Paul Clarke, Author at North West End UK

14Aug

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Taxi – Old Woollen Mill

Everyone has sat in the back of a cab staring blankly at the driver’s head, and aside from the usual ‘busy day’ chit chat we pay our fare knowing nothing about their lives. So, when John Rwothomack as cab driver Taxi stands at the end of the stage in this converted mill offering us the back of his head, he is asking us to take a journey inside his often troubled mind on a busy night shift. Along the way Andrea Heaton’s words offer us a chance to meet different Leeds folk who jump in behind him, based on co-director Douglas Thorpe’s own experiences as a cabbie. It is an often hallucinatory trip round the city that kicks off with homeless man Mal - who may or may not be the ferryman to the underworld – jumping up on the bar to rant about his life before leading the audience into the pe...

Heathers The Musical – Bradford Alhambra

19Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Heathers The Musical – Bradford Alhambra

Many musicals flirt with darkness before another tune about empowerment and the power of love comes along to take the edge off, but not so Heathers The Musical which offers a relentless diet of serial killing, bullying, eating disorders, homophobia and date rape. It’s based on the deliciously dark eighties movie Heathers which was a welcome antidote to the saccharine John Hughes films who mistook teens for young adults. Here the teens are feral locked in the cliquey hell that is a typically hieratical US high school as the cool gangs, jocks and nerds try to survive into college. Our (anti) hero at Westerburg High School is geeky Veronica Sawyer who accidentally falls in with the bitchy cool gang trio all named Heather, who delight in making everyone’s life a misery to mask their own ...

13Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

In Dreams – Leeds Playhouse

Everyone knows a Roy Orbison tune even if they can’t quite remember who wrote it, so some of the 20th century’s greatest pop songs were always going to be a natural fit for a jukebox musical. All too often jukebox musicals crudely throw in all the hits and forget to actually tell a story that hangs together, so enter Emmy winner David West Read who has crafted a coherent book full of the sort of big heart and gags he delivered writing for TV show Schitt’s Creek. It’s hard not to think of the similarly warm-hearted Waitress watching this show, and that’s a standard that all shows should aim for. It helps that Orbison’s beautifully constructed pop classics are vignettes full of loss, yearning and occasional hope that means they aren’t simply thrown in for no good reason, but on the who...

Strictly Ballroom the Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre

4Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Strictly Ballroom the Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre

Craig Revell Harwood. He must have been the only serious candidate to direct this fab-u-lous musical version of the cult movie bringing a direct understanding of Aussie machismo and the bitchiness of competitive ballroom dancing as he also impeccably choreographed Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce’s book. The opening number, Strictly Ballroom, is full of flamboyant partnerships opening up the dark, backstabbing world of competition dancing, and you shudder to think how long it took to sew the sequins on Mark Walters’ suitably over the top costumes. This smart reworking of Strictly Ballroom - The Musical with new songs is the age-old tale of a rebel like young gun Scott Hastings determined to shake up the staid dance world, and by chance he teams up with ducking ugly duckling novice...

28Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Verdict – Bradford Alhambra Theatre

Courtroom drama The Verdict is one of those great 1980s movies that has been somewhat forgotten, but it regularly features in the top movie lists of all time, with a career high performance by screen legend Paul Newman as alcoholic Boston attorney Frank Galvin who finds himself as he fights a seemingly unwinnable case. As producers look to turn celluloid classics then this tale of redemption in a courtroom is a natural fit as Frank takes on an incompetent judge, a shady defence attorney and the might of Boston’s Catholic Church, who are in this case are fighting off a medical malpractice suit in one of their hospitals that left a young mother in a coma. In David Mamet’s blistering original screenplay, Frank is a self-loathing failure who only sees life through the bottom of a glass t...

Noel Sullivan talks about new musical In Dreams that has its world première at Leeds Playhouse

23Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Noel Sullivan talks about new musical In Dreams that has its world première at Leeds Playhouse

Noel Sullivan shot to fame as part of Hear’say who won the first reality TV music show, Popstars, but after the band imploded he carved out a very successful musical theatre career in West End shows like Rock of Ages and We Will Rock You. Now he's part of an ensemble cast who are working on a brand new musical, In Dreams,that uses the back catalogue of legendary rocker Roy Orbison to help tell the story of a rocker at a personal crossroads, and has its world première at Leeds Playhouse. The book has been written by David West Read who wrote hit musical & Juliet and Schitt’s Creek, and is directed by Luke Sheppard who also worked on & Juliet which won nine Tony nominations. Our Features Editor Paul Clarke caught up with Noel during rehearsals to talk about the ...

The Buddy Holly Story – Alhambra Theatre Bradford

14Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Buddy Holly Story – Alhambra Theatre Bradford

Paul McCartney remarked that without Buddy Holly there would have been no Beatles, so it’s no wonder his short but rich creative life was one of the first jukebox musicals. Unlike many jukebox musicals who bolt on ludicrous storylines to shoehorn the hits in, Alan Janes’ book is a straight run from his early days in Lubbock Texas as he rejects the country music establishment to become one of first rock and roll stars who wrote his own smash hit songs. And what tunes he wrote in a white hot eighteen months of creativity before his untimely death aged only 22. Listen to the pure pop energy of Peggy Sue and you can see what Macca meant, or the delicate beauty of Raining In My Heart hinting at what might have been if he’d not boarded that fateful flight with Big Bopper and Richie Valens....

Richard O’Brien reflects on 50 years of The Rocky Horror Show

13Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Richard O’Brien reflects on 50 years of The Rocky Horror Show

Who would have thought a small-scale musical production about an innocent couple who meet a charming but corrupting space alien in his gothic mansion would become one of the longest running shows of all time. It's been an astonishing 50 years since the show opened upstairs in the Royal Court Theatre, and all these years later raucous audiences are still coming along dressed up like mad scientist Frank-n-Furter, do the Time Warp and always determined to make the long-suffering Narrator's life hell. The show was also a cult movie starring the deliciously louche Tim Curry as Frank and the whole thing was the brainchild of New Zealander Richard O'Brien who played Riff Riff on the big screen. What was your original inspiration behind the Rocky Horror Show? Someone asked me to entert...

7Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dirty Dancing – Leeds Grand Theatre

‘Bloody hell’. That was the involuntary cry from the dark as the ripped Michael O’Reilly playing roughneck dancer Johnny Castle peeled off his shirt during one of the steamier scenes in this faithful stage version of the cult classic movie. Like The Shawshank Redemption the celluloid version of Dirty Dancing was a box office flop, but this little B-movie earned cult status playing endlessly on digital TV making it perfect for the stage. And Eleanor Bergstein’s book of her original screenplay has very wisely kept the live version pretty much scene for scene to the delight of a crowd really up for enjoying a cultural icon that has real meaning for them. In truth the romance between working class Johnny and privileged New York teenager Baby is the classic rite of passage piece, with ...

Wish Sunita a happy birthday at Leeds Playhouse

31May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Wish Sunita a happy birthday at Leeds Playhouse

Harvey Virdi is best known as Dr Misbah Maalik on long-running TV soap Hollyoaks, but she is also a writer who scored a hit play back in 2014 with Happy Birthday Sunita. The revival of the play is about the power of British Asian women on stage is on its way to Leeds Playhouse and Harvey tells us about the fun you can have with a dysfunctional family. What’s Happy Birthday Sunita all about? It’s Friday evening and the family are gathering to celebrate Sunita’s special birthday. But after years of denial and strained relationships, emotions are running high and the family is finally forced to face the truth. Can they be brave and let go of the past and embrace a new future? What are the new team of actors bringing to this tour? A new cast always forces you to see your play in...