Tuesday, December 16

Author: Paul Clarke

Grease – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Grease – Leeds Grand Theatre

It’s great that this production carries on the classic movie’s proud tradition of having twentysomethings playing teenagers about to leave Rydell High School for the real world. It’s a bit odd the thick American accents the relatively inexperienced cast deploy seem to be from Brooklyn rather than the tough working-class area of Chicago the original theatre production was set in. The voice coach should have dialled it down a bit which would have helped with the sometimes wayward diction. It’s probably fair to say most of the audience were looking for a scene by scene recreation of the beloved movie, and to that extent they do get well staged versions of all songs they had grown up loving.  But the producers claim to have retained the darker elements of the rawer early 1970s scrip...
From Japan to Leeds Playhouse – Jonathan Munby
Interviews

From Japan to Leeds Playhouse – Jonathan Munby

Peter Pan is one of our culture’s most enduring characters but a new festive production at Leeds Playhouse takes a fresh look at the boy who refuses to grow up. This time round in Wendy & Pan the endless child’s traditional sparring partner Wendy Darling takes centre stage in Ella Hickson’s adaption of JM Barrie’s classic, but you can still expect to see the dastardly Captain Hook, The Lost Boys, a pirate ship and a crocodile in the Playhouse’s festive spectacular. This production comes straight from a successful run in Tokyo during the Olympics, featuring input from Japanese creatives, and boasts a big cast who will fight and fly their way round the huge Quarry theatre. Jonathan Munby is co-directing Wendy and Peter, and in the first of a two part look at this show tells our ...
Dianne Pilkington flies into Leeds Grand with Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Interviews

Dianne Pilkington flies into Leeds Grand with Bedknobs and Broomsticks

When families settle down for a festive film one of the perineal favourites is BedKnobs and Broomsticks starring musical legends Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. It’s a magical and often surreal tale of a trainee witch Eglantine Price who takes under her wing three orphans evacuated from the London blitz who fly an enchanted bed in a quest to find a spell helped by a dodgy professor of magic. The movie features some memorable songs from the pen of the Sherman Brothers and its cutting-edge animation combined with live action won the Disney team an Oscar for best Special Effects. Now it has been turned into a stage show with some new songs that comes to Leeds Grand from December 8th and plays into the new year. Dianne Pilkington plays the trainee witch on the show’s first UK tou...
Donald and Benoit are at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this Christmas
NEWS

Donald and Benoit are at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this Christmas

Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Prime Theatre are staging new audio play Donald and Benoit as their Christmas treat. This whimsical and musical tale for children tells the tale an unlikely friendship between a man and a cat that has been brought to vivid life by playwright John Patrick Byrne and adapted by award winning theatre maker Jeanine Byrne. Benoit lives a life of mundane ordinariness in his Scottish seaside town, but he is feeling very lonely with no mother and his father lost at sea. Enter Donald, a small and mischievous kitten, to cheer him up. Sound Stage is a new audio-digital venture, designed by theatre makers and leading technologists, giving audiences a unique and engrossing online theatre experience of new plays from the best in British theatre which in the future ...
Nana-Kofi Kufour talks about his debut play My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored
Interviews

Nana-Kofi Kufour talks about his debut play My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored

Black people in this country are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched and that is what happens to Reece in Nana-Kofi Kurfour’s debut play. In My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored the teenager appeals to his black teacher Gillian for help but she refuses leading to a tense standoff in their classroom the next day. No one can accuse this new writer of picking an easy topic for this tense two hander, but it’s a subject that impacts on all of us in modern Britain one way or another. It’s no surprise it’s being produced by Leeds based radical theatre company Red Ladder, who have a long history of taking on subjects no-one else wants to touch. As My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored gets its World Premiere at Leeds Playhouse our Yorkshire editor Paul Clarke caught up Nana...
Me, Myself and Micha – Leeds Playhouse
Yorkshire & Humber

Me, Myself and Micha – Leeds Playhouse

When Brazilian dancer and choreographer Ana Silverio realised she was pregnant she began to make detailed notes to make a piece out of her nine month journey. Silverio who had worked across Europe initially thought this was going to be performed by three dancers after presenting an initial 10 minute work in progress during a scratch session as part of the Playhouse’s Furnace Festival she realised it was a solo show. Furnace is the engine room that supports new and more established artists like Silverio with space to create new work, as well allowing them to tap into the Playhouse’s vast reservoir of creative and technical expertise. Usually for Furnace which was cancelled last year due to the virus this is staged as a fully realised forty-minute piece that begins with a beauti...
Leeds Playhouse’s Rio Matchett talks about the return of their Furnace Festival after a two year break
Interviews

Leeds Playhouse’s Rio Matchett talks about the return of their Furnace Festival after a two year break

There is always a joy in watching fully formed work, but there is equal satisfaction being able to watch artists develop new pieces, which is where a safe space like the Furnace Festival at Leeds Playhouse comes in. Artists often talk about learning as much from failing as what works so Furnace offers them a year-round development programme which the Playhouse says is their development engine offering a place to play and learn as pieces come to life. The Playhouse use their Furnace brand to describe all of the work they do to generate and create new performance work that supports the local creative community Usually that work is showcased in an annual live programme where artists present their work in all sorts of stages of development but last year was cancelled for obvious reaso...
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Leeds Grand
Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Leeds Grand

The performing arts often attracts outsiders looking for a safe haven, so it is hardly surprising many musicals are about the plucky outsider finding their true selves against what seem like insurmountable odds. That’s true of this big-hearted musical that started life just down the road in Sheffield, before becoming a West End hit, and is loosely based on the real story of working class gay teenager Jamie Campbell who decided that only did he want to be a drag artist when he left school, but he was going to his prom in a dress. Here our Jamie New, supported by Muslim best mate Pritti, wants to do the same despite the school bullies, but is up against a bigoted teacher determined he will turn up to the big night in ’normal’ attire, provoking an unexpected response from his schoolmate...
Peter Andre talks about being Teen Angel at Leeds Grand Theatre
Interviews

Peter Andre talks about being Teen Angel at Leeds Grand Theatre

Once upon a time amiable Aussie Peter Andre was best known for his rippling six pack and being married to a controversial model. Since then, high profile appearances on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! And Strictly Come Dancing showed Peter to be a genuinely nice guy winning him many new fans. Peter is now turning his hand to musical theatre and is back on the road in Grease, which is back at Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday 29th November. You played Teen Angel on the 2019 Grease tour and now you’re also doing double duty as Vince Fontaine. What are the logistics of playing dual roles? I may even be doing a third role, namely a police officer, depending on whether or not I can get changed on time. The more characters the better for me. Each one of them has a different accent, so...
Furnace Festival celebrating new artists is back at Leeds Playhouse
NEWS

Furnace Festival celebrating new artists is back at Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse’s trailblazing Furnace Festival is back after a two-year break celebrating new work in a kaleidoscopic mix of performances, workshops, conversations and social events. Furnace is the Playhouse's development engine that generates new performance work supporting the local creative community. The week- long showcase events that are free or pay-what-you-can shares new work and offers space for artists to explore their practice. Highlights of the Furnace Festival include: Let's Talk - Tuesday 9th November, 10.30am A panel discussion with Disability Arts Online and Leeds Playhouse's Associate Director Amy Leach discussing access and work by disabled artists within the theatre. This is a chance for people to ask questions and air their views in a safe and supportive at...