Yorkshire & Humber Archives - North West End UK

Lord of The Dance: A Lifetime of Standing Ovations – Hull New Theatre

24Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Lord of The Dance: A Lifetime of Standing Ovations – Hull New Theatre

From its official debut on July 2nd, 1996, in Dublin, Ireland, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance has enchanted more than 60 million people worldwide. And on Tuesday evening a packed Hull New Theatre added to that figure when Lord of the Dance: A Lifetime of Standing Ovations came to town. It was a thrill for me to review the 25th anniversary of Lord of the Dance, back in 2022 - a production I was “astounded” and “mesmerised” by. Would Flatley’s revival have the same effect on me in 2024? The answer is yes, with the prefix “more” added. As in 2022, the show opens and closes with on-screen performances from Flatley, who is still definitely the Lord of the Dance. The huge video screen played a very important role throughout, with fantastic scenes of forest fires, flower-f...

16Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Paranormal Activity – Leeds Playhouse

All of us have a personal deep, dark fear – mine is enclosed spaces – we’d run a million miles from, but it says something about human nature that most of us volunteer to be scared half to death watching horror movies. When the Courtyard theatre went totally dark there was a deep sense of both excitement and unease as we waited for this theatrical adaptation of the classic horror movie Paranormal Activity. There are two types of horror – splatter or psychological – and life long fan of the macabre Levi Holloway’s adaptation was most definitely on the creepy side, messing with our minds rather than splashing us with blood. Fans of the wildly successful Paranormal Activity franchise will enjoy this, but there’s plenty for people who never saw them at the flicks to enjoy as Holloway ha...

12Jul

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Chariots of Fire – Crucible Theatre

Chariots of Fire is the stage adaptation by Mike Bartlett of the 1981 Oscar winning motion picture. This Sheffield Theatre production is cleverly directed by resident award winning Artistic Director Robert Hastie and unfortunately, his last Sheffield production in the role. Hastie with Associate Director Lilac Yosphon and Assistant Director Chantell Walker re-imagine what was first performed at the Hampstead Theatre in London in 2012. In the Olympic year of 2024, this production marks 100 years since the Paris Olympics of 1924 when this extraordinary real life story takes place and is subsequently dedicated to Sheffield Olympians past and present. It would seem the circular stage (theatre in the round) of the Sheffield Crucible is the perfect location to house a production that require...

10Jul

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Come From Away – Sheffield Lyceum

Musical Theatre does not get any better than this! It has a heart and Soul, so buckle up on the soaring flight that lands exactly where it should - in the hearts and minds of its audience. Pure Perfection! Direct from the West End this award-winning musical ‘that welcomes the world’ is written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein and Directed by Christopher Ashley, Musical Staging by Kelly Devine. With Scenic Design by Beowulf Boritt we are greeted by stage that is versatile yet warming and welcoming. With the trees aligning the wings and a wooden slatted wall upstage, the only other set is movable and mismatched tables and chairs which are manipulated by the cast with a choreographical magic to behold. The band are visible upstage left as they interact with the cast and seamlessly perform th...

10Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Syndicate – Hull New Theatre

Hull New Theatre was far from full on Tuesday evening, as it hosted the world premiere of Kay Mellor’s stage adaptation of The Syndicate, a BBC TV series that ran for four seasons. As the curtain rose, a realistic stage setting showing the interior of a small supermarket greeted us, giving a colourful first glimpse of proceedings. Manning the till is Denise (Samantha Giles of Emmerdale fame), a motherly figure who dutifully collects the lottery money each week for the syndicate she and her four co-workers have joined. While Denise goes about her business serving customers, single mum Leanne (Rosa Coduri-Fulford) half-heartedly sweeps the floor. This peaceful scene is interrupted by the arrival of shop manager Stuart (Benedict Shaw) who rushes in, barging into the manager’s off...

Into The Woods – Hull Musical Theatre Company

9Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Into The Woods – Hull Musical Theatre Company

Members of Hull Musical Theatre Company it was a pleasure and an honour to see you in action, during your rehearsal for Into The Woods. It’s a brave crew who invite theatre critics to witness a production in which there are little, if any, props, not too many costumes and no microphones. And as I entered the Derringham Bank Methodist Church, in Hull, where the rehearsal would take place, I was more than curious to see how this local group would perform. After being introduced to the company’s chairman, Jane Bradley, and the show’s director, Martyn Payne, and our seating placed in a prominent position for us to view proceedings, we reviewers were made even more welcome by the arrival of coffee and biscuits. I could think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon. Classed...

3Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Guts! The Musical – Hull Truck Theatre

Hull Truck Theatre’s latest production, GUTS! The Musical, a world premiere, portrays the real-life struggle female fish packers at a local fish factory faced in their battle for equal pay. The stark stage setting of bare, “tiled” walls, soulless strip lighting and little else is what one imagines a processing frozen food factory to be like. The year is 1984 and the aforementioned workers are about to make and change history. Also making a bit of (theatrical) history of their own are the 57 members of the community who answered the call to bring this production to life. Space prevents me from naming them all, but what a fantastic job they each did. The factory in question, owned by a Mr Frank Fish (Andrew Clark) is based in Hull, with all the fishy business, historically, bein...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

3Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

When I was at school in the less enlightened 1970s the mere hint of being different would have earned you a beating, so turning up to an end of year disco in a dress would have been inviting real trouble. So when in our more liberal times Sheffield teenager Jamie New announces he wants to wear a dress to his prom you’d think no-one would care. Sadly, as in most musicals, the road to true self expression is never an easy one as he battles to overcome prejudice and his own insecurities to achieve his dream. Openly gay Jamie doesn’t want to be a forklift driver that his career teacher thinks is his destiny, instead he wants to be a drag queen like the real life character who Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MaCrae based their lively musical on. It helps that Jamie has the support of his sin...

An Officer and a Gentleman – Sheffield Lyceum

20Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

An Officer and a Gentleman – Sheffield Lyceum

In the same genre as recent musical adaptations such as 'Dirty Dancing' and 'The Bodyguard', using an extensive and repurposed catalogue of music from the period, this jukebox of the beloved 80's film classic - 'An Officer and a Gentleman' is touring the UK in 2024. Fifteen years in the original making, written by Douglas Day Stewart and later adapted for stage alongside Sharleen Cooper Cohen, this new interpretation follows the 2018 version and is again directed by Nikolai Foster. The raw and raunchy story is set in Florida 1982. It tells the story of both autobiographical naval officer recruits and a group of female factory workers at a time when Ronald Reagan sowed the seeds of a new America. These characters collectively, regardless of class and gender, all have their demons and bindi...

Frankie Goes To Bollywood – Bradford Alhambra

19Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Frankie Goes To Bollywood – Bradford Alhambra

One of the joys of theatre is it can transport to worlds that you have no experience of in real life, and Frankie Goes To Bollywood takes us into heart of a flamboyant billion dollar movie industry that puts millions of bums on seats in India and entertains diaspora South-Asians around the world including the UK. Every year Bollywood filmmakers based in Mumbai churn out hundreds of films taking people away from their daily grind to a glitzy world where they can forget their troubles for a few hours. That was the inspiration for the book by RIFCO Theatre Company’s Artistic director Pravesh Kumar - who has worked in Bollywood - that he says is an ode to those movies, but also a call to action for an industry still rife with sexism. Like so many Bollywood movies it is a fantasy where n...