Love lift us up where we belong: Georgia Lennon’s Paula Pokrifki and Luke Baker’s Zack Mayo
THE conversions keep coming. Hairspray. Shrek. Elf. Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Billy Elliot. The Lion King. Legally Blonde. Heathers. The Bodyguard. Beetlejuice. Back To The Future.
Going back to find theatre’s future has become a well-worn path, one paved with gold for producers and venues alike as the conveyor belt from screen to stage musical threatens to turn into a traffic jam.
Already this year, the Grand Opera House has played host to the divinely sassy, soulful Sister Act The Musical and Pretty Woman The Musical, a cheesy, dated rom.com reboot with workmanlike Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance songs.
Back to the USA once more for An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, a vastly more satisfying slice of American culture, driven by George Dyer’s superb orchestrations of Eighties’ pop bangers plus James Brown’s 1966 belter It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World (or This Is A Man’s Man’s Man’s World as it is re-named here for an assertive distaff rendition by the Port Townsend paper mill factory workers).
This Curve, Leicester touring production is stamped Made In Yorkshire as much as “product of the USA”. Director Nikolai Foster is a North Yorkshireman and lead actor Luke Baker was born in Leeds; both are on terrific form here.
As the press-night audience – dominated by women – settles into the dark, the voice of President Ronald Reagan evokes the 1982 setting from the off, making way for the roar of a jet as the new intake arrives at the United States Naval Aviation Training facility at Pensacola, Florida.
“This is not Top Gun,” said Baker in his interview. Indeed so. Not once will anyone be seen in a cockpit, the only sighting of a jet being the frame picked out in lights in the backdrop to Michael Taylor’s set.
Billed as a “timeless story of love, courage and redemption to make your heart soar and leave you breathless”, this show is an emotional rollercoaster rather than a thrill ride, darker too with its depiction of fatherly rejection, a mother’s suicide, factory ennui and mental turmoil, but yes, it is still romantic.
The 1982 screenwriter, Douglas Day Stewart, combines with Sharleen Cooper Cohen for a book that finds the ideal balance between male and female perspectives: the macho muscularity shielding vulnerability on one side; the bonding amid the monotonous hours for factory workers, such as Melanie Masson’s Esther Pokrifki and Wendi Harriott’s Aunt Bunny, on the other. In particular, the admirably singular focus of officer candidate Casey Segar (Olivia Foster-Browne).
Baker’s college graduate Zack Mayo arrives on his motorbike (the one engine we do hear), determined to make it through aviation school to elite jet training. He lost his mother at 12; his heavy-drinking navy dad (Tim Rogers’ Bryon Mayo) jettisoned any responsibility, but Zack has an outsider’s steely resolve to defy the odds. He clicks instantly with Esther’s daughter Paula Pofrifki (Georgia Lennon), a factory worker of Polish stock, determined to shake up her life.
In a parallel storyline, admiral’s son Sid Worley (Paul French) must deal with being burdened with his family name and his father’s unhidden preference for his late brother. Enter factory worker Lynette Pomeroy (Sinead Long in early Eighties’ Madonna’s wardrobe), ruthlessly looking for a good time.
Officer training runs in tandem with learning lessons in young love, the training in the charge of Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (the outstanding Jamal Kane Crawford), a gravel-voiced, tough taskmaster with a waspish tongue to go with his physically and mentally exhausting regime. The bright lights of TJ’s bar and neon-lit motel bedrooms offer relief from navy discipline and navel gazing.
From Taylor’s metallic, industrial set design and Eighties’ costume designs to Joanna Goodwin’s intense, hot choreography and Foster’s exhilarating direction to superb performances by Baker, Lennon, Crawford, French, Long and Foster-Browne, An Officer And A Gentleman hits the heights.
Backed by Christopher Duffy’s band, the vocal performances relish Dyer’s revelatory arrangements, whether opening with In The Navy Now, bringing new resonance to Kids In America or mirroring Madonna in pink in Material Girl. None betters French, Lennon and Baker’s take on Family Man, not even (Love Lift Us) Up Where We Belong.
An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight; 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/York
Amber Davies’s Vivian and Oliver Savile’s Edward, centre, in Pretty Woman The Musical
CHATTING with Mother Hutch’s carer on Monday morning, discussions turned to this week’s reviews. Pretty Woman. “Ah, I loved the film. I know every line. Especially the funny scenes,” she said.
And there you have it: exactly why Pretty Woman still appeals 34 years after the Julie Roberts/Richard Gere rom.com directed by Garry Marshall from a screenplay by J. F. Lawton.
Tickets have been selling like weiners (or ‘wieners’ according to the sign on David Rockwell’s set) for the run at the Grand Opera House, where Monday night’s excited atmosphere will be matched throughout a packed week.
Women dominated, often gathered in groups, of differing ages too, such remains the pull of this Cinderella meets My Fair Lady tale.
The book is by Marshall and Lawton, so no surprises to discover that all the favourite lines are still there. So too is the iconic red dress; the moment where the jewellery box snaps back on Vivian; the flip of the opera glasses; the finale where vertigo-suffering Edward must climb the fire escape to reach Vivian.
So too, the late-1980s setting on Sunset Boulevard, indicated by a reminder to switch off mobile phones that weren’t the norm back then, and later Edward using a phone the size of a brick.
What’s new is two-fold: a “blazing rock score” by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams (booked to play Dalby Forest on June 21, by the way) and Jim Vallance, and slick direction and choreography Tony Award-winning Jerry Mitchell.
Make that three-fold: 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champ Ore Oduba plays two characters: Happy Man, the narrator-cum-Sunset Boulevard wheeler-dealer in the spirit of Oliver Twist’s Fagin, as well as smooth operator Barnard Thompson, the all-seeing-yet-turn-a-blind-eye manager of the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where Edward and Vivian hook up.
That’s two Odubas for the price of one, making him the best value in this show, especially in his song-and-dance routine with Noah Harrison’s scene-stealing bell boy Giulio. The moment when Oduba’s Mr Thompson says he has previous experience of ballroom dancing, delivered with a knowing eye, is the best in show.
Ore Oduba’s Happy Man, one of his two, nay, three roles in Pretty Woman The Musical
Spoiler alert, Oduba even pops up in a third role, as an egregious Rodeo Drive fashion boutique owner. Again, there is that look, not so much breaking down theatre’s fourth wall, as being aware of the audience being one step ahead.
Pretty Woman is the one where, once upon a time in the late ’80s, Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward (Amber Davies, but not on press night) meets billionaire businessman Edward Lewis (Oliver Savile) on the strip.
As the line goes, they “both screw for money”, she by the world’s oldest profession, he by picking off failing companies’ assets: the ruthless “scrap dealer”, as his lawyer calls him.
“Be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way,” invites the show’s description on the Grand Opera House website.
A whole new way? Well, only in that they now sing, a transformation in the tradition of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion becoming My Fair Lady, but with better songs (by Frederick Loewe and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner).
Understudying for Davies, Sydnie Hocknell’s Vivian is sassy, more than savvy, as resolute and eager to learn as Eliza Doolittle, but with street smarts too, especially in her bond with Kit de Luca (Annell Odartey, understudying for Natalie Paris).
Savile’s Edward is arrogant, presumptuous, undeniably successful, heartless, decisive, but a tender piano player too. If Vivian’s life is “changed forever”, then so too is Edward’s, a point made more forcefully in the musical.
If you loved the film, then Pretty Woman will work its fairytale magic once more, but the songs don’t rival any of Adams’s hits. Nor, do they match professional debutante Lila Falce-Bass’s Violetta singing Sempre Libera from La Traviata in the opera scene. How could they?!
Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman makes a guest appearance, teased just before the interval, but held back to the walkdown, where it feels tagged on, when it could have had much more impact when Vivian tries on dresses in Rodeo Drive. Maybe that was not allowed, however.
Pretty Woman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Pilot Theatre’s cast for A Song For Ella Grey at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Topher McGrillis
BEACH encounters with Orpheus, tandem cyclists divided by Brexit, a joyful mess in art, an Eighties rom-com revisited, Ukrainian opera and big summer concerts brighten Charles Hutchinson’s days ahead.
York play of the week: Pilot Theatre in A Song For Ella Grey, York Theatre Royal, February 20 to 24, 7pm plus 1pm, Thursday and 2pm, Saturday; Hull Truck Theatre, March 5 to 9, 7.30pm plus 2pm, Wednesday and Saturday
IN Zoe Cooper’s stage adaptation of David Almond’s novel for York company Pilot Theatre and Newcastle’s Northern Stage, Claire and her best friend, Ella Grey, are ordinary kids from ordinary families in an ordinary world as modern teenagers meet ancient forces.
They and their friends fall in and out of love, play music and dance, stare at the stars, yearn for excitement, and have parties on Northumbrian beaches. One day, a stranger, a musician called Orpheus, appears on the beach and entrances them all, especially Ella. Where has Orpheuscome from and what path will Ella follow in this contemporary re-telling of the ancient Greek myth. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Displayful artists Luke Beech, Wendy Galloway, Kate Fox and Liberty Hodes, exhibiting at Scarborough Art Gallery. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Coastal exhibition of the season: Displayful, Scarborough Art Gallery until May 7
DISPLAYFUL celebrates happy accidents and joyful mess, aiming to brighten the winter months by inviting visitors to enjoy uplifting contemporary artistic responses to objects from the collections of Scarborough Museums and Galleries.
The show combines new work by five regional artists, Luke Beech, Kate Fox, Wendy Galloway, Liberty Hodes and Angela Knipe, alongside historical artefacts and asks audiences to consider new possibilities for the lives of objects.
Amber Davies’s Vivian and Oliver Savile’s Edward, centre, in a scene from Pretty Woman The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next week
Musical of the week: Pretty Woman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
BILLED as Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when Hollywood Boulevard hooker Vivian meets entrepreneur Edward Lewis and her life changes forever.
Amber Davies plays Vivian opposite Oliver Savile’s Edward; 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba, last seen at this theatre in fishnets in March 2022 as Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, has two roles as hotel manager Barnard Thompson/Happy Man, and Natalie Paris will be Vivian’s wisecracking roommate Kit De Luca. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster artwork for Dnipro Opera’s Madama Butterfly at York Barbican
Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera in Madama Butterfly, York Barbican, February 20, 7pm
DNIPRO Opera, the Ukrainian National Opera, returns to British shores after last year’s visit to perform Puccini’s favourite work, Madama Butterfly, sung in Italian with English surtitles (CORRECT).
Set in Japan in 1904, this torrid tale of innocent love crushed between two contrasting cultures charts the affair between an American naval officer and his young Japanese bride, whose self-sacrifice and defiance of her family leads to tragedy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Carly Bednar in rehearsal for her role as Leila Arden in Griffonage Theatre’s Rope at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Thriller of the week: Griffonage Theatre in Rope, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm
HALFWAY through her MA in theatre studies, Katie Leckey directs York company Griffonage Theatre in their Theatre@41 debut in Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Rope, with its invitation to a dinner party like no other.
Set in 1929 against the backdrop of Britain’s flirtation with fascism, this whodunit states exactly who did it, but the mystery is will they be caught? Cue a soiree full of eccentric characters, ticking clocks and hushed arguments. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
An Eiffel and an earful: Don (John Lister) and Carol (Kate Caute) share a cycle but not political views in Paris in 1812 Theatre Company’s Scary Bikers
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Scary Bikers, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm
HELMSLEY’S 1812 Theatre Company stage their first John Godber comedy next week, his 2018 two hander Scary Bikers. Outwardly, redundant miner Don (John Lister) and former private school teacher Carol (Kate Caute) have little in common, but beneath the surface their former spouses are buried next to each other. Soon widowed Don and Carol bump into each other.
An innocent coffee leads to a bike ride through the Yorkshire Dales, then a bike tour across Europe to Florence. All looks promising for a budding romance, but their departure date is June 23 2016 and Don and Carol are on the opposite sides of the Brexit fence. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk or in person from the arts centre.
S Club: Post-racing party songs at York Racecourse on July 27
Bring it all back: S Club, York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, July 27
JULY 27 will be S Club Party time after the Saturday afternoon race card on the Knavesmire track. Once S Club 7, now the five-piece S Club comprises Jo O’Meara, Rachel Stevens, Jon Lee, Tina Barrett and Bradley McIntosh, following last April’s death of Paul Cattermole from heart complications at 46 and Hannah Spearritt not featuring in 2023’s 25th anniversary tour.
This month finds S Club in the USA playing Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Roll on summertime to enjoy chart toppers Bring It All Back, Never Had A Dream Come True, Don’t Stop Movin’ and Have You Ever, plus You’re My Number One, Reach, Two In A Million, S Club Party et al in York. Tickets: yorkracecourse.co.uk.
James: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in July. Picture: Paul Dixon
Yorkshire gig announcement of the week: James, supported by Reverend & The Makers and Girlband!, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 26
MANCHESTER band James play Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time on July 26, the night when Leeds lads Kaiser Chiefs finish off the evening card at York Races.
“If you haven’t been there before, then make sure you come,” says James bassist and founder member Jim Glennie. “It’s a cracking venue and you can even have a paddle in the sea before the show!” New album Yummy arrives on April 12. Box office: James, ticketmaster.co.uk from 9am on Friday; Kaiser Chiefs, yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Ore Oduba as narrator and Hollywood Boulevard wheeler-dealer Happy Man in Pretty Woman The Musical, playing the Grand Opera House, York, from next Tuesday
2016 Strictly Come Dancing champ Ore Oduba was last seen on the Grand Opera House stage in fishnets as nerdy, preppy American student Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show.
A month shy of two years later, he returns to the Cumberland Street theatre in York next week in “the ultimate rom-com, live on stage”: Pretty Woman The Musical.
What’s more, audiences can look forward to Oduba at the double, playing not only hotel manager Barnard Thompson but also Happy Man on tour from Tuesday to Saturday.
“Mr Thompson exists in the movie, but what they’ve done for the musical is create this dual role, where you’re also Happy Man, something of a narrator, who’s kind of the Fagin of Hollywood Boulevard, where two worlds meet.”
Set once upon a time in the late 1980s, as a Cinderella tale for the modern age, Pretty Woman connects the worlds of Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward (played by Amber Davies) and entrepreneur Edward Lewis (Oliver Savile).
Ore Oduba in fishnets in his previous role at the Grand Opera House: Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show in March 2022. Picture: Stuart Webb
“Happy Man brings the magic to Vivian’s turnaround – and you do have to sprinkle a little magic dust on that transformation,” says Ore. “That’s the kind of romance that people really get behind. Audiences really love the human empowerment story: the villains of the piece have to leave the theatre in hooded cloaks as everyone really gets behind Vivian.”
The BBC presenter turned actor, 38, is four months into the 12-month run of the debut British tour of a musical featuring original music and lyrics by Canadian rock star and Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter, J F Lawton.
Direction and choreography is by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell, for whom Ore auditioned. “I was aware of the show going into the West End in 2019, where it was such a massive success, and there’s always hype when a musical goes on tour from the West End,” he says.
“The audition call came through in February last year, and it’s just crazy because the life of an actor means you’re a freelance really and you never know what will be around the corner, but to get that call come through when it did can make it quite scary.
“I’d already done a couple of auditions in front of Americans, but Jerry Mitchell is such a charismatic man, so it’s intimidating. He’s got an excellent poker face, but I made him laugh – which is not always good, but in this case it was.”
Amber Davies’s Vivian Ward, Oliver Savile’s Edward Lewis and Ore Oduba’s Barnard Thompson in the announcement poster for the tour of Pretty Woman The Musical
The musical adds another level to Pretty Woman. “I think you have to be aware, as we say at the beginning, that this is a story set in the Eighties, but if you just did the movie on stage, it wouldn’t quite work,” says Ore.
“What Jerry has done is add meat to that story, going through the rom-com we love but aspiring to be something more, then adding the incredible choreography and a wonderful new score, with some beautiful songs by Bryan Adams.
“What we didn’t know, on the very last day of rehearsals, when things get to wind down after a busy four weeks, was why the resident director was standing gingerly at the door of the rehearsal room. He looked kind of nervous, then said, ‘Bryan Adams is here’!”
What could have been “quite a relaxed day, collecting things in bags” was transformed. “It became an exciting day, performing in front of Bryan, and he loved it. That really set us up to go off into the country,” says Ore.
He embraces the challenge each week of being on tour. “What’s wonderful about touring – and I’ve been doing it for seven years, which was never planned – is how, at the start of each week, you get a brand now burst of energy from the show rolling into a new town, looking forward to the reaction you’ll get at each place,” he says.
Dance moves: 2016 Strictly champion Ore Oduba’s Happy Man
“From the production point of view, you really get into it. You start by sticking to what you rehearse, but at the same time, when you have a show that’s such a crowd pleaser, and with me playing the narrator, you do get different reactions and a different energy from the audience that we like to play with.
“Pretty Woman transcends time and culture; it’s just in our fabric, and it’s not just nostalgia. People will want to dial into that, so there are touch points, but at the end of the day, it’s an incredible new musical with great new music and a story that people love, which we bring alive every night, transporting them into a different world.
“That world may be different from today, and you may have to put today’s world aside and put your faith in the story.”
Happy Man sums up Ore’s experience on tour. “Taking on a job, it’s about positivity, especially if I’m going to be doing it for a year, where the energy pushes us forward,” he says. “I’m looking forward to 12 months of positivity!”
Pretty Woman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Don (John Lister) and Carol (Kate Caute) share a cycle but not political views in Paris in 1812 Theatre Company’s production of John Godber’s Scary Bikers
BIKERS divided by Brexit, beach encounters with Orpheus, a joyful mess in art, an Eighties rom-com revisited, Ukrainian opera and a big summer signing for Scarborough brighten Charles Hutchinson’s days ahead
Ryedale play of the week: 1812 Theatre Company in Scary Bikers, Helmsley Arts Centre, February 21 to 24, 7.30pm
HELMSLEY’S 1812 Theatre Company stage their first John Godber comedy next week, his 2018 two-hander Scary Bikers. Outwardly, redundant miner Don (John Lister) and former private school teacher Carol (Kate Caute) have little in common, but beneath the surface their former spouses are buried next to each other. Soon widowed Don and Carol will bump into each other.
An innocent coffee leads to a bike ride through the Yorkshire Dales, then a bike tour across Europe to Florence. All looks promising for a budding romance, but their departure date is June 23 2016 and Don and Carol are on the opposite sides of the Brexit fence. Box office: helmsleyarts.co.uk or in person from the arts centre.
Grace Long as Ella Grey in Pilot Theatre’s A Song For Ella Grey. Picture: Topher McGrillis
York play of the week: Pilot Theatre in A Song For Ella Grey, York Theatre Royal; February 20 to 24, Hull Truck Theatre, March 5 to 9
IN Zoe Cooper’s stage adaptation of David Almond’s novel for York company Pilot Theatre, York Theatre Royal and Newcastle’s Northern Stage, Claire and her best friend, Ella Grey, are ordinary kids from ordinary families in an ordinary world where modern teenagers meet ancient forces.
They and their friends fall in and out of love, play music and dance, stare at the stars, yearn for excitement, and have parties on Northumbrian beaches. One day, a stranger, a musician called Orpheus, appears on the beach and entrances them all, especially Ella. Where has Orpheuscome from and what path will Ella follow in this contemporary re-telling of the ancient Greek myth? Box office: York, 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.
Displayful artists Luke Beech, Wendy Galloway, Kate Fox and Liberty Hodes, exhibiting at Scarborough Art Gallery. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Coastal exhibition of the season: Displayful, Scarborough Art Gallery until May 7
DISPLAYFUL celebrates happy accidents and joyful mess, aiming to brighten the winter months by inviting visitors to enjoy uplifting contemporary artistic responses to objects from the collections of Scarborough Museums and Galleries.
The show combines new work by five regional artists, Luke Beech, Kate Fox, Wendy Galloway, Liberty Hodes and Angela Knipe, alongside historical artefacts, and asks audiences to consider new possibilities for the lives of objects.
Grant Harris: Making connections at Milton Rooms, Malton
Messages from beyond: Grant Harris: Medium, Milton Rooms, Malton, tomorrow (15/2/2024), 7pm
MEDIUM Grant Harris returns to the Milton Rooms to “connect with your loved ones to provide messages of support, reassurance and much needed clarity at times we require it most”.
“There are things we don’t fully understand about life and death but what I do is bring some peace to those who need it,” says Harris, whose shows promise humour too. Tickets: 01709 437700 or 01653 696240.
Amber Davies’s Vivian and Oliver Savile’s Edward, centre, in Pretty Woman The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York
Musical of the week: Pretty Woman The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
BILLED as Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when Hollywood Boulevard hooker Vivian meets entrepreneur Edward Lewis and her life changes forever.
Amber Davies plays Vivian opposite Oliver Savile’s Edward; 2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba, last seen at this theatre in fishnets in March 2022 as Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, has two roles as hotel manager Barnard Thompson/Happy Man, and Natalie Paris will be Vivian’s wisecracking roommate Kit De Luca. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The poster artwork for Dnipro Opera’s Madama Butterfly at York Barbican
Opera of the week: Dnipro Opera in Madama Butterfly, York Barbican, February 20, 7pm
DNIPRO Opera, the Ukrainian National Opera, returns to British shores after last year’s visit to perform Puccini’s favourite work, Madama Butterfly, sung in Italian with English surtitles.
Set in Japan in 1904, this torrid tale of innocent love crushed between two contrasting cultures charts the affair between an American naval officer and his young Japanese bride, whose self-sacrifice and defiance of her family leads to tragedy. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Comedian Chloe Petts heads for York with her If You Can’t Say Anything Nice show
Comedy gig of the week: Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Chloe Petts, The Crescent, York, tomorrow (15/2/2024), 7.30pm
BUOYED by her Edinburgh Fringe run and Soho Theatre sell-out debut in London, Chloe Petts serves up her follow-up hour, If You Can’t Say Anything Nice. Everyone complimented her on how polite she was with big issues in the last show, so now she is cashing in those points and plans on being really rude. “Expect routines on wedding dancefloors, the footie and calling you all a bunch of virgins,” she says. Box office: wegottickets.com/event/588889.
Look out too for Burning Duck’s 8pm show at Theatre@41 Monkgate, York, on Friday: the debut tour of northerner Paddy Young: Hungry, Horny, Scared..and “in the gutter but looking down on all of you”. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
James: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in July. Picture: Lewis Knaggs
Gig announcement of the week: James, supported by Reverend & The Makers and Girlband!, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, July 26
MANCHESTER band James play Scarborough Open Air Theatre for the fourth time on July 26, the night when Leeds lads Kaiser Chiefs finish off the evening card at York Races.
“If you haven’t been there before, then make sure you come,” says James bassist and founder member Jim Glennie. “It’s a cracking venue and you can even have a paddle in the sea before the show!” New album Yummy arrives on April 12. Box office: James, ticketmaster.co.uk from 9am on Friday; Kaiser Chiefs, yorkracecourse.co.uk.
Shed Seven: Launching new album with meet & greet at HMV, York, on Friday
WHAT lies ahead in the New Year? Charles Hutchinson picks his path through highlights across the city’s venues.
It’s only A Matter Of Time before: Shed Seven release their new album
YORK band Shed Seven will mark the January 5 release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, on new home Cooking Vinyl with a meet & greet/signing session that day at HMV, in Coney Street, York, at 4.30pm (tickets: shedsevenn.lnk.to/instores). Their midday appearance and stripped-back performance on the same day at Vinyl Whistle, in Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds, has sold out.
In the summertime, when the weather is hopefully fine, The Sheds will celebrate their 30th anniversary with a brace of outdoor concerts in York Museum Gardens on July 19 and 20, supported by Peter Doherty, no less. Both have sold out already. Box office: seetickets.com.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members peer out through and beneath the JoRo curtain in Curtains
It’s Curtains for…Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 7 to 10, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee
WHEN the leading lady of a new musical mysteriously dies on stage, a plucky local detective must solve this 1959 case at Boston’s Colonial Theatre, where the entire cast and crew are suspects in Kander & Ebb’s musical with a book by Rupert Holmes. Cue delightful characters, a witty and charming script and glorious tunes in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s staging of Curtains. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Steve Mason: Independent Venue Week gig at The Crescent. Picture: Gavin Watson
Beta times ahead: Brudenell Presents Steve Mason, The Crescent, York, January 30, 7.30pm
SCOTTISH indie songwriter Steve Mason, founder of The Beta Band, returns to The Crescent as part of Independent Venue Week. Combining a rare melodic gift with an itch to experiment, as heard on his 2023 album Brothers & Sisters, he investigates where the boundaries lie between the craft of songwriting, technology and free expression.
Taking part in Independent Venue Week too will be Leeds band English Teacher, whose January 28 night of dreamy pop and post-punk noise has sold out already. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Monster show: The Apatosaurus in Jurassic Live, bound for York Barbican
Dinosaurs take over York: Jurassic Live 2024 World Tour, York Barbican, February 16, 5pm; February 17, 11am and 3pm; February 18, 1pm
LIFE-SIZED monstrous beasts roar into York in an interactive all-star theatrical spectacular featuring the world’s only Tylosaurus in a giant tank (new for 2024), the last flying Pterodactyl, a Tyrannosaurus Rex called Suzie and more dinosaur species than any other show on Earth.
Join little Amber, Ranger Joe, Ranger Nora and the rest of the Jurassic Live rangers on a musical journey to help save the day from an evil man who is trying to shut down the Jurassic facility. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Amber Davies’s Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward and Oliver Savile’s wealthy businessman Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman: The Musical at Grand Opera House, York
Most anticipated touring musical: Pretty Woman: The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday
BILLED as “Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage”, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when Vivian (Amber Davies) meets Edward (Oliver Savile) and her life is changed forever.
Strictly champ Ore Oduba’s Happy Man/Mr Thompson and Natalie Paris’s Kit De Luca will be in the cast too for a musical featuring original music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the film’s screenwriter, J.F. Lawton. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
The tour poster for Wise Children’s Blue Beard, opening the bl**dy door at York Theatre Royal from February 27
World premiere of the season: Emma Rice’s Wise Children in Blue Beard, York Theatre Royal, February 27 to March 9, 7.30pm and 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees
BLUE Beard will be Wise Children’s fourth visit to York after Wise Children, Malory Towers and Wuthering Heights, this time in a co-production between Emma Rice’s Bristol company, York Theatre Royal, Birmingham Rep, HOME Manchester and the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.
Rice brings her brand of theatrical wonder to the beguiling and disturbing folk tale of Bluebeard meeting his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. Summoning all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters, she vows to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Rob Auton: At his most Rob Auton in The Rob Auton Show at The Crescent, York
Welcome home: Rob Auton, The Rob Auton Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club, The Crescent, York, February 28, 7.30pm
AFTER nine Edinburgh Fringe shows on themes as diverse as the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking, time and crowds, York writer, comedian, artist and actor Rob Auton delivers his most autobiographical work, exploring the memories and feelings that create his life on a daily basis. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Rhod Gilbert’s poster for his tour show with a Giant Grapefruit at York Barbican
Comedy comeback : Rhod Gilbert & The Giant Grapefruit, York Barbican, June 20, 8pm
IN his last show, The Book Of John, firebrand Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert dealt with “some pretty pungent life citrus” and an idiot called John. Little did he know that things were about to turn even more sour.
Gilbert, 55, required surgery for metastatic cancer of the head and neck as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, receiving his first clear cancer scan in October after undergoing treatment.
“Not bitter, he’s bouncing back and feeling remarkably zesty”, returning with a dark, passionate and way-too-personal tour show that squeezes every last drop out of life’s latest curveballs…with a little help from an old adversary. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jason Donovan: Doin’ fine at York Barbican in…wait for it…2025
Even further ahead:Jason Donovan, Doin’ Fine 25 Tour, York Barbican, March 8 2025, 8pm
IF 2023 was the year of Kylie, all that attention on Tension, Padam Padam and ITV’s An Audience With, then 2025, yes 2025, promises a York date with her Neighbours beau, Jason Donovan, in celebration of his “incredible ride” through 35 years in music, theatre, film and television.
His long-awaited sequel to Doin’ Fine 90 will feature Jason’s most beloved songs from his stage shows, nods to his TV times in Neighbours and Strictly Come Dancing and his biggest pop hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
In Focus: York Actors Collective in Beyond Caring, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, cleaning up from February 6 to 10
Neil Vincent, left, Clare Halliday, Chris Pomfrett, Victoria Delaney and Mick Liversidge in rehearsal for York Actors Collective’s February production of Beyond Caring
YORK Actors Collective follows March 2023’s debut production of Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloanewith Beyond Caring, a play that highlights the social damage inflicted by zero hours contracts.
Devised by Alexander Zeldin and the original Yard Theatre cast in East London in 2014, later transferring to the National Theatre, the story of agency cleaners at a meat factory will be directed in York by Angie Millard, working with a cast of Victoria Delaney, Clare Halliday, Mick Liversidge, Chris Pomfrett and Neil Vincent.
Over 90 unbroken minutes, Beyond Caring follows two women, Becky and Grace, and one man, Sam (replacing Sarah from past productions in a directorial decision), as they confront the reality of low wage, zero-hour contract employment, never sure of how many hours they have to work, when they will be paid and whether their ‘job’ will continue.
Director Angie Millard says: “This play is remarkable in its structure and power. It totally represents 2024 where many workers are on the breadline, trapped in employment with no guarantee of further work and no way to improve their position.
“What drew me to the play, however, is the message it conveys about people surviving and keeping a sense of humour. I loved the intensity of the piece with its silences, its disappointments and its determination to get pleasure out of the smallest things. It gave me hope.”
Stage managed by Em Peattie, Millard’s production will play nightly at 7.30pm, Tuesday to Friday, followed by Saturday shows at 2.30 and 5.30pm. “Ticket sales for our first production indicated that a Saturday matinee was very popular,” says Angie.
“We thought that having two early Saturday performances would give the audience an opportunity to see the show and still have time to go for a drink or meal afterwards, making a night of it.” Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Chris Pomfrett and Victoria Delaney in rehearsal for Beyond Caring
Heading to the Grand Opera House: Amber Davies (Vivian Ward), Oliver Savile (Edward Savile) and Ore Oduba (Barnard Thompson/Happy Man) in Pretty Woman: The Musical. Picture: Dan Kennedy
AMBER Davies will play Hollywood hooker Vivian Ward opposite Oliver Savile’s businessman Edward Lewis when Pretty Woman; The Musical tours the Grand Opera House, York, next February 20 to 24.
2016 Strictly Come Dancing champion Ore Oduba, last seen at the Cumberland Street theatre in fishnets in March 2022 as nerdy, preppy American student Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Show, will return to York two years later in the role of hotel manager Barnard Thompson/Happy Man. Natalie Paris will be Vivian’s wisecracking roommate Kit De Luca.
On tour in Pretty Woman from October 2023, Davies is starring at present in the West End as Lorraine Baines in Back To The Future: The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre. Previous theatre roles include Judy in the original West End cast of 9 To 5 The Musical at the Savoy Theatre and on tour and Campbell in Bring It On at London’s Southbank Centre.
In the West End, Savile’s credits include Fiyero in Wicked, Whizzer in Falsettos, The Phantom Of the Opera and Les Misérables, complemented by the UK tour of Cats and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He performed alongside alongside Sting in the American tour of erstwhile The Police frontman’s North East shipyard musical The Last Ship.
Oduba, a 2021 finalist in Channel 4’s Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, starred in the 50th anniversary tour and West End production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, and further roles since taking to the musical theatre stage in 2019 include Aaron Fox in Curtains on tour and in the West End and Teen Angel in a UK tour of Grease.
Paris is best known as the Olivier Award-nominated original Jane Seymour in the West End production of SIX The Musical and is now on tour in North America in the role, having played her on the UK tour too.
Among her previous London stage credits are Sunday In The Park With George at the Menier Chocolate Factory and Wyndham’s Theatre, Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace and Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre and Queen’s Theatre.
In the UK and Ireland tour cast too will be: Becky Anderson; Rebekah Bryant; Josh Damer-Jennings; Ben Darcy; Andrew Davison; Lila Falce-Bass; Noah Harrison; Sydnie Hocknell; Elly Jay; Rachael Kendall Brown; Michael Kholwadia; Joshua Lear; Stuart Maciver; Victoria Rachael McCabe; Eleanor Morrison-Halliday; LJ Neilson; Annell Odartey, Curtis Patrick and Chomba Taulo.
Billed as Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage, Pretty Woman: The Musical is set once upon a time in the late 1980s, when prostitute Vivian meets entrepreneur Edward and her life changes forever.
“Be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart,” say the producers.
Pretty Woman: The Musicalfeatures original music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter J.F. Lawton. Direction and choreography is by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell.
Roy Orbison and Bill Dee’s hit song Oh, Pretty Woman, the inspiration for Garry Marshall’s film, features in the show too.
The show has scenic design by David Rockwell; costumes by Tom Rogers, from the original Broadway designs by Gregg Barnes; lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Philip S. Rosenberg; sound design by John Shivers; hair design by Josh Marquette and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Will Van Dyke. 101
Pretty Woman: The Musical had its world premiere at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran at the Nederlander Theatre. The German production opened in Hamburg at the Stage Theater an der Elbe in September 2019 and an American tour opened in October 2021.
Pretty Woman: The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, February 20 to 24 2024, 7.30pm, plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york
Danny Mac’s Edward and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian in the West End production of Pretty Woman: The Musical. Picture: Helen Maybanks
THE debut UK tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical will play the Grand Opera House, York, from February 20 to 24 next year.
Billed as “Hollywood’s ultimate rom-com, live on stage”, the show features original music and lyrics by Canadian rock star and Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and a book by Garry Marshall and the 1990 film’s screenwriter, J F Lawton, with direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell.
Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees in York are newly on sale at atgtickets.com/York.
The West End production continues to play at the Savoy Theatre, London, taking bookings until June 11 2023. The British and Irish tour will open on October 17 at the Birmingham Alexandra Theatre; the tour cast is yet to be announced.
Should the Richard Gere-Julia Roberts movie have escaped your attention, here is a quick refresher course on Pretty Woman’s story: Once upon a time in the late 1980s, Vivian met Edward and her life changed forever.
Or put it another way, in a tale based somewhat loosely on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, rich New York corporate raider Edward Lewis hires free-spirited Hollywood prostitute Vivian Ward to accompany him to a series of social events, only to fall in love with her. How will they bridge the chasm between their worlds?
Danny Mac’s Edward Lewis and Aimie Atkinson’s Vivian Ward in a scene from Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Savoy Theatre, London
Move forward to 2023-2024, when the tour publicity invites you to “be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart”.
The musical also features the Roy Orbison and Bill Dees composition Oh, Pretty Woman, the Big O’s August 1964 chart topper that inspired Garry Marshall’s film.
Atlantic Records has released Pretty Woman: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), a soundtrack album produced by Adams and Vallance.
The show has scenic design by David Rockwell; costumes by Tom Rogers, from the original Broadway designs by Gregg Barnes; lighting design by Kenneth Posner and Philip S Rosenberg; sound design by John Shivers; hair design by Josh Marquette and music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations by Will Van Dyke.
Pretty Woman; The Musical received its world premiere at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre in March 2018 before transferring to Broadway, where it ran at the Nederlander Theatre. A German production opened in Hamburg at the Stage Theater an der Elbe in September 2019 and a USA tour began in October 2021.
The Ambassador Theatre Group, the Grand Opera House owners, are among the tour’s producers.
The artwork for Pretty Woman: The Musical, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, next February
