Tracey Bell, Author at North West End UK

31May

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Mousetrap – Sheffield Lyceum

The Mousetrap is intricately crisp with its fearless pace and cannot fail to get you baited and trapped within its mystery. The longevity of a 70th Anniversary tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap speaks volumes as to its appeal for seven decades to British audiences. We do love a good murder mystery in this country! And none better than the ones written by the Queen of Crime Mrs Christie herself. Opening in London in November 1952, this once 30-minute radio play entitled Three blind Mice was now extended into The Mousetrap, still retaining its rodent reference. It is a play anyone can experience, not really frightening, not really gruesome, and not really a farce but a little bit of all these things which perhaps is its recipe for its social appeal. This production is directed by...

11May

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Grease – Sheffield City Hall

This show just ‘gels’ as only ‘Grease’ can do! It’s electrifying! Manor Operatic Society hit the Sheffield City Hall with the musical ‘Grease’ to packed audiences and with all the frenzy the original 1978 film created. With an audience full of Pink Ladies and T Birds, I anticipated a night of raucous sing-a-long, but on the whole the audience were too invested by the performances they were witnessing to join in, until invited to on the Grease Mega Mix. Only then were the whole audience on its feet raising the roof and loving every moment. Directed by Richard Bradford and his partner Linda Kelly who also choreographs the production with help from their daughter Evie May Bradford as dance Captain – it really is a family affair! Musical Direction from Andrew Collis completes the team an...

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Sheffield Lyceum

10May

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Sheffield Lyceum

This tour-de-force piece of theatre launches the entire theatrical arsenal at the audience. In fact, every trick in the book is used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats by the unexpected and stunning theatrical magic. Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, adapted by Joel Horwood and directed by Katy Rudd, the National Theatre’s acclaimed The Ocean at the end of the Lane delivers a terrifying theatrical thump as we journey to a long forgotten childhood and the darkness that lurks at the very edge of it. With the collaboration of Gaiman whose other novels include Coraline, Stardust and The Sandman and the National Theatre who are responsible for the Curious Incident of the Dog – this allegorical production was always going to be cutting edge storytelling that is unafraid to...

26Apr

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Blood Brothers – Sheffield Lyceum

The ‘Liverpudlian folk opera’ known as Blood Brothers has been a theatrical success since its inception by Willy Russell, winning the 1983 Laurence Olivier Award as Best New Musical. Its 1987 revival saw 10,000 consecutive performances in its 24-year run in the West End. With a two year run on Broadway and UK and International touring productions, Blood Brothers has earned its place as a firm favourite of our time with its strong book, it has a tale to tell and is a musical that is loved by people who hate musicals! Blood Brothers is a very simple story but everything about it screams EPIC. The present touring production is directed by long associates of the musical - Bob Thomson and Bill Kenwright, designed by Adam Walmsley with lighting and sound design by Nick Richings and Dan ...

6Apr

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sister Act – Sheffield Lyceum

'Sister Act – A Divine Musical Comedy' based on the 1992 smash hit movie starring Whoopi Goldberg and Maggie Smith featuring original music by Alan Menken. Produced by Jamie Wilson, with the book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner and Lyrics by Glenn Slater the dazzling dance routines and music inspired by Motown, soul and disco is finally brought to the stage at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre after two years delay due to the pandemic. For those of you who haven’t seen the film - 'Sister Act' is the story of a nightclub singer Deloris Van Cartier who witnesses a murder at the hands of her married lover and is taken under protective custody to hide in a convent. Here she learns life lessons and helps her 'Sister's' to find their voice and save their convent whilst Deloris herself finds friends...

29Mar

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Kinky Boots – Sheffield Lyceum

Croft House Theatre Company hit the heights once again with this stunning production of Kinky Boots based on the 2005 British film of the same name. The production is coherently Directed/Choreographed by Claire Harriott, has expert Musical Direction from David Burgess, as he conducts an 11 piece orchestra, and effective lighting and sound by Gary Longfield and Nick Greenhill. Inspired by true events, Kinky Boots takes you from the anything but glamorous 'Price and Son' shoe factory in Northampton to the dazzling catwalks of Milan in this sassy, vivacious and heart-warming tale of true British grit with catchy songs by Tony and Grammy Award winning eighties pop princess, Cyndi Lauper and a Book by Harvey Fierstein. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father's expectations to st...

22Mar

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Great Gatsby – Sheffield Lyceum

The Sheffield Lyceum hosts former Artistic Director of the Northern Ballet, David Nixon’s, The Great Gatsby this week. Nixon’s creation, with his responsibility for the Choreography, Direction, Scenario and Costume Design, co-directed by Patricia Doyle, has been ten years since its premier in 2013. With its lavish sets and its Chanel inspired sumptuous costumes you are transported back into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz era, the Roaring 20’s and his thematic novel of human follies, love, desire, hope and the struggle with time and fate. And for those unfamiliar with the 1925 novel or the cinematic version starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the story is told from the unreliable narrative viewpoint of Nick Carraway (Daisy’s Cousin) danced superbly by Filippo Di Vilio. We follow the protagonist Jay ...

Wildfire Road – Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse

10Mar

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Wildfire Road – Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse

This new ambitious play directed by Sheffield born Laura Keefe, written by Eve Leigh travels like its name sake at a breakneck speed, touching everything and everyone in its path. This exhilarating play is multi-faceted with observations addressing climate change, apocalyptic disaster, human nature, collective responsibility and survival. With a running time of 58 minutes, the audience hits more thought provoking turbulence than your average big budget disaster movie does in two and a bit hours! Flight BA 509 sets off (surprisingly for BA, but not if Fate takes a hand!) a little early on its flight to Tokyo. As the audience take their seats in the newly named studio theatre, the Thrust stage designed by Zoe Hurwitz becomes a section of the plane with two rotating rows of airplane ...

23Feb

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Jersey Boys – Sheffield Lyceum

Jersey Boys tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, with over 30 of their hits including ‘Sherry’, ‘Big Girls Don’t cry’, ‘Walk Like a Man’, ‘Rag Doll’, ‘Can’t take my eyes off You’ and ‘Oh What a Night’ you are left amazed at just how many familiar songs the group are responsible for! Although known as a jukebox musical jersey Boys is far more than that. Rather than merely being a scantily linked storyline that fits around the back catalogue of hits, Jersey Boys has an autobiographical script told in turn by each of the founding four members. Their viewpoints span the decades starting with the early days of the 1950’s in New Jersey narrated by Tommy Devito to the final stage collaboration in the 1990’s as the group were induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frankie V...

<strong>Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show – Sheffield Lyceum</strong>

24Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show – Sheffield Lyceum

It was with growing anti……….. pation I waited for the show to start. With an audience full of sparkly tailcoats and top hats, green surgical gowns, heavy rocker leather jackets and more basques, corsets and suspenders than you can find in Ann Summers, it seemed that this was predominately, no virgin audience, on the opening night of Richard O’Briens Rocky Horror Show at the Sheffield Lyceum, let the shouts outs begin! Having seen the show many, many times before I was wondering if this production would fill me with the amazement my first encounter did, as an innocent 14 year old schoolgirl some 42 years previous! The music teacher; who took our school trip; certainly didn’t do his homework first and was horrified he may lose his job when parents heard about the show. And as for me? I was i...