Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 27 of 33

1Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Waitress – Hull New Theatre

It’s a good job I didn’t watch Waitress on an empty stomach; I would have been tempted to storm the stage to eat the props - the props being delicious-looking pies. Real or imitation, I don’t know, but by the yummy looks of them I wouldn’t have cared. The dreamy confections took centre stage at the Hull New Theatre on Monday evening, as the pie-themed musical disarmed the tastebuds of everyone in the packed auditorium. Most of the action takes place in Joe’s Pie Diner, a popular eatery in small-town Indiana, America. A staff of four - three waitresses, Jenna (Chelsea Halfpenny), Dawn (Evelyn Hoskins) and Becky (Sandra Marvin), and chef and manager Cal (Christopher D Hunt) - keep the diner ticking over nicely. Jenna is the expert pie-maker. Married to the controlling and self...

26Jan

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Da Vinci Code – Sheffield Lyceum

The controversial 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has been adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel for its premier UK tour. Can we solve the greatest secret of last 2000 years? Well, it certainly helps if you are familiar with the book like 100,000,000 worldwide readers are or even the subsequent film starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon and Ian McKellan as Sir Leigh Teabing. Exquisitely directed by Luke Sheppard, the story is a complex and a heavily narrative one as it takes us on a pulse racing dash through Europe and the British Isles before leaving us firmly and more wisely at the Louvre in Paris, questioning the probability of a lifetime of deceit. The story starts with American Professor Robert Langdon delivering a lecture in Paris, he receiv...

18Jan

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Snow Maiden – Hull New Theatre

Winter is my favourite season, so you can imagine my glee when snow fell in Hull on Monday evening - huge flakes, too. The fact that the snow only fell inside the Hull New Theatre didn’t dampen by excitement, as it was the beautiful, wintry backdrop to Snow Maiden, performed by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia. This amazing backdrop was almost as awe-inspiring as the talented ballet dancers and the magical music, played live by The Russian State Ballet Orchestra, under the baton of Anatoliy Chepurnoy. The story centres around a beautiful Snow Maiden (Natalia Bobrova) and her lust to escape life in the forest, even though she is surrounded by her lovely snowflake friends. Her dad, Father Frost (Grigorii Botenkov) sees how unhappy his daughter is and, reluctantly, lets her vis...

20Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Wendy & Peter Pan – Leeds Playhouse

When Leeds Playhouse announced they were staging yet another version of Peter Pan you couldn’t help but wonder haven’t we had more than enough of the boy who refuses to grow up? What made this bold adaptation by Ella Hickson of the JM Barrie classic different is that it told this beloved story from the viewpoint of Wendy Darling, while still keeping in the Lost Boys, pirates, fairy dust, the flying and a crocodile. The reality is that the boy who refuses to grow up is. like so many adolescent boys, a self-serving narcissist, who is actually a bit of a prat. Peter’s reckless fearlessness put his gang in danger and his compulsive actions meant he could never defeat his arch enemy Captain Hook. Peter Losassa offered a lively Pan unfretted by maturity, who led his gang of forever y...

19Dec

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

She Loves Me – Crucible Theatre

From the moment the ensemble stepped off the trolleybus onto the stage and the doors of Maraczek’s Parfumerie swung open, I was hooked. She Loves Me is a visual feast from start to finish, making the most of every inch of the stunning set designed by Ben Stones. Shop counters fit together like jigsaw pieces, bicycles and beds come and go, and a French-style café appears out of nowhere. Blink for even a second and you’re bound to miss something – maybe even the arrival of autumn or winter! She Loves Me tells a classic story, which has been adapted more than once from the original play by Miklós László; most famously into the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. It’s a simple plot: two co-workers, Amalia and Georg, who show a strong dislike for one another on the...

Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Leeds Grand Theatre

17Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Bedknobs and Broomsticks – Leeds Grand Theatre

Every year people gather round their TVs after stuffing their faces to watch the festive classics, and eternally popular among them is Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks offering a quirky mix of live action and animation starring theatre legend Angela Lansbury as yuletide fun for all the family. It’s the story of the grieving Rawlins orphans - Charlie, Paul and Carrie - who are evacuated from bombed out London to a village where they are taken under the wing of local eccentric and trainee witch Eglantine Price. They join Eglantine and dodgy magician Emelius Browne on a series of magical adventures before taking on a dark threat to the village. It is such a familiar fixture on our idiot boxes that it seems natural that the catchy Sherman Brothers tunes would eventually make its way to ...

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Hull New Theatre

13Dec

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Hull New Theatre

It’s that time of the year again - oh, yes it is - when theatres up and down this fair land come alive with laughter, groans, screams and (my worst nightmare) audience participation. Sunday evening at the Hull New Theatre was no exception as the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs paid our city a visit. Being the 5pm showing meant it was the perfect time for tots and youngsters to attend, and by the sound of their shrieks and laughter all around me, they were thoroughly enjoying themselves - as were the grown-ups who accompanied them. It took a while for those in the packed audience on Sunday to “let rip”, but when they did, it was panto mayhem. The glittery scenery throughout wasn’t just lovely to look at, but also created the right atmosphere without being too overbeari...

13Dec

By Morgan EvansNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sleeping Beauty – Sheffield Lyceum

Sheffield Theatres and Evolution Pantomimes have a rich reputation for their pantomimes, and this year’s edition is once again Damian Williams and his cohort on their finest form. Superbly directed by Paul Hendy, this is a tour-de-force of panto, and ultimately panto at its finest. Titular character Hannah Everest holds the role very well and is a very stable anchor for both the narrative and comedy within. The same can be said for her royal romantic counterpart played by Dominic Sibanda, who brings an appropriately friendly and fun sensibility to his role whilst playing the melodrama effectively. Janine Duvitski’s Fairy Moonbeam is at her best deployed in comedic ensemble sections, and Lucas Rush’s evil Carabosse delves delightfully into devilishly camp malevolence. Ben Thornton’s exci...

Beauty and the Beast – Leeds City Varieties

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Beauty and the Beast – Leeds City Varieties

I say it every year - oh yes, I do - that the success of any panto depends on how good their Dame is and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto has one of the best purveyors of that quintessentially British mix of laughs and seasonal smut in Simon Nock. This is his fourth year at this historic city centre home of light entertainment and his Dame Bessie Bigbreaths - see what they did there - is a glorious mix of spraying out corny laughs for the children and some very near the knuckle gags for the not so young kids. He gets away with it - oh yes, he does - because he has charm to burn and times a gag well, combined with a wonderfully expressive raise of the eyebrow when the Dame has gone too far. This is the tenth year of the Rock ‘n’ Roll franchise in Leeds who have become the masters of integratin...

1Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Grease – Leeds Grand Theatre

It’s great that this production carries on the classic movie’s proud tradition of having twentysomethings playing teenagers about to leave Rydell High School for the real world. It’s a bit odd the thick American accents the relatively inexperienced cast deploy seem to be from Brooklyn rather than the tough working-class area of Chicago the original theatre production was set in. The voice coach should have dialled it down a bit which would have helped with the sometimes wayward diction. It’s probably fair to say most of the audience were looking for a scene by scene recreation of the beloved movie, and to that extent they do get well staged versions of all songs they had grown up loving. But the producers claim to have retained the darker elements of the rawer early 1970s scrip...