Tag: Robin Simpson

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REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, no rest for the wicked or the wacky until January 4 2026 ****

Jennie Dale’s radiant Fairy Moonbeam in York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions’ Sleeping Beauty. All pictures: Pamela Raith Photography

NOT even the cast knows what to expect in York Theatre Royal’s sixth collaboration with Evolution Productions when a button is placed under the control of Moss, the dame’s pick from the audience for affable humiliation on Monday.

An inspired pick, it turns out, with a laugh as distinctive and unusual as his name, giving more grist to the mill for Robin Simpson’s saucy, smart returnee dame to grind.

This was press night, but a press night with a difference. When would Moss press that button to release the explosive power of the confetti cannon?

The show is ticking over nicely when suddenly… Bang! Cue Kool And The Gang’s Celebration, Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora being jolted from her Sleeping Beauty slumbers and a mass outburst of cast  “corpsing”.

Come Hull or high water: Jocasta Almgill’s villainous Carabosse in boastful skulduggery mode with her creepy Goth acolytes in Sleeping Beauty

Whereupon Simpson’s ever-gregarious Nurse Nellie improvises, interjects, scolds Moss and interrupts Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia as he tries to resume singing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s aptly titled Die With A Smile once he regains his composure, only to put him off his stride again.

This is panto mayhem at its best, unpredictable, bringing out Simpson’s innate sense of capitalising on the moment. One of many reasons why his dame is the poster face for next year’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs – his seventh Theatre Royal dame too.

That explosion is not the only moment when Sleeping Beauty goes off piste to winning effect. Tommy Carmichael’s returning daft lad, Jangles, finds himself in a pickle, when a bed fails to rotate in the obligatory ghost scene, leaving him in view of the audience.

In tandem with Simpson’s dame, he milks this glitch to the ad-libbing max, and it would surprise no-one if this easily solved technical hitch does not become a regular part of the show. It’s how pantomimes grow and change through a run, and one of live theatre’s greatest joys. No two shows are ever the same.

Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty

It helps that Evolution Productions director Paul Hendy writes such a well structured show with the strongest of foundations to leave Simpson and Carmichael, blossoming in his second York panto, to play fast and loose when chance allows.

Mortimer joins in the fun and games too, a playful change from the conventional straight-laced princely type entrusted with soppy ballads that peaks with the best slippy-slidey slapstick slosh scene at the Theatre Royal in years. Indeed, the slapstick is an upgrade on Aladdin last year, now more than a match for Hendy’s verbal wit.

Hendy and Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, in their sixth panto partnership, place equal emphasis on story, set-piece, slapstick, spectacle and sass, respectful of tradition but thoroughly modern too. 

No YTR/Evolution panto would be complete without  a CBeebies star – it’s becoming a tradition in itself – and Jennie “Swashbuckle” Dale is the best yet, radiating joy, warmth and no little wit as the “fun, silly storyteller” Fairy Moonbeam. No wonder she worked with Victoria Wood, no less, in the past on What’s Larks!.

Top: Fired up! Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics in Sleeping Beauty. Bottom: The more vacuous than vicious Velociraptor called Raptor in Sleeping Beauty

She just happens to have a spectacular singing voice too – capable of going down valley, up, up, up Dale – at its best in a show-stopping sing-off with Jocasta Almgill’s “evil, stroppy and silly” Carabosse in Ugly Kid Joe’s Everything About You. 

Powerful voice, physical presence, a thoroughly good sport at being panto-villainous, Almgill tops it off with a Hull accent, exaggerated just so, you kner, for comic effect. Her rendition of The Who’s Pinball Wizard with re-tooled lyrics is a belter too.

The Hendy staples are wheeled out, from the dame’s cart with pictorial placards, this year on the theme of musicals, to an animal, still not on a par with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie two years ago but designed to thrill dinosaur-fixated children in the form of “the vicious Velociraptor”, whose bark turned out to be worse than his bite, as it were.

Indeed, the dawdling, limb-twiddling dinosaur somewhat undermined the impact of speciality act Kris Madden’s fire artistry as Guardian of the Raptor. I’d be tempted to fire the Raptor to give Madden the unimpeded spotlight his hot stuff deserves, but that wouldn’t fit with his role!

Robin Simpson’s gaudy, gregarious dame Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty

As ever, there is as much to enjoy in Hayley Del Harrison’s punchy choreography as in Hendy’s puns in the punchlines, together with Terry Parsons, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s dazzling set designs, Parsons, Amy Chamberlain and Ella Haines’s costumes and especially Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame’s Creations’ ever-changing  wardrobe for Simpson’s dame. The pink theme for the walkdown attire is particularly striking.

Musical director, arranger, composer and drummer Edwin Gray adds to the drama with his superb arrangements for songs that vary from Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go, for the dame, to an ensemble mash-up of Schools Out/Baggy Trousers/ABC; from two Beatles’ numbers, the opening Good Day Sunshine and Golden Slumbers, to this year’s fizziest pop anthem, Golden, from KPop Demon Hunters.  

Ensemble players Alyssia Turpin, Elijah Daniel James, Sophie Flora, Chris Morgan-Shillingford, Carlotte Rose O’Sullivan and Jayden Tang play their part to the full too, bringing added oomph to songs and having fun in myriad cameos, such as Carabosse’s dungeon Goths and towering guards.

Politics pretty much misses out this year – nothing feels funny about politics right now – although a flooding joke goes down well in flood-familiar York. Sleeping Beauty is very much awake, picking up momentum as the best pantos do, with  Simpson, Dale and Almgill outstanding and Moss making sure everyone keeps their wits about them.

York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions presents Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.  

Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles with the ensemble cast of Chris Morgan Shellingford, back row, left, Elijah Daniel James, dance captain Alyssia Turpin, Sophia Flora, and , front row Jayden Tang, and Charlotte Rose O’Sullivan

Did you know?

NEXT winter’s York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions co-production will be the Theatre Royals’ first-ever pantomime staging of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. Written by Paul Hendy and starring regular dame Robin Simpson, the show will run from December 4 2026 to January 3 2027. Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond as snow blanket covers JORVIK. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 51, from The York Press

The deep freeze: Snow goes underground in A Winter Wonderland at JORVIK Viking Centre

A FESTIVE trail, treasured exhibition and snow reboot, pantomime and A Christmas Carol spell out that winter staples aplenty are up and running, as Charles Hutchinson reports.  

Time travel of the week: A Winter Adventure at JORVIK Viking Centre, York, until February 22 2026

A WINTER Adventure brings a new wintery experience to the underground York visitor attraction, where the 10th century Vikings are preparing to celebrate Yule with natural decorations hung on their houses. For the first time, visitors can peer through Bright White’s time portal into the blacksmith’s house excavated on this site in the 1970s, seeing what it would have been like to live there.

They will then board a time sleigh to travel back in time around the backstreets, transformed for winter by Wetherby set dressers EPH Creative, who have covered streets and houses in a thick blanket of snow, bathed in cold blue lighting. Pre-booking is essential for all visits to JORVIK at jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk.

Christmas at The Bar Convent. Illustration by Nick Ellwood

Activity trail of the week: Christmas At The Convent, The Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 22, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, last admission 4pm

DECEMBER visitors to The Bar Convent can uncover fascinating festive traditions through the centuries in a family-friendly activity trail through the exhibition that combines the convent’s history with the Advent season.

Families can enjoy finding clues, making decorations, dressing up, discovering traditions from Christmas past and much more. Look out for the traditional crib scene in the chapel. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.

Garlands galore at An Inspired Christmas at Treasurer’s House, York. Picture: National Trust, Anthony Chappel-Ross

Festive exhibition of the week: An Inspired Christmas at Fairfax House, York, until December 21, open Saturday to Wednesday, 11am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm

TREASURER’S House has undergone a winter transformation, where stories of its past residents come to life through handcrafted decoration as rooms are re-imagined by the National Trust with festive flair, inspired by the 17th-century house’s rich history.

Each room is styled to reflect the personalities and tales of those who once called Treasurer’s House home, from last occupant Frank Green, the visionary industrialist who gifted the property to the National Trust, to the Young family, Jane Squire, Ann Eliza Morritt, Elizabeth Montague, Sarah Scott, John Goodricke and Royal visitor Queen Alexandra, wife to King Edward VII. No booking is required, with free entry for National Trust members and under-fives.

Guy Masterson’s Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, on tour at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Festive ghostly return of the week: Guy Masterson in A Christmas Carol, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today, 2pm 7.30pm

HEADING back to Theatre@41 for the fourth time, Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson presents Charles Dickens’s Christmas fable anew, bringing multiple characters to vivid life as ever, from Scrooge and Marley to the Cratchits and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come. 

Be dazzled, be enchanted by a performance destined to linger long in the memory. “It’s guaranteed to get you into the Christmas Spirit – in many  more ways than one,” says Masters. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Ellie Gowers: Songs exploring distance, longing and identity at Rise@Bluebird Bakery

Ecological songs of the week: Ellie Gowers, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, 8pm, doors 7.30pm

WARWICKSHIRE singer-songwriter – and Morris dancer to boot – Ellie Gowers blends contemporary acoustic sounds with the storytelling traditions of folk. Her 2022 debut album Dwelling By The Weir addressed ecological themes and her 2024 EP You The Passenger received airplay on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s BBC 6Music show.

Her influences range from Mipso to Jeff Buckley is songs that explore distance, longing and identity. An extended version of the EP arrives this autumn 2025. Easingwold singer-songwriter Gary Stewart supports. Box office: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

St Agnes Fountain: Promoting new Christmas album Flakes & Flurries at NCEM, York

Folk gig of the week: Black Swan Folk Club presents St Agnes Fountain, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 1, 7.30pm

AFFECTIONATELY known as “the Aggies”, Chris While, Julie Matthews and Chris Leslie bring their Christmas cheer to the NCEM, presenting carols with a curve. They celebrate 25 years together with material from new festive album Flakes & Flurries (Fat Cat Records), old Aggie classics and a doff of the fedora to founder member David Hughes, who died in 2021. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Name of the dame: Robin Simpson will be playing Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal

Pantomime opening of the week: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, December 2 to January 4 2026

THEATRE Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs returnee dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles, CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael in Sleeping Beauty.

Written once more by Paul Hendy, the Theatre Royal’s festive extravaganza is co-produced with award-winning Evolution Productions, the same team behind All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and last winter’s Aladdin. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. 

Mark Thomas in Ed Edwards’s play Ordinary Decent Criminal at York Theatre Royal Studio. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Recommended but sold out already: Paines Plough presents Mark Thomas in Ordinary Decent Criminal, York Theatre Royal Studio, December 2 and 3, 7.30pm

MEET recovering addict Frankie, played by political comedian Mark Thomas in his second acting role for playwright Ed Edwards after England & Son in 2023. In Ordinary Decent Criminal’s tale of freedom, revolution and messy love, Frankie has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for dealing drugs. 

On his arrival, none of his fellow convicts are what they seem, but with his typewriter, activist soul and sore lack of a right hook, he somehow finds his way into their troubled hearts, and they into his. In the most unexpected of places, Frankie discovers that the revolution is not dead, only sleeping. Box office for returns only: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The Jeremiahs: Irish folk band play York for the first time on December 3. Picture: Tony Gavin

York debut craic of the week: The Jeremiahs, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 3, 7.30pm

IRISH band The Jeremiahs have travelled extensively, including playing 26 states in the USA, performing rousing new songs and tunes in the folk genre, peppered with picks from the trad folk catalogue. Lead vocalist and occasional whistle player Joe Gibney, from County Dublin, is joined by his fellow founder,  Dublin guitarist James Ryan, New York-born fiddler Matt Mancuso and County Clare flautist Conor Crimmins. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

The one and only Jesca Hoop: Playing NCEM on December 4

Singer-songwriter of the week: Brudenell Presents and Please Please You present Jesca Hoop, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 4, 7.30pm

DISCOVERED by Tom Waits, invited on tour by Peter Gabriel and encouraged to relocate to the UK by Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Jesca Hoop left California for Manchester to carve out a singular path across six albums of original material. Collaborations with producers John Parish (PJ Harvey), Blake Mills (Feist), and Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers) have only sharpened the intricacy of her craft.

Now she has released Selective Memory, an unplugged reworking of 2017’s Memories Are Now, recorded live at home with bandmates Chloe Foy and Rachel Rimmer for Last Laugh Records. Box office: thecrescentyork.com/events/jesca-hoop-at-the-ncem-york/.

In Focus: York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust in A Nativity For York, on tour, November 29 to December 10

A Nativity For York director Paul Toy

YORK Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is touring A Nativity For York to Acomb, Fulford, Nether Poppleton and All Saints Church, North Street, bringing the Christmas story to York neighbourhoods from November 29 to December 10.

Directed by Paul Toy, this new and unique interpretation of the Nativity dramatises events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, presented by a community cast and production team with music in candlelight.

Using medieval scripts from the York Cycle of Mystery Plays and music both medieval and folk in style, A Nativity For York “tells a familiar story of a marvellous birth, threaded with humour, reverence and, sadly, hatred”.

The candlelight emphasises the constant struggle of the light against the darkness in Toy’s production, set in a time of threat when a homeless couple and their newborn baby are driven from home by oppressors.  

“My vision is that of an underground, secret activity; clandestine performances of a play promoting banned religious doctrine in a time of oppression,” he says. “It mirrors both history and our current world situation, but it’s also a time of great hope.”

The York Mystery Plays were written in medieval times: 48 plays, once performed in the streets by the city’s Guilds, telling the Biblical story from Creation to Judgement Day, including the life of Jesus Christ.  

York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust is a registered charity whose group of volunteers aims to keep the story of the York Mystery Plays alive at the forefront of York’s cultural heritage.

Performances will take place at St Hilda’s Church, Tang Hall Lane, York, on November 29 at 1pm and 4pm; St Mary Bishophill Junior, York, December 2 and 4, 7.30pm; St Mary’s Church, The Village, Haxby, December 6, 1pm and 4pm, and All Saints Church, North Street, York, December 10, 7.30pm

Tickets are on sale at https://ympst.co.uk/nativitytickets or on 0333 666 3366. The performance lasts 60 minutes with no interval. Festive refreshments will be available.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond monsters, ghosts, banjos and bratwurst. Hutch’s List No. 45, from The York Press

Anna Soden: No bum deal, bum steer or bum’s rush, for that would be a bummer at tonight’s hour of comedy, It Comes Out You Bum, at The Old Paint Shop

FROM royal history re-told to Dickens’ ghost stories, magical monsters to banjo brilliance, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.

Homecoming of the week: Anna Soden, It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 8pm

NOW based in Brighton but very much shaped in York, comedian, actor, writer, TikTok sensation and award-nominated Theatre Royal pantomime cow in Jack And The Beanstalk, Anna Soden delivers her debut hour of madcap comedy, full of brainwaves, songs, revenge and talking out your ass. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Robin Simpson: Monster storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame, performing at Rise@Bluebird Bakery

Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, doors 4pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.

“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Out for revenge: Henry VIII’s wives turn the tables in SIX The Musical, returning to the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith

Recommended but sold-out already: SIX The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, October 14 to 18; Tuesday & Thursday, 8pm; Wednesday & Friday, 6pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 4pm and 8pm

FROM Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. Think you know the rhyme? Think again. Divorced. Beheaded. LIVE!

Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s hit show is making its third visit to York, but it’s third time unlucky if you haven’t booked yet. Like Anne Boleyn’s head, every seat has gone.

Eddi Reader: Performing with her full band at The Citadel

Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 15, 7.30pm

EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.

Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Banjovial partnership at the NCEM

Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 15, 7.30pm

GROUNDBREAKING  banjo  players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.

O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Francis Rossi: Solo show of song and chat at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography

Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm

IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why they went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

James Swanton: Halloween beckons, so here comes his double bill of Dickens’ ghost stories at York Medical Society. Picture: Jtu Photography

Ghost stories of the week: James Swanton presents The Signal-Man, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 16, 17, 20 to 23, 7pm; October 27 and 28, 5.30pm and 7.30pm

A RED light. A black tunnel. A waving figure. A warning beyond understanding. Here comes the fear that  someone, that something, is drawing closer. Gothic York storyteller James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with The Signal-Man, “one of the most powerful ghost stories of all time and certainly the most frightening ever written by Charles Dickens”.

Swanton pairs it with The Trial For Murder, wherein Dickens treats the supernatural with just as much terrifying gravity. Tickets update: all ten performances bar October 21 have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Natnael Dawitin in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, October 17, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and October 18, 2pm and 7.30pm

SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.

Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington

As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 17, 8pm

HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.

His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. . “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Velma Celli: York drag diva lighting up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor

Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, October 18, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm

MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian Bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.

The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.

In Focus: Charlie Higson and Jim Moir: A Very Short But Epic History Of The Monarchy, York Theatre Royal, Oct 13, 7.30pm

In the frame: Author Charlie Higson and artist Jim Moir discuss royalty and comedy at York Theatre Royal on Monday

36 kings. Five queens. Two comedy legends. Join Charlie Higson and Jim Moir (alias Vic Reeves) for the rip-roaring story of every English ruler since Harold was shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings.

Higson has always been interested in the story of the fabled English monarchy: from the b*stardly to the benevolent,the brilliant to the brutal. “Far from being a nice, colourful pageant of men and women in funny hats waving to adoring crowds, it’s a story of regicide, fratricide, patricide, uxoricide and mariticide (you might have to look those last two up),” he says.

Launched for the coronation of his namesake King Charles III, Charlie’s podcast Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee takes a deep dive into the murky lives of our monarchs. Now, his new book of the show features illustrations by artist Jim Moir, his compadre in comedy.

On Monday, Charlie and Jim will first share stories from their comic collaborations over 30 years, including Shooting Stars, Randell And Hopkirk Deceased and The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer. Then they will take the plunge into the storied history of this most treasured of institutions. Bloody treachery? Check. Unruly incest? Check. Short parliaments? Check. A couple of Cromwells? Check.

Their rip-roaring journey takes in the Normans, Tudors and Stuarts, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?), tin an “utterly engrossing and grossly entertaining primer on who ruled when and why – with never-before-seen illustrations”!

A signed copy of Higson & Moir’s book Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History Of Our Kings and Queens (RRP £22) is included when purchasing Band 1 (£55) tickets, available for collection on the night. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 44, from Gazette & Herald

Griffonage Theatre: Theatre at the intersection of the madcap and the macabre

IRISH village tales, love’s vicissitudes, folk and ceilidh nights and ghost & goblin storytelling bring autumn cheer to Charles Hutchinson. 

Time to discover: Griffonage Theatre in FourTold, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

YORK devotees of the madcap, the macabre and making the familiar strange and the strange familiar, Griffonage Theatre transport audiences to the quirky rural town of Baile Aighneas – The Town of Dispute – for FourTold, a quartet of comedies by early 20th century Irish playwright Lady Augusta Gregory, never presented together in the UK until now under Northern Irish director Katie Leckey.

Encounter the bustling market and all its gossip in Spreading The News; the restaurant where newspaper editors wine, dine and mix up their Coats; the post office, where the splendid Hyacinth Halvey has sent word he is coming to town, and the bus stop where strangers such as The Bogie Men can quickly become friends! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Joe Layton and Hannah Sinclair Robinson in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Scott Graham

Relationship drama of the week: Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

FRANTIC Assembly follow up York Theatre Royal visits of Othello and Metamorphosis with their 30th anniversary production, a two-hander memory play by Anna Jordan, directed by physical theatre specialist Scott Graham.

Joe Layton and Hannah Sinclair Robinson play Robbie and Jess, whose chance meeting, disastrous dates and extraordinary transformative love is the stuff of fairy tales. Or is it? Lost Atoms is a wild ride through a life-changing relationship, or Robbie and Jess’s clashing recollections as they relive the beats of connection, the moments of loss, but  are their stories the same and can their memories be trusted? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie: Pure entertainment at York Barbican

Oh, lucky you gig of the week: Lightning Seeds, Tomorrow’s Here Today, 35 Years Greatest Hits Tour, York Barbican, tomorrow, 8pm

NOW in his 36th year of leading Liverpool’s Lightning Seeds, Ian Broudie heads to York on his extended Tomorrow’s Here Today tour. Cue Pure, The Life Of Riley, Change, Lucky You, Sense, All I Want, Sugar Coated Iceberg, You Showed Me, Emily Smiles, Three Lions et al. Casino support. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jack Fry’s Quasimodo and Ayana Beatrice Poblete’s Esmerelda in Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Musical of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, October 10, 11 and 14 to 18, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinees

BLACK Sheep Theatre Productions bring a cast of five leads, seven ensemble actors and a 23-strong choir to the York company’s larger-than-life staging of Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz’s musical rooted in Disney’s 1996 musical film and Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel.

Combining powerful themes of love, acceptance and the nature of good and evil with a sweeping score, Matthew Peter Clare’s show will be “like nothing you’ve seen before”. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Alex Mitchell: Headlining the Funny Fridays comedy bill at Patch at Bonding Warehouse, York

Comedy gig of the week: Funny Fridays, Patch at Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, Friday,  7.30pm

BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Alex Mitchell headlines October’s Funny Fridays bill at Patch, hosted by promoter and comedy turn Katie Lingo. On the bill too will be Pheebs Stephenson, Jacob Kohn, Lorna Green and Jimmy Johnson.

 “As this year’s event falls on World Mental Health Day, we’re raising money for Samaritans with bucket collections, ticket proceeds and a raffle. I’m a volunteer at the York branch and see first-hand the incredible work they do.” Tickets: eventbrite.co.uk or on the door.

Suthering’s Julu Irvine and and Heg Brignall: Playing Helmsley Arts Centre

Folk gig of the week: Suthering, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm

ADVOCATES for the LGBTQ+ community and for the rights of women and other marginalised people, Tavistock folk duo Suthering’s Julu Irvine and and Heg Brignall weave harmonies through their original songs, paired with gentle guitar and emotive piano arrangements.

Known for their chemistry, storytelling and humour on stage, they intertwine their messages about the state of our climate, social conscience, the importance of community and connecting with nature, while  championing female characters, creating new narratives for women and unearthing the female heroines of the folk tradition, as heard on their second album, 2024’s Leave A Light On. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Ceilidh of the week: Jackhare Ceilidh Band, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 7.30pm

RYEDALE Dog Rescue presents the Jackhare Ceilidh Band in an evening of traditional English dance music this weekend. Doors open at 7pm and the Studio Bar will be open. Tickets must be pre-booked by emailing fundraising@ryedaledogrescue.org.uk, phoning 01653 697548, texting 07843 971973 or messaging on the Ryedale Dog Rescue Facebook page.

Robin Simpson: Storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame

Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, October 12, doors 4pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.

“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Beverley Knight: Stories and songs at York Barbican. Picture: Lewis Shaw

Concert announcement of the week: Beverly Knight, Born To Perform, York Barbican, June 20 2026

QUEEN of British soul Beverley Knight will share stories from her life on stage, as well as performing her biggest hits, musical theatre favourites and cherished songs that have inspired her.

“I’m excited to get back on the road but with a different kind of show that folk are used to with me,” says Wolverhampton-born Beverley, 52. “Born To Perform is me taking you on a journey through my life on both music and theatre stages, using my memories and of course my songs. I’m stripping back my sound so the audience can lean in a little closer and really hear my soul.” Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at https://www.yorkbarbican.co.uk/whats-on/beverley-knight-2026.

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Panto funny lad Tommy Carmichael is back by popular demand to play Jangles in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal

Tommy Carmichael: “Audience favourite” will play Jangles in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal

YORKSHIREMAN Tommy Carmichael will head back to York Theatre Royal for this winter’s pantomime season, following up his 2024-25 comic role as Charlie in Aladdin by playing Jangles in Sleeping Beauty.

The “audience favourite” joins the already confirmed CBeebies star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam and dame returnee Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie in creative director Juliet Forster’s cast.

“Tommy was such a hit with audiences last year in Aladdin and we are delighted to have him back with us for Sleeping Beauty,” she says.  “We have lots of fun and hilarity planned, so don’t miss your chance to see the show this winter.”  

Tommy Carmichael: From Charlie to Jangles at York Theatre Royal

Doncaster-born Carmichael’s theatre credits include Timternet in Big Strong Man (national tour); Silly Willy in Robin Hood and Buttons in Cinderella (both at The Maltings, Ely); Chief Weasel in The Wind In The Willows (national tour); Himself in Big Strong Man (CAST, Doncaster); Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland (national tour) and Bagheera in The Jungle Book (national tour).  

Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal’s sixth pantomime collaboration with perennial award winners Evolution Productions, will be written once more by Evolution director Paul Hendy, who previously penned The Travelling Panto, Cinderella, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, Jack And The Beanstalk and Aladdin.

Forster’s production will run from December 2 to January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Family tickets are available for all performances with savings of up to £64.50 on bookings of  four tickets.

Tommy Carmichael’s cheerful Charlie in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal

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What will be next year’s pantomimes at Grand Opera House & York Theatre Royal?

Invitation to the ball: Grand Opera House announces Cinderella for next winter

TICKETS will go on sale at noon on Friday for next year’s Grand Opera House pantomime in York. The Cumberland Street theatre will present Cinderella from December 6 2025 to January 4 2026 in its fourth collaboration with UK Productions.

As with this winter’s panto, Beauty And The Beast, the show will feature a script by Jon Monie, winner of Best Script at the 2019 Great British Pantomime Awards.

Promising side-splitting comedy, lavish settings and adorable miniature ponies, Cinderella will be “more fun than you can shake a pumpkin at”. Star casting is to be announced but “expect stars from the West End and screen”.

Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House theatre director, says: “As we open the spectacular Beauty And The Beast, we’re delighted that UK Productions will be returning next year with the most beloved of pantomimes of all time, Cinderella. I’m sure adults and children alike will be spellbound by this magical new show.”

UK Productions producer Martin Dodd says: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without pantomime, and pantomime wouldn’t be pantomime without Cinderella. We are delighted to be presenting this fabulous story at York’s beautiful Grand Opera House, building on the success of this year’s musical pantomime, Beauty And The Beast.”

To take advantage of early bird ticket savings, book by Saturday, February 1 2025 to save £8 per ticket on select performances and seats.

Beauty And The Beast will run until January 5 2025 with a West End cast featuring CBBC’s BAFTA award-winning Dani Harmer, from Tracy Beaker and Strictly Come Dancing, as Fairy Bon Bon; dame Leon Craig, from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, as Polly La Plonk, Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle, and Samuel Wyn-Morris, from Les Misérables, as The Prince. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

York Theatre Royal’s promotional poster for dame Robin Simpson’s return in Sleeping Beauty in 2025

ROBIN Simpson will return for his sixth season as the dame in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime for 2025-26, Sleeping Beauty, billed as “an enchanting tale of adventure, fun and spellbinding magic for the whole family”. 

Co-produced with regular partners Evolution Productions, the show will run from December  2 2025 to January 4 2026, with “stunning costumes, gorgeous sets, dazzling special effects and all the spectacular magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime”.  

The show will be written by Evolution producer Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the team behind Aladdin this winter, Jack And The Beanstalk in 2023, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan in 2022, Cinderella in 2021 and the community-touring Travelling Pantomime in Covid-shadowed 2020.

Forster says: “We’ve been delighted to see so many people returning year after year to enjoy the magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime. We are so proud of the quality of the pantos we make and can’t wait to continue our panto adventures with Sleeping Beauty. It’s so brilliant to have Robin on board again too to bring the hilarity and fun as our dame!”  

Hendy says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the fabulous team at York Theatre Royal again for our spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. We are delighted Robin will be returning as our wonderful dame, and we can’t wait to share with you more exciting casting news in the New Year!” 

Simpson enthuses: “I am overjoyed to be playing the dame in next year’s Sleeping Beauty. I love the York audiences and it’s such a special place to perform every year at Christmas time. I’m looking forward to all the high jinks the dame will get up to in Sleeping Beauty!”  

Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Early birds who book before the end of March 2025 can benefit from a price freeze on ticket prices, with options ranging from £15 to £43.50.  

Family ticket discounts can be booked for £90 (for three including at least one child) and £120 (for four including at least one child.) Schools discounts are available when booking via the St Leonard’s Place box office.  

YTR Members receive an extra ten per cent off up to four tickets. For details of how to join YTR Membership, visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or contact the box office. 

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REVIEW: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, born to pun until January 5 2025 ***1/2

Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly with the magnet of love in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

THIS is York Theatre Royal’s fifth collaboration with regular pantomime award winners Evolution  Productions. On Tuesday, a sixth was confirmed for  next year when Sleeping Beauty will stir from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026 with Robin Simpson once more as the dotty dame and tickets on sale already.

The partnership is well grooved with tropes established in the writing of Evolution’s Paul Hendy and the casting and direction of Juliet Forster. Not only Simpson’s gregarious, teasing dame but also the presence of a CBeebies star each year; animals, whether live with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie last year or in rather more heavy-footed Welly the Elephant puppet form this time; plenty of set-piece spectacle and the obligatory ghost scene (here with the dame’s ghost gag bench).

A profusion of songs across the pop ages shares equal space with a love of putting the pun into punchlines and a preference for verbal wit over physical slapstick, although the latter still has its place.   

There is, too, an awareness of changing times and sensitivities, so while we still have a Spirit of the Ring and Genie of the Lamp (both played by CBeebies’ ever-playful Evie Pickerill, chasing her tail breathlessly and singing heartily), now Widow Twankey’s Chinese laundry has made way for Dame Dolly’s Pun shop.

The decision to change ‘Abanazar’ to ‘Ivan Tobebooed’ may be rather more to do with Hendy’s love of a daft name than any PC correctness. Paul Hawkyard, returning to exuberant York villainy after a winter away doing panto in Dubai, had predicted as much at September’s press launch. 

Hawkyard has such comic mischief about his burly, volcanic-voiced frame,  whether playing Bottom in Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mardy to Simpson’s Manky in their Ugly Sister double act in Cinderella, or now Ivan, you find yourself wanting to cheer as much as boo him.

Your reviewer would have liked to have seen more scenes with Simpson’s Dame Dolly in comic combat with and Hawkyard’s Ivan, given their rare stage chemistry, affirmed once more by their will-they-won’t-they-kiss shenanigans, but maybe the plot did not permit more of such golden moments.

The comedy is shared out between Pickerill’s double act, Simpson’s sassy, sometimes saucy  Dame Dolly, Tommy Carmichael’s daft son Charlie and physical comedy specialist Rowan Armitt-Brewster’s PC World on his return to York after his dextrous turn as Inspector Fox in Around The World In  80 Days-ish this summer.

Armitt-Brewster’s officious officer rather out-stars the affable Carmichael, with better lines, better gags, funnier body movements too, but the children warm to Carmichael’s cheekiness and he plays his part alongside Armitt-Brewster and Simpson in the show’s best call-and-respond set-piece, as fractious as a rap battle when conducted with presses of a button to release a recorded line from a familiar pop hit to express their feelings.

The dame’s audience pick for humiliation, one Adam from the front row, plays his part in a headset in this scene and has an even bigger moment on stage earlier on when delivering a series of deliberately clunky  punchlines in a joke shop routine with ‘Terry-Bull’ timing.

Fresh from playing Sonny in the UK tour of Grease, Sario Solomon is a delightfully ever-positive Aladdin, as uplifting as his carpet ride and singing like a dream too, and he is matched by Emily Tang’s Princess Jasmine, thoroughly modern in outlook in being drawn to the personality, not the bank balance.

Clear storytelling and good values (rather than heavy-handed moral messaging) are always strong features of  creative director Juliet Forster’s direction, alongside the abundant humour, complemented by Hayley Del Harrison’s sparky, sparkling choreography. 

Morgan Brind’s costumes stand out more than his set designs, especially the dame’s merry-go-round of ever-dafter attire. Look out too for one shop sign: Sherlock Combs, Barber, a cut above the norm.

Hendy’s script finds room for cutting observations on York’s parking and potholes and takes pot-shots at Hull and the Grand Opera House pantomime too, and never has he had more fun with a pun in a show where the second half surpasses the first, as should always be the case. All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk were superior but there is still plenty to enjoy in Aladdin.

Aladdin runs at York Theatre Royal until January 5 2025. Box office:01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Hello Dolly! Robin Simpson’s dame takes on new guise in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal

To beard or not to beard? Paul Hawkyard, left, will retain his, but Robin Simpson will shed his to play Dame Dolly in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

IT could be disconcerting interviewing the dame in week two of rehearsals for Aladdin when Robin Simpson’s beard remains in imperial flourish, especially when his playing style is the antithesis of rough and ready.

Be assured, the whiskers will be long gone when the Yorkshireman begins his fifth York Theatre Royal pantomime next Tuesday, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey in a nod to acknowledging modern-day sensitivities and cultural diplomacy.

As ever, Robin’s dame will be lovable. “I’ve never been a big fan, even in normal life, of putting people down. Dames can be quite cruel but I would never do that,” he says. “When I pick out a man in the audience to be in the spotlight at each show, what I want afterwards is for him to go, ‘I’m so glad I was chosen because I had a great time’.

“My dame personality also comes from performing in front of children a lot [Robin does solo storytelling shows too], accepting their offers [suggestions and comments], working with what they give you, incorporating it, making it work. The aim has to be to give everyone a good time, when it can be too easy in pantomimes to make someone feel they’re being picked on. You don’t need to do that. I believe the dame should be nice.”

Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre’s first poster image for Aladdin, released in January

His style epitomises the new age of the York Theatre Royal pantomime crafted since 2020 by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and award-winning Evolution Productions director and script writer Paul Hendy.

“Our panto does appeal to both adults and children,” says Robin. “You have to have something for the adults, nothing too specific, but ‘bum jokes’ too for the children. You need fabulous costumes and you have to do the story properly, while having a side-wink to the audience that says ‘ we know this is all crazy’!

“We always have an eye on being entertaining for children: you can’t have the baddie being too scary or the dame being too rude!”

On the subject of the villain, Robin will be renewing his badinage with fellow West Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, who returns to the dark side at the Theatre Royal as Abanazar after a gap year appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.

Robin Simpson’s Manky, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy, the scheming stepsisters, in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 2021

Simpson and Hawkyard first revelled in their award-nominated panto double act when things turned ugly as stepsisters  Manky and Mardy in Cinderella in 2021. “It’s great to have him back,” says Robin, who also played Mrs Smee to Paul’s Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan! in 2022.

“It’s nice to have that familiarity, and to have similar scenes and routines to past shows, like the ghost gag bench but with a different song. Some of the same catchphrases and punchlines too: the more that people come and see the shows, the more they’ll say, ‘that’s the thing they do’, but you don’t want to force them. They have to be natural.

“The audiences have been great since we started, and hopefully we’ve been growing that audience each year with the shows going from strength to strength. However each one is put together by Juliet and Paul, their decision to cast a CBeebies star each time has worked really well: it’s really wonderful to have Evie Pickerill this year. She’s such a delight to work with – and what great singing voice she has too.

“We have a strong ensemble and we’re a team of really committed people. Pantomimes can be lazy but that’s not the case with here, where Juliet and Paul put everything into constantly finding something funny  that appeals to the widest audience.”

Robin Simpson in children’s storyteller mode

Robin’s dame loves to be the dispenser of “lots of fun”. “I’ve been playing dame for eight years now, three in Huddersfield [at the Lawrence Batley Theatre] and now five here, and of all the roles in pantomime, it’s certainly the most interesting one for me as you haven’t got the limitations on you that the leading man and the leading girl have.  

“I don’t have to carry the show. That’s up to Aladdin and co. They have the emotional story and earnestness. I can just come on, say a few jokes and fall over. At my age, that’s what I like, though I don’t mean to do it a disservice. The gender reversals in theatre have been going on for many years. They’ve always been part of the theatre tradition.”

Robin has returned to York after working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, heading from Scotland to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and OVO, St Albans too on tour. “It’s taken up pretty much my year,” he says. “I did seven months, a proper old-fashioned rep season, with the seventh month at the Wolsey in Ipswich in a co-production of Footloose.

“I was the Reverend and I really enjoyed being put in a musical, which is not something I’m usually considered for. It was good to be out of my comfort zone,” he says.

Robin Simpson having “lots of fun” in rehearsal for his fifth dame’s role at York Theatre Royal in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography

“Though I was also in another musical in the season: Beautiful, the Carole King musical, playing Donny Kirshner, Carole’s manager, who managed The Monkees too. We had the same cast for three shows, with me playing Sir John Middleton and Mrs Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility…”

…Mrs Ferrars, you say? “I think they must have heard I played the dame! It was all very much multi-role-playing with only eight of us in the cast. She has only one scene, so none of your pantomime rouge for Mrs Ferrars. We didn’t have time for that.

“She’s really dislikeable! A horrible tyrant of a woman!” Totally unlike Robin’s dame.

York Theatre Royal presents Aladdin from December 3 to January 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

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Meet the stars of York Theatre Royal’s panto Aladdin from CBeebies presenter to villain’s return and dame’s new title

Aladdin cast members Tommy Carmichael, left, Paul Hawkyard, Evie Pickerill, Robin Simpson and Emily Tang outside York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ant Robling

STARS of the 2024-2025 pantomime Aladdin have gathered for a launch day at York Theatre Royal.

Present were Robin Simpson, who will return for his fifth panto season as the dame, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey, and fellow Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, renewing his badinage with Simpson as villainous Abanazar after a gap year from the Theatre Royal show, appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.

There too were Evie Pickerill, the latest CBeebies presenter to join the Theatre Royal-Evolution Productions co-production, cast as the Spirit of the Ring; Emily Tang, who will play Princess Jasmine, and Tommy Carmichael, whose role will be Charlie.

Absent from Tuesday’s media event was Saria Solomon, otherwise engaged on tour playing Donny in the musical Grease, but he had attended a launch already in June to promote his title role in the York panto, to be directed once more by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution director Paul Hendy, winner of the Best Script award for Aladdin at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, in the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards.

The first name to be confirmed for Aladdin was Robin Simpson, as early as during last winter’s run of Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein his Dame Trott followed up his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Ugly Sister Manky in a Pantomime Awards-nominated double act with Hawkyard’s Mardy. In the socially distanced first winter of Covid, he had first played the Theatre Royal’s dame in The Travelling Pantomime that toured to community centres around York.

“It’s nice they have that faith in me not to put people off,” he says of being the first poster face of the promotional campaign for Aladdin.

Hello, Dolly: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly, starring in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal this winter. Picture: Ant Robling

After his partnership with Zeus, the scene-stealing Border Collie, in Jack And The Beanstalk, Robin will resume striking comedy sparks with Paul Hawkyard. “Paul’s very uncontrollable,” he says. “He doesn’t follow orders, but he does work for treats. It’s nice to have him back, and it’s always nice to be back at the Theatre Royal.

“A few years ago I wouldn’t have envisaged that I’d be doing panto for ten years now, because before that I didn’t really do panto, as the kids were young and I liked to be at home with them for Christmas.

“I understudied Berwick [Kaler] here one year. The Huddersfield panto came along, and then I started working here with the ‘pandemic panto’ when theatres were in flux, and it’s a joy to be back again for Aladdin.”

Guess who Paul Hawkyard played in his panto season away from York. “I was the dame! I went to Dubai over the Christmas period to appear in Beauty And The Beast there – and it was gorgeous,” he says. “As you’re rehearsing, in between scenes if you’re not in that scene, you can dive into the swimming pool and relax – but make sure to remove your flip-flops before you go back into the rehearsal room.”

Now Paul will be returning to the dark side as Abanazar after playing Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. “It’s great to be back with Robin. We keep in touch with each other, like painting a portrait of his mam’s dog,” says wildlife artist Paul. “It’s lovely to be back working with Juliet [Forster] too, and it’s been so uplifting to have had messages from people saying they’d missed me last year.

“Being welcomed by York is a good feeling, and it’s such a good panto because the standard is so high: the costumes, the scenery, Paul’s script, the speciality acts. It’s another level.

Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar on the York Theatre Royal stage. Picture: Ant Robling

“And the lovely thing about me and Robin is that it’s not just the chemistry on stage. He’ll stay over at my home if he’s passing by when he’s doing his story shows.”

Evie Pickerill, one of the principal presenters on the children’s television channel CBeebies since 2018 and a regular CBBC host too, follows Andy Day, Mandy Moate and James “Raven” McKenzie in joining the Theatre Royal panto ranks. “That’s big shoes to fill,” she says. “Playing the Spirit of the Ring will be my first time on the York stage but I’ve been to York a handful of times and love it here.

“I played Cinderella at The Grand, Wolverhampton, and Leicester de Montford Hall and Snow White at Wolverhampton, and this will be a different kind of role. With the Spirit of the Ring, there’s a bit of comedy, a bit of silliness.

“After doing panto for Imagine and in-house at Wolverhampton, working for Evolution at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto. Apparently we’ll be doing a lot of character work, which is different from the other pantos I’ve done.”

Before rehearsals begin for Aladdin, Evie will be heading up to Edinburgh to record the CBeebies pantomime at the Festival Theatre and then returning to the BBC studio. “I’m playing the Robin in Beauty And The Beast,” she reveals. The Robin, Evie? “She’s Belle’s best friend, and she flies – and I’ve never flown across a stage before. That’s exciting!”

Evie loves pantomime. “I first went when I was seven or eight and straightaway I said to my parents, ‘that’s what I want to do’,” she says. “I left home at 18 to go to drama school in Liverpool, doing the acting course at LIPA, and I’ve never looked back.”

Aladdin will run at York Theatre Royal from December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring. Picture: Ant Robling
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Paul Hawkyard returns to dark side to play Abanazar in York Theatre Royal’s Aladdin

Villain’s return: Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar

HE’S bad and he’s back. Paul Hawkyard will return to the villain’s role in the 2024-2025 York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions pantomime after a year’s hiatus.

The towering Leeds-born actor and wildlife artist will play Abanazar in creative director Juliet Forster’s production of Aladdin, written by Evolution director Paul Hendy in a new York adaptation of the script he premiered at The Marlowe, Canterbury, last winter with Strictly Come Dancing alumnus Kevin Clifton as the baddie.

Clifton, by the way, is among The Marlowe’s record-breaking eight nominations for the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards for Best Newcomer to Pantomime for his debut as Ivan Tochachacha, in essence Abanazar re-booted with a dancing moniker.

Writer Hendy was nominated too for Best Script, alongside Best Pantomime (over 900 seats), Best Dame, Best Lead, Best Magical Being, Best Supporting Artist and Best Contribution to Music.

Leeds-born actor Paul Hawkyard

The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at G Live, Guildford, on June 18, when York Theatre Royal will be represented by Jack And The Beanstalk cast members Mia Overfield and Anna Soden.

Overfield is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre, Manchester.

In her home-city panto, Soden played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that has led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category. 

Meanwhile, back to Aladdin in York, where Hawkyard will be renewing his fruitful, feisty pantomime partnership with regular dame Robin Simpson, returning for his fifth successive Theatre Royal panto.

Rev-olution: Robin Simpson and Paul Hawkyard roar onto stage in their irreverent Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella

Hawkyard and Simpson received a UK Pantomime Awards nomination for their Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in 2021-2022’s Cinderella, then bonded in baddie badinage over the next winter as Captain Hook and Mrs Smee respectively in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan.

Hawkyard and Simpson first worked together in the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre company at the Eye of York, sharing a dressing room from the day they started. In 2022, they reunited for Harrogate Theatre’s HT Rep season of three plays in three weeks, Simpson appearing in all three, Abigail’s Party, Gaslight and Men Of The World; Hawkyard in the first and last.

They will be joined in Aladdin by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Further casting will be announced shortly.

Tickets for Aladdin’s run from December 3 to January 5 2025 are on sale on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.