Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 26 of 44

28Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Verdict – Bradford Alhambra Theatre

Courtroom drama The Verdict is one of those great 1980s movies that has been somewhat forgotten, but it regularly features in the top movie lists of all time, with a career high performance by screen legend Paul Newman as alcoholic Boston attorney Frank Galvin who finds himself as he fights a seemingly unwinnable case. As producers look to turn celluloid classics then this tale of redemption in a courtroom is a natural fit as Frank takes on an incompetent judge, a shady defence attorney and the might of Boston’s Catholic Church, who are in this case are fighting off a medical malpractice suit in one of their hospitals that left a young mother in a coma. In David Mamet’s blistering original screenplay, Frank is a self-loathing failure who only sees life through the bottom of a glass t...

The Orchestra of Opera North: The Pearl Fishers – Hull City Hall

25Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Orchestra of Opera North: The Pearl Fishers – Hull City Hall

On a sweltering Saturday evening in Hull, members of the Opera North company braved warm stage lights when they performed The Pearl Fishers in the magnificent surroundings of the City Hall. The Pearl Fishers is one of Bizet's earliest operas, first being performed in 1863 and lambasted by the critics on its opening night. Well, 160 years later, here in 2023, this critic can't think of anything "lambastable" about the 24-year-old Bizet's efforts, or Opera North's production either for that matter. Mind you, the hall itself could not have provided a better backdrop, with its amazing 1911 organ - all, 5,505 pipes of it - beneath a colourful Baroque revival style ceiling. Arranged in front of this masterpiece were the tenors, mezzos, sopranos and basses of the Chorus of Opera North...

The Buddy Holly Story – Alhambra Theatre Bradford

14Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Buddy Holly Story – Alhambra Theatre Bradford

Paul McCartney remarked that without Buddy Holly there would have been no Beatles, so it’s no wonder his short but rich creative life was one of the first jukebox musicals. Unlike many jukebox musicals who bolt on ludicrous storylines to shoehorn the hits in, Alan Janes’ book is a straight run from his early days in Lubbock Texas as he rejects the country music establishment to become one of first rock and roll stars who wrote his own smash hit songs. And what tunes he wrote in a white hot eighteen months of creativity before his untimely death aged only 22. Listen to the pure pop energy of Peggy Sue and you can see what Macca meant, or the delicate beauty of Raining In My Heart hinting at what might have been if he’d not boarded that fateful flight with Big Bopper and Richie Valens....

13Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Greatest Days – Sheffield Lyceum

A pure Band of 24k gold! Originally under the title of The Band, the musical changed its name to The Official Take That Musical Greatest Days and relaunched a new tour. But why? It would seem people were expecting to see a show about the band itself and the musical is certainly not that. With a book written by Tim Firth and the music and lyrics by Take That, it tells the tell of a group of five young fans in the 90’s who live their lives to the soundtrack of their favourite band. Their lives can be seen to mirror that of the bands as together they live, laugh and suffer loss, eventually going their own ways. 25 Years later, like their idols, they too reunite and go on their own reunion tour of re discovery. Greatest Days is a story of friendship, dreams, growth and survival with a famil...

7Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Dirty Dancing – Leeds Grand Theatre

‘Bloody hell’. That was the involuntary cry from the dark as the ripped Michael O’Reilly playing roughneck dancer Johnny Castle peeled off his shirt during one of the steamier scenes in this faithful stage version of the cult classic movie. Like The Shawshank Redemption the celluloid version of Dirty Dancing was a box office flop, but this little B-movie earned cult status playing endlessly on digital TV making it perfect for the stage. And Eleanor Bergstein’s book of her original screenplay has very wisely kept the live version pretty much scene for scene to the delight of a crowd really up for enjoying a cultural icon that has real meaning for them. In truth the romance between working class Johnny and privileged New York teenager Baby is the classic rite of passage piece, with ...

7Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sully – Hull Truck Theatre

Take a bow Chris Bewers and Luke James of The Yorkshire Workshop for creating the most basic stage setting for a production of Sully, which came to the Hull Truck Theatre, on Tuesday evening. Basic, but genius. I loved it. Let me explain… Sully tells the story of Hull’s favourite adopted son, Welshman Clive Sullivan, who played for the city’s two rugby league teams in his amazing career - Hull Kingston Rovers (yay, up the Robins), and Hull FC (whatever). The red and white strip of Hull KR is supported by those Hullites living east of the river Hull; the “other team” wear black and white and enjoy the loyalty of those living to the west of the river. I’m east Hull born and bred; my dad (Arthur Lewis) played for Hull KR, so my loyalty has never been in doubt. Back to the afore...

31May

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Mousetrap – Sheffield Lyceum

The Mousetrap is intricately crisp with its fearless pace and cannot fail to get you baited and trapped within its mystery. The longevity of a 70th Anniversary tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap speaks volumes as to its appeal for seven decades to British audiences. We do love a good murder mystery in this country! And none better than the ones written by the Queen of Crime Mrs Christie herself. Opening in London in November 1952, this once 30-minute radio play entitled Three blind Mice was now extended into The Mousetrap, still retaining its rodent reference. It is a play anyone can experience, not really frightening, not really gruesome, and not really a farce but a little bit of all these things which perhaps is its recipe for its social appeal. This production is directed by...

30May

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Titanic The Musical – Hull New Theatre

Within minutes of the cast of Titanic the Musical gathering on the Hull New Theatre stage, on Monday night, I was sucked into the story and found myself wondering who would live and who would die. There can’t be a soul on Earth who hasn’t heard of the 1912 tragedy involving the RMS Titanic, billed as the “unsinkable, largest moving object in the world”; so, me questioning who survives and who pops their clogs in the icy cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, is no spoiler. At “curtain up” the quayside of Southampton bustled with tradesmen carrying their wares on to the ship, which was on its maiden voyage, heading for New York. Two such individuals ran off the stage and past us in the audience, carrying crates of oranges and cauliflowers. What a clever move - it felt as if we were act...

27May

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Modest – Hull Truck Theatre

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson was a name unknown to me until I watched Modest, at Hull Truck Theatre, on Thursday evening. The year is 1874, and budding artist Elizabeth (Emer Dineen), dares to not only paint a portrait of fighting Crimean War soldiers (a very unladylike act at the time), but also to enter it into the Royal Academy's public art exhibition at a time when women were neither seen, nor heard. Titled The Roll Call, it is generally assumed the scene represented the aftermath of the Battle of Inkerman; but that fact wasn't the mean reason the members of the Academy were against accepting it. They just couldn't get it into their top-hatted heads that a woman could envisage such a barbaric scene when she should be at home doing needlepoint and sniffing her pomander. The me...

26May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Passionate Woman – Leeds Playhouse

Your child’s wedding day is one of most stressful events for any parent, but in Betty Derbyshire’s case it has brought all her regrets into sharp focus as she totally melts down barricading herself in the loft while her son frantically tries to save his big day. Middle aged Leeds housewife Betty is battling with empty nest syndrome as her only son starts a new life, living a lie in a loveless marriage, hiding some age old secrets, and being joined in the loft by the ghost of her long dead lover, who may or may not be in her head. It’s thirty years since Leeds writing legend Kay Mellor’s debut play was performed in this theatre, and her sharp ear for how working class people speak and think means it very much stands the test of time. One woman in the audience reflecting on this bitter...