Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 22 of 29

23Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Shrek the Musical – Hull New Theatre

I haven’t a maternal bone in my body, but, on Tuesday evening when a seven-year-old Shrek was cruelly abandoned by his parents, I actually felt stirrings of sorriness for the poor little mite. This tear-jerking scene heralded the start of Hessle Theatre Company’s production of Shrek the Musical at the Hull New Theatre and, heartstrings firmly tugged, I settled down to see how the green baby-ogre fared. In 2020, Covid wreaked havoc with the original release date of this amateur show so, out of mothballs, would it still have the same allure? Well, don’t let the word “amateur” put you off - this crew are as good as any professionals I have seen. The energetic cast, dressed in the most wonderful costumes, sang beautifully, danced and acted their hearts out, keeping a well-attended the...

16Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Addams Family – Hull New Theatre

Writing this review, I am happily singing along to just one of the catchy ditties that entertained us at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday evening, courtesy of The Addams Family’s musical comedy. “Death is just around the corner”, sung by the family matriarch, Morticia (Joanne Clifton of Strictly Come Dancing and The Rocky Horror Show fame), though morbid in content, was sung in such a joyful way, I’ll be humming it for days. From the start, the amazing stage setting held its own with the equally amazing cast, being suitably spooky, with smoke and lightning strikes both adding to the atmosphere. Aided and abetted by wonderful live music emanating from the orchestra pit, we knew we were in for a treat. And as the familiar finger clicks by “The Thing” started proceedings, it was ghoul...

14Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

RENT – Carriageworks Theatre

It’s a tribute to Jonathan Larson’s genius that his quirky offbeat rock musical about a bunch of New York outsiders is the eleventh highest grossing Broadway show of all time and this is a pretty faithful recreation. The claim that it’s a reworking of Puccini’s opera La Bohème has always seemed to be a bit overblown, but it remains a powerful ode to artists as outsiders based on Larson’s own experiences when he was struggling to get work made. The narrative and dizzying array of musical styles is held together by aspiring director Mark making a gonzo documentary about his friends living in and around a New York squat, many of whom have AIDS when that for many was still a death sentence. Paul Lonsdale’s Mark is a touch on the mature side, but he sings and acts well. Rent continues ...

The Musical Comedy Whodunit: Curtains – Rotherham Civic

14Mar

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Musical Comedy Whodunit: Curtains – Rotherham Civic

Maltby Musical Theatre group founded in 1949 bring to Rotherham’s Civic Stage the lesser known Kander and Ebb Musical, Curtains which was nominated for 8 awards at the 2007 Tony Award’s including Best New Musical. Well, it’s 1959, and the Colonial Theatre in Boston is to premier a new musical. Cue the mayhem, as it’s ’curtains’ for the leading lady and the entire cast and crew are now suspects. Enter stage left, the musical theatre fan of a detective, to solve the crime. With several more murders and attempted murders along the way, love stories and a stage mother with attitude and the perpetrator is finally brought to justice. But we are warned in the encore, it will be ‘Curtains’ for us if we disclose the killer, so that is a very good reason to catch the show whilst you can. The script...

10Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

71 Coltman Street – Hull Truck Theatre

As a theatregoer, when you’re handed a complementary tub of chip spice along with your tickets, it does pique your interest. The chip spice came courtesy of Hull Truck Theatre, whose world premiere production of 71 Coltman Street brought to life this local theatre’s creation, 50 years ago. This week I have almost made myself ill by laughing so much at a Hull theatre production, but on Wednesday evening, at this intimate city centre venue, my chuckle muscles took a real battering. The play centres around Hull Truck founder, Mike Bradwell, who at 23, arrived in our city in 1971, renting the run-down house of the production’s title, setting up the theatre from there the following year. Written by Richard Bean, Bradwell admits not a word in the script is true, but that made not a j...

9Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Macbeth – Leeds Playhouse

As the three witches circulate around the massive drawbridge that dominates the stark stage it's clear that Amy Leach’s latest attempt to make Shakespeare accessible will focus on the intrigue, blood and ultimately madness in arguably his most dynamic drama. Power couple the Macbeths are introduced as they mourn their dead child before the ambitious warrior muscularly played by Tachia Newall meets the witches who inform him he’s to be the King of Scotland despite the weak Duncan still being on the throne. Egged on by his wife, the brave general becomes the cowardly assassin as he takes the throne before turning on everyone around him as his hubris brings about his downfall. There is a subtle subtext of dynasty and lineage as Lady Macbeth loses another child, which helps explain he...

9Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Magic Goes Wrong – Hull New Theatre

Within a few minutes of me watching Magic Goes Wrong, at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday evening, I could feel myself wanting to throw up. Was the show that bad? No, just the opposite. I had laughed so hard that I’d almost made myself vomit. With over two more hours to go - how would I fare? Well, dear reader, I lived to write this review, after staggering out of the theatre with aching sides and my eye make-up decimated through crying with laughter. If you’ve ever seen this crazy gang before, you will know that the shenanigans begin way before curtain up, and Tuesday evening was no exception. Cast members frantically searched the theatre, wielding huge butterfly nets, looking for a lost white rabbit, while a roving cameraman captured images of theatregoers to be used for the s...

Made in Dagenham – Riley Smith Theatre, Leeds

3Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Made in Dagenham – Riley Smith Theatre, Leeds

A successful west end musical can have the most unlikely source material. Who would have thought that the story of 19th Century French politics (Les Misérables) or a book of T.S. Eliot poems (Cats) would be in the top ten list of most successful shows ever? Given this, it is less than surprising that a musical based on the seemingly dry subject of equal pay in a car factory in grey, late 1960's industrial Britain, became a surprise hit back in 2014. Now LUU Music Theatre Society brings their considerable talent and energy to this revival at Leeds University for the next four nights. The story follows Rita O'Grady (Ellen Corbett) and her rise from a modest sewing machine operator at the Ford factory in Dagenham, to spokeswoman for her gender, striking when asked to do the equivalent job ...

28Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Acosta Danza – Hull Truck Theatre

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought the dancers I saw on the Hull New Theatre stage on Friday evening had molten rubber running through their veins, not blood - so supple were they. Acosta Danza 100% Cuban, the brainchild of international ballet star Carlos Acosta, is a mesmerising concoction of fast & furious and slow & sensuous - with effortless acrobatics thrown in. The most fantastically hypnotic and unforgettable music assaulted our senses throughout each performance, of which there were five. Liberto, Hybrid and De Punta a Cabo were all UK premieres, and according to the programme, Impronta and Paysage, Soudain, la nuit were both back by popular demand. So, five rousing chapters, each telling a different story. However, I have to confess that I could...

23Feb

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Private Lives – Lyceum Theatre

Private Lives is one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-produced plays, and it is easy to see why. This two-hour production is absolutely full of snappy one-liners and delightfully stormy relationships. As the play opens, we meet Amanda and Elyot, who have been divorced for five years. Now recently remarried, we find them on the first night of their honeymoons as they discover that they have coincidentally booked adjacent rooms at the same hotel in the south of France... If you want to know what happens next, well, you’ll have to book tickets for the play! Originally starring Coward himself and Gertrude Lawrence, the leading parts are performed here by Nigel Havers, whose theatre company is also co-producing the tour, and Patricia Hodge, supported by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as Victor...