Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 4 of 43

12Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Consumed – Leeds Playhouse

Anyone who grew up in a large Irish family like I did knows only too well that every family gathering has the potential to kick off, but thankfully I’ve never experienced anything as grim as this birthday party from hell. Four generations of a Northern Irish family have come together for potty mouthed matriarch Julia’s 90th birthday lunch, presided over by her daughter Gilly who constantly seems on the edge of a mental meltdown. Gilly’s daughter Jenny has flown over from London with her woke daughter Murieannn who was born in England, but all four women have intergenerational trauma that comes out as they really take the gloves off. And there’s another ghost hanging over this feast that offers a delicious twist as the women batter each other emotionally as all their skeletons come...

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

12Sep

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Great British Bake Off Musical – Carriageworks Theatre

This musical has a slice of action, romance, comedy, tragedy, heartbreak and social diversity, Dean Patrick certainly thought of a story line that would hit close to home for any member of the audience. A show masked as a performance filled with puns and buns, certainly unveiled many more layers as the narrative ran through. The show brought a continued sense of modernity with a touch of tradition, complimenting audiences of all ages, but also giving the Victoria sponge the credit she deserves. With vibrant lighting and warm tones of pastel across the stage lit up delightfully, presenting a sense of togetherness just as the Channel 4 show does, although things got tangled in between the strudel, as a group of regulars the contestants came together as a bunch with many differences joined...

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

11Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Tina: The Tina Turner Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

With everything you would expect from a show bearing this iconic name, the Sheffield Lyceum welcomed this touring production of the West End hit with aplomb. With the one and only original Tina Turner herself, at the core of this musicals creation from the first day to its initial opening on Broadway. The audience are riveted to their seats from the get-go with its biographical depiction of Tina Turner’s journey from the challenges from Nutbush to stratospheric super stardom - with its trials and tribulations. It is a story of racism, domestic abuse and abandonment laced with determination, strength, survival and an overriding, soul bearing undeniable talent. Tina Turner herself described the show as turning her poison to medicine – an outpouring. The Book written by Katori Hall with Fr...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

10Sep

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – The Montgomery Theatre

Splinters Theatre Group took The Montgomery Theatre by storm with their raucous production of iconic local tale Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which has taken the West End and theatre world by storm since its debut at The Crucible in 2017. The earnest, extravagant story tells the tale of 16-year-old Sheffield lad Jamie New, who resists pressures to conform and, despite being out as gay, seeks a new challenge in fulfilling their passion of being seen and heard as a drag queen. The tale has since been turned into a big budget Amazon film, and this production lives up to the hype of such an illustrious modern great. This large talented cast are incredibly well led by their creative leadership team. James and Kate Parkin’s direction is excellent. Transitions are slick, scenes are m...

7Sep

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Void – Hull Truck Theatre

My out-of-this-world experience on Saturday night came courtesy of the fertile imagination of writer Ryan Simons, creator and director of The Void sci fi horror story set in the year 2160. As we theatregoers took our seats, we were faced with a darkened stage setting that bore no resemblance to planet Earth - all bare metal, wood, leather with a central huge “porthole” giving us a tantalising glimpse of outer space, eight million miles from our blue planet. One man sat by this window to other worlds, answering and asking questions of Nova (voiced by Olwen May), an all-seeing AI. Dressed in loose-fitting beige coloured overalls, the one-eyed man, Flint, a disillusioned space ranger, sounded bored with his lot, until a distress call comes through regarding ageing space research ...

3Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calamity Jane – Alhambra Bradford

When the town drunk picks out the notes of the Deadwood Stage on a banjo in front of the curtain, and the audience without thinking starts singing along, you can see why Calamity Jane has been such a successful old school musical revival Most of the people here when they think of Calamity Jane would be immediately thinking of Doris Day’s rollocking performance in the classic 1953 movie. This warm hearted and often very funny show offers a more folky version as a team of actor/musicians stroll and dance around Matthew Wright’s Golden Garter saloon set playing all the show’s familiar numbers. Rootin’ tootin’ tomboy Calamity Jane lives up to her name causing mayhem everywhere she goes in gold rush town Deadwood shooting her mouth off and telling tall stories much to the disgust of Wild ...

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical – Slung Low Warehouse, Leeds

27Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Reception: The Wedding Present Musical – Slung Low Warehouse, Leeds

If we could travel back to 1985 and tell David Gedge -the inspirational lead singer and songwriter of indie musical darlings The Wedding Present - that forty years later his songs would be used in a musical theatre production, he would have laughed in your face and maybe kicked you in the balls for good measure. Back then the worlds of musical theatre and guitar-based indie rock were so far apart musically as to be on different planets. Gedge freely admits to not even knowing whether he even liked the format when initially approached by Writer/Director Matt Aston. Thankfully his trademark curiosity won out and he engaged with the project, resulting in the World Premiere of ‘Reception - The Wedding Present musical’ at Slung Low Warehouse in the suitably gritty streets of Holbeck, Leeds, the...

20Aug

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

War Horse – Leeds Grand Theatre

For most of us in this country our first exposure to puppets are Mr and Mrs Punch going at it hammer and tongs on a seafront, but War Horse is a reminder that puppetry is an art form that challenges both the practitioners and the audience. There is something incredibly special watching a team of puppeteers moving in perfect synchronicity asking us to believe we are watching a thoroughbred horse in full flow. All theatre is to an extent a suspension of disbelief, but puppetry makes special demands of any audience’s imagination as we are constantly asked to make the inanimate real in our minds. Michael Morpurgo who wrote the novel said the producers ‘must be mad’ to try and stage a story about a horse who is transported from the idyllic Devon countryside to the horrors of the Great War...

23Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Calamity Jane – Hull New Theatre

Within two minutes of the plush curtain raising at the Hull New Theatre, on Tuesday evening, I was singing away to the song, Black Hills of Dakota. Calamity Jane was in town and the guilty party making me join in was Theo Diedrick who, playing the banjo, purposely made a hash of the above song until getting the hang of the well-known ditty. In fact, Diedrick kept us entertained all night long with his amusing mannerisms and facial expressions. I’m sure I spotted him playing the violin as well at one point in this rip-roaring production. In the 1953 film of the same name, on which this production is based, Calamity was played by Doris Day, and it’s her singing voice that musical lovers will associate with many of the songs in this stage version. Fast forward 72 years and it’s th...

15Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Rocky Horror Show – Hull New Theatre

A reviewer’s job is not without risks and the sights I saw on Monday evening at the Hull New Theatre will probably scar me for life. Males in fishnet stockings and suspenders, strutting around in stiletto heels. Some were even wearing make-up - shock, horror. But that’s enough about the audience. The Rocky Horror Show was in town, performing to theatregoers who were obviously determined to get into the spirit of the well-known madcap production; hence the proliferation of fishnets, maids’ outfits, gold lamé top hats and tails, long black cloaks and black lacy costumes in many different designs, mainly worn by the females in the audience. There can’t be a person on this planet, or even off the planet, who hasn’t heard of Richard O’Brien’s infamous rock ’n’ roll musical and the s...