it.

“My comedy suited that Tiswas style, and it’s the kind of show that TV looks like it’s crying out for now.”

Mark Little, left, with his Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs co-stars, Steve Wickenden, Martin Daniels, Louise Henry, Jonny Muir, and Vicki Michelle. Picture: David Harrison

At the time of this interview, Mark was sporting a full beard from a three-week shoot filming the low-budget independent film Passing Through in the South of France. “David Hall, a playwright and theatre director, wrote the part for me,” he says.

“It’s his first feature film, and I play an Australian teacher who’s been in Britain for 25 years and decides to go to the South of France with his new wife, on her new anti-depressants, to try to forge a new life amid the gypsies,” he says.

“But along comes his estranged son to remind him of his old life. All their problems come up and we see if they can be rectified or not.

“It’s not a car-chase film! It’s not chick.lit! It’s a bit old-fashioned in style with an international flavour. It’s taking a cathartic look at a modern relationship, a modern family, in an anti-depressant world, where they’re trying to deal with the past and the present by creating a new future when he has his redundancy money.”

Metaphysical in tone, Passing Through is set at a time “when it’s hard to be happy, and what is happiness anyway?”, says Mark. “It doesn’t come up with schmaltzy answers. My character just thinks we better have some fun making a future.”

By comparison, pantomime is a world of certainty where good will defeat evil, and Mark Little’s grandchildren will enjoy every chance to “boo Pop”.

Mark Little stars in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Grand Opera House, York, from December 12 to January 4 2020. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

Charles Hutchinson