Tag: Zander Fick

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday ****

Everybody’s talking about Harvey Stevens’ Jamie: the break-out star of Pick Me Up Theatre’s production. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

MADE in Sheffield and exported to the musical theatre world, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has its second York run this week after Nik Briggs’s Teen Edition for York Stage in June 2023.

Young actors are no less prominent in York company Pick Me Up Theatre’s production, led by Harvey Stevens, even younger at 15 than Ryan Addyman  was when fronting Briggs’s cast of 13 to 19-year-olds at 17.

Harvey has been dancing since his first class at the Yorkshire Rose Academy of Dance aged three and will begin musical theatre studies at SLP College in Garforth in September. He is a stage natural, tall and lithe and mischievously energetic, here bringing his dream role of Jamie New to life with cheek and chutzpah.

There to watch him on the first night was his father, Antonie Williams-Browne, who had travelled up from Plymouth specially for the show. Twenty years ago, Antonie had shown off his own dance moves in Robert Readman’s UK amateur premiere of The Full Monty for Shipton Theatre Company at the JoRo, “lifting the first half to new heights” (York Press, July 27 2005) when playing the veteran, arthritic-limbed Horse.

Harvey Stevens’ Jamie New, front left, and his Mayfield School classmates in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Son Harvey is a colt by comparison, with room for expansion in both his vocal and acting range, but already he has a thrilling presence on stage: everybody will be talking about his Jamie this week.

Inspired by the Firecracker documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16, composer Dan Gillespie Sells (from Horsham pop practitioners The Feeling) and writer/lyricist Tom MacRae drew on an original idea by co-writer Jonathan Butterell for the 2017 Sheffield Crucible Theatre premiere of a show that completed a populist trilogy of Steel City comedy dramas.

First came the defiant spirit and sheer balls of The Full Monty; next, the classroom politics and fledgling frustrations of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, and lastly “Jamie”,  the unapologetic story of the boy who sometimes to be wants to be a girl, wear a dress to the school prom and be a drag queen.

Eight years on, “Jamie” still lives up to its billing as “the hit musical for today”, replete with bold humour, withering wit, northern nous and sassy social awareness, in a barometer of our changing times and attitudes towards gender, bigotry, bullying, homophobia, absentee fathers and the right to self-expression. Jamie’s reverence for RuPaul, whose Drag Race was not aired on BBC Three until 2019, affirms how  the show has kept  an eye on cultural shifts.

First we meet the Year 11 pupils of Mayfield School, a typical comprehensive classroom of 16-year-olds full of hopes and aspirations, but filtered through the realities of life in a northern town that makes them cynical and unruly too, typified by Stevens’ Jamie, draped languidly over his chair, bored and inattentive.

Zander Fick’s feisty drag queen Loco Chanel in Everbody’s Talking About Jamie Picture: Matthew Kitchen

In the wake of Billy Liar’s Billy Fisher and Kes’s Billy Casper, here is another young, restless Yorkshire dreamer in need of escape from the grey grime of a Sheffield council estate in a classic teen rebel story.

A breaker of rules and hearts alike, this lippy kid in lip gloss oozes confidence on the surface, graceful in high heels, but Jamie is naive and vulnerable too, desperate to strut before he can walk, especially when his stay-away father (Andrew Isherwood) is so disapproving and teacher Miss Hedge (Alexandra Mather) is so narrow-minded.

Stevens’ Jamie will be the teen star of the show, but gold stars also go to Fergus Green’s loathsome, self-loathing bully, Dean Paxton, and Ruby Salter’s quietly self-assured doctor-in-waiting Pritti Pasha, Jamie’s best friend, whose rendition of It Means Beautiful lives up to its title.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is told from more than the teen perspective, giving it the grit of a kitchen-sink drama, where the adult viewpoint of father and teacher is compounded by Jamie’s world-weary, self-sacrificial, ever supportive mum Margaret (Rowntree Players’ pantomime clown Gemma McDonald revealing a deeper  side, her voice cracking under the emotion of singing her second heartfelt ballad, He’s My Boy.

Andrew Isherwood’s Tray Sophisticay

She forms a defiant double act with Lottie Farmer’s Ray, her blunt but sharp friend, who is always popping round with a market stall bargain, backed up by a choice putdown for authority.

Equally supportive too is dress-shop boss Hugo/veteran drag act Loco Chanelle (Zander Fick, continuing his year of outstanding performances), in tandem with the bantering drag-queen veterans Sandra Bollock (Ryan Richardson),  Tray Sophisticay (Andrew Isherwood at the double) ) and Laika Virgin (Mark Simmonds), Sheffield’s variation on The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.

Posted high above the stage, musical director Adam Tomlinson and his band, trumpet, trombone, tenor sax et al, are in top form throughout, for big numbers and instrumental interludes alike, while Ilana Weets’s choreography hits the mark, from And You Don’t Even Know It opening to Out Of The Darkness (A Place Where We Belong) finale.

Readman wears his director and designer hats with elan,  aside from a misbehaving, overworked  central door that opens to Margaret’s kitchen, Loco Chanel’s studio, school classroom and Dad’s house alike. His triumphant production epitomises this musical’s call to “celebrate being yourself and find a place where you belong”: the stage for Jamie New and Harvey Stevens alike.

Pick Me Up Theatre, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Gemma McDonald’s Margaret, left, Harvey Stevens’ Jamie New and Lottie Farmer’s Ray in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

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REVIEW: York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, until July 5 ***1/2

Annabel van Griethuysen’s hostess Marlene Cabana vamping it up in York Light Opera Company’s Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography

EUROBEAT is essentially Eurovision by another name, and if you love the campery, pageantry and “political” shenanigans of Eurovision, then you will love Eurobeat.

Presented in York its third iteration (after 2008’s Eurobeat…Almost European and 2016’s Eurobeat Moldova), this affectionate send-up is the work of Aussie composer, writer and lyricist Craig Christie, a Eurovision devotee whose love of the annual song contest pre-dates Australia’s inclusion since 2015’s special guest appearance.

Should you still be wondering why the faraway land of Oz is involved, apparently Aussies have a long-standing affection for Eurovision and the nation is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Emma Swainston’s Astrid Lungstomberg waving the flag for Swedish entry Semaphore Of Love

Christie updates his show with each re-telling, tongue pushed further into cheek, politically and culturally savvy to the world’s woes, and steeped in Eurovision’s tropes, gauche jokes and awkward silences, while keeping the distance of a mischievous onlooker.

In the words of York Light director Neil Wood, “it’s fun”. “It ends up as more of an event, though it’s still a theatre show, and from the audience point of view, it’s a blast!” he says. “If you want to come in costume, you’re more than welcome to do so. We’ll have slash curtains, glitter and haze, everything you’d expect from Eurovision, but without the big budget.”

No-one took up the costume invitation at Wednesday’s press night: auditorium conditions were too hot and airless for that, but a Portuguese flag was waved enthusiastically from the front row, probably doubling as a cooling fan too.

Zander Fick’s punctilious martinet, Master of Protocols “Boring” Bjorn Bjornson, in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe

Welcome to Lichtenstein, hosts apparently by default of Eurobeat 2025. Up on the mezzanine level are Joy Warner’s Fanny Feuberger and Simon Kelly’s Kevin Kupferblum, starchy Cultural Ambassors with their regal airs and cod European accents.

They look over everything and, in turn, tend to be overlooked by show-off show hostess Marlene Cabana (Annabel van Griethuysen), glamorous Lichtenstein singing star, who has a costume change for every song and a putdown quip or three for every contestant and national stereotype.  She is as much the mouthpiece for Christie as an echo of Terry Wogan and Graham Norton’s mickey-taking.

Annabel Van Griethuysen (could the lead actress have a more pan-European name?) is fabulous from start to finish. Her five-star Marlene is an irresistible, irrepressible force, with no time for woke sensibilities, and an Alpine European accent befitting a Bond Girl of Connery days. She takes the demands of direct address in her sassy stride, always accompanied by eye contact.

This Is How I Dance (by not dancing): Idomus (Pierre-Alain van Griethuysen and Megan Taaffe) in statuesque form for Lithuania in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe

As well as parading her operatic prowess in her singing, especially in Act Two, Van Griethuysen does pretty much all of the script’s heavy lifting, aided occasionally by the staid Cultural Ambassadors and Zander Fick’s Master of Protocols, “Boring” Bjorn Bjornson, a moribund martinet whose every energy-draining interjection is begrudged by Marlene as unnecessary competition for her limelight-hogging.

Trained in opera and jazz singing, Fick has been carving a niche for himself on the York stage in a series of impressively understated yet bang-on performances since moving here from South Africa in April 2023. Once again he favours less is more as he blossoms on the arid terrain of the humourless killjoy, making being “boring” highly watchable.

The importance of being Earnestasia: Emma Rockliff performing Romanian entry Listen

In Act One, somewhat reluctantly on each occasion, hostess Marlene has to make way for the ten acts (nine European, plus the United Kingdom, she quips), looking to upstage them on each costume change. The songs must do their talking for them.

Christie plays on each nation’s Eurovision history and characteristics, kicking off with the infectious, over-calculated melody hooks of Sweden’s Semaphore Of Love, sung by Emma Swainston’s Agnetha-blonde Astrid Lungstomberg.

Poland’s Obwody Wirujące (Kit Stroud, Sophie Cunningham and Chloe Branton), all hard hats and robotic movements, clash for attention with three maids in traditional dress, their song pulling in different directions too. Romania’s Earnestasia (Emily Rockliff) throws in every outdated Eurovision cliché, boom-bang-a-bang style, in Listen. 

Nigel and Nadine (Stephen Wilson and Pascha Turnbull) at odds with each other in the United Kingdom’s typically unloveable Why Don’t You Love Me Anymore

The United Kingdom’s  Nigel and Nadine (Stephen Wilson and Pascha Turnbull) are akin to a washed-up cabaret act from a bygone era on a crash course to nil points with Why Don’t You Love Me Anymore. Or more accurately, why don’t you love us anymore, post-Brexit?

Representing Lithuania are Idomus (Pierre-Alain van Griethuysen and Megan Taaffe), seriously Eastern European yet delightfully, cutely devoid of self-awareness (unlike hostess Marlene) in singing This Is How I Dance, statuesque to a T, eschewing dance steps in the best moment of Wood and Sarah Cragg’s amusing choreography.

Greece is the word: Chloë Chapman’s Persephone performing Oh Aphrodite, a song she also choreographed

On song for Greece is Persephone (Chloë Chapman), tapping into Greek tragedies in the highly theatrical Oh Aphrodite. Portugal’s Mateus Villela (boy band looker Cain Branton) lives up to the lonesome title Guy With The Guitar, ushering off violinists while stoically declining to play his allotted instrument until the last note in one of Christie’s titular best jokes.

Vatican City (rather than Italy) gives Christie the chance to take pot shots at the Catholic church before Mother Morag and the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony (Evie Latham, Lizzie Kearton, Sophie Cunningham and Emma Swainston) catch the Sixties girl group habit in Good Girl – throwing in a Bucks Fizz costume “strip” for good measure.

Mother Morag and the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony: Vatican City’s answer to a Sixties’ girl group

Christie’s best pastiche goes to France’s Estelle LaCroix (Amy Greene), in red beret and matching lipstick, with a mime artiste to one side and a cyclist with baguettes and string of garlic to the other, as she sings the Gallic ballad Je Vous Deteste Tous, resolutely in French bien sur, her disdain writ large.

Norway closes the contest with Hammer Of Thor (Daniel Wood and Matt Tapp) hammering out the heavily metallic The Vikings, wherein an accountant sheds his day-job skin to join the Nordic warrior beside him as if on a Jorvik Viking Festival weekender in York.

Time for an interval break, one where audience members must pick their top three, either by utilising a somewhat resistant QR Code or resorting to time-honoured pen and paper.

Pulling the heart strings, but not playing the guitar ones: Cain Branton’s Mateus Villela holds back on his fret work in Portuguese entry Guy With A Guitar

Van Griethuysen’s hostess comes even more into her element as the Eurovision send-ups continue, the tension rises and the forced jollity of a Euro party takes over. Martin Lay’s band has fun; costumier Carly Price has even more fun.

Who wins? That’s up to you each show, but you’re on to a winner here if Eurovision is your guilty pleasure.

York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York,  until July 5. Performances: 7.30pm, tonight and July 1 to 4, plus 3pm, June 28 and 29 and July 5. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Who wins at Eurobeat? You decide in the audience vote

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Here’s your chance to vote in York Light’s Eurovision spoof at Theatre@41, Monkgate

Waving the flag: Contestants on parade in the rehearsal room for York Light Opera Company’s Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe

ABBACADABRA! York Light Opera Company will celebrate the magical spirit and vibrant energy and Eurovision in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, from June 25 to July 5.

Expect non-stop, infectious Eurobeat rhythms and dazzling visuals in Australian composer, writer and lyricist Craig Christie’s high-octane, electrifying musical, presented in its York debut under the direction of Neil Wood and musical direction of Martin Lay.

“I didn’t know of the show until the company approached me and said, ‘this is what we want to do for the summer show’, and I thought, ‘absolutely’! It’s such fun,” says Neil.

“It seems to have taken various guises. The first one I found, from 2008, starred Les Dennis and Mel Giedroyc and was called Eurobeat…Almost European. Then, in 2016, it was revamped by the same writer as Eurobeat Moldova, starring  Rula Lenska and Lee Latchford-Evans. Then MTI [Music Theatre International] released this one, Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe.

“It’s very much a re-write but with some of the same songs. Craig Christie updates it each time, freshening it up with more Eastern bloc countries, like Lithuania, this time. 

York Light Opera Company in rehearsal for Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe

“The challenge for us is to present it as an event to take part in. For anyone who loves Eurovision, if it’s on your bucket list, then this is your opportunity to get involved.”

What happens? “The audience can not only dance and revel in the fun of the European song contest, but also they will decide the winner, with the chance to vote on an app or good old pen and paper,” says Neil.

“The cast won’t know who’s won until it’s announced, but there’ll be a nod to it ten minutes out from the end because of the costume changes needed.”

The Eurobeat show will be hosted in Lichtenstein – winner of the right to do so by default, apparently – by Annabel van Griethuysen’s Marlene Cabana and overseen by Zander Fick’s master of protocols, Bjorn Bjornson, while Fanny Feuberger, Joy Warner, Kevin Kupferblum and Simon Kelly will take on the roles of Cultural Ambassadors.

Representing Sweden will be Astrid Lungstomberg (played by Emma Swainston); for Poland,  Obwody Wirujące (Kit Stroud, Sophie Cunningham and Chloe Branton); Romania, Earnestasia (Emily Rockliff); United Kingdom, Nigel and Nadine (Stephen Wilson and Pascha Turnbull) and Lithuania, Idomus (Pierre-Alain van Griethuysen and Megan Taaffe).

York Light Opera Company cast members working on a routine in rehearsal for Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe

On song for Greece will be Persephone (Chloë Chapman); Portugal , Mateus Villela (Cain Branton); Vatican City,  Mother Morag and the Sisters of Perpetual Harmony (Evie Latham and Lizzie Kearton); France, Estelle LaCroix (Amy Greene) and Norway, Hammer Of Thor (Daniel Wood and Matt Tapp).

“Each of the ten songs has an individual character in keeping with the familiar style of each country, but not too many ballads. So the French entry is very sultry; the Swedish entry has Loreen-esque vibes; the Norwegians have entered a heavy metal song – again!,” says Neil.

“The British act, Nigel and Nadine, are on the comeback trail. They were actors in what might have been 1970s’ sitcom and now they’re back, representing the UK.”

Eurobeat takes the form of the song contest in Act One, followed by the voting and extra songs in Act Two, climaxing with the result and the reprise of the winning number. “But rather than five hours on TV, it takes two hours on stage,” says Neil, who also provides the choreography in tandem with Sarah Craggs.

“Our job has been not just to create the songs as Eurovision moments but to find the humour, and if you know my style, if I can see a joke, I’ll use it. Having directed I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Nunsense  for this company, this one goes in a completely different direction.

“It ends up as more of an event, thought it’s still a theatre show,” says Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe director Neil Wood

“It ends up as more of an event, though it’s still a theatre show, and from the audience point of view, it’s a blast! If you want to come in costume, you’re more than welcome to do so. We’ll have slash curtains, glitter and haze, everything you’d  expect from Eurovision,  but without the big budget.”

Praising Christie’s writing, Neil says: “It’s very cleverly written because the contestants and other characters have to talk directly to the audience or to speak in their second language, so the jokes deliberately don’t always land.”

He admits to being a Eurovision devotee.  “I love  it!” says Neil. “I grew up in the era where the UK still used to win. My earliest memories were Abba, Brotherhood Of Man and Milk And Honey, from Israel.

“It was the thing to watch it as a family, as I have with my kids as they’ve grown up, watching with the packets of Haribo in front of us. It’s so huge now; really in vogue.”

York Light Opera Company in Eurobeat: Pride Of Europe, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York,  June 25 to July 5. Performances:  7.30pm, June 25 to 27 and July 1 to 4, plus 3pm, June 28 and 29 and July 5. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

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Nun better as Hayley Bamford takes on Deloris Van Cartier’s role in York Musical Theatre Company’s Sister Act The Musical

Hayley Bamford in rehearsal for the lead role of Deloris Van Cartier in York Musical Theatre Company’s Sister Act The Musical

First published on May 15 2025

YORK Musical Theatre Company will perform Sister Act The Musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, next Wednesday (21/5/2025) to Saturday under the direction of Kathryn Addison with Hayley Bamford in the sassy role of “novice nun” Deloris Van Cartier.

As you will recall from Emile Ardolino’s 1992 film, the story is centred on club singer Deloris, who  witnesses her partner, nightclub owner Curtis Jackson (Zander Fick), commit murder, forcing the police to hide her in a convent where she meets the Mother Superior (Kirstin Grififths) and an ensemble of 22 nuns. Cue multiple upbeat numbers as friendships grow and the convent is saved from financial ruin. Hallelujah!

“The company chose this show, and they did ask me for my thoughts,” says Kathryn of Alan Menken’s musical with its 1970s-inspired score. “I think it’s a super piece of theatre that’s even better than the film. It’s ideal for this company. It has everything in it you want in a musical.  

“There’s a real depth to it, beyond the music, with real emotion to Deloris’s story, but it’s also fun and the music is fabulous. The voices are phenomenal. It has a beautiful original score for a show that needs the right style vocally and physically to retain the essence of the movie’s jukebox musical hits.”

Deloris Von Cartier will forever be associated with Whoopi Goldberg’s tour-de-force movie performance and was played by Cleopatra girl group singer, I’d Do Anything  finalist and West End musical actress Cleopatra  Rey in York Stage Musicals’ York premiere at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre: a September 2014 production on which Kathryn worked.

Sister Act The Musical director Kathryn Addison

Explaining her choice of Hayley for the role, she says: “Hayley never stops. From  the moment she rocks up, it’s an absolute powerhouse performance.

“We had some amazing auditions for the part, and they all really delivered. I had no preconceived ideas about who should play Deloris, but I needed a special spark and that’s what Hayley brought to the room. That energy.

“It’s an instinct. You can’t necessarily say what it is, but there’s a combination of things that strike you. It’s about having the right style and being able to adapt to the demands of this part, understand what you have to do, and Hayley has done that.”

Singer, children’s party entertainer and Hay Jays Disco boss Hayley has long contemplated auditioning for Deloris. “I saw that production at the Opera House, and had considered doing the show with Ripon Operatic Society,” she says. “I thought, ‘I’d love to audition for it’, but the timing wasn’t right, but now it’s come about naturally for me to do it in York, as if it was meant to be.”

Hayley auditioned last autumn and began singing rehearsals in January, followed by floor rehearsals since March. “It’s been such good  fun to do,” she says. “It’s a dream come true. I’ve toyed with it for some time now, because I’ve had it in my mind that Deloris is played by a very famous black actress [Whoopi Goldberg].

Hayley Bamford, front, centre, with fellow cast members for York Musical Theatre Company’s production of Sister Act The Musical

“But when John [musical director John Atkin] said it wasn’t written specifically for a black actress, but was first offered to Bette Midler, then I could see Deloris as just a club singer where you have to put your own take on it.

 “Deloris is a woman with dreams, and she has her ups and downs as we all do, but it’s what she learns from her experience that’s important.”

Hayley has loved the challenge of playing Hayley. “I played Morticia in The Addams Family a few years ago, but it wasn’t as big a role as this. It’s been good for my brain. Teaching myself things again. Like Deloris, we all have dreams to fulfil to work in theatre.

“Luckily my voice is naturally quite a low voice, the Whoopi Goldberg level, so I can do the American  voice like that, but I think I’m camper than Whoopi – and you don’t want to be a copycat.”

Kathryn concludes: “What Hayley is very good at is being able to use her physicality in scenes, and it’s very definitely not like Whoopi! It’s Hayley’s interpretation; we get the whole character because she gets the movement right. Hayley is tall with long limbs and that brings individuality to her performance.”

York Musical Theatre Company in Sister Act The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, May 21 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: York Musical Theatre Company in The Wizard Of Oz, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday ****

Toto puppeteer Adam Gill, left, Rachel Higgs’s Scarecrow, Zander Fick’s Tin Man, Sadie Sorensen’s Dorothy and Daan Janssen’s Lion in York Musical Theatre Company’s The Wizard Of Oz. Picture: Lucy Baines, Joy Photography

BY day, Sadie Sorensen teaches A-level Biology. By night and weekend matinee this week, she is “very excited to take on the bucket list role” of Dorothy in only her second show for York Musical Theatre Company (YMTC).

She is relatively new to the York am-dram scene, having relocated here two years ago, but brings bags of experience, having performed in many shows in her Hull past.

What a good talent spot by director and choreographer Kathryn Addison, who is rewarded with a super lead performance by Sorensen.

At 26, she is ten years older than Judy Garland’s iconic Dorothy Gale in Victor Fleming’s 1939 film – much older too than Eleanor Leaper’s Dorothy, aged 13, in YMTC’s 2010 production at York Theatre Royal – but she utterly evokes the tearaway teenager. Pitch of Kansas voice, spot on. Her singing, both powerful and emotive, especially in Over The Rainbow.

Addison’s cast has plenty more hits too, not least casting York stage stalwart Jeanette Hunter into the dark side for the first time as the mean-spirited Miss Gulch and the grouchy villain, the Wicked Witch of the West. Hunter is as entertaining as ever, such a good sport as the baddie.

Fellow “veteran” Martyn Hunter is on good form too, both as the kindly Professor Marvel and the “humbug” Wizard of Oz; Ben Caswell’s Emerald City Guard is full of comic panache; Elizabeth Gardner glitters as Glinda and Marlena Kellie’s Aunty Em is suitably homely.

Full of green energy: Ben Caswell’s Emerald City Guard. Picture: Lucy Baines, Joy Photography

Addison’s cast has an international flavour too. Zander Fick, classically trained in opera and jazz singing, moved to York from South Africa in April 2023 and now follows his scene-stealing Chef Louis in York Light Opera Company’s The Little Mermaid with a Tin Man replete with squeaky, robotic movement and, ironically, plenty of heart.

Better still is Dutch-born Daan Janssen, who honed his musical theatre-inspired drag performing skills while studying for his PhD in Germany and now turns in a terrific Lion. From his arch American accent to his timid yet proud demeanour and supreme singing voice, so deep and playful, he is a roaring success.

JoRo regular Rachel Higgs is an appealing Scarecrow and the Yellow Brick Road travelling troupe is completed by canine puppeteer Adam Gill’s ever attentive Toto in a show with two Totos for the price of one. Cast member Helen Barugh’s dog Daisy takes the role in the opening and closing Kansas farmhouse scenes; Elanor Kitchen’s puppet in Oz.

Addison’s choreography makes splendid use of both the adult ensemble and young Munchkins, while Helen Barugh, Katie Crossley and Kirsty Farrow’s Trees and Rob Davies and Caswell’s Crows have their moments too.

Musical director John Atkin’s ten-piece orchestra feels at home in all those familiar Harold Arlen and E Y Harburg songs, the playing light on its feet, the energy infectious. Julie Fisher’s costumes are a delight, for principals, ensemble and children alike, combining with UK Productions’ set design, Ollie Nash’s sound and Nick Lay’s lighting to complete a high- quality production in the merry old land of Oz. Time to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the box office.  

York Musical Theatre Company in The Wiard Of Oz, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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York Musical Theatre Company ready to follow the Yellow Brick Road at the JoRo

YORK stage stalwart Jeanette Hunter will play a villain for the first time from Wednesday to Saturday, starring as the Wicked Witch in York Musical Theatre Company’s The Wizard Of Oz.

Following the Yellow Brick Road at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, will be Sadie Sorensen’s Dorothy, Rachel Higgs’s Scarecrow, Zander Fick’s Tin Man and Daan Janssen’s Lion, while further principal roles will go to Liz Gardner as Glinda, Ben Caswell as the Guard, Rob Davies as Uncle Henry, Marlena Kellie as Auntie Em and Martin Hunter as the Wizard.

The production team of director and choreographer Kathryn Addison and musical director John Atkin promises a dazzling production of L Frank Baum’s story with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E Y Harburg.

In the ensemble will be Adam Gill, Katie Greene, Katy Barrow, Jo Gamble, Sue Coward, Katie Crossley, Helen Barugh, Kirsty Farrow and Iris Van Hout.

Jeanette Hunter’s Wicked Witch, right, in rehearsal with Daan Janssen’s Lion, left, Rachel Higgs’s Scarecrow, Zander Fick’s Tin Man, Sadie Sorensen’s Dorothy and Toto puppeteer Adam Gill

The delightful Munchkins will be played by the children’s cast of Amelia Berry, Sophie Blackmore, Anna Cook, Emilia Davenport, Olivia Dobson Lopez, Matilda Down, Erica Fletcher, Sucy Innes, Izzy Jackson, Eva Lofthouse, Lucas Macleod, Nia Mcvay, Edith Pickard, Matilda Rose and Ellena Sheader.

Adding to the enchantment will be Daisy the dog as Toto. Owned by cast member Helen Barugh, she brings alertness, friendliness, responsiveness and an affable nature to the part, along with an ability to interact with her fellow actors.

What’s more, audiences will be in for a delightful surprise as the show progresses. Once Dorothy and her companions reach the fantastical land of Oz, Daisy undergoes a magical transformation. From that point forward, Toto will be brought to life through the skilled, precise and charming puppetry of Adam Gill.

York Musical Theatre Company in The Wiard Of Oz, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 22 to 25, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Toto meet Toto: Adam Gill’s puppet version with canine star Daisy
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REVIEW: York Light Opera Company in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, York Theatre Royal, making waves until Saturday ****

Pascha Turnbull’s Ursula, James Dickinson’s Flotsam and Adam Gill’s Jetsam in York Light Opera Company’s Disney’s The Little Mermaid. All pictures: Matthew Kitchen Photography

THREE matinees this week are testament to the family appeal of Disney’s aquatic adventure The Little Mermaid, a show ideal for half-term week.

Across the city from February 16 to 18 at York Barbican, a Tylosaurus, the largest predatory marine reptile to ever grace our oceans and now the largest marine puppet ever made, will be making a big splash in a purpose-built tank in Jurassic Live. “If you sit near the front, you will get wet,” comes the safety alert.

No such warning is necessary at the Theatre Royal, but in the absence of water, everything else is thrown at director/choreographer Martyn Knight’s hi-tech production: an LED screen by AV Matrix; flying by Blue Chilli Flying; images and animations by Broadway Media Distribution and additional scenic elements by Scenic Projects, Lowestoft, and Curtain Call Productions, Crewe.

Bon appetit: Zander Fick’s Chef Louis

The tentacle costume for 6ft tall Pascha Turnbull’s evil sea witch, the giant squid Ursula, has been made specially by Caroline Guy, to go with a spectacular array of sea-world costumes by Spotlight Costume Hire and additional costumes created by York Light.

Wardrobe coordinator Carly Price has overseen a sewing team of ten, complemented by 21 dressers at the theatre; ten people in Ellie Ryder’s wig, hair and make-up team; ten more in the stage crew, all serving a cast of 43. Set building took 14 people; Paul Laidlaw conducts an excellent nine-strong orchestra, three of them on keyboards.

Those numbers tell you this is a big, expensive show to mount, taking on the challenge of staging a musical produced originally by Disney Theatrical Productions, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale and John Musker and Ron Clements’s animated 1989 film for Disney.

Monica Frost’s Ariel in mermaid mode in Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Built on a book by Doug Wright, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater, this is every inch a Disney show, in style, content and philosophy, but Knight’s cast still brings a York Light air to it too.

This is helped by the experienced presence of not only Turnbull’s terrific villain, Ursula, but also Neil Wood’s mandarin Grimsby, Martin Lay’s bird-brained Scuttle and in particular Rory Mulvihill’s stern King Triton, ruler of the underworld.

Turnbull’s Ursula and her henchmen with the flashing footwear, James Dickinson’s Flotsam and Adam Gill’s Jetsam, savour the dark side with more than a hint of pantomime villainy, and Turnbull’s rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls is a formidable finale to Act One.

Neil Wood’s Grimsby and James Horsman’s Prince Eric

Jonny Holbek’s Caribbean crustacean, Sebastian the crab, carries the heaviest comedy load, and although painting a face red to deliver a calypso caricature in Under The Sea might not be on a par with a white actor blacking up as Othello in 2024, the Jamaican jive could sit awkwardly for those who cringed at Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Nevertheless, Holbek is such a personable presence on stage – witness his Dewey Finn lead turn in School Of Rock last November – that his Sebastian goes down well, breaking down theatre’s fourth wall in the style of a panto daft lad.

Under The Sea, by the way, is as big and bright and fun as the big ensemble number should be, while Monica Frost’s Ariel, the mermaid who makes a deal with Ursula to take on human form (at the cost of her voice), relishes her spotlight in Part Of Your World in a resolute lead performance.

Rory Mulvihill’s King Triton

Lay’s Scuttle and the Seagulls could not be more positive in Positoovity, danced to tap choreography by Rachel Whitehead, and if you want an actor to maximise a cameo with comic flair and French drama, step forward Zander Fick’s Chef Louis  in Les Poissons in the palace kitchen.

Roller-skating is all the rage under the sea for Triton’s daughters (Frost’s Ariel, Annabel Van Griethuysen’s Aquata, Helen Miller’s Andrina, Madeleine Hicks’s Arista, Chloe Chapman’s Atina, Sophie Cunningham’s Adella and Sarah Craggs’s Allana), who swish hither and thither and sing siren-style.

James Horsman’s Prince Eric, the royal who would prefer to be a sailor, is played as straight as a ruler, fitting the Disney tropes of dark hair, slim frame and mono-focus on his one – find his bride – task in hand.

Jonny Holbek’s Sebastian the crab and Ryan Addyman’s Flounder performing Under The Sea

Ryan Addyman, who had everyone talking about his Jamie New in York Stage’s  Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Teen Edition last June, was promptly head-hunted to play Flounder, and he anything but flounders as Ariel’s fabulous fish sidekick here. One to watch, definitely.

Dial M for Mermaid if you enjoy Disney with a York Light touch, colours galore, fairytale fantasy, Turnbull terrors and Mulvihill regal authority

Performances:  7.30pm nightly, plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Martin Lay’s Scuttle, front, and the Gulls dancing Positoovity in York Light’s tap number in Disney’s The Little Mermaid