Tag: New Vic Theatre

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Tuck into kidnapping & murder when stakes are high & steaks are missing in Claybody Theatre’s The Grand Babylon Hotel

Alice Pryor, back row, left, Bill Champion, Shelley Atkinson, Thomas Cotran, front row, left, and Michael Hugo in Claybody Theatre’s The Grand Babylon Hotel. Picture: Andrew Billington

CLAYBODY Theatre are heading to Scarborough and Harrogate with Deborah McAndrew’s stage adaptation of Arnold Bennett’s 1902 rollicking comedy thriller The Grand Babylon Hotel.

The Stoke-on-Trent company’s co-artistic director Conrad Nelson directs Shelley Atkinson, Thomas Cotran, Michael Hugo, Alice Pryor and Bill Champion in Bennett’s tale of Nella Racksole discovering steak and beer are not on the Grand Babylon Hotel menu for her birthday treat, whereupon her American Railroad millionaire father obligingly buys the chef, the kitchen, the hotel.

However, Theodore Racksole soon finds more on his plate than a juicy steak, with kidnapping and murder for starters. Have Theodore and Nella bitten off more than they can chew? 

Conrad left the artistic director’s role at Northern Broadsides in 2018, the same year that Deborah wrote her last play for the Halifax company. The couple headed off to the Potteries, establishing Claybody Theatre and forging links with the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, their partners for The Grand Babylon Hotel, whose tour arrives at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tomorrow. Harrogate Theatre awaits from April 1 to 4.

Here director Conrad and writer Deborah discuss comedy styles, touring, Bennett’s stories and the need for silliness in 2026.

What inspired you to take your work on the road?

Conrad: “It’s a first for Claybody, but not for us as artists. It’s been an ambition for the company for some time, and of course we have a history of touring with previous companies.But also, we were heavily encouraged by fellow artists, artistic directors, theatres and other supporters who will often travel to Stoke-on-Trent to see us.”

Deborah: “When you’re adapting a piece, the material often invites a certain type of treatment. I always knew that this novel would respond best to a small cast, multi-rolling, narrative storytelling, hat swapping, comic playing…in the style of [Patrick Barlow’s] The 39 Steps. Therefore, it’s portable. One of the first things I said was: ‘I think this could tour’.”

Playwright Deborah McAndrew

How did this tour take shape, Deborah?

“We approached the New Vic and said, ‘Do you fancy making this show with us?’ and they said ‘yes’. So we did the show there in the autumn, and we acquired funding from Arts Council England for a short tour, with the plan being to run it at The Dipping House in Stoke and then take it on the road to Hull, Scarborough, Colchester and Harrogate.”

Why tour this 1902 Arnold Bennett story in Deborah’s adaption now?

Conrad: “It’s a great introduction for people who haven’t been to the theatre before or haven’t been for a while; it’s a popular piece of well-crafted, high-quality theatre, which will speak to pretty much anyone, and that’s what theatres are wanting and needing right now to fill their auditorium.”

Deborah: “It’s something that can be absolutely billed as a comedy. People want to be entertained, they want light relief, and it’s the job of those of us who work in the arts to bring relief, distraction and enjoyment. As well as to enlighten, expose and discuss.

“The scales too often weigh heavily on the worthy side of the work, and actually, we must remember the value of the arts in lifting people’s hearts, bringing them together with other human beings to have an experience which makes them more fortified to go out and tackle their lives and the world outside – which at the moment is full of uncertainty, anxiety, violence and concern.

“Going out there with a comedy is right for the times, right for the audience and absolutely right for what we need to do with Claybody right now.”

Stephen Joseph Theatre favourite Bill Champion in the role of Theodore Racksole. Picture: Andrew Billington

To those new to Claybody Theatre’s work, how would you describe the style of this show?

Conrad: “It’s billed as a ‘rollicking comedy thriller’, and we’d invite audiences to come with an open heart, an open mind, and just be ready to be entertained. Within the rollicking comedy, there is real quality; it’s accessible and it’s fun.

“It’s driven by the thing that audiences love most; creativity with actors. We’re making this work with a lot of love, and it’s for the audience, not for ourselves. That’s critical in the way that we make work; how is it going to be received? How is it going to charm, affect, cheer? Without the audience, we are nowhere.”

Deborah: “The characters are warm and likeable, even the dastardly villain is somebody you want to be in the room with. There’s a lovely warmth and charm about these actors that we’re working with as well. They’re people who you want to spend an evening with and have a laugh with.”

Which character did you enjoy writing most and why, Deborah?

“Well, I like funny voices! That’s probably the actor in me. Nanny Heidi is not in the book – I would say, her, because she’s brilliantly performed by Shelley Atkinson, who knows how to do that size of characterisation. And the very ridiculous Frenchman who’s on the boats, which was written by me, and Conrad and Mike Hugo just run with it.”

How would you describe Claybody Theatre’s connection with the audience, Conrad?

“The audience are the whole reason to exist, from the start of the writing into rehearsals, it is a participatory event, and it’s grounded in that. We keep that connection at the forefront of everything we do.

“Deborah had the idea that this show should be an actor–driven piece that would be ideal to tour. All the cast have a fantastic synergy with the audience, establishing that wonderful connection that makes people want to see them again. They are magical performers; it’s not every actor’s gift to be a communicator, but our cast are just really good at delivering the text. It’s a bit of a romp but done with such high quality.”

Thomas Cotran and Alice Pryor in The Grand Babylon Hotel. Picture: Andrew Billington

What draws you to Arnold Bennett’s writing, Deborah, having done Anna Of The Five Towns for the New Vic before the pandemic and The Card in 2022?

“He has brilliant female characters, I really love his women, they feel very real. He writes about characters that I want to spend time with.

“They’re a bit more caricatured in The Grand Babylon Hotel, because it’s a pot-boiler; he wrote it for pure entertainment in serial form. But when you get into his more literary works, like Anna Of The Five Towns, or The Old Wives Tale, you get these complex and interesting characters, particularly female characters.

“His stories respond very well to being transferred to the stage with all these great characters, and when we’re looking for stories to do with Claybody that are related to the Potteries, his work stands out.

“But also when we’ve been asked by our friends at Hull [Truck Theatre], Harrogate and Scarborough, ‘did we have anything we could take there’, it’s expensive to tour, but I thought Bennett’s storytelling would respond to a small cast.”

On tour, how does each theatre space shape the way you tell the story, Conrad?

“Well, the space does really tell the story. You come in, and you play the space that you’ve got. You look at the merits of the space and then play it.

“In the conversion to thrust, in-the-round in Scarborough, and then a traditional proscenium arch space like Harrogate, it doesn’t matter where you see it from, the stage has to feel deep, otherwise you get very flat performances.

Michael Hugo’s Ticket Collector in The Grand Babylon Hotel. Picture: Andrew Billington

“So you respond to the size and intimacy of space, and that’s also to do with the actors’ experience. When the actors come in on the morning, they have to convert their performance extremely quickly. It’s exciting, it gives it a bit of frisson!

“If you come and see it on the first night, you’ll get that lovely energy of actors figuring out what it sounds like. Because you can open your mouth in a different space and it sounds completely different; that’s part of the director’s job to make sure that you’re telling the actor truthfully how it plays.”

Why is it important to create shows that celebrate silliness these days?

Conrad: “I think that’s partly to do with what audiences respond to. You can do a really well crafted, difficult piece of theatre, and then somebody puts on a hat and does a f*rt gag and it gets the biggest response of the evening.

“So we like a bit of bonkers, a bit of eccentricity, you just have to look around on any high street and you will see it in spades. People are anything but dull and characterless. And given the right motivation, we all love a bit of nuts.”

Deborah: “Comedy has always been used as a tool of anarchy. We use comedy to undermine some of the power that people have; it’s being used as a weapon across the world right now, isn’t it? Comedy helps us get through dark times.

“The Grand Babylon Hotel is silly and easy to go with, and hopefully people who might be feeling a bit down, or don’t feel like coming out the theatre, will actually be glad they did. They might get their tank topped up a bit in terms of resilience because I think that’s what comedy can do for us.”

Shelley Atkinson’s Nanny Heidi: the character that Deborah McAndrew most enjoyed writing in her script for The Grand Babylon Hotel. Picture: Andrew Billington

How does the cast share out the parts in The Grand Babylon Hotel, Deborah?

“We have the two American central characters, Theodore and Nella, then three multi-rolling clowns playing everybody else, including the gang of villains. It feels very modern. Bennett was writing at the turn of the [20th] century, so it’s late-Victorian, but feels Edwardian, and we’ve lifted it to ten years later than that.

“Only two characters are American. They’re staying at the Grand Babylon Hotel in London, modelled on The Savoy – Bennett loved that hotel , and of course The Savoy has its famous  Arnold Bennett Omelette [created for the novelist in 1929 with its combination of smoked haddock, Gruyère cheese and béchamel sauce].

“The characters are mostly English but there’s also a fake Russian, a Belgian too. I’ve had lots of fun with French, German and Italian characters where I’ve added the actual language, but done in a way that the audience will be able to understand.”  

How would you sum up the reaction to the show so far?

Deborah: “What really tells you how they feel is the comments on our Facebook pages, where the response has been chock-full of people saying they’ve been laughing all the way through. Ninety-nine per cent have said they’ve really loved it, and felt they really needed a play like this time when the world is so full of anxieties. This show affirms our humanity, our connectedness, as we laugh together.

“We’re very proud of this show, taking great pleasure in listening to the audience, feeling the warmth in the room.”

Conrad: “That’s the key. As much as attention to detail is important in our work, we are making the show for our audience, not for ourselves. That’s why we still make theatre: that connection between the artist and the audience.”

Claybody Theatre, The Grand Babylon Hotel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, March 18 to 21, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; Harrogate Theatre, April 1 to 4, 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.

In the shadows: Michael Hugo in The Grand Babylon Hotel. Picture: Andrew Billington

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REVIEW: Northern Broadsides/New Vic Theatre in Quality Street, York Theatre Royal, plenty in the tin until Saturday ****

Jamie Smelt’s Recruiting Officer, Paula Lane’s Phoebe Throssel, Aron Julius’s Captain Valentine Brown and Alex Moran’s Ensign Blades in Northern Broadsides’ Quality Street

EVERYONE has a favourite Quality Street – purple, green…orange, not so keen – but there is only one Quality Street play to bite into.

Nevertheless, Northern Broadsides artistic director Laurie Sansom gives it a new wrapper, “stirring in a good helping of Yorkshire wit” from the retired workers of Halifax’s Mackintosh factory, makers of Quality Street.

And so a work from Toffee Town heads to Chocolate City this week, much later than first planned. Sansom’s Broadsides debut had to be put back in the sweetie cupboard after only four weeks when Covid put a red line through theatre shows in March 2020.

This spring he picks up the mantle with plenty of new flavours in the cast, only two of the originals still making the selection for the revived co-production with Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre.

Here is the history bit. Quality Street is a “delicious Regency rom-com” from the 1901 pen of J M Barrie, pre-dating the better known Peter Pan but a huge hit on Broadway in its own right.

Come 1936, Mackintosh’s management hit on the idea of assembling beautifully wrapped toffees, chocolates and sweets in a tin encased in a picture of Quality Street’s principal characters, Phoebe Throssel and Captain Valentine Brown.

Cue Sansom’s idea to weave verbatim recollections from the Quality Street factory floor into Barrie’s play, the red-hatted workers serving as a Greek chorus cum collective narrator, passing comment on the play’s unfolding dramas, recalling their working days and their own romances, and reflecting on how courting has changed.

The to-and-fro format takes a while to settle, not least because the ‘Mack’ workforce open the play with their fourth wall-breaking gossip and nostalgia. They are never more than convivial commentators by comparison with the fateful scene-setting of the Witches in the thunder and lightning prologue to Macbeth and their subsequent encounters with the murderous Macbeth .

Something sweet and nutty this way comes as Barrie introduces his Regency romp with Paula Lane (once Kylie Platt in a different cobbled street, of the Coronation  soap variety) in the role of Phoebe Throssel, a woman scandalised by having allowed Captain Valentine Brown (Aron Julius) to kiss her on the cheek. Ten years ago.

Aron Julius’s Captain Valentine Brown and Paula Lane’s Phoebe Throssel in Quality Street: Picture: Andrew Billington

Ten years when he has been away fighting Napoleon, while Phoebe and sister Susan (Louisa-May Parker) have had to make a living, running a school for unruly children. They look exhausted, enervated, contemplating the prospect of having to add algebra to the curriculum without any enthusiasm. Understandable caution, you might say, in spite of PM Rishi Sunak’s enthusiasm for adding more Maths to the curriculum.

At this juncture, aside from Gilly Tompkins’ blunt-speaking maid Patty, more humour has been mined from the factory workers’ chatter than Barrie’s story, as supporting cast members switch between tea-break comment and rom-com roles. But once Julius’s Captain reacts so negatively to the older-looking Phoebe, still only 30, the play finds its sweet spot.

For a lavish ball, Phoebe transforms herself into lively, vivacious, flirty, flighty Miss Livvy, her “niece”, an alter-ego that will soon require her to be in two places at once in one of comedy’s favourite devices, from Shakespeare comedies of mistaken identity to Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest, chaotic Mischief capers to myriad pantomimes.

Not before Jessica Worrall’s witty design has served up the gorgeous spectacle of all the ladies in Quality Street wrapper dresses, Miss Livvy in the most popular purple, of course.

Not only Captain Brown is smitten, so too are Jamie Smelt’s Recruiting Sergeant and Alex Moran’s Ensign Blades as the comedy picks up pace and impact. Cross-dressing Jelani D’Aguilar’s Fanny Willoughby adds to the fun, and Parker’s Susan, forced to play a straight bat to keep Phoebe/Livvy one step ahead, personifies resourceful understatement.

At first you may wonder – as your reviewer did when watching a performance at Leeds Playhouse – why Quality Street made Barrie a fortune, but as should always be the case, the second half is better than the first, In particular in the all-important frank discussions between Phoebe and Captain Brown, where Barrie’s writing, suddenly more serious, goes to the heart of a woman’s woes, mistreatment and frustrations.

From the brief appearances of puppets to Ben Wright’s choreography for the ball, the design’s colour palette and the cast’s colourful northern vowels to Sansom’s beautifully judged direction, Quality Street ends up being a tin of purple and green ones.

Lane’s performance, especially when she has to have a filling of Phoebe within a chocolate coating of Miss Livvy, is top Quality too.

Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre present Quality Street at York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Also: Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, May 25 to 27; Hull Truck Theatre, May 31 to June 3; Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, June 6 to 10; Victoria Theatre, Halifax, July 4 to 7. Box office: Sheffield,  0114 249 6000 or sheffieldtheatres.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com; Halifax, 01422 351158 or victoriatheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Jane Eyre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until Saturday. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com

The woman and man in black at the SJT: Sam Jenkins-Shaw’s Rochester and Eleanor Sutton’s Jane in Jane Eyre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

AT the heart of the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s Bronte Festival is the SJT and New Vic Theatre’s co-production of Jane Eyre, adapted by Chris Bush, a Sheffield playwright with a York past drawn to Charlotte Bronte’s revolutionary spirit.

In the wake of the 2022 tour of Kirsty Smith and Kat Rose-Martin’s Jane Hair, re-imagining the Bronte sisters as modern-day Haworth hairdressers and Anne as a political blogger, Bush shows rather more “respect, but not reverence” in her nimble adaptation, eschewing a narrator in favour of letting Zoe Waterman’s cast of actor-musicians crack on with telling the story with a purposeful stride to rival Suranne Jones’s Anne Lister in Gentleman Jack.

Bush had first been offered Emily’s Wuthering Heights, but she was happier to accept the second invitation of sibling Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. “I’m just really drawn to Jane both as a character and a figure,” she reasoned. “I love her determination to take control of her destiny.”

Bush’s Jane Eyre, as characterised by Eleanor Sutton with her scraped-back hair, is a no-nonsense, unbending Yorkshire woman of exacting standards, passionate and impatient, no respecter of authority but resolute in observing her own moral code.

Playwright Chris Bush

From orphaned childhood, she is in a hurry, on a mission, so much so that Bush suddenly stops a play so quick out of the traps that she decides it needs a refresher course in one of those “not reverent” insertions from the Bush playbook of playwriting.

Somewhat against the grain of a Bronia Housman design aesthetic that conveys Bronte’s harsh world by favouring minimalism to keep the scene-changing to a minimum, the pace to the maximum and Nao Nagai’s lighting to the fore, much emphasis is placed Simon Slater’s compositions and sound design rooted in “19th century pop hits” in the spirit of a folk musical or a Brecht and Weill play with music.

They serve the purpose of propelling a story of complexity yet clarity forward, or providing time to catch breath, but their profusion is counter-productive, ultimately slowing down this all-action, vibrant Jane Eyre, by contrast with Sally Cookson’s exhilarating, breathless production for the Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre that toured York and Leeds in 2017.

Like Cookson, Waterman has employed a multi role-playing cast, save for Sutton’s ever-resourceful, clever and fiery Jane Eyre and Sam Jenkins-Shaw’s restless, troubled Rochester, whose burgeoning chemistry climaxes in a beautiful, moving  finale.

Nia Gandhi, Sarah Groarke and Zoe West throw up their hands in Jane Eyre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

There is much to enjoy in the ensemble interplay of Tomi Ogbaro, Nia Gandhi, Zoe West and Sarah Groarke’s constant changes of character or returning with instrument in hand, the fleet-footed flow being aided by Will Tuckett’s movement direction.

Bush’s way with words elicits passion, shards of wit, nuggety northern nous, poetic darkness and light too, and amid the proto-feminist zeal, she highlights the mistreatment and lack of understanding of Bertha, the “mad woman in the attic”.

By having Sutton transform from Jane into Bertha with a loosening of her hair and a change of body shape, Bush makes a link between the two women, one whose free spirit cannot be contained despite the rigid class structure, the other forcibly restrained with terrible consequences.

Should you miss this week’s 7.30pm performances, tomorrow’s 1.30pm matinee or Saturday’s 2.30pm show, a second chance to breathe in this fresh Jane Eyre comes at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, from May 4 to 28. For more details of the SJT’s Bronte Festival, including Stute Theatre’s I Am No Bird in The McCarthy, today until Saturday, head to: sjt.uk.com.

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More Things To Do in and around York, where studios are opening up for spring inspection. List No. 76, from The Press

Kimbal Bumstead: one of 30 new participants in York Open Studios

NOW is the chance to go around the houses, the studios and workshops too, as recommended by Charles Hutchinson on his art beat.

Art event of the week and next week too: York Open Studios, today and tomorrow; April 9 and 10, 10am to 5pm

AFTER 2021’s temporary move to July, York Open Studios returns to its regular spring slot, promising its biggest event ever with more than 150 artists and makers in 100-plus workshops, home and garden studios and other creative premises.

Thirty new participants have been selected by the event organisers. As ever, York Open Studios offers the chance to talk to artists, look around where they work and buy works.

Artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings and the locations map at yorkopenstudios.co.uk or pick up a booklet around York.

Caius Lee: Pianist for York Musical Society’s Rossini concert

Classical concert of the week: York Musical Society, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, St Peter’s School Memorial Hall, York, tonight, 7.30pm

DAVID Pipe conducts York Musical Society in a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s last major work, Petite Messe Solennelle, composed when his friend Countess Louise Pillet-Will commissioned a solemn mass for the consecration of a private chapel in March 1864.

After Rossini deemed it to be a ‘poor little mass’, the word ‘little’ (petite) has become attached to the title, even though the work is neither little nor particularly solemn. Instead, the music ranges from hushed intensity to boisterous high spirits.

Caius Lee, piano, Valerie Barr, accordion, Katie Wood, soprano, Emily Hodkinson, mezzo-soprano, Ed Lambert, tenor, and Stuart O’Hara, bass, perform it tonight. Box office: eventbrite.co.uk/e/rossini-petite-messe-solennelle.

Bingham String Quartet: Programme of Beethoven, Schnittke, LeFanu and Tippett works

Late news: York Late Music, Stuart O’Hara and Ionna Koullepou, 1pm today; Bingham String Quartet, 7.30pm tonight, St Saviourgate Unitarian Chapel, York

BASS Stuart O’Hara and pianist Ionna Koullepou play a lunchtime programme of no fewer than eight new settings of York and regional poets’ works by York composers.

In the evening, the Bingham String Quartet perform Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat major, Schnittke’s String Quartet No 3, York composer Nicola LeFanu’s String Quartet No 2 and Tippett’s String Quartet No 2. Box office: latemusic.org or on the door.

The poster for York Blues Festival 2022

A dose of the blues: York Blues Festival 2022, The Crescent, York, today, bands from 1pm to 11pm

YORK Blues Festival returns for a third celebration at The Crescent community venue after two previous sell-outs. On the bill will be Tim Green Band; Dust Radio; Jed Potts & The Hillman Hunters; TheJujubes; Blue Milk; DC Blues; Five Points Gang and Redfish.

For full details, go to: yorkbluesfest.co.uk. Box office: thecrescentyork.seetickets.com.

The Howl & The Hum: Sunday headliners at YorkLife in Parliament Street

Free community event of the weekend: YorkLife, Parliament Street, York, today and tomorrow, 11am to 9pm

YORK’S new spring festival weekend showcases the city’s musicians, performers, comedians and more besides today and tomorrow. Organised by Make It York, YorkLife sees more than 30 performers and organisations head to Parliament Street for this free event with no tickets required in advance.

York’s Music Venue Network presents Saturday headliners Huge, Sunday bill-toppers The Howl & The Hum, plus Bull; Kitty VR; Flatcap Carnival; Hyde Family Jam;  Floral Pattern; Bargestra and Wounded Bear.

Workshops will be given by: Mud Pie Arts: Cloud Tales, interactive storytelling; Thunk It Theatre, Build Our City theatre; Gemma Wood, York Skyline art; Fantastic Faces, face painting;  Henry Raby, from Say Owt, spoken poetry; Matt Barfoot, drumming; Christian Topman, ukulele; Polly Bennet, Little Vikings PQA York, performing arts, and Innovation Entertainment, circus workshops.  Look out too for the York Mix Radio quiz; York Dance Space’s dance performance and Burning Duck Comedy Club’s comedy night. 

Oi Frog & Friends!: Laying down the rules at York Theatre Royal

Children’s show of the week: Oi Frog & Friends!, York Theatre Royal, Monday, 1.30pm and 4.30pm; Tuesday, 10.30am and 1.30pm

ON a new day at Sittingbottom School, Frog is looking for a place to sit, but Cat has other ideas and Dog is happy to play along. Cue multiple rhyming rules and chaos when Frog is placed in in charge. 

Suitable for age three upwards, Oi Frog & Friends! is a 55-minute, action-packed play with original songs, puppets, laughs and “more rhyme than you can shake a chime at”.

This fun-filled musical has been transferred to the stage by Emma Earle, Zoe Squire, Luke Bateman and Richy Hughes from Kes Gray and Jim Field’s picture books. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Mother and son: Niki Evans as Mrs Johnstone and Sean Jones as Mickey in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, returning to the Grand Opera House, York

Musical of the week: Blood Brothers, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday

AFTER a three-year hiatus, Sean Jones has returned to playing scally Mickey in Willy Russell’s fateful musical account of Liverpool twins divided at both, stretching his involvement to a 23rd year at impresario Bill Kenwright’s invitation in what is billed as his “last ever tour” of Blood Brothers.

Back too, after a decade-long gap, is Niki Evans in the role of Mickey and Eddie’s mother, Mrs Johnstone.

Blood Brothers keeps on returning to the Grand Opera House, invariably with Jones to the fore. If this year really is his Blood Brothers valedictory at 51, playing a Scouse lad from the age of seven once more, thanks, Sean, for all the years of cheers and tears. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

May in April: Imelda May plays York Barbican for a third time on April 6

York gig of the week: Imelda May, Made To Love Tour, York Barbican, Wednesday, 7.30pm

IRISH singer-songwriter and poet Imelda May returns to York Barbican for her third gig there in the only Yorkshire show of her first major UK tour in more than five years.

“I cannot wait to see you all again, to dance and sing together, to connect and feel the sparkle in a room where music makes us feel alive and elevated for a while,” says Imelda. “A magical feeling we can only get from live music. Let’s go!”

Her sixth studio album, last April’s 11 Past The Hour, will be showcased and she promises poetry too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Corruption and sloth: English Touring Opera in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel

At the treble: English Touring Opera at York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 7.30pm

ENGLISH Touring Opera present three performances in four nights, starting with Bach’s intense vision of hope, St John Passion, on Wednesday, when professional soloists and baroque specialists the Old Street Band combine with singers from York choirs.

La Boheme, Puccini’s operatic story of a poet falling in love with a consumptive seamstress, follows on Friday; the residency concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel, a send-up of corruption and sloth in government that holds up a mirror to the last days of the Romanovs. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Eleanor Sutton in the title role in Jane Eyre, opening at the Stephen Joseph Theatre on Friday

Play of the week outside York: Jane Eyre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Friday to April 30

CHRIS Bush’s witty and fleet-footed adaptation seeks to present Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to a fresh audience while staying true to the original’s revolutionary spirit.

Using actor-musicians, playful multi-role playing and 19th century pop hits, Zoe Waterman directs this SJT and New Vic Theatre co-production starring Eleanor Sutton as Jane Eyre, who has no respect for authority, but lives by her own strict moral code, no matter what the consequences. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

Beth McCarthy: Homecoming gig at The Crescent in May

Welcome home: Beth McCarthy, The Crescent, York, May 2, doors, 7.30pm

BETH McCarthy will play a home-city gig for the first time since March 2019 at The Crescent community venue.

Beth, singer, songwriter and BBC Radio York evening show presenter, has moved from York to London, since when she has drawn 4.8 million likes and 300,000 followers on TikTok and attracted 465,000 monthly listeners and nine million plays of her She Gets The Flowers on Spotify. Box office: myticket.co.uk/artists/beth-mccarthy.

Oh, and one other thing

MODFATHER Paul Weller’s gig on Tuesday at York Barbican has sold out.

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Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door to move back in for four days at SJT in September

Wartime reunion: Naomi Petersen as Lily and Linford Johnson as Alf in Alan Ayckbourn’s The GIrl Next Door. All pictures: Tony Bartholomew

ALAN Ayckbourn’s premiere of his 85th play, The Girl Next Door, will return to Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in September for a limited run of only six performances.

The SJT resumption from September 1 to 4 will be followed by a touring run at the New Vic Theatre, the SJT’s fellow theatre in the round in Newcastle-under-Lyme, from September 7 to 18.

Directed by Ayckbourn, The Girl Next Door received its world premiere in Scarborough from June 4 to July 3, performed by two alternate casts to protect against Covid-19.

Lolling around in lockdown: Bill Champion as jaded and jaundiced actor Rob in The Girl Next Door

September’s returning cast will be Bill Champion, Linford Johnson, Alexandra Mathie and Naomi Petersen, who performed the bulk of the shows in the original summer run.

Written by Ayckbourn in lockdown, The Girl Next Door finds veteran actor Rob Hathaway stuck at home during the summer of 2020, with only his sensible, Government mandarin older sister for company.

Rob has little to do but relive his glory days when, as the star of the nation’s favourite television period drama National Fire Service, he ruled the roost as George ‘Tiger’ Jennings: wartime hero and living legend among firefighters.

Alan Ayckbourn in his garden in Scarborough in May 2020 during the first lockdown

One day, Rob spots a stranger hanging out the washing in the adjoining garden. Strange, he thinks, because the neighbours have not been around for months. Just who is the mysterious girl next door, and why is she wearing 1940s’ clothing?

“I was born in 1939, so my earliest memories are of a sort of lockdown: of crowding into Anderson shelters or subway stations; of sleeping in deckchairs or on my mother’s lap. Things have come full circle for me,” says Ayckbourn, 82.

“The Girl Next Door is an affirmation of love across the generations – I hope it’s positive and hopeful for those today crawling out of their metaphorical Anderson shelters blinking into the light.”

Dressed for a Zoom meeting: Alexandra Mathie as Alex in The Girl Next Door at the SJT

For a time-hopping story divided by 78 years but only a hedge, Ayckbourn is joined in the production team by the SJT’s departing associate director, Chelsey Gillard, designer Kevin Jenkins and lighting designer Jason Taylor.

The Girl Next Door can be seen in the Round at the SJT on Wednesday, September 1 at 7.30pm; September 2, 1.30pm and 7.30pm; September 3, 7.30pm, and September 4, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.

Tickets are on sale at £10 upwards on 01723 370541 and at sjt.uk.com. Prompt booking is advised.

The girl next door in The Girl Next Door: Naomi Petersen as Lily