Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 14 of 44

16Oct

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Hairspray – Sheffield Lyceum

It’s Welcome to the 60’s as Hairspray sprays the Sheffield Lyceum this week and You Can’t stop the Beat with this high energy, high octave musical. With the original screenplay by John Waters and the Musical Productions book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, the composer and co-lyricist Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman collectively created a modern day classic - with all the ingredients to give Hairspray the longevity and wide spread appeal is deserves. Under the direction of Paul Kerryson and Brenda Edwards with top notch choreography by Drew Mconie this current UK tour easily equals, and I think surpassed its predecessor. With minimum set (Takis) and lavish caricatured costume the vast stage of the Lyceum is filled with an incredible cast which has a heart as big as its storyli...

NOW That’s What I Call A Musical – Bradford Alhambra

16Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

NOW That’s What I Call A Musical – Bradford Alhambra

Back in the eighties when CDs first came on the market NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilations packed full of mega chart hits dominated the hit parade, so it’s no shock that a jukebox musical version is on the road. We’re back in 1989 with Brummie best mates livewire April and sensible Gemma, who for some reason is in love with Jay Osmond, but years later like many intense teen friendships they have drifted apart until a school reunion. Shock, horror - it’s all soundtracked by the sort of middle of the road bangers featured on the NOW collections. Pippa Evans' slightly flabby book is full of eighties inspired gags, but she does cleverly weave the narrative from 1989 to the reunion, and then backwards and forwards. Evans makes some good points about the fragile nature of friendship...

14Oct

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Leeds Grand

The journey to Leeds across the M62 saw far from midsummer weather – gusting winds, driving rain, whirling leaves – but once inside the Grand Theatre and Opera House a much warmer welcome awaited. Opera North’s revival of Martin Duncan’s production is directed this time by Matthew Eberhardt. Johan Engels’ set is minimalist but very effective – translucent Perspex pillars signify the trees of the forest, whilst the canopy (or are they dream bubbles?) float high above the stage. These pillars then take the colour of Bruno Poet’s subtle lighting design, which contrasts beautifully with the 1960s-flower-power-style outfits of the lovers, Helena and Demitrius, Hermia and Lysander. And setting this production in the swinging sixties, when the work was first performed, with its ...

12Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Re:INCARNATION – Hull New Theatre

Not being familiar with the Yoruba philosophy which forms a big part of Re:INCARNATION, a show brought to the Hull New Theatre stage by the QDance Company, I Googled and learned of its values - in the hope of it helping me to understand more of what I witnessed on Friday evening. Reading that there is a supreme being known as Olorun or Olodumare, plus numerous divinities known as Orisha, revered ancestors and malevolent or benevolent spirits, and that Yoruba people's cardinal virtues - love, morality, temperance, honesty, honour, bravery, justice, prudence, and fortitude - helped me not a jot. So, I relied on my imagination, relaxed in my seat on Row I and prepared to soak up what turned out to be an amazing spectacle produced by 10 young Nigerian dancers, plus two on-stage musicians...

Only Fools and Horses the Musical – Bradford Alhambra

10Oct

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Only Fools and Horses the Musical – Bradford Alhambra

Bonjour! What a show! And what more can you ask for other than Del Boy, dancing and a dry sense of humour, this show will have you gripping at your sides in fits of laughter. Caroline Jay Ranger captured the authenticity of the hit sitcom perfectly, while also intertwining entertaining musical numbers and infectious routines, sprucing up all the action. The show throws you right back into the boot of the totters van and sells itself to you like Rodney does when he’s trying to auction off another knock off product. If you’re worried you won’t experience the well known and loved working class Londoners that feature in the TV show, let us reassure you these actors have the characters spot on. Sam Lupton well and truly had Del Boy down to a T, the voice, personality and even his mann...

3Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Heathers The Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

Heathers: The Musical offers a darkly comic take on American high school culture, that whilst not asking to be taken too seriously successfully manages to dismantle the nihilistic allure of teenage angst with bopping, in-your-face musical numbers. Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe’s musical adaption of the 1989 film by Daniel Waters has impressed audiences initially in the mid to late 2010’s. This production demonstrates it has no signs of growing stale. Set in the misery-inspired yet typically relatable school of Westerberg, the plot follows new girl Veronica as she navigates numbskull jocks and the notorious ‘Heathers’ - three girls of the same name who offer very little in individuality but plenty in toxic reputation management. On her journey, Veronica runs into the mysterious JD, a...

Opera North’s The Magic Flute – Leeds Grand Theatre

28Sep

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North’s The Magic Flute – Leeds Grand Theatre

Opera North’s Magic Flute, reviving James Brining’s 2019 production of Mozart’s final opera, comes with literally all of the bells and whistles. (Well, magic bells and the eponymous magic flute, together with an ever-so-slightly-irritatingly out-of-tune set of pipes.) And, being sung in English in Jeremy Sams’s excellent translation, it’s also an ideal introduction to opera for newbies, as well as a season-opening treat for those notsos. A pre-show message from company Music Director Garry Walker proudly reminded us that Opera North delivers learning and engagement to no fewer than 3,000 school children per week, and has a full time chorus, orchestra and technical crew. A not so subtle message for the CEO of Arts Council England, in tonight’s audience, perhaps. The ...

28Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Doll’s House – Crucible Theatre

A Masterful production of a Masterpiece of Theatre. ‘All my life I have been a Doll that is taken out to play with and discarded when boredom dictates, I have no voice and I have no opinion, I am never heard, I am what you want me to be... never what I truly am… but what and who am I?’ This famous Henrik Ibsen play was originally written in 1879 and was inspired by real events. In 1878 Ibsen wrote ‘There are two kinds of moral law, two kinds of conscience, one for men and one, quite different, for women. They don’t understand each other; but in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman but a man’. In this statement stands the heart of this play. Shocking as it was in its time it still now remains so, although with less poignancy but y...

26Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pretty Woman – Sheffield Lyceum

With a £450 Million box office success, turning the blockbusting 1980’s film into a touring theatrical production was always going to attract curious followers and Sheffield Lyceum was no exception. I mean ‘Come on, who didn’t love the Cinderella–esque story! Pretty Woman is very much in the Pygmalion vein of down on their luck girl means the wealthy and dashing man of her dreams, this time set in Hollywood, A little old fashioned kind of theory by today’s standards?? But hey, it’s still a closeted nostalgic winner! With, to be honest, forgettable Music and Lyrics by Brian Adams and Jim Vallance and the book; which stays very close to the film; by Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton, Director and Choreographer Jerry Mitchell works hard and does a great job of bringing the magic of the film back...

24Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

& Juliet – Hull New Theatre

Hull New Theatre’s Autumn/Winter 2024 season got under way on Monday evening with the exuberant musical, & Juliet. After a fantastic run in London’s West End, & Juliet embarks on its first UK and Ireland tour, starting in Hull. We were kept waiting for quite a while before the auditorium doors opened, which meant the 7.30pm start stretched to 7.45pm to allow us all to be seated. The stage setting - a huge, colourfully lit “& Juliet” sign backed by an equally large black and white video screen depicting drawings of London - remained amazing throughout. There can’t be a person on the planet who hasn’t heard of William Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers, Romeo & Juliet. A happy ending it ain’t. But what would happen if the greatest love story ever told t...