Jackie Foottit, Author at North West End UK

10Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Cluedo2 – Hull New Theatre

When a publicity blurb for a theatre production informs us we will “laugh ’til they die`”, it’s bound to pique the interest of theatregoers. Those four words certainly got my attention, and I looked forward to watching Cluedo2 at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday night. But would I laugh ’til they die? As we waited for curtain up we could admire the stage setting of a huge Cluedo board, at an angle, with the shape of the multi-windowed Graveny Manor in front. A few minutes after 7.30pm the action started with the home’s owner, rock star Rick Black, inviting selected guests to listen to his latest album. The married Rick (Liam Horrigan), he of the afro hair and dazzling white teeth (well, it is the swinging sixties), is a bundle of energy. You simply can’t ignore him. His wi...

Opera North: Così Fan Tutte – Hull New Theatre

5Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North: Così Fan Tutte – Hull New Theatre

Theatre lovers enjoyed more than three hours of a most delightful opera on Thursday night, as Opera North brought its production of Così Fan Tutte to the Hull New Theatre. I say delightful because, unlike others I have seen, I found this very easy to understand from the get go, though it helped that it was sung in English. The title translates as “they’re all the same”, describing professor Don Alfonso’s take on all women. Dutch baritone Quirijn de Lang played the professor with the right amount of menace, cunning and gravitas, as well as more than a hint of mischief. The professor is the cause of all the shenanigans on the night, betting two lovestruck young men that their faithful amours would cheat on them, because in his mind women are “all the same”. He challenges the t...

1Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Animal Farm – Hull Truck Theatre

When Snowball the angry, militant “pig” crept menacingly towards me, across the stage of Hull Truck Theatre on Thursday night, I began to think my front-row seat wasn’t such a good thing after all. I was at this popular local theatre to watch a powerful re-telling of George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm - a book I had never read, but, it being a classic, knew the storyline of. Thankfully, Snowball (Samater Ahmed) spared me, directing his anger at the farm’s owner and his master, Mr Jones. The way Jones ran Manor Farm was not to the animals’ liking nor for their benefit, so they overthrow him, take over and create a new set of rules in which “all animals are equal”. However, it soon becomes apparent that the cleverest farm animals are the pigs - Squealer (Killian Macardle), Napo...

28Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Life of Pi – Hull New Theatre

I was almost lost for words - written and vocal - after watching Life of Pi at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday night. Not a good state for a reviewer to be in. Faced with the question “How do I describe perfection?”, back home, I made myself a coffee, opened a bag of chocolate buttons and got my brain into gear. Life of Pi tells the story of 17-year-old Indian boy, Pi Patel, who, after political disruptions in his homeland, seeks out a new life in Canada, with his family. However, the Tsimtsum, the cargo ship they embark upon, sinks in a terrible Pacific Ocean storm, leaving Pi stranded on a small lifeboat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan and a Bengal tiger - animals being transported from his family’s zoo. Pi (the amazing Divesh Subaskaran) loses his family - mother (Goldy Notay...

20Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Crazy For You – Hull New Theatre

I love the sound of hordes of dancers tap dancing en masse on a theatre’s wooden stage. So, I was in my element witnessing just that when Hessle Theatre Company brought its production of Crazy For You to the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday night. Riverdance eat your heart out. I’d already had the privilege of watching this talented crew in their final run rehearsal, so had more than an inkling of what to expect. What I didn’t expect were the most glorious costumes reminiscent of Vegas showgirls - sequins, feathers and huge head-dresses, all in various shades of pinks, creams and turquoise. Crazy For You is a musical, set in the 1930s, so glitter and glamour should have come as no surprise; but it was the sheer beauty of the outfits that amazed me. The feel-good story centres aro...

13Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Drifters Girl – Hull New Theatre

There aren’t many 1950s singing groups whose story can still pack theatres 70 years later. But The Drifters are no ordinary group as we discovered while watching The Drifters Girl, a new musical, at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday. This entertaining production was as much about the group’s manager, Faye Treadwell, as about the group itself. Treadwell (the amazing Carly Mercedes Dyer) managed the group from the 1970s for 30 years, when women weren’t expected to be in business, never mind actually running the whole shebang. And being the first female African American manager brought its own difficulties. Faye’s husband, George, was the original manager of The Drifters, but when he died in 1967, his wife took over the management. Facing litigation in the US and needing to ma...

A Song For Ella Grey – Hull Truck Theatre

7Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Song For Ella Grey – Hull Truck Theatre

Before sitting down to write my review of A Song For Ella Grey, a production I watched at the Hull Truck Theatre on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 6th, I felt the need to reacquaint myself with the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, around which this play is centred. Orpheus, though invisible, features hugely in this darkly romantic tale and, never having read David Almond’s book from which this production is adapted, I had to ensure I understood proceedings before engaging my keyboard. As I took my seat on the front row, I was confronted by a stage setting of ceiling-high white voile curtains. Billowing gently, they draped over what appeared to be huge beds, again in white. Despite this abundance of white, Hull Truck itself was very dimly lit throughout, resulting i...

6Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Shrek The Musical – Hull New Theatre

Imagine being thrown out of your house and told by your parents to make your own way in life - at the age of 7! That’s exactly what happened to a young Shrek, the green ogre whose story is told in Shrek The Musical which started its run at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday night. But that was the only sad-ish part of the whole rip-roaring production. On the stage, a huge arc of lights surrounded by a backdrop of falling snowflakes and a massive Shrek story book, plus a soundtrack of croaking frogs, greeted us as we took our seats. Within minutes of curtain up, Shrek, now a giant, broke wind, then used a skunk as a deodorant under his armpits. That’s what ogres do. Shrek (Antony Lawrence) had us in the palm of his hands from that first window-rattling trump. But his world is...

4Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

NEWS

Crazy For You – Hessle Theatre

We theatre reviewers are a spoilt bunch. Any productions we are invited to watch have been honed and polished to perfection - bugs given the boot and glitches dealt with, ensuring our view of proceedings isn’t hampered by such pesky events. With that in mind, I was intrigued to receive an invitation from Hessle Theatre Company to watch a “full run of the show in an open rehearsal”, with backing tracks but without scenery and costumes, for a production of Crazy For You, a show they will grace the Hull New Theatre stage with later this month. So, Sunday afternoon saw me and my regular theatre buddy, my sister Chrissy, head for Tranby School, in Anlaby, near Hull, to experience my first ever rehearsal. If it was any other company but the Hessle Theatre, I would have thought they had ...

20Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

I Should Be So Lucky – Hull New Theatre

If you entered Hull New Theatre on Monday evening, in a grumpy mood, I would bet my meagre life savings your grumps would soon evaporate. Stock Aitken Waterman’s feel-good musical I Should Be So Lucky was a riot of fun, joy, colour, not forgetting hit song after hit song - even though the storyline started off on a sad note. The stage setting throughout was all heart, literally. Wonderful heart shapes that changed colour and texture, fronting a video screen when more movement was needed in the storyline - such as balmy Turkish waters, hot air balloon-filled skies and thunder and lightning. Plus, a “hot air balloon” or rather its basket, was an amazing sight to behold as it floated, with its passengers, around the stage. The story centres around soon-to-be-married Ella (Lucie-Mae S...