Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 10 of 33

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...

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...

Pretty Woman The Musical – Hull New Theatre

6Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pretty Woman The Musical – Hull New Theatre

Picture the scene - good-looking, generous, American billionaire, driving a to-die-for motor, gets lost in the red light district of Hollywood - Hollywood Boulevard. So far, so sort of believable. He attracts the attention of a hooker (and I’m not talking rugby), who offers to drive him in said motor (which belongs to his lawyer) to the posh Beverly Wilshire hotel, where he has booked the penthouse. Not so believable. And what happens next is totally unbelievable, but do you know, the sell-out crowd at the Hull New Theatre on Monday night, soaked up every entertaining minute when Pretty Woman The Musical came to town. Based on the 1989 film of the same name, starring Julia Roberts as the hooker, Vivian Ward, and Richard Gere as the billionaire, Edward Lewis, the musical is a riot ...

Varna International Ballet: Swan Lake – Hull New Theatre

31Jan

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Varna International Ballet: Swan Lake – Hull New Theatre

Whenever the ballet is in town, vacant seats are usually few and far between at Hull New Theatre, and so it was on Monday night when Varna International Ballet brought its production of Swan Lake to delight theatregoers. This Bulgarian company will also perform The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty during their stay in the city. As the curtain rose, we were treated to a video backdrop depicting the turning pages of a huge photo album, showing the life of Odette, offspring of a good fairy - a swan - and a noble knight. Odette’s parents die by an evil sorcerer’s spell, so she flees to a mountain lake to join other fairy swans. Alone on the stage sits Prince Siegfried (Vittorio Scolè), engrossed in a book of Odette’s story. The Prince is about to come of age and his mother, the So...

31Jan

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calendar Girls – Bradford Alhambra

‘The flowers of Yorkshire are your women of Yorkshire’, from the initial spotlight to the closing curtain the women on that stage empowered each and every lady in that theatre. The show is a true testament and representation of womanhood in both its beauty and difficulty. Seven inspiring women took to the stage to demonstrate the beloved 2003 original narrative from female favourite ‘Calendar Girls’ that starred Julie Walters and Helen Mirren. A true traditional Yorkshire tale that concours relatable life hurdles with a devotion to honesty, what you see is what you get and there’s no hiding the truth. While the show is both entertaining and fascinating it’s also down to earth, much like the friendships and relationships on stage, the show covers the audience in a blanket of comfort and whi...

26Jan

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Wizard of Oz – Hull New Theatre

Hull New Theatre was packed to the rafters on Thursday night for what turned out to be a magical extravaganza of colour, energy and theatrical perfection. As soon as the curtain rose on The Wizard of Oz musical, it was clear we were in for something special. The imaginative stage setting revealed a huge video backdrop which cleverly reeled us into the story - the opening sequence of a tornado just blew us away (pun intended). And this videography played a huge part in the rest of the proceedings, meaning distracting scene-shifting was kept to a minimum throughout. There can’t be a person on the planet who doesn’t know the age-old story of young Dorothy and her dog, Toto. In last night’s production, Dorothy was played by the very talented Aviva Tulles, while Toto was brought to ...

Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Leeds Grand Theatre

17Jan

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Leeds Grand Theatre

The Mischief comedy juggernaut just keeps on rolling with another version of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s chaotic take on Peter Pan where everything that can go wrong does. It is at heart a knowing tribute to all those am dram groups who gamely put on productions every week across the country, and the gag is that none are as likely to be so badly written or performed as Cornley’s unique take on JM Barrie’s tale of a boy who never grows up. Mischief founders Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayers and Henry Shields know what works for their brand, so have cunningly crafting dialogue so wooden you could make a table out of it, and ironically most critics have sat though productions almost as risible, but also as blissfully unself-aware as this bunch of talentless chumps. Noises Off will...

17Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

I Should Be So Lucky – Sheffield Lyceum

The Hit Factory of the 1980/1990’s punches into the Sheffield Lyceum this week with Stock, Aitken & Waterman’s - I Should Be So Lucky. With over 25 of their top 40 hits packed into this farcical frolic of romance and crazy characters, I was left in a confused state - torn between irresistibility and irritation. The music has the potential to be a great addition to the tradition of jukebox musicals but unfortunately the storyline is just too manic to invest in its characters. With flashes of brilliance and moments that overstep the camp cheesiness into complete cringe – this show is definitely the marmite of musical theatre but just maybe it is meant to be so? With an audience demographic donned with rose coloured spectacles of a bygone era of dancing in their bedrooms to Rick Astle...

Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood – Normanton Junior Academy

12Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood – Normanton Junior Academy

A warm welcome greeted me as I went to see the opening night of Encore Theatre Company’s (ETC) 2024 pantomime Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood and this warm welcome was not just aimed at me – if only all front of house staff were as attentive and jolly as Encore’s lot all pantomimes would have a head start with the audience participation! What a warming feeling on a cold January night! Established in 1944, Encore is a well-known company in the local area and boasts The Lord St Oswald (6th Baron St Oswald) of Nostell Priory as its Honorary Patron. What made this production special to me was the inclusivity on the stage as well as off. It really was a diverse community performance and just how panto should be – a collective experience for the cast and the audience – as one doesn’t exi...

11Jan

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Life of Pi – Leeds Grand Theatre

Life of Pi is one of those blockbuster books that seemed impossible to make work on stage, but Lolita Chakrabarti’s pacey adaptation keeps in Jann Martel’s mediation on the power of faith along with all the dramatic set pieces that make it such a good yarn. It opens in a Mexican hospital room as an Indian teenager Pi recounts his 200 plus day battle for survival after the ship transporting his father’s zoo animals to a new home in Canada goes down in the Pacific. According to Pi he shared his life raft and battle to live with a 200 pound Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker…or did he? Chakrabarti doesn’t flinch from the spiritual nature of Mantel’s text that namechecks most of the major religions, but cleverly weaves in the darker side of our psyche in a fable that is much about ...