Teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer) steps in between school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) and dreamer Jamie New (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
THIRD time, even luckier. After York Stage’s Teen Version at Theatre@41 in June 2023 and Pick Me Up Theatre’s Joseph Rowntree Theatre run in July 2025, Sheffield musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is being re-made in York for the third time.
This one is the best yet, wholly justifying Nik Briggs’s decision to revisit Tom MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells’ musical after directing the York premiere in 2023. “When the full version became available I knew I had to bring it to the Grand Opera House,” he said, promising a “truly beautiful, bold and gritty new production, capturing the electricity, humour and heart that has made ‘Jamie’ a modern British classic”.
Electricity. Tick. Humour. Tick. Heart. Tick, tick, ticker. They are all here in abundance in a production driven by Briggs’s thrilling direction, bold and beautiful performances and A J Powell’s choreography, full of punch and panache. What lifts it even higher, to five- star status, is Briggs’s costume and especially set design.
In a story so fast moving, where Jamie’s life is always on the edge of being out of control, where he wants to run before he can strut in heels, Briggs’s revolving stage is the perfect way to encapsulate the commotion. It enables the next scene to be set up out of sight, in transitions from Mayfield School classroom to Jamie’s house; classroom to Victor’s Secret clothes shop; a street bench to Jamie’s house; outside Legs Eleven nightclub to inside.
Nik Briggs: Director-designer of York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
There is no need for stage hands to be in view, save to push the merry-go-round for the next triangular stage to lock into place. It is so quick and efficient that the only things not to be on the move are the hands of the classroom clock. Then again, time waits for no man, or rather teenage boy in this case.
After Ryan Addyman, at the age of 17 in 2023, and Harvey Stephens, at 15 in 2025, now 16-year-old Sheffield council estate schoolboy Jamie New is played by Huby professional actor Frankie Bounds, who is fully ten years older than Harvey at 25, but still boyish of frame, cherubic in his cheekiness and lithe of limb to complement boundless mischievous energy and singing skills honed by his training in both opera and musical theatre.
Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Gillespie Sells (from Horsham pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist MacRae draw on an original idea by co-writer Jonathan Butterell for the unapologetic story of the boy who sometimes wants to be a girl, wear a dress to the school prom and be a drag queen in this classic teen rebel story.
Withering wit, northern nous and sassy social awareness all pepper their unflinching account of societal and classroom attitudes towards gender, bigotry, bullying, homophobia, absentee fathers and the right to self-expression. Nine years on from the Sheffield Crucible premiere, post-Covid strictures and the rise of right-wing intolerance, ‘Jamie’ hits home all the harder.
Mum Margaret New (Joanne Theaker), left, and friend Ray (Julie-Ann Smith) organising the 16th birthday party for Jamie (Frankie Bounds) in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Significantly, every Jamie putdown of loathsome, self-loathing school bully Dean Paxton (Cain Branton) is met with cheers, cheers that grew even louder to greet Bounds’ exit from the Stage Door after Saturday’s matinee. Likewise, Jamie’s best friend, assured York Stage debutante Roxanne Hall’s Priti Pasha, the Muslim student destined to study Medicine at Cambridge, puts dunderhead Dean in his place too. This bravura musical not only celebrates difference but what a difference for the better it makes too.
Among the Year 11 pupils of Mayfield School, a typical northern comprehensive classroom of hope-filled, yet cynical and unruly 16-year-olds, Bounds’ Jamie is a restless Yorkshire dreamer in need of escape. He wants to be a performer, not the fork lift driver his career advisor suggests.
Breaking rules and hearts alike, this lippy kid in lip gloss is outwardly confident but he is naive and vulnerable too, wounded by the barbs of his stay-away father (Adam Thompson) and discouraged by his narrow-minded teacher Miss Hedge (Katie Spencer).
The grit promised by Briggs is delivered through the kitchen-sink drama frankness not only of blinkered teacher and bigoted father but also of Jamie’s world-weary, self-sacrificial, ever-supportive mum Margaret (Joanne Theaker, whose rendition of heartfelt ballad He’s My Boy is the Act Two show-stopper).
Class act:Frankie Bounds in his glittering yet shattering performance as teenager Jamie New at the heart of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
High quality is guaranteed by the presence of both Theaker and Julie-Ann Smith’s Ray, who brings a sharp tongue and kind heart to every domestic drama. Together they form a formidably forthright duo taking on both authority and convention.
To go with the grit, here comes the glitz and bravado of dress-shop boss Hugo/veteran drag act Loco Chanelle (Grant McIntyre) and the drag-queen veterans Sandra Bollock (Thompson’s second role), Tray Sophisticay (George Cornell, reprising his Teen Version role) and Laika Virgin (the thoroughly fabulous Stu Hutchinson), in Sheffield’s answer to The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
Supporting roles and ensemble cast are in fine form too, as is Jessica Viner’s band, where James Lolley’s trumpet is particularly potent. Briggs has hit new heights in his director-designer double whammy, bringing out the best in his cast, boosted by Powell’s fabulous choreography, where even the cans on a schoolroom table dance in rhythm.
York Stage presents Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Year 11 pupils, led by Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New in red nail varnish, turn the classroom into a dancefloor of defiance in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
A shoe-in for standing out: Frankie Bounds’s Jamie New, centre, with his classmates in York Stage’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
WHY will York Stage be returning to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie from tomorrow to October 24 only three years since staging the Teen Edition?
“‘Jamie’ is one of my favourite musicals,” reasons director Nik Briggs. “Having seen it in its early development at the Sheffield Crucible, I always knew I wanted to bring it to York, which we did with the premiere of the Teen Version in June 2023 at Theatre@41, Monkgate, but when the full version became available I knew I had to bring it to the Grand Opera House.
“Having spoken to the then theatre director, Laura McMillan, she knew we’d create a truly beautiful production. Being able to bring this story to York’s biggest theatre for the first time ever is truly an honour, and the bold and gritty new production we’ve created is one I can’t wait to share with York.”
Director Briggs re-imagines Tom MacRae and Dan Gillespie Sells’s award-winning musical with a raw, authentic edge to “capture the electricity, humour and heart that has made ‘Jamie’ a modern British classic”.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie director Nik Briggs
Inspired by a north-eastern true story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows the path of 16-year-old council estate schoolboy Jamie New, who never quite fits in. Supported by his loving mum and his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, defeats the bullies and, spoiler alert, steps into the spotlight to become the star he was born to be.
Staged by a vibrant cast and professional production team, Briggs’s 2026 show will blend Gillespie Sells’s infectious pop score and MacRae’s fearless, funny book and lyrics with York Stage’s trademark theatrical grit and emotional honesty.
“This is a story about identity, courage and the power of self-expression,” says Nik. “Our new production will dive deeper into Jamie’s world – its highs, its heartache and its hope – and celebrate the beautiful mess of growing up different in a small city,” says Nik.
Taking the role of Jamie New will be professional Huby actor Frankie Bounds, still boyish looking at 25. “Playing a 16-year-old schoolboy will be a good challenge,” he says. “It’s a real beast of a role as Jamie doesn’t ever really leave the stage – and it’s not like anything I’ve done before, having played these super-muscular men!
“I said ‘it’s not my usual cup of tea’, but Nik said he wanted to bring something of that broody demeanour back to Jamie,” says lead actor Frankie Bounds, front
“So when Nik messaged me, I replied very honestly and said ‘it’s not my usual cup of tea’, but he said he wanted to bring something of that broody demeanour back to Jamie, which definitely adds to it as it goes back to the core of the original Sheffield Crucible production, with Jamie being gay and having to find himself when his mum’s going through difficult things and his [absent] dad has said terrible things about him.
“There’s a lot of myself in my performance, where I like to challenge myself and other people too – the audience – at the shows.”
York Stage’s design for ‘Jamie’ will be “ever-circling”. “The show has the feel of everything unravelling around Jamie and the set mirrors that,” says Frankie, who has carried that sense of unpredictability into rehearsals.
“Working with Jo [Joanne Theaker-Spencer], who plays Jamie’s mum [Margaret] is just so inspiring. We’ve had several conversations where we’ve built up the trust to try things out.
Ryan Addyman’s Jamie New in York Stage’s June 2023 production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: Teen Version at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York
“I trained in the Meisner Technique [before graduating with an MA in musical theatre from Mountview Academy of Performing Arts], which is all about being different each time and responding to what’s in front of you. Jo gets that, knowing that I’ll do the work, but it will be different each night, to make it both joyful and heartbreaking.
“There’ll be belly laughs one minute, then you’ll get gut-punched the next, with that special energy in the room, where we’ve really bonded together as a cast that comes from different generations.”
Frankie has been familiarising himself with wearing Jamie’s high heels. “They’re in the car right now!” he says, mid-interview at the Angel on the Green, in Bishopthorpe Road. “For the first ‘performance’ we did at York Pride, Nik said, ‘I’ve got something for you’ – and I saw the shoebox!
York Stage’s cast for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, including Joanne Theaker-Spencer’s Margaret (striped top) and Frankie Bounds’ Jamie New (front, centre)
“Bearing in mind I’d never worn heels before, it was almost like a rites of passage. You don’t walk ‘heel first’; it has to be ‘toe first’ – and it means I’m now over six feet tall! They’re much more comfortable now; bright red, of course. What else could they be?!”
Frankie’s dogs Billy and Bob [both of the small white Coton de Tulear breed, originally from Madagascar] were initially circumspect on encountering him in six-inch heels. “They didn’t like the sound of the shoes, or maybe it was my height in them. Hearing me stomping around in them as I cooked lunch, they would cower away,” he says.
Audiences surely will react very differently at the sight of Frankie, when everybody will be talking about more than Jamie’s shoes at the Grand Opera House.
York Stage in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Grand Opera House, York, October 16 to 24, 7.30pm except October 18 and 19; 2.30pm Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Stage’s poster for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York
Jacqueline Bell’s Captain Beverley Bass in York Stage’s Come From Away. All pictures: Felix Wahlberg
“WELCOME To Gander,” reads the sign, pictured in the York Stage programme. “Crossroads To The World”.
As an accompanying note explains, Gander, in Newfoundland, Canada, was once a major refuelling stop for transatlantic flights, its airport built to handle large aircraft, giving it the capacity to receive multiple unexpected landings.
In its heyday, Gander International Airport hosted The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Queen Elizabeth II, Frank Sinatra, Neil Armstrong and Muhammad Ali. In later years, on a normal day, six planes would pass through, but September 11 2001 was anything but normal.
Suddenly, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, under Operation Yellow Ribbon, it received 38 unexpected but now essential landings in only two and a half hours.
On board and now grounded on the runways were 7,000 international passengers, their fear, confusion and suspicion exacerbated by the information blackout. Gander’s population would almost double in that instant, and how that community responded is the stuff of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Tony Award-winning 2015 musical, now receiving its York premiere.
Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah, awaiting news of her New York firefighter son, in York Stage’s 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. For five days, Gander welcomed those “come from away” strangers to this temporary new-found land. Here are the facts: 10,000 meals were prepared daily; clothing donations were sorted and distributed, counselling services provided and entertainment arranged to lift spirits (such as the Kiss The Cod drinking game).
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 no less vital is the storytelling, rooted in Sankoff and Hein’s research visit to Gander and interviews with residents and passengers.
That gives the musical its narrative drive, one that encapsulates connection and communication between town and world, grounded as much in humour as the desperate uncertainty of what may have befallen loved ones in New York or Washington DC that morning.
Directed, produced and designed by Nik Briggs and choreographed by Danielle Mullan-Hill, Come From Away is first and foremost an ensemble piece, its 19-strong cast omnipresent, all pulling together to mirror the big-hearted story with its balance of comforting comic relief and sadness, rousing spirit and silent shock, good deeds and grief.
Gander’s residents singing Welcome To The Rock in York Stage’s Come From Away
Within that collective structure, Sankoff and Hein weave the individual tales of the resolute, stout, stentorian town mayor Claude (superb York Stage debutant Richard Billings); the first female American Airlines captain (Jacqueline Bell’s pilot Captain Beverley Bass, full of leadership steel); the mother of a New York firefighter (Jess Gardham’s heartbreaking Hannah); the young local news reporter thrown in at the deep end (Megan Day’s resourceful Janice) and an animal welfare devotee (Claire Morley’s Bonnie, as bonny as her name).
Love plays its part too: blossoming in the case of York Stage regular Stu Hutchinson’s typically stiff Englishman Nick and Lana Davies’s Diane; fracturing, however, for Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T and Faisal Khodabukus’s Kevin J. Both relationships, one burgeoning, the other dissolving, are played with just the right chemistry, the dialogue being typical of why it could be argued that Sankoff and Hein’s book is stronger than their songs.
The opening ensemble number Welcome To The Rock sets the musical and choreographic tone, with its high-energy, righteous fusion of Irish and folk vibrancy under Stephen Hackshaw’s muscular musical direction, with band members in view in the wings and later bursting into the well-deserved limelight for a party hoedown.
Against the backdrop of a map of Newfoundland and a red You Are Here neon sign, Briggs moves his cast around on chairs and tables on wheels that are reassembled and reconfigured constantly, even combining to form the cockpit and cabin of a plane.
This further enhances the relentless pace of Briggs’s well-drilled direction and Mullan-Hill’s thrilling choreography, putting the motion into commotion, albeit with the welcome breathing space of ballads for reflection for Bell’s Beverley (Me And The Sky) and trauma for Gardham’s Hannah (I Am Here). Everything initially is a rush, a scramble of emotions, a need for instant practical measures, but then countered by the agony of awaiting dreaded news.
Grant McIntyre’s Kevin T trying on a Newfoundland lumberjack’s shirt for size in York Stage’s Come From Away
That sense of unnatural haste in unnatural circumstances is heighted still more by a running time of only 100 minutes with no interval, compounded further by the regular drum beat of the bodhran.
The songs tend to rush by, full of zest and zing in the moment without having an X Factor hit among them, but the combination of Hackshaw’s band (keys, accordion, whistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, percussion, drums and even a Newfoundland ‘ugly stick’) and Briggs’s unerring ability to find outstanding singers give them greater impact than in the touring version that landed at Leeds Grand Theatre in May 2024.
Emily Hardy’s teacher Beulah, multi-rolling Traitors’ alumnus Theo Mayne, especially his Captain Bristol, and Chris Wilson’s quartet of roles, in particular Oz, all add strong characterisation, ably supported by Emily Davis, Adam Gill, Sarah Jackson, Adam Thompson, Rebecca Stevenson, Eleanor Grady and Kelly Kiernan.
Come From Away does Gander proud, York Stage does Come From Away proud, as “kindness, resilience and human connection in times of crisis” remind us of our humanity. How important that is, amid each new dawn’s screeching vitriol on Truth Social.
York Stage presents Come From Away,Grand Opera House, York, until April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday, plus 2.30pm Saturday matinees and 4pm Sunday matinee.Box office: atgtickets.com/york..Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The ‘ugly stick’, far left, makes its bouncy, percussive appearance in the party scene in York Stage’s Come From Away
York Stage’s full cast takes a seat for the York premiere of Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
THE York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s global hit musical Come From Away will land at the Grand Opera House tomorrow (10/4/2026).
“It’s one of the most powerful true stories ever told on stage,” says Nik Briggs, who is directing a cast of 19 in the Olivier and Tony Award winner. “If you’ve heard the buzz around this show worldwide, now is your chance to experience it right here in York.
“With just one day to go until opening night, excitement is building fast for what’s already becoming one of York Stage’s fastest-selling shows to date.”
Come From Away charts the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when 38 planes are diverted to the remote Newfoundland town of Gander, population 9,400, almost doubling that total in two hours.
The community responds by inviting these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts as unexpected friendships form, changing thousands of lives forever.
From Bake Off to take-off: York Stage director Nik Briggs, at the controls of Come From Away after starring in The Great British Bake-Off Musical last November
“Come From Away is more than just a musical,” says Nik. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.”
He recalls his introduction to the show. “One day, on a drive from York to Sunderland, setting off at 6am, I put the soundtrack on – one hour 40 minutes – and as I pulled up in the car park, I had to compose myself as I was sitting there sobbing,” says Nik. “For me, structurally, and the way the piece is brought together, it’s just perfection.”
He has a philosophy on tears being shed in the theatre. “I’m a big believer that, to make an audience cry, you don’t want to see crying on stage,” he says.
“I love working with emotional texts and I like to think York Stage has had success with them over the years, but there’s something about how, in real life, when you see someone at their worst, as a human being, you want to embrace them and be there for them, whereas if you see someone being brave, or just carrying on or holding back the tears, that’s when you’ll cry more. That’s always been the approach I’ve had with shows where there’s real emotion.”
Nik continues: “Albeit that Come From Away’s story is associated with the events of 9/11, it’s not about that tragedy, but the ripple effect it had: how a Canadian community came together with compassion. That’s what’s celebrated in this show; that humanity.
Just landed: York Stage’s cast for Come From Away. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
“Twenty-five years on from those terrorist attacks, the compassion and humanity shown in Gander is what’s needed in the world now, and some would argue even more so. There’s no baddie in Come From Away. We all know what’s going on in New York that day, where there is a baddie, but though we see fear, we see uneasiness, and at first we see prejudices in Gander, we don’t see a villain. This is a show about something totally different from that.”
Come From Away stands apart in its instrumentation and musical arrangements too. “It’s not typical musical theatre instrumentation,” says Nik, who is working in tandem with musical director Stephen Hackshaw. “Instead it features musical instruments associated with Newfoundland, such as the bodhran [drum] and the ‘ugly stick’, a welly boot fitted with a mop head, bottle tops and tin cans.”
Thanks to cast member Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass, York Stage’s show will feature the aforementioned ‘ugly stick’, and thereby hangs a tale. “After getting the part in our production and doing some research, she had some time off booked to go on holiday but hadn’t booked anywhere,” says Nik.
“She said she just felt compelled to go to Gander – I said I felt the same! – and so off she went! What you hear about Operation Yellow Ribbon [Canada’s handling of the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the 9/11 attacks] may sound too good to be true, or you wonder if it has been slightly ‘musical theatre-ised’ in Come From Away, but no, that community spirit was very much present.
“Before going there in February, Jacqui emailed a few places, saying, ‘I know you’re not running tours at this time of year, but I’m in the cast for the show in York, can you help?’. The Gander community put out a plea to put together a personal tour for her.”
Jacqueline Bell, who will play Captain Beverley Bass and Annette in Come From Away, flew out to Gander and returned with an ‘ugly stick’. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
What happened next? “Rodgers TV reporter Brian Mosher, on whom one of the Come From Away characters is partly based, turned up and surprised Jacqui! He took her round all the places that featured in the story – and she stayed in the hotel where Captain Beverley Bass had stayed,” says Nik, who recommends looking up Jacqui’s video blogs from Gander on York Stage’s Facebook site.
“On her return to rehearsals, she said that everything that was ‘too good to be true’ about the people of Gander was true. Apparently, there was even one thing that had happened that the musical producers decided ‘we can’t have that in the show as no-one would believe it’ – when a rainbow formed as the last of the 38 planes took off again.”
Jacqueline brought back the all-important ‘ugly stick’, bought for the equivalent of £100. “We’ve affectionately called it ‘Brian Mosher’ in rehearsals,” says Nik.
As for his travel plans, they extend rather further than York to Sunderland as dawn breaks. “Gander is somewhere I’m determined to visit now,” he vows.
York Stage presents Come From Away,Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow (10/4/2026) to April 18, 7.30pm nightly, except Sunday and Monday; 2.30pm, Saturday matinees; 4pm, Sunday matinee.Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York linocut printmaker and wildlife artist Gerard Hobson with one of his 13 bird boxes for the Castle Howard Easter Family Trail. Picture: David Scott
FROM a bird box trail and Vanbrugh’s architecture at Castle Howard to Horrible Histories in concert and a very hungry caterpillar, Charles Hutchinson embraces Easter’s extra spring in the step.
Birdlife event of the week: Castle Howard Easter Family Trail, Castle Howard Gardens & Arboretum, near York, until April 19
CASTLE Howard has collaborated with York artist and printmaker Gerard Hobson on a new interactive Easter trail, comprising 13 handmade wooden bird boxes installed for a springtime adventure across Castle Howard Gardens and the Arboretum.
The boxes house Hobson’s linocuts of birds, including swallow, magpie, woodpecker and wren, as part of a story designed for children as they all prepare for spring. “Young explorers will discover interesting facts about our feathered friends and learn more about their homes along the way,” he says. Admission is included in Castle Howard and Arboretum day tickets at castlehoward.co.uk/castlehowardarboretumtrust.org.
James B Partridge: Teaching the world to sing Primary School Bangers at York Barbican. Picture: Rebecca Johnson
“School” concert of the week: James B Partridge, Primary School Bangers, York Barbican, tonight, doors 7pm
TEACHER James B Partridge brings his viral hit show Primary School Bangers to York for a night of massive singalongs, throwback mash-ups and tongue-in-cheek humour. What started in the classroom has become a nationwide phenomenon – from Glastonbury to sold-out theatres – as James leads audiences through the songs that defined school days.
“Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or just someone who remembers every word to He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, this one’s for you,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Architect Roz Barr: Curator and designer of Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard. Picture: Carole Poirot
Exhibition of the week: Staging The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard, on show at Castle Howard, near York, until October 31
STAGING The Baroque: Vanbrugh At Castle Howard celebrates its creator, the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), on the 300th anniversary of his death.
Designed and curated by architect Roz Barr, the exhibition chronicles the story of the stately home’s creation, exploring Vanbrugh’s visionary use of scale, shadow and light and his creative relationship with the third Earl of Carlisle, as shown in letters by Vanbrugh on public display for the first time. Tickets: castlehoward.co.uk.
Chris Helme: Showcasing new album Forest For The Trees at Rise@Bluebird Bakery
Recommended but sold out already: Chris Helme, Forest For The Trees Album Launch, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, April 5 and 6, doors 7.30pm
YORK songwriter and former Seahorses frontman Chris Helme plays a brace of official album launch gigs for Forest For The Trees after a busy 2025 touring his World Of My Own album.
Helme returned to the studio to record stripped-back versions of raw, soulful and bruised songs from his 30-year back catalogue. Forest For The Trees is the first of an ongoing series of recordings, showcasing gently crafted versions of Love Me & Leave Me, Standing On Your Head and other Seahorses classics and more besides.
Harrie Hayes’s Queen Elizabeth I makes her point to Richard David-Caine’s William Shakespeare in Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage! Picture: Matt Crockett
“The ultimate first concert for children”: Horrible Histories: The Concert, Live And Dead On Stage!, York Barbican, April 6, 2.30pm and 6.30pm; April 7, 11am and 3pm
FOR the first time, favourite songs and actors from Horrible Histories’ CBBC TV series will be live – and dead! – on stage in York. When Queen Elizabeth I asks William Shakespeare to create the greatest show on earth, he runs into trouble with monstrous King Henry VIII and Queen Victoria.
Once Death appears, Boudica and Cleopatra want to take over! Can things turn any worse? Of course they can! Cue songs such as Stupid Deaths, Charles II, Dick Turpin and The Monarchs Song, performed to a band led by Horrible Histories’ song master, Richie Webb. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jason Fox: Helping you to reboot your thinking and challenge your limits at York Barbican
Advice of the week: Jason Fox: Embrace The Chaos, York Barbican, April 8, 7.30pm
SOME people are built to embrace the chaos. Adventurer, Royal Marine Commando and UK Special Forces soldier Jason Fox is one of them, having survived myriad hostile outposts as an elite operator, documentary maker and expedition leader.
In his new show, Foxy shares stories of his close brushes with enemy gunmen, terrorist bomb makers and cartel leaders, while revealing his strategies for surviving and thriving in environments as life-threatening as the Arctic Circle and Afghan Badlands. Using principles from his military operations, he will help you to reboot your thinking, challenge your limits, change your habits, transform and rebalance your life – and he will answer audience questions too. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Clowning skills aplenty in Out Of The Box at Helmsley Arts Centre
Family show of the week: Darryl J Carrington in Out Of The Box, Helmsley Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm
DARRYL J Carrington transforms everyday objects into extraordinary adventures in Out Of The Box, where a toothbrush stars in a balancing act, a string sparks a heist and a tea party lands on someone’s head in an hour of joyful chaos, jaw-dropping skill and irresistible fun.
Carrington brings five-star Edinburgh Fringe reviews, the Brighton Fringe’s Best Family Show prize and more than 20 years of circus and clowning experience to his silent comedy’s blend of juggling, inventive physical theatre and audience interaction. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Professor Danny and lab assistant Crazy Kazy in Top Secret’s show The Magic Of Science, High Voltage
Fun experiments of the week: Top Secret in The Magic Of Science, High Voltage, Pocklington Arts Centre, April 9, 2pm
JOIN Top Secret as they go on a high-voltage adventure, The Magic Of Science, to ask the question “Is it magic…or is it science?” in a fast-moving, colourful, interactive show filled with mystery, suspense, experiments and loads of mess.
Danny Hunt and Stephanie Clarke take on the guise of Professor Danny and his lab assistant Crazy Kazy as they fuse the mystery of magic with wondrous and miraculous feats of science. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Abigail Bailey and the meal-seeking caterpillar in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, munching its way through York Theatre Royal. Picture: Pamela Raith
Children’s show of the week: ROYO presents The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, York Theatre Royal, April 9 to 11; Thursday, 2pm and 4pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am and 2pm
CREATED by Jonathan Rockefeller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show features 75 lovable puppets in a faithful 50-minute adaptation of four stories by author/illustrator Eric Carle:Brown Bear, Brown Bear, 10 Little Rubber Ducks, The Very Busy Spider and the titular star of the show.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar has delighted generations of readers since its publication in 1969, selling more than 48 million copies worldwide. Telling those tales will be a cast of Abigail Bailey, Oliver Davis, Connor Keetley and Amber Wadey. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tribute act at the double of the week: Nic Cage Against The Machine, The Crescent, York, April 10, 7.30pm
MOVE over Elvana, the covers- band conflation of Elvis and Nirvana. Here comes the even wilder Nic Cage Against The Machine, a tribute to Californian rock band Rage Against The Machine, fronted by an homage to Hollywood ‘s Nouveau Shamanic method actor supreme Nicolas Cage, with props. “Not sure what more you’re looking for here – if you’re not sold already I don’t know what to tell you,” says The Crescent website. Leeds fun punks Moose Knuckle support. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
York Stage cast members in Come From Away, making its York debut at the Grand Opera House. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Musical of the week: York Stage in Come From Away, Grand Opera House, York, April 10 to 18, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Saturday matinees 2.30pm; Sunday matinee, 4pm
NIK Briggs directs the York premiere of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Olivier and Tony Award-winning musical account of the real-life story of 7,000 air passengers being grounded in Canada in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, whereupon the small Newfoundland community of Gander invites these “come from aways” into their lives with open hearts.
Performed by a cast of 19, Come From Away is “more than just a musical,” says Briggs. “It’s a celebration of humanity, resilience and the power of community. Step into a world where kindness conquers all, brought to life with invigorating, electrifying music and stories that will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the goodness of people.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Brief Encounter actor Cyril Raymond and stage actress Janet Morrison, with Nicholas Crosse, the son he never met and was given up for adoption by Janet, a story told for the first time in Joanna Crosse’s documentary Briefest Encounters
Film event of the week: Brief Encounter, Briefest Encounters and Q&A, City Screen Picturehouse, York, April 10, 7pm
NEXT Friday’s screening of the 80th anniversary restoration of David Lean’s Brief Encounter (PG) will be followed by North Rigton-raised journalist, researcher and filmmaker Joanna Crosse’s new documentary, uncovering the untold love story behind the 1945 film, revealing the hidden past of her grandfather, actor Cyril Raymond, who played Laura’s cuckolded husband Fred.
In an uncanny twist of fate, Raymond had a ‘brief encounter’ with actress Janet Morrison during a transatlantic stage production in 1929 that resulted in a child being born out of wedlock. Cinema myth meets lived experience in Briefest Encounters as interviews, letters, Raymond’s rediscovered diaries and archive material show how interrupted love, inherited silence and duty shaped family lives for generations. Crosse and fellow Meaningful Films filmmaker Luke Taylor will take part in a Q&A afterwards. Box office: picturehouses.com.
In Focus: James Graham’s Punch, Leeds Playhouse, April 7 to 11
Jack James Ryan’s Jacob in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
OLIVIER Award-winning playwright James Graham’s Punch is a true story of hope, humanity and the possibility of change.
Based on Jacob Dunne book Right From Wrong, it tells Jacob’s story of being a Nottingham teenager from The Meadows estate who spent his Saturday nights seeking thrills with his friends.
One fateful weekend, an impulsive punch leads to fatal consequences. After serving prison time, Jacob finds himself lost and directionless. Searching for answers, Joan and David – the parents of his victim James Hodgkinson – ask to meet, sparking a profound transformation in Jacob’s life.
Jacob’s unflinching account of the power of forgiveness sparked courthouse discussion and parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on the topic of Restorative Justice at the time of Punch’s 2024 premiere at the Nottingham Playhouse. The play was even cited by a judge when sentencing a one-punch case.
Finty Williams, left, Matthew Flynn, Grace Hodgett Young, Elan Butler (hidden), Jack James Ryan and Laura Tebbutt in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
Nottingham playwright Graham is one of Great Britain’s most celebrated writers, winning multiple Olivier Awards, as well as receiving BAFTA, Emmy and Tony Award nominations. His political drama This House opened at Leeds Playhouse in 2018. Now he returns to the Leeds theatre from April 7 to 11 with the energetic, entertaining but heartbreaking Punch after runs in London and on Broadway last year.
To complement Graham’s play, a Talking Circle structure will sit front of house to provide a space for audiences to gather and reflect on the performance, while post-show discussions on related themes will be led by expert speakers.
Graham was awarded the Longford Trust’s Kevin Pakenham Award for Punch, joined on the honours’ board by David Shields, winner of the Best Performance in a Play prize at the 2024 UK Theatre Awards 2024 for his lead role in the premiere.
On tour, the role of Jacob will be played by Jack James Ryan (Sing Street, Lyric Hammersmith; Coronation Street, ITV), joined in Adam Penford’s cast by Elan Butler (The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return, Southwark Playhouse and UK Tour; Masters Of The Air, Apple TV+) as Raf and Sam and Matthew Flynn (The Winter’s Tale, Royal Shakespeare Company; Say Nothing, Disney/FX) as David, the father of James Hodgkinson.
Finty Williams’s Joan and Matthew Flynn’s David, James’s parents in Punch. Picture: Pamela Raith
In the company too will be Olivier-nominated Grace Hodgett Young (Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre/St James Theatre; Hadestown, Lyric Theatre) as Clare and Nicola; Laura Tebbutt (Mrs Doubtfire, Shaftesbury Theatre; School Of Rock, Gillian Lynne Theatre) as Jacob’s mum and Wendy and Finty Williams (The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, national tour; Run Away, Netflix) as James’s mother, Joan.
The original creative team returns, including production designer Anna Fleischle (Death Of A Salesman, Broadway; 2:22 A Ghost Story, Young Vic Theatre); lighting designer Robbie Butler (How To Win Against History, Bristol Old Vic; Death In Venice, Welsh National Opera); sound designer and composer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite (Work It Out, HOME; Lost And Found, Factory International) and movement director Leanne Pinder (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, Mountview; Disruption, The Park Theatre).
Punch is dedicated to the memory of James Hodgkinson and all victims of one punch. “James dedicated his life to the helping and healing,” says playwright James Graham in his programme note. “His 28 years were a testament to his outlook and his values – a volunteer, a mentor, a paramedic. He was loved by his family and friends, and he gave love in return.
“Theatre can and should be a restorative space of empathy, and increased understanding. We hope to honour and do justice to the man James was.”
Nottingham Playhouse, in association with KPPL Productions, Mark Gordon Pictures and Eilene Davidson Productions, presents Punch, Leeds Playhouse, April 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 1pm Thursday and 2pm Saturday matinees. Age guidance: 12 plus. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or leedsplayhouse.org.uk.
Oops! Nik Briggs’s big Ben sees his Big Ben showstopper topple over in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Photography
NIK Briggs’s York premiere of Jake Brunger & Pippa Cleary’s musical spoof could not be better timed, opening the night after the final to series 16 of Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, most notable for the winner’s Showstopper being the largest cake in the show’s history.
It measured 1.2 metres in length, should you be wondering. Nothing is baked on quite that scale beneath York Stage’s tented stage decked in bunting and banter, but more than 50 models of cakes have been made in foam and Polystyrene for Technical Challenges and Showstoppers alike.
‘Bake Off’ is the first musical where the Showstopper meets the show-stopper, drawing the increasingly trim producer-director Briggs back to the boards for his first principal role since Shrek – his 2020 pantomime cow doesn’t count! – to sing two of the peachiest numbers, My Dad (with Eady Mensah’s Lily, his chaperoned daughter) and The Perfect Petit Fours (with Harriet Yorke’s outstanding Gemma).
Bake Off contestants for starters:Stu Hutchinson’s Russell, left, Harriet Yorke’s Gemma, Joanne Theaker’s Babs, Grant McIntyre’s Dezza, Alana Blacker’s Francesca, Nik Briggs’s Ben and Fredo’s Hassan
Briggs’s widowed Bristol police detective Ben – “the cooking copper” – and Yorke’s Blackpool carer Gemma are two of the eight contestants, each with a back story and motive for competing to be revealed in song, like cutting through a multi-layered cake.
Joanne Theaker’s Babs, thrice married and looking for a fourth, is a lemon-sharp East London school dinner lady prone to euphemisms and giving back as good as she gets from Chris Wilson’s droll, Knock Knock joke-telling Phil Hollinghurst (the Paul Hollywood caricature).
Grant McIntyre’s powerfully voiced Dezza is the forceful vegan hipster environmentalist with a No Butter policy; Alana Blacker’s Francesca is a thirtysomething primary-school teacher, from Bognor via Bologna, bringing her Nonna’s traditional Italian recipes with her.
Joanne Theaker’s Babs on top form in Babs’ Lament, a show-stopper of the musical kind in The Great British Bake Off Musical
In his musical theatre debut, York busker Fredo (Sudeep Pandey) is Syrian-born Wembley teenager Hassan, with his lucky T-shirt and happy-go-lucky demeanour. In scene-stealing mode, York Stage regular Stu Hutchinson’s Russell is an aeronautical engineer, married to Mario, as camp as a tent and determined to apply science and spreadsheets to his experimental bakes.
Amy Barrett’s Izzy, the 21-year-old Cambridge student of Home Counties stock, is posh and pushy, taking the biscuit for being so ruthlessly determined to win, dreaming of books deals, TV series.
Introducing proceedings, teasing and goading as the heat rises, are Sam Roberts’s Jim and Mary Clare’s Kim (“Mel and Sue, who?”, they say), while Tracey Rae’s bespectacled grand dame Pam Lee fills the Prue Leith slot with polished glitter and nudge-nudge-wink-wink banter.
Having her cake and eating too much of it: Amy Barrett’s win-at-all-costs Izzy, front and centre, where else, in The Great British Bake Off Musical
Brunger and Cleary bring affection, rather more than tension, to the tent, sending up Hollywood’s motorbike riding, Leith’s myriad business deals and love of a tipple in a recipe, and the baking-hot baking conditions that always befall one episode per series.
All the while, the elimination fun and games must be played out, concertinaed largely into one song, Don’t Send Me Home, with ever reducing numbers and ever-changing harmony demands for the diminishing contestants.
Everyone has their solo moment to parade their singing chops, Theaker’s Babs excelling in the pathos of Babs’ Lament and Yorke’s Gemma rising to the occasion in Rise. Wilson’s Hollinghurst and Rae’s Dame Pam have a rather sweet moment in I’d Never Be Me Without You.
Harriet Yorke’s Gemma: Rising to the occasion in Rise
Bubbling away throughout – as the tables disappear one by one, cakes crumble and contestants tumble – is the growing bond of Briggs’s Ben and Yorke’s Gemma, both in slow recovery from loss, to provide the obligatory love interest of the piece. Eady Mensah’s Lily (in a role to be shared with Abigail Hodgson, Ella Laister and Megan Pickard ) is a delightful conduit between them.
In style, Bake Off echoes most closely the humour and musical diversity of Victoria Wood’s patter songs and Tim Firth & Gary Barlow’s Calendar Girls. The underscore music of the TV series filters cleverly through the songs, ranging from big bluesy ballads to Chicago and Cabaret pastiches.
Songs have a tendency to go on too long, to overegg the moment, to be layered on a bit too thick – you get the picture – but the humorous dialogue is well timed under Briggs’s joyous direction and Danielle Mullan Hill’s musical staging is whisked into pleasing shapes. Likewise, Stephen Hackshaw’s band is on egg-cracking good form throughout, revelling in Jessica Viner’s arrangements.
And then there were seven: York Stage’s Bake Off contestants in the firing line for elimination: Joanne Theaker’s Babs, far left, Fredo’s Hassan, Nik Briggs’s Ben, Stu Hutchinson’s Russell, Harriet Yorke’s Gemma, Amy Barrett’s Izzy and Alana Blacker’s Francesca
We know that Edinburgh-born medical student Jasmine Mitchell won the Bake Off glass cake stand on Tuesday, but who triumphs in York Stage’s Great British Bake Off? Not telling, except to say that you’re the winner if you buy a ticket. Hollyhurst/Hollywood handshakes all round for a recipe delivered so creamily.
Iced buns being handed out on the forecourt before the show was the icing on the cake.
York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Well judged performances by Tracey Rea’s Pam Lee and Chris Wilson’s Phil Hollinghurst in The Great British Bake Off Musical
Introducing Fredo, playing Hassan in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical
YORK busker Fredo is making his first venture into musical theatre in York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off as Syrian-born Hassan, a 17-year-old student now living in Wembley, London.
Originally from Nepal, Fredo (real name Sudeep Pandey) came to York to study. He took up director-producer Nik Briggs’s invitation to step into the breach when the original actor, from elsewhere in Yorkshire, had to pull out on the first day or rehearsals.
“York Stage has always been committed to authentic casting, but within York’s acting community there are not a lot of Asian male actors,” says Nik. “I’d seen Fredo busking in York with his fantastic voice, so I looked up his details, contacted him and said ‘would you be interested in playing Hassan?’.
“He said ‘yeah’, and came down straightaway that night to start, with only five weeks of rehearsals to go. It’s his first time in a musical, his first time without his guitar on the street. He said, ‘five weeks ago, I didn’t even know what a musical was’!
Fredo: York busker making musical theatre debut in The Great British Bake Off Musical this week
“It’s been great to support him through his first stage show. He’s just so loveable. He has the biggest heart.”
Fredo’s programme note states: “Fredo has built a reputation for his soulful vocals, intricate guitar work and dynamic live performances across Yorkshire’s vibrant music scene.
“Drawing inspiration from both Nepali roots and British contemporary sounds, his music blends cultures and genres with authenticity and heart.”
Catch Fredo busking, playing gigs or doing open-mic nights around York. When not performing, he continues to write, record and share his original music with audiences both locally and online.
Recipe for success: Brew & Brownie baker Mary Clare in rehearsal for her role as hostess Kim in York Stage’s Great British Bake Off Musical
Did you know?
JESSICA Viner and Stephen Hackshaw are sharing musical director duties for York Stage’s The Great British Bake Off Musical. “Jess has been with us for all the rehearsals and was set to be the MD for all the shows, but then she was offered the chance to do Singin’ In The Rain in China for three months – having just done the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang UK tour for a year,” says director Nik Briggs.
“Stephen was with us for the first week and will lead the band and conduct us through the shows, having worked with the band last week.”
Did you know too?
YORK Stage cast member Mary Clare (playing Bake Off hostess Kim) is a professional baker, baking for Brew & Brownie, in Museum Street, York. “It’s been hilarious in rehearsals, when there’s been lots of slow-motion ‘baking’ going on, and Mary will say, ‘oh, no, that’s not how you use that implement’, ‘oh, no, that’s not how you sieve’!” says director Nik Briggs. “She’s been our ad-hoc baking expert in the rehearsal room.”
Bake Off hosts Jim (Sam Roberts) and Kim (Mary Clare) mucking around in York Stage’s York premiere
Nik Briggs’s cooking copper, Ben, and Harriet Yorke’s carer, Gemma, become entwined in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
YORK Stage will be rising to the occasion in the York premiere of The Great British Bake Off Musical from Wednesday (5/11/2025) to Saturday at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.
Nik Briggs’s cast will be putting the tension into the tent – and the fun bite into the bun fight – in the familiar journey from never-wracking technical challenges to triumphant showstoppers as eight contestants seek to avoid soggy bottoms en route to impressing judges Phil Hollinghurst (Chris Wilson) and Pam Lee (Tracey Rea).
“Prepare yourself for an emotional rollercoaster ride, where cakes crumble, friendships form and dreams become delicious reality,” says director and producer Nik. “It’s a show that proves baking isn’t just about the final product, it’s about the journey and the joy that comes from sharing that journey with others.”
He was determined to snap up the show for York Stage. “It started off in July 2022 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, then transferred to the West End [Noel Coward Theatre, February 24 to May 13 2023], and when the rights became available earlier this year, we were straight in there with our application!
“It’s a show by Jake Brunger [book and lyrics] and Pippa Cleary [music and lyrics], who did the 2015 musical The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, and this show has gone the furthest for them since then. It’s gorgeous! It has the perfect recipe: it’s got comedy, real heart, it’s so British – and it knows how to poke fun at the great national institution that Bake Off has become, but at the same time hold it in respect.”
The show is built around Brunger and Cleary’s original songs. “A lot of the humour comes in the wordplay and the lyrics, which are reminiscent of Victoria Wood’s patter songs, so rehearsals have been so funny,” says Nik. “It’s just been a lovely experience, which is just what you need when you’re rehearsing a show in only five weeks, whereas we normally do ten.
“Traditionally in musicals, you have your principals and the chorus singing the rousing chorus in harmony four times in the same song, but with this show, you have your Bake Off contestants being eliminated, so you have fewer people to do the harmonies as the show goes on – and everyone’s harmonies then swap too!”
Nik continues: “There’s one song with four choruses, where I sing different parts with different harmonies in every chorus! Those harmonies are gorgeous – and as Bake Off fans will recognise, all the big numbers are based on the underscore music from the TV series.
“It’s so clever the way it’s been done. The audience will think, ‘what a gorgeous, heart-filled British comedy’ it is, and they will realise what hard work has gone into it when people thought it might be twee, but it really isn’t.”
The Bake Off musical condenses the path of a full TV series into one show, replete with the aforementioned technical challenges, show stoppers, eliminations by the musical’s answer to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith all introduced and jollied along by hosts Jim (Sam Roberts) and Kim (Mary Clare).
“Like in the TV series, we learn about their home life, why they’re doing Bake-Off. Like Izzy (Amy Barrett), the Cambridge graduate, who’s very competitive, desperate to win and thinking of the big deals that might come from winning.
“There’s a school dinner lady, who’s just there for the experience, and the environmentalist, who will not cook with butter and insists on everything being vegan. There’s a carer and policeman, both at a new stage in their lives, and we see them connecting with each other as the competition progresses.”
The policeman, Ben, will be played by Nik. “His daughter Lily is with him for reasons that will become clear, and I have four of my York Stage School students, Eady Mensah, Abigail Hodgson, Ella Laister and Meg Pickard, sharing the role,” he says.
Now so busy directing York Stage shows and running York Stage School, Nik is seldom to be seen on stage. Indeed Ben will be his first principal role since leading the cast in green in Shrek The Musical in September 2019 at the Grand Opera House.
“When I first came by the show, there is this duet that Ben sings with Lily, and though it’s very rare these days, I thought, ‘ooh, I would love to sing that’, when nowadays I’m much more comfortable on the other side, directing.
“I still felt that way about the song after a few months, so I decided that I would scratch that [performing] itch once in a decade!”
Nik has been turning his hand to another skill. “We have to make 50-odd cake and pastry props,” he says. “We’ve been designing and making them ourselves, using various crafts, like making things out of Polystyrene and foam. After this interview, I’m off to finish off the Eiffel Tower and Blackpool Tower cakes!”
How does he rate his own baking skills? “I’m rubbish with pastry as I have hot hands, when cold hands are good for pastry making, but back in the day, I was quite renowned for my sponges and cakes in food tech at school,” says Nik. “But in lockdown, I just lost the knack. Neither of my banana breads worked, so I gave up.”
York Stage’s show could not be better timed. “This year’s final is on Channel 4 tomorrow night[4/11/2025); we open on Wednesday. Some people might think it was planned!” says Nik.
York Stage in The Great British Bake Off Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, November 5 to 8, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
York Stage’s poster to announce next October’s production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York
YORK Stage will present a “bold and gritty” new production of Sheffield-forged musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Grand Opera House, York, from October 16 to 24 2026.
Hold on. Didn’t York Stage perform Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae’s award-winning show at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, in June 2023? Yes indeed, but that was the York premiere of the Teen Version, starring Ryan Addyman, from Knaresborough, in the title role in his York Stage debut.
Now, director Nik Briggs has decided to re-imagine the award-winning musical with a “raw, authentic edge, capturing the electricity, humour and heart that has made Jamie a modern British classic”. How? By diving deeper into Jamie’s world.
Ryan Addyman as Jamie New in York Stage’s June 2023 York premiere of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Teen Edition. Picture: Matthew Kitchen
Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Dan Gillespie Sells (from Horsham’s finest pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist Tom MacRae worked their magic from an original idea by director and co-writer Jonathan Butterell for the 2017 Sheffield Crucible Theatre premiere.
Inspired by a true story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows 16-year-old Jamie New, who doesn’t quite fit in. Supported by his loving mum and his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps into the spotlight to become the star he was born to be.
York Stage’s 2026 production promises a fresh take on the hit West End show, blending Gillespie Sells’s infectious pop score and MacRae’s fearless, humorous book with York Stage’s trademark theatrical grit and emotional honesty.
Nik Briggs: Directing York Stage’s 2026 production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
“This is a story about identity, courage and the power of self-expression,” says Nik. “Our new production will dive deeper into Jamie’s world – its highs, its heartache and its hope – and celebrate the beautiful mess of growing up different in a northern city. We can’t wait to share this version with York audiences.”
Next October’s full-scale production will feature a vibrant cast and professional creative team, marking another landmark moment for York Stage at the Grand Opera House. Tickets will go on sale soon at atgtickets.com/york.
Did you know?
EVERYBODY’S Talking About Jamie was last staged in York by Pick Me Up Theatre at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in July 2025, when 15-year-old York schoolboy Harvey Stevens took the lead role of Jamie New.
Over the rainbow: Erin Childs’ Dorothy Gale performing the opening number in York Stage’s The Wizard Of Oz
APOLOGIES for taking so long to be off to see the Wizard – Prague holiday prevailed – but there is still time to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Grand Opera House.
That road starts outside the auditorium, a lovely welcoming touch by York Stage, whose abundantly colourful production is directed and produced by Nik Briggs, with fabulous ensemble choreography by Damien Poole and thrilling, resourceful musical direction by Jessica Viner, whose birthday happened to fall on the performance attended by your reviewer.
Such is the attention to detail that the Tannoy interval music includes Carry On Wayward Son by…Kansas, and it is to Kansas that we must head for L Frank Baum’s one heck of a weird story, so memorably converted from his 1900 novel to a film wonderland for Judy Garland as over-the-rainbow farm girl Dorothy Gale in 1939.
Vintage performance: Stu Hutchinson’s Tin Man
A-level student Erin Childs takes that iconic ruby slipper-clicking role in York Stage’s show, in tow with Toto, played by Briggs’s dog Freddie, leaving his mark on the production in more way than one with an urgent deposit, and, once on that yellow brick road by Elanor Kitchen’s puppet, handled so dextrously by puppeteer Sarah Jackson. No such mishap for the puppet.
Childs’ Dorothy hits the heights from the off with her rendition of Over The Rainbow, familiar yet with a finale that brings more resonance to the words. Kansas accent spot on, fringe flopping over her eyes, she leads Briggs’s high-spectacle staging of John Kane’s Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation with appropriate pluck and persistence, although her speaking voice tends towards being high pitched at times.
After the spectacular tornado de force of the storm scene, propelled by Adam Moore’s magical evocation of a twister that tosses Dorothy’s bed hither and thither, she is joined on the journey to Emerald City by Florence Poskitt’s Scarecrow, Stu Hutchinson’s Tin Man and Finn East’s Lion (having played the Guard in Pick Me Up Theatre’s 2018 production).
Magical: Carly Morton’s Glinda
Poskitt, one half of musical duo Fladam, is a supremely expressive physical comedic talent, perfectly suited to the wobbly legged, woolly thinking Scarecrow, but every so often her lines were wont to lose clarity as sentences lengthened. Nevertheless, her performance is a work of clowning joy.
Hutchinson’s Tin Man conducts himself like a matinee idol from a Hollywood cigarette card series with just the right air of camp. Even better is Finn East’s Lion, his natural stage warmth, playfulness and show-stealing presence on full throttle. If I Were King Of The Forest had always been one of the lesser tunes in Harold Arlen and EY Harburg’s score…until now, when East parades his full vocal range like a latterday Meat Loaf.
Carly Morton’s Aunt Em/Glinda spars splendidly with Emily Alderson’s curmudgeonly Miss Glutch and green-with-envy Wicked Witch of the West, while Ian Giles picks up where he left off in reprising his Pick Me Up dual roles as Professor Marvel and the Wizard Of Oz with avuncular aplomb, aided by a giant screen representation of the Wizard’s face with Giles’s distinctively thick head of hair.
The green party: a stylish ensemble scene in York Stage’s The Wizard Of Oz
Ensemble supporting roles for Munchkins, Winkies and more besides are played with abundant energy by adults and juniors alike, at their best in Munchkinland and especially The Jitterbug.
Briggs calls on the costume wizardry of Charades and Sheffield Theatres, as well as York Stage resources, while Shone Productions’ set is top notch too. The poppy field dance is a particular delight.
Viner works her musicians to full capacity, taking on such familiar songs with relish as York Stage’s The Wizard Of Oz feels very much at home at the Grand Opera House.
York Stage in The Wizard Of Oz, Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Flo Poskitt’s Scarecrow, left, Stu Hutchinson’s Tin Man, Erin Childs’ Dorothy Gale and Finn East’s Lion in York Stage’s The Wizard Of Oz
Erin Childs’ Dorothy looking out of the farm window
ERIN Childs is feeling at home in the lead role of Dorothy as York Stage skip down the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard Of Oz at the Grand Opera House, York.
“It’s so iconic,” says the 17-year-old A-level student from Dunnington, sitting in the Cumberland Street theatre’s foyer bar before performing songs from the show at a Networking and Meet The Team evening last Wednesday.
“I’m quite young to be playing Dorothy as it’s a very big role. I’m so grateful for the opportunity with a company that has such professional standards.”
Erin, who is studying Musical Theatre among four A-levels from this term, will take to the stage from Friday buoyed by achieving her LAMDA Grade 8 Award. “I got a distinction!” she says excitedly.
For the past seven years, she has trained under The Wizard Of Oz director Nik Briggs at York Stage School, making her mark in a series of York Stage shows.
“My first was The Sound Of Music, when I played Brigitta von Trapp, and I’ve also done Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, playing Pritti Pasha at the Grand Opera House, and in May I was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream [set on a modern-day northern council state],” says Erin. “I was a chav fairy, Peaseblossom, and it was a very fun show to do.”
Erin Childs’ Dorothy with Toto (Freddie) in a field at York Maze
How is her American accent coming along for farm girl Dorothy? “I would say we’re doing it more generalised American than Kansas, just to save on confusion, because Kansas is a midwestern American accent, which might be confusing, and we have to make it as accessible as possible,” says Erin.
She is looking forward to “bringing my own twist” to Dorothy in what she describes as “a kind of modernised” take on The Sound Of Music’s heartwarming tale of friendship, courage and the belief that there’s no place like home.
Erin’s Dorothy, her dog Toto and her friends, the Scarecrow (Flo Poskitt), Tin Man (Stu Hutchinson) and Cowardly Lion (Finn East), must journey to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (Ian Giles).
In navigating the enchanting landscape of Oz, Dorothy will be watched closely by Glinda, the Good Witch (Carly Morton) as the Wicked Witch of the West (Emily Alderson) plots to thwart Dorothy’s quest and reclaim the magical ruby slippers.
“She’s going on this emotional journey, a journey of self-discovery, that everyone goes on with her, as she really embodies that we’re all searching for the same things – especially love – as we all have the same emotions,” says Erin. “She also finds love in herself, accepting who she is.”
She is thrilled by the prospect of singing Over The Rainbow. “It’s so special; a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Everyone knows the song, and the fact that I have this opportunity is incredible,” she says. “The Jitterbug is brilliant to do too because of the fantastic choreography that goes with it.”
Erin Childs’ Dorothy walking through the maze at York Maze in her ruby slippers
Erin will perform with not one but two Totos. “We have a puppet Toto, commissioned from Elanor Kitchen, and ‘real’ Toto, our director Nik’s dog, Freddie,” she says. “Nepotism at its finest,” Nik jokes.
“I’ve worked with Freddie at nearly every rehearsal to get that bond with him. He’s very unpredictable but his cuteness will override everything.”
If Freddie is a new acquaintance, Erin has worked with all her fellow principal cast members previously. “They’re phenomenal. What they bring to life in their characters is just amazing,” she says.
Erin has had a busy summer, combining The Wizard Of Oz rehearsals with working in the entertainments team at York Maze under York actor, entertainer and magician Josh Benson. “It’s involved lots of hosting and dancing,” she says. “Hopefully I’ll be doing the Halloween show there this year too.”
York Maze, by the way, has played its part in York Stage’s publicity campaign for The Wizard Of Oz. Photographs of Erin’s Dorothy, amid the sweetcorn sheaths, in ruby slippers and with Freddie in Toto mode, were taken there, along with the filming of the show’s promotional video, featuring Erin in costume singing Over The Rainbow.
The Yellow Brick Road awaits.
York Stage in The Wizard Of Oz, Grand Opera House, York, September 12 to 20. Performances: 7.30pm, September 12, 13, 19 and 20; 7pm, September 16, 17 and 18; 4pm, September 14; 2.30pm, September 13 and 20. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Over the rainbow: Erin Childs’ Dorothy following a path through the maze at York Maze
