Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 11 of 26

19Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Our House – Hull New Theatre

Hull New Theatre was very well-attended on Tuesday night, in anticipation of Hessle Theatre Company’s production of Our House. I know from past experience this amateur company can produce some very professional work; and I gladly gave top marks to their versions of Shrek the Musical and Made In Dagenham. Would Our House elicit the same response from my reviewer’s pen? This award-winning West End musical featuring hit songs from the band Madness, begins with Kath Casey (Katherine Fitzgerald) informing her boyfriend (Neal Edlin) that she is pregnant. Fast forward 16 years and their boy, Joe (Connor Wilson) is at a crossroads in his young life. On the one hand he wants to make something of his life and not end up like his good-for-nothing (in his eyes) Dad; but on the other, he i...

Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice – Hull New Theatre

8Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice – Hull New Theatre

Hull New Theatre was far from full on Friday evening, when the UK premiere of Dada Masilo’s The Sacrifice took to its stage. The fact it was Good Friday and potential theatregoers might have had other plans may have accounted for the empty seats. But the lengthy applause from an appreciative audience for all on stage, at the show’s end, showed that those who did take up the seats were heartily glad they made the effort. First to appear on the stage - whose backdrop of bare tree branches hardly changed throughout - were three very talented musicians playing keyboards, violin and a most unusual array of instruments that made sounds I simply cannot describe. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. Award-winning choreographer, Masilo, hails from South Africa, so she is more than ...

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 friend...

Ocean At The End Of The Lane – Bradford Alhambra

5Apr

By Bo WarnerNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Ocean At The End Of The Lane – Bradford Alhambra

“Somehow it was personal for them as well… people who, when they were children, found books safer than other people…” – Neil Gaiman Ocean at the End of the Lane was adapted for the stage by the National Theatre from the magical, surrealist book by acclaimed fantasy author Neil Gaiman, reaching the West End in 2021. After its critically-acclaimed run in the West End, Ocean is now on its first national tour around the UK, and I was privileged to catch it at the Bradford Alhambra. This is a story following a Boy’s relationship with the three strange women that have occupied Hempstock farm for as long as anyone can remember. He encounters strange creatures on the edges of reality, and soon finds that he can no longer tell where imagination stops and real life begins as an intruder begin...

31Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North: Tosca – Hull New Theatre

It was drama from curtain up, on Thursday evening at the Hull New Theatre, when Opera North’s Tosca came to town, thrilling us with the sight of escaped political prisoner, Cesare Angelotti (a very brave Callum Thorpe), dropping from on high via a rope, on to the stage and, with split-second timing, the rope falling unattached to the floor. Phew! Aided and abetted by wonderfully atmospheric music played by the talented members of the Orchestra of Opera North, the drama never let up throughout a longish evening of opera. Angelotti’s entrance, through a beautifully decorated cupola in a family chapel, finds him in the company of his friend, artist, Mario Cavaradossi (Mykhailo Malafii), who gives him food and the key to his villa, advising him to hide in a secret chamber down a well in...

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 s...

24Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Lord of the Flies – Leeds Playhouse

If ever a classic 20th century novel was ripe for a reinvention, then it is Lord of the Flies and Amy Leach’s powerful reimagining set in the now offers new depth to a text beloved by generations of schoolchildren. William Goldman set loose a bunch of white posh school kids who crash on a desert island fleeing a conflict, but free of adult supervision they soon descend into a collective feral madness. We live in a different world seventy years on, so Leach has rightly brought together a young cast of boys, girls and children with disabilities from different backgrounds to interrogate how quickly societal norms can collapse, and how children target perceived weakness and otherness. The adaptation by Nigel Williams keeps all the familiar parts of the novel, like the conch that confers...

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...

8Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mumsy – Hull Truck Theatre

The end of Hull Truck Theatre’s 50th anniversary year is being celebrated with a comedy drama, set in the city and written by homegrown talent, Lydia Marchant. Mumsy tells the story of an unplanned pregnancy which causes friction between mum-to-be Sophie (Jessica Jolleys), her mum Rachel (Nicola Stephenson) and Rachel’s mum Linda (Sue Kelvin). The well-written script of this world-premiere production was delivered so realistically and naturally by all three on stage on Tuesday night that, at times, you could hear a pin drop in the fullish theatre. Even before “curtain up” I couldn’t take my eyes off the impressive stage setting of a huge tower block, its many windows, open and shut, plus individual window lights flashing on and off - just like a real tower block would be. It’s...