York Theatre Royal Archives - Page 3 of 60

January 25, 2025January 30, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond, any way the wind blows. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 4 for 2025, from The York Press

*Ric Liptrot: Exhibiting in The Other Collective exhibition at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb*

FROM dollops of Dolly Parton advice to Stewart Lee’s werewolf encounter, devilish storytelling to a Cinderella prequel, Charles Hutchinson, cherry picks highlights for the days ahead.

Exhibition of the week: The Other Collective, Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, until March 13

CURATED by Bluebird Bakery, The Other Collective brings together the work of Lu Mason, Ric Liptrot, Rob Burton, Liz Foster and Jill Tattersall.

“These wonderful artists were all missed off the billing for York Open Studios 2025 and we felt that was a real shame,” says Bluebird boss Nicky Kippax. “So The Other Collective was born and we hope the work will get a lot of interest from our customers.”

*The poster for South Bank Singers’ Of All The Birds concert*

Nature concert of the week: South Bank Singers, Of All The Birds, A Winter Chorus, St Clement’s Church, Scarcroft Road, York, today, 3pm

SOUTH Bank Singers present Of All The Birds, A Winter Chrous, a Saturday afternoon concert of choral music inspired by the enchanting beauty and song of birds. Directed by Carlos Zamora, the choral programme spans six centuries, taking in Mendelssohn, Stanford, Ravel, Gibbons, Janequin, Vautor, Guastavino and Bartlet. Admission is free with a retiring collection for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

*The poster for A Million Dreams, presented by Steve Coates Productions, at the Grand Opera House, York*

Fundraiser of the week: A Million Dreams, A Charity Broadway Spectacular, Grand Opera House, York, tonight, 7.30pm

STEVE Coates Productions present an evening of musical magic, song, dance and laughter by York talent in aid of The Snappy Trust, a charity “dedicated to maximising the personal development of children and young people with wide- ranging disabilities”.

Bev Jones Music Company, Flying Ducks Youth Theatre and a ten-piece band perform songs from Broadway and West End shows such as Wicked, Hamilton, Frozen, The Phantom Of The Opera, Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Mark Reynolds’ tour poster illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, playing York Theatre Royal from January 28 to February 1*

Comedy gigs of the week: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm

IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Tickets advice: Hurry, hurry as all shows are closing in on selling out; 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Tricia Paoluccio’s Dolly Parton and Steven Webb’s Kevin in Here You Come Again at Grand Opera House, York*

Musical of the week: Here You Come Again, Grand Opera House, York, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees

SIMON Friend Entertainment and Leeds Playhouse team up for the tour of Here You Come Again, starring and co-written by Broadway actress Tricia Paoluccio, who visits York for the first time in the guise of a fantasy vision of country icon Dolly Parton.

Gimme Gimme Gimme writer Jonathan Harvey has put a British spin on Bruce Vilanch, director Gabriel Barre and Paoluccio’s story of diehard Dolly devotee Kevin (Steven Webb) needing dollops of Dolly advice on life and love in trying times. Parton hits galore help too! Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Sylvie (Aileen Hall), centre, demonstrates her skills to friends Amelie (Perri Ann Barley), left, and Helene (Devon Wells), right, in rehearsal for Blue Light Theatre Company’s Where The Magic Begins!

Premiere of the week: Blue Light Theatre Company in Where The Magic Begins!, Acomb Working Men’s Club, York, January 29, 30 and 31, 7.30pm; February 1, 2pm matinee

BLUE Light Theatre Company will forego their annual panto in favour of staging York playwright and actress Perri Ann Barley’s new play Where The Magic Begins!, a prequel to Cinderella based on characters from the original Charles Perrault version of “everyone’s favourite fairytale”.

“We meet many beloved characters in their younger days, such as a young Fairy Godmother, who is about to discover her ‘gift’. We follow her journey as she struggles with a secret that could put her life, and that of her family, in grave danger,” says director Craig Barley. Box office: 07933 329654, at bluelight-theatre.co.uk or on the door.

*Hannah Rowe: Performing in the cabaret set-up of The Old Paint Shop at York Theatre Royal Studio*

Cabaret night of the week: CPWM Presents An Evening With Hannah Rowe, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 30, 8pm

YORK promoters Come Play With Me (CPWM) welcome Hannah Rowe to The Old Paint Shop’s winter season. This young singer writes of experiences and shifts in life, offering a sense of reflection within her rich, authentic, jazz-infused sound.

The Old Paint Shop shows by irreverent York covers combo Hyde Family Jam (today, 2pm and 8pm) and Karl Mullen, upstanding York pianist Karl Mullen (January 31, 8pm) have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Tim Ralphs: Wild reimagining of folktale, fairytale and urban legend at Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb*

Devilish delight of the week: Tim Ralphs and Adderstone, Infernal Delights, Rise@Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, January 31, doors 7.30pm

TIM Ralphs and York alt-folk storytellers Adderstone serve up a winter night’s double bill of dark delights. Let Adderstone’s Cath Heinemeyer and Gemma McDermott lead you down the steps to the underworld with story-songs from wild places in their Songs To Meet The Darkness set.

In Beelzebub Rebranded, Tim Ralphs’s stand-up storytelling exhumes the bones of ancient Devil stories and stitches them into new skins for fresh consumption in his wild reimagining of folktale, fairytale and urban legend. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/adderstone/infernal-delights/e-xjjber.

*York Ice Trail: Taking the theme of Origins next weekend*

Whatever the weather, here comes the new ice age: York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2

YORK’S “free weekend of frosty fun” returns with a 2025 theme of Origins as York’s streets are turned into an icy wonderland of frozen tableau in this annual event run by Make It York. Among the 30 ice sculptures showcasing 2,000 years of city history will be a Roman shield, a Viking helmet, a chocolate bar, a drifting ghost, a majestic train and a Yorkshire rose, all captured in the language of ice by Icebox. Full details can be found at visityork.org/york-ice-trail.

Before all that ice, windswept York has another free event on the city streets and beyond this weekend: York Residents’ Festival today and tomorrow. For the full list of offers, head to: visityork.org/offers/category/york-residents-festival.

*Snow Patrol: Returning to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this summer*

Gig announcement of the week: Snow Patrol, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 27

THE Northern Irish-Scottish indie rock band Snow Patrol are to return to the Scarborough coast for the first time since July 2021, led as ever by Gary Lightbody, accompanied by long-time lead guitarist Nathan Connolly and pianist Johnny McDaid.

Emotionally charged anthems such as Chasing Cars, Run and Open Your Eyes will be complemented by selections from 2024’s The Forest Is The Path, their first chart topper in 18 years. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk and scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

In Focus: Hayden Thorpe & Propellor Ensemble, National Centre for Early Music, York, January 29, doors 7pm, start 7.30pm

*Hayden Thorpe: Performing Ness with Propellor Ensemble at the NCEM*

PLEASE Please You and Brudenell Presents bring Hayden Thorpe & Propellor Ensemble to the NCEM to perform Ness on Wednesday, with the promise of a “sonically spectacular and transformational live show”.

Thorpe, 39-year-old former frontman and chief songwriter of Kendal and Leeds band Wild Beasts, promotes his September 2024 album, Ness, released on Domino Records.

Using a process of redaction, Cumbrian musician Thorpe brought songs to life from nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s book Ness, inspired by Orford Ness, a ten-mile long shingle spit on the coast of Suffolk that housed the former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War.

Acquired by the National Trust in 1993 and left to re-wild, to this day it remains a place of paradox, mystery and constant evolution.

Thorpe’s ode to Orford Ness, the physical place and the book, features Macfarlane’s words and illustrations by Stanley Donwood. He premiered Ness with Propellor Ensemble at Orford Ness on September 28 and 29 last year.

Here Hayden discusses working with Robert Macfarlane and Propellor Ensemble, the Cold War, nature and past York experiences with CharlesHutchPress.

Do you have any past experiences of York, whether on a school visit or whatever, Hayden?

“My parents used to take us to the Jorvik Viking Museum when me and my siblings were young. I was always amazed by the fake open sewer smell they would pump into the space.”

When did you last play in York, either solo or with Wild Beasts?

“I believe it was in 2006 or 2007. A rather long time ago. In any case, it’s been too long. It was somewhere quite familiar to me when Wild Beasts were coming up in Leeds. We’d make a regular dash across.”

How did the Ness project come about with Robert Macfarlane?

“In a really old fashioned manner. I fan-mailed Rob and he wrote back with all the generosity and open heartedness of his books. He’s as good as his word in the truest sense.

“Rob and I decided to perform some improvised music to his reading of Ness. It was a Eureka moment. The atmosphere and drama of the sound we made demanded that we commit to expanding it.”

Did you visit Orford Ness, now the Orford Ness National Nature Reserve, for research purposes?

“Yes. Orford Ness is an astonishing place. It’s a monument to rejuvenation and a monument to destruction. The very best and the very worst of us.”

By the way, Hayden, York has a Cold War Bunker Museum, in Monument Close, Holgate: a two-storey, semi-subterranean bunker built in 1961 to monitor nuclear explosions and fallout in Yorkshire, in the event of nuclear war.

“I had no idea that a Cold War museum existed in York. That’s fabulous. Bizarrely, I’ve developed a Cold War romance. I guess the conflicts and hostilities we face today have brought these conversations back into our everyday consciousness.”

*The album cover artwork for Hayden Thorpe’s Ness*

How have you turned the album into a concert performance?

“The album is very much made of sounds we’ve made with our hands and lungs, so with enough pairs of those it actually translates in a very true way. The unusual instrumentation, with orchestral percussion and clarinet foregrounded alongside me, creates a very distinct ‘Ness’ sound. The shows have been really emotional as a result.”

Were you tempted to feature strings in the Ness project for their emotional heft?

“We deliberately did not use strings. We opted to use the elemental forces at my play at Orford Ness: wind and resistant materials like metal and wood. It creates a haunted, volatile soundscape.”

Which Propellor Ensemble members will play in York?

“Jack McNeill plays clarinet and Delia Stevens plays orchestral percussion. Molly Gromadzki performs the spoken-word parts and sings in the choir. Brigitte Hart and Helen Ganya make up the choral section. It’s been a joy to work with such expressive and capable performers.”

What does a “sonically spectacular and transformational live show” entail?

“Something which is sonically ambitious and immersive. Once we start the show we don’t stop, it’s the album in full back to front. We want to take the audience to Ness, have them come face to face with the monster.”

Why was the National Centre for Early Music, in the former St Margaret’s Church in Walmgate, chosen for the York gig rather than The Crescent community venue, a classic working men’s club design?

“We’ve heard such great things about NCEM. Much of the story of Ness takes place ‘In The Green Chapel’, so the work lends itself to a space of worship.”

What is your own relationship with nature? Wild Beasts hailed originally from Kendal, with all that Lake District beauty around you…

“Nature has become increasingly important to my life and work. As artists we’re forced to ask what side of the conversation we sit on, one which acknowledges the existential crisis facing us or one which excuses it. Music can carry non-human voices really effectively. Ness is very much a meditation on that.”

What will be the next project you work on?“

Good question. Ness has certainly expanded my palette. I’ve come to feel maybe my strength is in making strange and ambitious works which would otherwise not get made. It’s crucial to keep the flame burning on works of exploration and oddity in an industry which increasingly incentivises conformity.”

Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

January 24, 2025January 24, 2025

What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 3 from Gazette & Herald

The Steelers: Re-creating the songs of Steely Dan at Helmsley Arts Centre

FROM a residents’ free festival to a Steely Dan tribute, the return of The Old Paint Shop cabaret to the Poet Laureate’s foray into music, Charles Hutchinson welcomes signs of 2025 gathering pace.

Tribute show of the week: The Steelers, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm

THE Steelers, a nine-piece band of musicians drawn from around Great Britain, perform songs from iconic Steely Dan Steel albums Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, AJA and Goucho, crafted by Walter Becker and Donald Fagan since 1972. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Lyrical musicianship at York Theatre Royal: Poet Laureate and LYR band members Richard Walters and Patrick Pearson. Picture: Katie Silvester*

The language of music: An Evening With Simon Armitage and LYR, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm

UK Poet Laureate, dramatist, novelist, broadcaster and University of Leeds Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage teams up with his band LYR for an evening of poetry (first half) and music (second half), where LYR’s soaring vocal melodies and ambient instrumentation create an evocative and enchanting soundscape for West Yorkshireman Armitage’s spoken-word passages. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Ned Swarbrick: Debut headline gig at The Crescent at the age of 16*

Headline debut of the week: Ned Swarbrick, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm

AT 16, York singer-songwriter Ned Swarbrick heads to The Crescent – with a couple of band mates in tow – for his debut headline show after accruing 40 gigs over the past two years. Penning acoustic songs that reflect his love of literature and pop culture, he sways from melancholy to upbeat, sad to happy, serious to tongue in cheek.

The first to admit that he is still finding his feet, in his live shows Ned switches between Belle & Sebastian-style pop numbers and intimate folk tunes more reminiscent of Nick Drake. Check out his debut EP, Michelangelo, featuring National Youth Folk Ensemble members, and look out for him busking on York’s streets. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

*Frankie Monroe: Transforming The Old Paint Shop into the Misty Moon working men’s club at York Theatre Royal*

Beyond compere: Frankie Monroe And Friends, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 8pm

BBC New Comedy and Edinburgh Fringe Newcomer winner Frankie Monroe hosts an evening of humour, tricks and mucky bitter in The Old Paint Shop. Join the owner of the Misty Moon – “a working men’s club in Rotherham that also serves as a portal to hell” – in his biggest show yet with some of York’s finest cabaret performers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Clifford’s Tower: Taking part in York Residents’ Festival this weekend*

Festival of the week: York Residents’ Festival, Saturday and Sunday

ORGANISED by Make It York, this annual festival combines free offers, events and discounts for valid York Card, student card or identity card holders that proves your York residency. Among the participating visitor attractions will be Bedern Hall, Clifford’s Tower, Yorkshire Air Museum, Merchant Taylors Hall and, outside York, Beningbrough Hall and Castle Howard. For the full list of offers, head to: visityork.org/offers/category/york-residents-festival.

*Scott Matthews: Wolverhampton singer-songwriter plays the NCEM, York*

Folk gig of the week: The Crescent and Black Swan Folk Club present Scott Matthews, National Centre for Early Music, York, Saturday, doors 7pm

ON a tour that has taken in churches and caves, Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Scott Matthews plays St Margaret’s Church, home to the NCEM in Walmgate, next weekend.

Combining folk, rock, blues and Eastern-inspired song-writing, he has released eight albums since his 2007 debut single, Elusive, won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. His most recent recording, 2023’s Restless Lullabies, found him revisiting songs from 2020’s New Skin with a stark acoustic boldness. Box office: seetickets.com/event/scott-matthews/ncem/3211118. Please note, this is a seated show with all seating unreserved.

*The Cactus Blossoms: In harmony at Pocklington Arts Centre*

Harmony duo of the week: The Cactus Blossoms, Pocklington Arts Centre, January 31, 8pm

THE Cactus Blossoms’ brothers, Jack Torrey and Page Burkum, are modern practitioners of the magical art of harmony duo singing, as heard on their August 2024 album Every Time I Think About You. Like any great magician, they cannot or will not fully explain the illusion they create. See if you can work it out at Pocklington Arts Centre.

Support act Campbell/Jensen features the late Glen Campbell’s banjo-playing daughter Ashley Campbell, who performed in her father’s band on several world tours, including at York Barbican. The duo combines Campbell’s country and Americana with New York guitarist and songwriter Thor Jensen’s rock and gypsy jazz. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Gig announcement of the week: Snow Patrol, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 27

Emotionally charged anthems such as Chasing Cars, Run and Open Your Eyes will be complemented by selections from 2024’s The Forest Is The Path, their first chart topper in 18 years. Tickets go on sale today (24/1/2025) at 9am at ticketmaster.co.uk and scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

January 21, 2025January 21, 2025

York Light Opera Company to stage Legally Blonde The Musical at York Theatre Royal with Emma Swainston as Elle Woods

*“I’m thrilled to be playing Elle Woods,” says Emma Swainston. “It’s a dream role!” Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography*

OMIGOD You Guys! Legally Blonde The Musical is coming to York Theatre Royal in York Light Opera Company’s fabulously pink production from February 13 to 22.

The sassy and stylish award-winning musical comedy with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach is directed by Martyn Knight.

Emma Swainston will take the role of Elle Woods, a seemingly ditzy sorority girl with a heart of gold, who tackles the strictures and preconceptions of Harvard Law School to win back her man. Along the way, Elle discovers her own strength and intelligence, “proving that you can be both a beautiful blonde and brilliant”.

*York Light Opera Company’s full cast for Martyn Knight’s February production of Legally Blonde The Musical. Picture: York Light Opera Company*

Based on Amanda Brown’s novel and Australian director Robert Luketic’s 2001 film for MGM, Legally Blonde The Musicalis billed as a fun, feel-good show with a powerful message about staying true to yourself.

Martyn Knight says: “We are so excited to bring this empowering and hilarious show to York. Our production will celebrate Legally Blonde’s joy and energy while highlighting its important message of self-discovery and female empowerment.”

Emma Swainston will be following up her appearances on the York stage in Doctor Doolittle, The Railway Children, Fiddler On The Roof and as Sister Mary Leo in York Light’s Nunsense: The Mega Musical! at Theatre@41, Monkgate, last summer.

*“Elle is a really inspiring character and I can’t wait to share her journey with the audience,” says York Light lead actress Emma Swainston*

She will be part of a cast of 35, also featuring Zander Fick as Emmett Forrest, Emily Hardy as Paulette Bonafonte, Neil Wood as Professor Callahan, Emily Rockliff as Vivienne Kensington, Helen Miller as Enid Hoopes and Pippa Elmes as Brooke Wyndham.

Emma says: “I’m thrilled to be playing Elle Woods; it’s a dream role! Growing up I watched Reese Witherspoon play Elle in the original in the film on video, on repeat… and she’s such an icon. Elle is a really inspiring character and I can’t wait to share her journey with the audience.”

York Light Opera Company presents Legally Blonde The Musical, York Theatre Royal, February 13 to 22, 7.30pm nightly except February 16; 2.30pm, February 15, 20 and 22. February 17’s performance will be British Sign Language Interpreted. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*York Light Opera Company’s poster for Legally Blonde The Musical at York Theatre Royal*

January 18, 2025January 31, 2025

More Things To Do in York & beyond, two for a Yorkshireman’s favourite price. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 3, from The York Press

*Holly Taymar: Fresh air and fresh sounds*

FROM a free outdoor gig to the biggest free festival of the year, the return of The Old Paint Shop cabaret to the Poet Laureate’s foray into music, Charles Hutchinson welcomes signs of 2025 gathering pace.

Free gig of the week: Holly Taymar at Homestead Park, Water End, York, today, 11am to 12 noon

YORK “acoustic sophistopop” singer-songwriter and session-writer performer Holly Taymar heads out into the winter chill for a morning performance, supported by Music Anywhere, with the further enticement of a pop-up cafe.

“I’ll be playing songs in this most beautiful setting, surrounded by nature, all for free!” says Holly. “There’s a coffee van and some seating available, so come along and take in the fresh air and fresh sounds from me.”

*Man In The Mirror: Celebrating the music of Michael Jackson at York Barbican*

Tribute show of the week: Entertainers presents Man In The Mirror, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

MICHAEL Jackson tribute artist CJ celebrates the King of Pop in Man In The Mirror, a new show from Entertainers featuring a talented cast of performers and musicians in a Thriller of an electrifying concert replete with Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It, Smooth Criminal, Man In The Mirror, dazzling choreography, visual effects, a light show and authentic costumes. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

*Mr Wilson’s Second Liners: New Orleans meets Hacienda 90s’ club classics at The Crescent*

“Revolutionary genre bashers” of the week: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, The Crescent, York, tonight, 7.30pm

IN New Orleans, funerals are celebrated in style with noisy brass bands processing through the streets. The main section of the parade is known as First Line but the real fun starts with the parasol-twirling, handkerchief-waving Second Line.

Welcome to Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, where “New Orleans meets 90s’ club classics in a rave funeral without the body” as a rabble of mischievous northerners pay homage to the diehard days of Manchester’s Hacienda, club culture and its greatest hero, Mr Tony Wilson. Stepping out in uniformed style, they channel the spirit of the 24-hour party people, jettisoning funereal slow hymns in favour of anarchic dance energy. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

*Ania Magliano: Triple threat at play in Forgive Me, Father at The Crescent*

Comedy gig of the week: Burning Duck Comedy presents Ania Magliano, Forgive Me, Father, The Crescent, York, January 23, 7.30pm

IN the first Burning Duck gig since the sudden passing of club promoter Al Greaves, London comedian and writer Ania Magliano performs her Forgive Me, Father show.

Describing herself as a triple threat (bisexual, Gen Z, bad at cooking), she says: “You know when you’re trying to wee on a night out, and you’re interrupted by a random girl who insists on telling you all her secrets, even though you’ve never met? Imagine that, but she has a microphone.” Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

*Mica Sefia: Future-soul singer fuses alt. soul, jazz and soft rock in The Old Paint Shop*

The 2025 Old Paint Shop cabaret season opener: CPWM presents Mica Sefia, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 23, 8pm

BORN in Liverpool, based in London, future-soul singer Mica Sefia “prefers to keep her lyricisms and narrative open to interpretation”, applying a “balanced approach to songwriting, in which her music remains subjective, but retains its emotive sensitivity” in songs that lean into alt. soul, jazz and soft rock to create atmospheric sounds and textured layers. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

The language of music: An Evening With Simon Armitage and LYR, York Theatre Royal, January 24, 7.30pm

Headline debut of the week: Ned Swarbrick, The Crescent, York, January 24, 7.30pm

Beyond compere: Frankie Monroe And Friends, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, January 24, 8pm

*The show poster for The Deadpan Players’ Robin Hood – Making Nottingham Great Again*

York debut of the week: The Deadpan Players in Robin Hood – Making Nottingham Great Again, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, January 24 and 25, 7.30pm and 2pm Saturday matinee

THE Deadpan Players, a not-for-profit community group from just outside York that raises money for charity through their performances, will visit the JoRo for the first time with their fifth pantomime, a unique take on Robin Hood, original script et al.

Join Robin, Maid Marian and the Merry Men, along with a handful of friends, as they brainstorm some “ongoing achievables” and work towards a win-win situation that will deliver Nottingham from the Sheriff’s evil grip and “Make Nottingham Great Again”. Next steps never felt so good. Better bring a quill, there’s going to be admin aplenty.

All proceeds will go to Candlelighters and the Farming Community Network, in memory of Nick Leaf, a fellow Deadpan Player and North Yorkshire farmer. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

*Clifford’s Tower: Taking part in York Residents’ Festival next weekend*

Festival of the week: York Residents’ Festival, January 25 and 26

*Scott Matthews: Wolverhampton singer-songwriter plays the NCEM*

Folk gig of the week: The Crescent and Black Swan Folk Club present Scott Matthews, National Centre for Early Music, York, January 25, doors 7pm

ON a tour that has taken in churches and caves, Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Scott Matthews plays St Margaret’s Church, home to the NCEM in Walmgate, next weekend.

In Focus: Stewart Lee at the double in York as Theatre Royal comedian for five nights and NCEM narrator for one afternoon

*Mark Reynolds’s poster illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf at York Theatre Royal*

COMEDIAN Stewart Lee will play five nights in a row at York Theatre Royal from January 28 and squeeze in a Saturday matinee of an entirely different experimental performance, Indeterminacy, at the National Centre for Early Music too.

Lee, 56, who deadpanned his way through three nights of Basic Lee on his last Theatre Royal visit in March 2023, explains the length of run for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, a show that has been playing London’s Leicester Square Theatre since December 3 before opening its tour on January 19.

“Yeah, well, the theatre must have thought they could sell it!” says Stewart, who loves playing the Theatre Royal. “For me, once you get much above 2,000 seats, my kind of comedy becomes hard to do because you can’t interact with the audience and you can’t hear audience responses, so I’m always happy to do smaller venues.”

He has dates in his diary until November 19 with his website promising “more to be added” for a show that he presages by declaring he is “in danger of being left behind”. As his tour publicity puts it, “He’s approaching 60 with debilitating health conditions [worsening hearing], his TV profile has diminished, and his once BAFTA award-winning style of stand-up seems obsolete in the face of a wave of callous Netflix-endorsed comedy of anger, monetising the denigration of minorities for millions of dollars.

“But can Lee unleash his inner Man-Wulf to position himself alongside comedy legends like Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Jordan Peterson at the forefront of side-splitting,stadium-stuffing s**it-posting?,” he asks.

“The problem I’ve got is that the act is about a man who feels undervalued and not given enough credit, but I am really popular! I play to a quarter of a million people on each tour; I’m on TV every two and a half years when a show is finished – and young people are coming to the shows, so the audience is replenishing.

“Suddenly I’ve gone from someone starting out in the dying days of alternative comedy to someone still writing long-form shows when people now tend to make bitty work that’s packaged up.”

In Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares his stage with a “tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity”, where the Man-Wulf “lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”. “Can the beast inside us all be silenced with the silver bullet of Lee’s unprecedentedly critically acclaimed style of stand-up?” he ponders.

Is this “conceptual comedy”, Stewart? “Well, you can call it that. It’s not for me to say, but I think it’s very much that. I know what it is,” he says. “I like to read local reviews and student reviews as they seem to get it more than the national press.

“This is a show about taste and responsibility in comedy, which suddenly has a real resonance that it didn’t have even three weeks ago. What responsibilities do Elon Musk [X] and Mark Zuckerberg [Facebook] have in relation to telling the truth, like Musk lying about someone like Jess Phillips…and what is our place in that if we don’t do something about it.

“I was worried it was just a show by someone who was thinking about it, but now it seems prescient – and the worse the world gets, the better the show is. Three weeks ago it was like, ‘well, where is this going’’? Now they know where it’s going, so weirdly they might have been thinking, ‘oh, he’s being a bit pessimistic’, but sometimes it turns out you’re a bit ahead of the curve and then the world catches up.”

One of the joys of a Stewart Lee show is how he plays with the form, boundaries and possibilities of comedy. “In this one, I try doing the same material three times in three ways: first, liberal material told in a liberal way; next, reactionary material, in a reactionary way; then reactionary material, in a liberal way,” he says.

Stewart has found his comedy changing through the years, in part in response to Jerry Springer: The Opera [the musical comedy he wrote with Richard Thomas] “becoming literally a matter of life or death for someone”. “I thought what an amazing privilege it is to be able to write and perform, and you have to think about the implications of that,” he says.

“As I get older I increasingly appreciate how difficult it is to afford tickets and get a babysitter to come to a show. My comedy becomes more high concept and thoughtful, but at the same time it’s also more old-school comedy, being both philosophical and thinking about how Frankie Howerd or Kenneth Williams would sell this idea of becoming more pretentious and vaudevillian simultaneously.

“I do feel we have a sense of responsibility to deliver a night out that makes sure something happens that night that only happens that night. You also have to send people away with a bit of hope, when a lot of people like me feel they have lost the battle for the things they are concerned about, like environmental issues.”

Such environmental matters, and more specifically sewage in the River Derwent in Malton and Norton, triggered Ryedale arts promoter and Malton town councillor Simon Thackray to ask The Shed regular Stewart Lee to take part in the first Shed show since 2015 to “’encourage’ Yorkshire Water to go the extra mile’.

Narrator Lee will team up with pianists Tania Chen and Steve Beresford to perform John Cage’s Indeterminacy at the NCEM on February 1 at 3.30pm. “Make sure people know it’s not a comedy show, though it’s quite funny in its way,” he says.

Stewart Lee vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. The Shed presents Indeterminacy, NCEM, York, February 1, 3.30pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

January 16, 2025January 17, 2025

The Shed returns after ten years in hibernation to stage John Cage’s Indeterminacy with Stewart Lee at NCEM

*Stewart Lee, left, Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford: Presenting John Cage’s Indeterminacy at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on February 1*

AVANT-GARDE North Yorkshire arts impresario Simon Thackray is bringing The Shed out of hibernation for the first time in a decade to stage an experimental gig in York on February 1.

Comedian Stewart Lee, already in the city for a five-night run of Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf at York Theatre Royal that week, will be the narrator for the 3.30pm performance of John Cage’s cult 1959 work Indeterminacy at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate.

“Important note,” says Simon. “This is not a comedy gig. Stewart is keen that people know it is definitely not an extra Stewart Lee tour date.”

Lee will be joining forces with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, and Steve Beresford, piano and objects. Objects? “I don’t know what objects they will be!” admits Stewart.

*Tania Caroline Chen: Flying in from San Francisco to play piano at The Shed’s presentation of John Cage’s Indeterminacy at the NCEM*

Indeterminacy was a 1959 double LP on the Folkways label by John Cage and David Tudor, where Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room.

One day, pianists Chen and Beresford were listening to the record and decided they should do their own version, hitting on Stewart Lee, a deadpan stand-up with a love of experimental music, to be “the voice”.

“It’s Tania and Steve’s show,” says Stewart, who stresses: “It’s not a comedy show, but it is quite funny in its way.

“We’ve been doing it for 15 years now, and there’s a recording we did that David Grubbs, the Cage scholar in America, reckons we really ‘got’ what Cage was seeking to do.

“The piece is for improvising musicians, working with a voice that is not expressive. Cage wrote down these 90 stories of different lengths on cards that he does in a random order. You have to do each story in exactly a minute, whether it’s 50 words or 200 words, letting the words do the work, which is what Tania and Steve spotted I do in my stand-up. The juxtaposition of each story and the music creates different frissons and patterns.”

The trio’s version is usually 40 minutes in length, and unlike Cage and Tudor, the players are in the same room but still “do their best” to not hear Stewart’s reading – done with a stop-watch timer at his side – as they play music on and in a piano and use other small sound sources.

“The musicians are trying to support me and I’m trying to support them but not create a mood, though occasionally it oversteps that, and that’s what’s indeterminable about it. It seems that Cage created this character that doesn’t realise what he’s doing!”

Lee’s comedy has been described as being “characterised by repetition, internal reference and deadpan delivery”. “I think those three elements are there in Cage’s writing too,” says Stewart. “Deadpan is easy with Cage because he specifically says he does not want you to ‘perform’ or ‘interpret’ the story. You have to try not to sell it.”

The Shed’s earlier clash of words and music: Mrs Boyes’ Bingo featuring games of prize bingo to the accompaniment/distraction of Mark Sanders’ percussion ( world premiere 1999, event copyright Simon Thackray. All rights reserved.) Picture: Simon Thackray

Simon notes:: “It has elements of Mrs Boyes’ Bingo that we used to do with legendary Malton bingo caller Mrs Boyes and improvising percussionist Mark Sanders. It’s that collision of words and music, with the spoken word being unrelated to the musicians, who are performing unrelated to anything else that’s going on. You’re putting three people in a box, shaking it up, and seeing what comes out!”

Stewart is delighted to be working with Simon once more, having been a Shed regular, indeed having performed the last official Shed show in Brawby in 2015. “Originally I was going to do a Pump Disco at the Milton Rooms, asking Stewart if he would do a sewage protest gig in Malton,” recalls Simon.

“Simon said, ‘can you do this show?’ and I said ‘Not unless I can do it while I’m on tour’,” says Stewart. The York Theatre Royal run was put in place and, as it happened, the Saturday afternoon was availableat the NCEM. “Now Tania is coming over from San Francisco just to do the show,” he reveals.

*The Shed impresario Simon Thackray: Self-portrait in beret in Condom-en-Armagnac, France*

On the subject of The Shed, Stewart says: “I was always very grateful to make Simon’s venue a stop on the tour. I used to love his doing shows out on the moors and how he did that thing that the BBC doesn’t believe in any more: where, if you put on weird stuff, people will come because people are more broadminded than they’re given credit for”.

Simon, who staged multiple left-field gigs, innovative installations and surrealist arts events in his home village of Brawby, Hovingham, York and on BBC Radio 3 from 1992 to 2015, is a Malton town councillor and environmental campaigner these days.

“The gig is being staged to ‘encourage’ Yorkshire Water to go the extra mile, in waders if necessary, and sort out the sewerage system in Malton and Norton, which is now spilling sewage into the River Derwent SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with gay abandon,” he says. “Take a look at visitmaltonsewer.co.uk for data on sewage spill.”

After 12 years of kicking up a stink, “the ‘Battle of Brawby Sewer’ has taken a positive turn,” says Simon, who points out the Derwent is also a designated European Special Area of Conservation. “Yorkshire Water is about to pour £1.5 million into the Brawby drainage system to cure the decades-old sewer flooding issue, and I’m now hoping to work with Yorkshire Water to sort out the sewerage system in Malton and Norton.”

Trombonist Alan Tomlinson RIP performing an improvised sewer gig in the Brawby discharge ditch in 2013 to highlight an ongoing dispute with Yorkshire Water about flooding and sewerage in the River Derwent. The Shed promoter Simon Thackray will display (or wear) the waders in tribute to Alan at the February 1 performance of Indeterminacy as “the spirit of The Shed comes to York”. Picture: Kippa Matthews RIP

The NCEM performance will be dedicated to the memory of Leeds College of Music-trained trombonist, improviser and The Shed alumnus Alan Tomlinson, who died on February 13 last year. “He famously performed an ‘awareness-raising’ 20-minute improvised trombone solo standing up to his knees in a thigh-high stream of sewage in the Brawby discharge ditch in 2013,” says Simon.

Stewart adds: “About ten years ago, we did Indeterminacy at the Royal Albert Hall, when Alan did a sequence of three pieces on trombone on the same bill and Harry Hill did Cage’s work Water Walk too.”

Simon rejoins: “I’m hoping to show film of the piece that Harry Hill learned for that show – it’s very funny.”

The Shed presents Indeterminacy, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm. Box office: 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk. Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Environmental campaigner Simon Thackray with the “Ryedale Flood Defence Machine” en route to County Bridge, Malton, to hold back the flooding of the River Derwent. “It works!” he says*

January 13, 2025January 13, 2025

York Theatre Royal to stage world premiere of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s twisted thriller The Psychic in Spring 2026

*Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson: Writers of The Psychic, premiering at York Theatre Royal in 2026*

YORK Theatre Royal will stage the world premiere of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s twisted thriller The Psychic at York Theatre Royal next year. Tickets go on general sale from 1pm on January 15.

In the wake of the success of Ghost Stories, which spooked the Grand Opera House, York, in March 2020, Dyson and Nyman are to reunite for this electrifying new production. Show dates will be April 29 to May 23 2026, with the first week being previews.

Leeds-born Dyson and Nyman say: “We are so thrilled to have the world premiere of our new play at York Theatre Royal and to be part of their exciting next chapter. We cannot wait to unleash The Psychic at this remarkable venue.”

Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes says: “We are very proud to be producing the world premiere of The Psychic here at York Theatre Royal. Andy and Jeremy have created this wonderful edge-of-your-seat script that we can’t wait to bring to life on our stage in 2026.”

*The poster for The Psychic at York Theatre Royal*

In The Psychic, popular TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case that brands her a charlatan. It costs her not only her reputation, but also a fortune in legal fees.

When wealthy parents ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, Sheila senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she has ever believed, leading her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life. Cue thrills, shocks…and laughs.

The Psychic adds to York Theatre Royal’s bill of produced and co-produced work in 2025 and 2026. In the diary for this year are the co-production of North By Northwest with Emma Rice’s Wise Children, HOME Manchester and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse from March 18 to April 5 and erstwhile pantomime cat Gary Oldman’s return to the Theatre Royal in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape from April 14 to May 17.

To book tickets, ring 01904 623568 or head to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*The night-watchman on his guard in Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories (pictured in the 2019 London production)*

Jeremy Dyson: the back story

Award-winning Leeds-born writer and director.

Writing credits for theatre include Ghost Stories (Lyric Hammersmith, nominated for Olivier Award for Best Entertainment); The League Of Gentlemen Are Behind You (UK tour); The League Of Gentlemen: A Local Show For Local People (UK tour, Theatre Royal Drury Lane – nominated for Olivier Award for Best Entertainment) and The League Of Gentlemen.

Co-writing credits for television include Psychobitches (winner of Rose d’Or for Best TV Comedy and nominated for two British Comedy Awards); The Armstrong & Miller Show (winner of BAFTA Award for Best Comedy); Billy Goat; Funland (nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial) and The League Of Gentlemen (winner of BAFTA Award for Best Comedy, Golden Rose of Montreux and RTS Award for Best Entertainment).

Co-writing credits for film include Ghost Stories and The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse.

Andy Nyman: the back story

Award-winning actor, director and writer.

As an actor, his theatre work includes The Producers; Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory); Fiddler On The Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory and Playhouse Theatre – Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical); Abigail’s Party (Menier Chocolate Factory and Wyndham’s Theatre); Hello, Dolly! (London Palladium); Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen (Wyndham’s Theatre/Broadway), and the original production of Ghost Stories (Duke of York’s Theatre/Arts Theatre), which he starred in, co-wrote and co-directed with Jeremy Dyson. Later adapted into a film, in which he also starred.

Television credits include Lockerbie; Wanderlust; The Eichmann Show; Campus and Dead Set, as well as playing Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders.

Film credits include Jungle Cruise; Judy; The Commuter; Death At A Funeral; Kick-Ass 2; Black Death; The Brother’s Bloom; Severance and Shut Up & Shoot Me, for which he won Best Actor award at Cherbourg Film Festival in 2006.

Collaborated with Derren Brown for almost 20 years, co-writing and co-creating much of Brown’s early TV work. Co-written and directed Brown’s stage shows, winning Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for Derren Brown – Something Wicked This Way Comes and New York Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Event 2017 for Derren Brown – Secret.

January 11, 2025January 21, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond in 2025 Part Two when the ice age cometh. Hutch’s List No. 2 from The York Press

*Taboo-shattering comedy: Ed Byrne in Tragedy Plus Time at Grand Opera House, York*. *Picture: Roslyn Grant*

FROM Narnia to ice sculptures, comedy in wolf’s clothing to Ayckbourn’s 91st play, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty to perk up the days and nights ahead.

Taboo subject of the week: Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time, Grand Opera House, tonight, 7.30pm

MARK Twain, the 19th century American writer, humorist, and essayist, defined humour as Tragedy Plus Time. Irish comedian Ed Byrne tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life – the death of his brother Paul from Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 44 – for laughs.

Byrne’s show carries the content warning “Discussions of death”. “But as with any subject I do, there are always digressions into asides,” he says. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Mark Reynolds’ illustration for Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, on tour at York Theatre Royal for five nights*

Comedy and not comedy: Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, York Theatre Royal, January 28 to February 1, 7.30pm; The Shed presents Indeterminacy with Tania Caroline Chen, piano, Steve Beresford, piano and objects, and Stewart Lee, voice, National Centre for Early Music, York, February 1, 3.30pm

IN Stewart Lee Vs The Man-Wulf, Lee shares the stage with a tough-talking werewolf comedian from the dark forests of the subconscious who hates humanity. The Man-Wulf lays down a ferocious comedy challenge to the “culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled Lee”: can the beast inside us all be silenced by the silver bullet of Lee’s deadpan stand-up? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

On John Cage and David Tudor’s 1959 double LP Indeterminacy, Cage read 90 of his stories, each one, whether long or short, lasting precisely one minute. Unheard by Cage, Tudor simultaneously played the piano and other things in another room. Now Stewart Lee joins pianists Tania Caroline Chen and Steve Beresford to do their own version of Cage’s work in a 40-minute performance in one room, where the musicians do their best not to hear Lee’s reading. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

*York Ice Trail 2025: Taking the theme of Origins on February 1 and 2*

After this week’s deep freeze, here comes York Ice Trail 2025, February 1 and 2

*The book cover for Elizabeth Sharkey’s Why Britain Rocked: Under discussion with musician and environmental campaigner husband Feargal at Pocklington Arts Centre*

One-off interview comes into view: Why Britain Rocked: Elizabeth and Feargal Sharkey, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 13, 7.30pm.

FEARGAL Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones, will interview his wife, author Elizabeth Sharkey, on one night only of her debut book tour: the final show, which just happens to be in Pocklington.

Together they will explore the history of British pop music, as charted in Why Britain Rocked: How Rock Became Roll And Took Over The World, wherein Elizabeth re-writes the established history by uncovering the untold stories behind Britain’s musical evolution and challenges the American claim to have invented rock’n’roll. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

*The Corrs: Kicking off the 2025 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre*

Off to the East Coast this summer: Scarborough Open Air Theatre season

IRISH siblings The Corrs lead off Cuffe & Taylor’s 2025 season in Scarborough with support from Natalie Imbruglia on June 11. In the diary too are Gary Barlow, June 13; Shed Seven with special guests Jake Bugg and Cast, June 14; Pendulum, June 15; Basement Jaxx, June 21, and The Human League, plus Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey and Blancmange, June 28.

July opens with The Script and special guest Tom Walker on July 5; UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, with special guest Bitty McLean, July 6; Blossoms, with Inhaler and Apollo Junction, July 10; Rag’n’Bone Man, with Elles Bailey, July 11; McFly, with Twin Atlantic and Devon, July 12; Judas Priest, with Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, July 23, and Texas, with Rianne Downey, July 26. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

*Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Joanna Adaran (Susan) in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse. Picture: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg*

Touring show of the year: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Grand Opera House, York, April 22 to 26, 7pm plus 2pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees

STEP through the wardrobe into the kingdom of Narnia for the most mystical of adventures in a faraway land. Join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and say hello to Mr Tumnus, the talking Faun, Aslan, the Lion, and the coldest, cruellest White Witch.

Running at Leeds Playhouse until January 25 in the most spectacular production of the winter season, this breathtaking stage adaptation of CS Lewis’s allegorical novel then heads out on a new tour with its magical storytelling, bewitching stagecraft and stellar puppets. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Alan Ayckbourn: Directing his 91st play, Earth Angel, at the SJT, Scarborough, in the autumn. Picture: Tony Bartholomew*

Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play: Earth Angel, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 13 to October 11

STEPHEN Joseph Theatre director emeritus Alan Ayckbourn directs his 91st play, Earth Angel, wherein Gerald has lost his wife of many years. Amy was the light of his life, almost heaven sent. It is tricky thinking about life without her but he is trying his best to put a brave face on things, accepting help from fussy neighbours and muddling along as best he can.

Then a mysterious stranger turns up at Amy’s wake. He seems like a nice enough chap, washing the dishes and offering to do a shop for Gerald, but is he all that he appears? Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

In focus: The Waterboys’ new album and tour dates at York Barbican, May 15; Sheffield City Hall, May 9, and Leeds O2 Academy, June 17

*Mike Scott: Leading The Waterboys at York Barbican for the eighth time on May 15. Picture: Paul MacManus*

THE Waterboys will showcase “the most audacious album yet” of Mike Scott’s 42-year career, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, on their latest return to York Barbican, having previously played their “Big Music” brand of folk, rock, soul and blues there in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.

Released on April 4 on Sun Records, their 16th studio album charts the epic path of the trailblazing American actor and rebel, as told through a song cycle that depicts not only Hopper’s story but also the saga of the last 75 years of western pop culture.

“The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Scott, “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol.

“He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild ten-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

As a first taste of what lies in store, Hopper’s On Top (Genius) was unveiled on streaming and video this week, capturing the electric, heady moment when Hopper’s Easy Rider became a cultural phenomenon and cemented his place in Hollywood history. Buoyed by Scott’s searing vocals, vibrant instrumentation and a psychedelic edge, the song channels the euphoria and hubris of the 1960s’ counterculture that Hopper epitomised.

Scott worked for four years on Life, Death And Dennis Hopper. Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album spans 25 tracks that trace the trace the extraordinary ups and downs of Hopper’s life, from his youth in Kansas to his long rise, five wives, tumultuous fall and ultimate redemption.

*The album cover artwork for The Waterboys’ Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, set for release on April 4*

Every song has its own special place and fascinating, deep-rooted story. “It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet Earth,” says Scott.

The album will be The Waterboys’ first for Sun Records. “Hey, we’re label mates with Howlin’ Wolf and young Elvis,”says Scott, who is joined by a stellar line-up of guests, ranging from Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple and Steve Earle to Nashville-based Alt Americana artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and punk arch-priestess Patti Palladin.

The 31-date UK and Ireland tour will run from May 1 to June 19. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Sheffield, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk; Leeds, academymusicgroup.com.

Life, Death And Dennis Hopper track listing:

1. Kansas (featuring Steve Earle)
2. Hollywood ’55
3. Live In The Moment, Baby
4. Brooke/1712 North Crescent Heights
5. Andy (A Guy Like You)
6. The Tourist (featuring Barny Fletcher)
7. Freaks On Wheels
8. Blues For Terry Southern
9. Memories Of Monterey
10. Riding Down To Mardi Gras
11. Hopper’s On Top (Genius)
12. Transcendental Peruvian Blues
13. Michelle (Always Stay)
14. Freakout At The Mud Palace
15. Daria
16. Ten Years Gone (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
17. Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend (featuring Fiona Apple)
18. Rock Bottom
19. I Don’t Know How I Made It (featuring Taylor Goldsmith)
20. Frank (Let’s F**k)
21. Katherine (featuring Anana Kaye)
22. Everybody Loves Dennis Hopper
23. Golf, They Say
24. Venice, California (Victoria)/The Passing Of Hopper
25. Aftermath

January 4, 2025March 6, 2025

More Things To Do in York and beyond in 2025, whether new or Oldman. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 1, from The Press, York

*Laura Fraser’s DI Bea Metcalf on the York waterfront in Channel 4’s crime drama Patience. Picture: Channel 4*

FROM a neurodiverse TV crime drama to an Oscar winner’s stage return, Charles Hutchinson picks highlights of the year ahead.

Seeing York through a different lens: Patience, Channel 4 from January 8, 9pm

CHANNEL 4’s six-part police procedural drama Patience, set in York, opens with the two-part Paper Mountain Girl, on January 8 and 9, wherein autistic Police Records Office civilian worker Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) brings her unique investigative insight to helping DI Bea Metcalf (Laura Fraser) and her team.

Written for Eagle Eye Drama by Matt Baker, from Pocklington, Patience is as much a celebration of neurodiversity as a crime puzzle-solver. “The centre of York itself is a little bit like a puzzle,” he says.

*Lara McClure: Atmospheric storytelling at A Feast Of Fools II at the Black Swan Inn*

Out with the old, in with the new: Navigators Art presents A Feast Of Fools II, Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, Sunday, 7pm to 10.30pm; doors, 6pm

YORK collective Navigators Art presents a last gasp of mischief in an alternative end-of-season celebration of Twelfth Night and Old Christmas, packed with live folk music, spoken word and a nod to the pagan and the impish.

Dr Lara McClure sets the scene with atmospheric storytelling, joined by York musicians Oli Collier, singer, guitarist and rising star Henry Parker, York alt-folk legends White Sail and poet and experimental musician Thomas Pearson. Book tickets at bit.ly/nav-feast2.

*Seeing eye to eye: Rob Auton in his new touring comedy vehicle The Eyes Open And Shut Show*

The eyes have it: Rob Auton: The Eyes Open And Shut Show, Burning Duck Comedy Club at The Crescent, York, March 5, 7.30pm; Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, May 3, 7.30pm

“THE Eyes Open And Shut Show is a show about eyes when they are open and eyes when they are shut,” says surrealist York/Barmby Moor comedian, writer, artist, podcaster and actor Rob Auton. “With this show I wanted to explore what I could do to myself and others with language when eyes are open and shut…thinking about what makes me open my eyes and what makes me shut them.”

On the back of last summer’s Edinburgh Fringe trial run, Auton goes on the road from January 27 to May 4 with his eyes very much open. Box office: York, thecrescentyork.com; Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com.

*York-raised artist Harland Miller with his title work for the XXX exhibition at York Art Gallery. Picture: courtesy of White Cube (Ollie Hammick), 2019*

No stopping him this time, please: Harland Miller: XXX, York Art Gallery, March 14 to August 31, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm

AFTER the first Covid lockdown curtailed his York, So Good They Named It Once show only a month into its 2020 run, international artist and writer Harland Miller returns to the city where he was raised to present XXX, a new exhibition that showcases paintings and works on paper from his Letter Paintings series.

Stirred by his upbringing in 1970s’ Yorkshire and an itinerant lifestyle in New York, New Orleans, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s and 1990s, Miller creates colourful and graphically vernacular works that convey his love of popular language and attest to his enduring engagement with its narrative, aural and typographical possibilities.

Harland Miller, XXX, oil on canvas, 2019. Copyright: Harland Miller. Photo copyright: White Cube, Theo Christelis

Coinciding with the release of a book of the same title by Phaidon, XXX features several new Miller works, including one that celebrates his home city, in a hard-edged series that melds the sacred seamlessly with the everyday, drawing inspiration from medieval manuscripts, where monks often laboured to produce intricate illuminated letters to mark the beginning of chapters.

In these works, the Yorkshire Pop artist – who is represented by White Cube – uses bold colours and typefaces to accentuate the expressive versatility of monosyllabic words and acronyms such as ESP, IF and Star.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Q&A with the artist plus community activities to “inspire, inform and involve all”. Tickets: yorkartgallery.org.uk/tickets.

*Gary Oldman in the dressing room when visiting York Theatre Royal last March to plan this spring’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape*

Theatre event of the year: Gary Oldman in Krapp’s Last Tape, York Theatre Royal, April 14 to May 17

ONCE the pantomime Cat that fainted thrice in Dick Whittington in his 1979 cub days on the professional circuit, Oscar winner Gary Oldman returns to the Theatre Royal to perform Samuel Beckett’s melancholic, tragicomic slice of theatre of the absurd Krapp’s Last Tape in his first stage appearance since the late-1980s.

“York, for me, is the completion of a cycle,” says the Slow Horses leading man. “It is the place ‘where it all began’. York, in a very real sense, for me, is coming home. The combination of York and Krapp’s Last Tape is all the more poignant because it is ‘a play about a man returning to his past of 30 years earlier’.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*Suzy Cooper and Mark Holgate: Teaming up as Titania and Oberon – and Hippolyta and Theseus too – in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream*

Look who’s back too: Suzy Cooper in York Stage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grand Opera House, York, May 6 to 11

GARY Oldman will not be the only former Berwick Kaler co-star returning to a York stage in 2025. Suzy Cooper, for more than 20 years the ditzy, posh-voiced, jolly super principal gal in the grand dame’s pantomimes, will lead Nik Briggs’s cast alongside York actor Mark Holgate as the quarrelling Queen and King of the Fairies, Titania and Oberon.

Briggs relocates his debut Shakespeare production from the court of Athens to Athens Court, a northern council estate, where magic is fuelled with mayhem and true love’s path still does not run smooth. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Beach hut five, Shed Seven: York band to make Scarborough Open Air Theatre debut in June*

“Biggest ever headline show in their home county”: Shed Seven, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, June 14

IN the aftermath of their 30th anniversary celebrations and two number one albums in 2024, refulgent York band Shed Seven will focus on the great outdoors in the summer ahead, fulfilling a dream by making a long-overdue Scarborough OAT debut, when Jake Bugg and Cast will be their special guests. “It’s a stunning and historic venue…Yorkshire’s very own Hollywood Bowl!” enthuses lead singer Rick Witter.

The Sheds also return to Leeds Millennium Square on July 11, supported by Lightning Seeds and The Sherlocks. Box office: Scarborough, scarboroughopenairtheatre.co.uk or ticketmaster.co.uk; Leeds, gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.

*Bridget Foreman: Co-writer of York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights’ community play His Last Report*

Community play of the year: York Theatre Royal and Riding Lights Theatre Company in His Last Report, York Theatre Royal, July 22 to August 3

YORK Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and York company Riding Lights artistic director Paul Birch will co-direct a large-scale community project that focuses on pioneering York social reformer Seebohm Rowntree and his groundbreaking 1900s’ investigation into the harsh realities of poverty.

Told through the voices of York’s residents, both past and present, Misha Duncan-Barry and Bridget Foreman’s play will ask “What is Seebohm’s real legacy as the Ministry begins to dismantle the very structures he championed?” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

December 28, 2024December 28, 2024

Meet Sario Solomon, the leading lad himself in Aladdin pantomime at York Theatre Royal

*Sario Solomon’s Aladdin in a scene with Evie Pickerill’s Genie of the Lamp in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: SR Taylor Photography*

SARIO Solomon is starring in the title role in Aladdin, this winter’s pantomime at York Theatre Royal, and is no stranger to the role.

“I played the part in Telford a few years ago. He’s full of energy and youthful exuberance, and he’s jokey and fun too,” he says.

“I had a really good time there, so I thought, ‘let’s give it another go, this time in York’. But I’m surprised I got it because I’m hopeless at the ‘self-tapes’ you have to send in and I’m not really tech savvy. It’s always hard to come across on camera as you want to be perceived, but luckily Juliet [creative director Juliet Forster] said ‘yes’.”

He had to miss the official pantomime launch on account of his acting commitments elsewhere that day but he did make a Sario solo trip to meet the media.

“I was playing the American-Italian Sonny, one of the Burger Palace Boys, on tour. I first played the part in London at the Dominion Theatre and then on the long UK tour – 18 months altogether, but I liked playing him. He’s funny, stupid and silly, so you can get away with things you can’t in other shows.

“It was wonderful to work with choreographer Arlene Phillips and director Nikolai Foster, who I’d done West Side Story with at the National Youth Music Theatre. That’s how he remembered me when he was casting for Grease.

“I was still on the Grease tour in the first week of rehearsals for Aladdin when I was able to commute from Sheffield each day and so we worked schedules around that.”

Does Sario prefer singing and dancing in musicals or acting in plays? “I just love musicals,” he says. “I knew I wanted to do musical theatre. I’m quite a silly, stupid person so straight acting is less appealing.

“It’s the same with panto. I like to have fun. It’s not meant to be serious! It’s meant to be funny. I like going over the top and having fun. It’s a very English institution, so trying to describe it to my German friends is always difficult!”

Like so many, Sario first attended a pantomime in his childhood. “Jack And The Beanstalk, probably with my grandmother, at a theatre in North London, where I grew up,” he recalls. “I was intrigued.

“Straightaway I just loved anything on stage. I knew it was something I wanted to be in and be part of, partly because I remember how much joy it gave me as a child. I was told the importance of A levels and exams, but I went to the National Youth Music Theatre in the summer holidays.”

Among his career highlights, Sario has worked with Take That’s Gary Barlow. “After A-levels I entered the BBC talent contest Let It Shine to find four young men to form a boy band for a musical called The Band featuring Take That’s music. I was one of the winners, which got me into the industry and an agent.

*Sario Solomon outside York Theatre Royal when promoting his role as Aladdin. Picture: Ant Robling*

“My mother loves Take That very much, so I knew a lot of their 90s’ classics and really enjoyed their music. It was cool to meet Take That and have them as mentors, giving notes and their wisdom in rehearsals. Gary was often there.

“That show basically got me into performing, having done a few things as a kid. I realised I loved performing more than anything else, so Mum let me pursue that after GCSEs and A-levels.”

Sario did not attend drama school. “Sometimes I wish I had because there’s a certain level of dance I can’t do straight off to West End-trained standards. It takes me longer to learn, whereas there’s repetition built into drama school training, but once I’ve nailed it, I’m fine,” he says.

Sario’s mother is from Tokyo, his father, from Newcastle – they met in London – and he is as fluent in Japanese as he is in English. “I write in Japanese too,” he says. “I grew up in North London and went to Japanese school on Saturdays. I love Japan and Newcastle too.”

He is breaking new ground in his career by performing in York. “I’ve never been to York before, even though I’ve toured in theatre shows for four or five years, but I have seen photos and it looks very pretty,” he said at his June press day.

“It will be especially lovely to be here at Christmas. I hear York has a fantastic Christmas market and I do love a German Christmas market!”

Sario lives on a 54ft-long narrowboat in London, moored at Stamford Hill. “I have always loved streams and rivers, it’s very much in the Japanese culture,” he says. “Living on a boat appealed to me. You wake up seeing swans on the river and the wood burner alight. It’s also nice to live on my own rather than flat-sharing.

“I’ve always wanted to buy a place, but in London it’s nigh on impossible to do that, so the narrowboat was the best bet. I’ve been living on it for three or four years but I’m always so busy touring that in reality I’ve only been on it for about a year – though it was lovely to be there during the Covid lockdown.”

Home is where he will be headed once Aladdin and his magic carpet have come to rest one final time on January 5. “The carpet does acrobatics! You feel quite queasy after a while,” he reveals.

Post Aladdin, Sario promises himself: “I’ll eat, rest and prepare audition pieces if necessary. I need a bit of a holiday after being on the road for 18 months. I’m not 21 any more, I’m 27 and need a holiday.”

Sario Solomon plays Aladdin in Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Copyright of The Press, York

December 28, 2024December 28, 2024

What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond when Wonderland dazzles into the New Year. Hutch’s List No. 47, from Gazette & Herald

*Born to pun: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography*

PANTOMIMES, theatrical family adventures and a Wonderland experience are still delighting in 2024 as Charles Hutchinson also looks ahead to 2025.

Still time for pantomime: Aladdin, York Theatre Royal, until January 5 2025

LOOK out for CBeebies’ Evie Pickerill at the double, dashing between the Spirit of the Ring and the Genie of the Lamp in the fifth collaboration between Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions script writer Paul Hendy.

Paul Hawkyard’s villain returns to York after a winter away doing panto in Dubai to renew his Theatre Royal double act with Robin Simpson’s dame, playing bad-lad Ivan Tobebooed to Simpson’s Dolly (not Widow Twankey, note). Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

*In the frame: Phil Atkinson’s bodacious baddie, Hugo Pompidou, in UK Productions’ Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick*

Still time for pantomime part two: Beauty And The Beast, Grand Opera House, York, until January 5 2025

THE jokes are as cheesy as the French setting of the village of Camembert, brassier and fruitier too in Jon Monie’s script, as George Ure directs the Grand Opera House pantomime for the first time.

Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer is a magically bouncy Fairy Bon Bon; Jennifer Caldwell delights as Belle; Samuel Wyn-Morris is a stentorian-voiced Beast/Prince; comedian Phil Reid’s Louis La Plonk and Leon Craig’s towering dame, Polly La Plonk lead the comic japes with gusto and Phil Atkinson sends up his French-accented dastardly hunk, Hugo Pompidou, to the max. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

*Bea Clancy’s Harrietty Clock and Marc Akinfolarin’s Pod Clock in The Borrowers at Hull Truck Theatre*

“Perfect alternative to pantomime”: The Borrowers, Hull Truck Theatre, until January 4 2025

SET against a backdrop of Christmas in the East Riding of Yorkshire during the 1940s’ Blitz, artistic director Mark Babych’s enchanting production explores themes of adventure, friendship and the joy of love and togetherness in the tale of adventurous, spritely Borrower Arrietty Clock, who lives secretly under the floorboards of a country house.

Her small but perfectly formed family borrows from the humans above, but Arrietty longs for freedom and fresh air. However, the Borrowers have one simple rule: to remain hidden from the “human-beans”, especially bad-tempered housekeeper Mrs Driver and rebellious gardener Crampfurl. When an evacuee, a human boy from neighbouring Hull, arrives in the main house, Arrietty becomes curious… and starts making mistakes. Box office: 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk.

*Checks and stripes: Alice’s Christmas Wonderland at Castle Howard. Picture: Charlotte Graham*

Madder than the Mad Hatter if you don’t see: Alice’s Christmas Wonderland, Castle Howard, near Malton, until January 5 2025

FALL down the rabbit hall into “an experience like no other”: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in her Christmas Wonderland at Castle Howard, where the CLW Event Design creative team, headed by Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Adrian Lillie, has worked on the spectacular project since January.

The stately home has been transformed into an immersive Christmas experience, dressed in set pieces, decorations and floristry, coupled with projections, lighting and sound by Leeds theatre company imitating the dog. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.

*Casting a shadow: James Willstrop’s villainous bruiser, Bill Sikes, in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Oliver Twist at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York*

Dickens of a good show: Pick Me Up Theatre in Oliver Twist, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, 7.30pm on December 28 and 30, plus 2.30pm, December 28 and 29

HELEN Spencer takes the director’s reins and plays Fagin in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s staging of Deborah McAndrew’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, described as a “a new version of Oliver with a festive twist”.

Not to be confused with Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!, it does feature John Biddle’s musical arrangements to complement Dickens’s fable of Oliver Twist being born in a workhouse, sold into an apprenticeship and recruited by Fagin’s band of pickpockets and thieves as he sinks into London’s grimy underworld on his search for a home, a family and love. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

*Party invitation: The poster for Irie Vibes Sound System’s New Year’s Eve Party at The Crescent, York*

New Year’s Eve Party: Irie Vibes Sound System, The Crescent, York, December 31, 8pm to 2am

IRIE Vibes Sound System bring the full rig and crew for a joyous night of reggae, roots, dancehall, dub and jungle to the closing hours of 2024 and beyond midnight. MC Sherlock Art will be on hosting duties, bringing the fire, while Lines Of Duty will be delivering their brand of dance music in Room 2, “manipulating long- playing micro-grooves for a full frequency audio experience”. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Music talk to note: The Arts Society, Helmsley presents Christmas In Bach’s Leipzig: The Christmas Oratorio of 1734/5, Helmsley Arts Centre, January 6 2025, 7.30pm

IN his illustrated talk, commentator, broadcaster, performer and lecturer Sandy Burnett explores how Johann Sebastian Bach brings the Christmas story alive in his Weihnachtsoratorium or Christmas Oratorio, written for Lutheran congregations in 1730s Leipzig.

An overview of Bach’s life and achievement precedes a close look at this magnificent work, where the German composer draws on various forms, ranging from recitative, arioso, aria, chorale and instrumental sinfonia through to full-blown choruses infused with the joyous spirit of the dance. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

*Malton & Norton Musical Theatre’s poster for January’s production of Jack And The Beanstalk*

First big show of the New Year at Milton Rooms, Malton: Malton & Norton Musical Theatre in Jack & The Beanstalk, January 18 to 25. Performances: January 18, 1pm and 5.15pm; January 19, 2pm; January 21 to 24, 7.15pm; January 25, 1pm and 5.15pm

MALTON & Norton Musical Theatre pantomime stars promise a family-friendly giant adventure packed with laughs, toe-tapping songs and plenty of audience participation.

Jack, his brave mother and their quirky friends will face off against the towering giant in a magical world full of comedy and surprises in an enchanting tale of bravery and beanstalks. Box office: 07833 759263 or yourboxoffice.co.uk.