Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 21 of 43

18Dec

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Cinderella – Hull New Theatre

I don’t know what panto favourite, Neil Hurst, had eaten before taking to the Hull New Theatre stage on Sunday evening, but whatever it was had really oiled his make-‘em-laugh muscles - he was in top comedic form. As Buttons, in the age-old favourite, Cinderella, Hurst was on stage for most of the evening, delighting what looked like a sell-out theatre, from curtain up. And what a curtain! Featuring just one word - the panto’s title - dripping in glitter, bedazzling and making us impatient for what was to come, as did the images swirling around the walls and ceiling. The plot of this fairytale needs no explanation, so I’ll keep it short - poor girl, Cinderella or “Cinders” (Rebekah Lowings), mistreated by her two Ugly Sisters, Hernia (Peter Peverley) and Verruca (Jack Land Noble),...

16Dec

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

White Christmas – Sheffield Crucible

‘Alistair David’s choreography is simply the ‘glitter glue’. Originally a 1954 film starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas as become a staple of our festive celebrations. The title song was originally written for the musical Holiday Inn and is a multimillion copy seller with Bing Crosby’s version making up half of the sales. Sheffield Theatres bring this classic to the stage at their Crucible Theatre (in-the-round) and it has a stellar cast who are both in tune with its sentimentality and its splendidly relentless song and dance spectacle. The story includes a retired General who is now an Innkeeper in Vermont and two of his former platoon members Bob and Phil, who are now successful entertainers. Their paths cross again as ...

14Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Cinderella – Bradford Alhambra

Taking your seat in this historic theatre you can’t help reflecting that for the local mill workers who made this city rich a festive trip to the panto must have been a real treat, and this old school spectacular with a modern sensibility proved to be just that. Unlike other pantos that often push the boundaries of good taste this is very much a family show, so grannies and the little kids being carried into the venue can all share some good clean fun. Cinderella is a no expense spared panto from Britain’s biggest festive producers that starts with Strictly star John Waite flying down onto Ian Westbrook’s big set. The hard working cast then gleefully go over the top from there with daft jokes aplenty, flamboyant costumes, energetic dancers, pyrotechnics, a couple of real Shetland ponies...

14Dec

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Beauty and the Beast – Sheffield Lyceum

What a wonderful sight, a packed auditorium full of all age groups, laughing, engaging and experiencing collectively – a tradition that spans the generations – Pantomime! Well, as Sheffield Theatres have opened their panto season, it is well and truly Christmas in Yorkshire! This year’s excellent new production being Beauty and the Beast, written by Paul Hendry who can heroically claim his 17th year of directing writing and producing Sheffield’s panto. The script contains all the expected pantomime traditions from the audience participation, the ‘it’s behind you’ scene in the dark woods and the manic ‘messy’ comedy mayhem and some very funny moments which are very geographically and topically observant. ‘Woodseats’ is now firmly on the panto map and never has it looked so effortlessly gran...

Turn & Face the Strange – Hull New Theatre

9Dec

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Turn & Face the Strange – Hull New Theatre

Having seen Turn & Face the Strange a while ago, in a smaller theatre, I was keen to see how the show would play out on the larger Hull New Theatre stage. I wasn’t the only keen theatregoer on Friday evening - the place was jam-packed. The stage setting was how I remembered it - huge images of rock legend and David Bowie sideman, Mick Ronson, with a giant video screen in the centre. Turn & Face the Strange tells the story of Ronson’s early life, through to his premature death in 1993 at the age of 46 Ronson was born in Hull and, despite his global fame working with the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, and Morrissey to name just a few - had “Hull-ness” running through him like a stick of Bridlington rock. But most will always associate him ...

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Oliver! – Leeds Playhouse

Over the last few years Leeds Playhouse have offered all sorts of challenging festive spectaculars but this deliciously dark revival of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece Oliver! is the best yet. You need some nerve to take on such a beloved musical, and Oscar laden movie, so the Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining has cleverly placed his version in the round. Colin Richmond’s design leaves the cavernous Quarry space full of raised spaces and walkways, becoming the sort of dank and dark Victorian London that Charles Dickens painted teeming with all human life and plenty of menace. Brining is a great director of children, and when a well drilled junior ensemble sings and dances through a lively Food Glorious Food it’s clear a big and diverse cast have used their time in the rehearsal r...

Robin Hood: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto – Leeds City Varieties

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Robin Hood: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto – Leeds City Varieties

After a long year of often serious shows, and the world in chaos, it’s just nice to sit back in a historic theatre to watch a show as comfortable as a pair of old slippers. The Rock ‘n’ Roll brand is pretty much bombproof from criticism combining a perfunctory attempt at a classic story - which is just an excuse for classic panto madness - while a gang of actor-musicians swap instruments knocking out hits for the young and old. Only in panto could you get covers of The Clash and Taylor Swift songs, that all have tenuous links to the ‘narrative’, and no-one bats an eyelid. This year poor old Robin Hood got the Peter Rowe treatment as this master of the most British of theatrical traditions weaves in sight gags, puppets, pratfalls, fart gags, corpsing, all the classic call and response...

30Nov

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre

After enduring endless plays of Merry Xmas Everyone trundling round the shops you know the festive season is finally here when Northern Ballet stage their annual extravaganza. This year The Nutcracker is back, and once again you have that feeling they’ve run into the props store and gone a bit mad to produce a lavish winter wonderland. David Nixon’s colourful and stylish costumes probably caused a national shortage of sequins and taffeta. It’s a wonderfully bonkers fairy tale as a mysterious magician sends ingénue Clara off on a surreal journey where she survives a battle between giant mice and life size toy soldiers, before being magically transported to a wintery wonderland where meets her Nutcracker Prince. It’s all beautifully realised by designer Charles Cusick Smith who works h...

30Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pinocchio – Hull Truck Theatre

Theatregoers braved freezing temperatures on Wednesday evening to see a production of Pinocchio at the Hull Truck Theatre. It never got much warmer inside, to be honest - so was glad I wore socks, scarf, gloves, but I never expected to keep them on once seated. But that’s my only gripe on what was a magical night of colour and energy. Everyone knows the age-old story of how poor, lonely carpenter, Gepetto, carved a puppet out of a piece of pine he found in the forest. In this thoroughly enjoyable adaptation by Mike Kenny, the pine was left behind by Stromboli (Patrick Dineen), ringmaster of a travelling circus, who was transporting his puppets, Colombine (Deb Pugh) and Harlequino (Niall Ransome). As Gepetto (James Clyde) picked up the pine log in the forest, it lit up, havin...

Calendar Girls The Musical – Hull New Theatre

29Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calendar Girls The Musical – Hull New Theatre

I remember buying the original Women’s Institute nude calendar way back in 1999. It might be worth something now - but, alas, it probably went to the great recycler in the sky. Calendar Girls The Musical brought the story of the calendar’s inception to the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday evening. All the action takes place in the village hall of the small Yorkshire village of Cracoe. Under a fabulous vaulted ceiling (a remarkable stage design) we witnessed seven local ladies attending their usual WI meeting. Some took the proceedings seriously, others found them a bit mundane. This motley tight-knit group - Annie Clarke (Tanya Franks), Ruth (Maureen Nolan), Jessie (Lyn Paul), Chris (Amy Robbins), Marie (Paula Tappenden), Celia (Marti Webb) and Cora (Honeysuckle Weeks) - are thro...