Yorkshire & Humber Archives - Page 9 of 43

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Sheffield Lyceum

20Feb

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Sheffield Lyceum

High Flying Fantasy with scrumptious special effects. With Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman the well-known 1968 children’s musical fantasy film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in its stage adaptation by Jeremy Sams soars into the Sheffield Lyceum. With the original book written by the Bond/007 creator Ian Fleming and direction by Thom Southerland, choreography by Karen Bruce and Morgan Large as Set and Costume Designer this production as all the elements to fly high… literally!! The eight piece orchestra sound ‘toot sweet’ under the baton of MD Jessica Viner filling the auditorium with the familiar and much loved tunes right from the opening Entr’Acte. The Story - Inventor Caractacus Potts transforms an old race car into a magical flying vehicle that transports hi...

19Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

All Blood Runs Red – Leeds Playhouse

An intimating the dog show is always a meta challenge, so you knew there was a need to pay attention as they rigorously stress tested Jean Luc Godard’s idea that ‘a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order’. This company has always played with form and narrative structure as Mancunian actor Morgan Bailey tells the mainly forgotten story of adventurer Eugene Bullard, as he interweaves his own experiences in France playing a black GI in his first feature film. To add another layer he tells the story of wanting to pitch a movie of Bullard’s life after he fled the attempted lynching of his father in the deep south in the early twentieth century. Bailey also wrote this piece with the company’s Co-Artistic Director Andrew Quick, who was also fas...

Mary and the Hyenas – Hull Truck Theatre

13Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mary and the Hyenas – Hull Truck Theatre

Wednesday evening saw me heading to the theatre for the second time in a week, to review the life story of a woman who, to my great shame, I had never heard of before. Mary Wollstonecraft is her name, and six super talented performers brought her story to life at the Hull Truck Theatre, when it hosted Mary and the Hyenas. The crowds flocked in for this world premiere, written by Hull playwright Maureen Lennon with original music by singer-songwriter Billy Nomates. Born in London, in 1759, Mary’s childhood was spent in the market town of Beverley, a short distance from Hull, in East Yorkshire, after her family moved there in 1768. The show starts at the end of her life, in 1797, as she is giving birth to her second daughter, Mary (who went on to find fame writing Frankenstein). ...

12Feb

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Ghost Stories – Sheffield Lyceum

Psychological Horror with a twist! Tension… Suspense…Atmosphere… Imagination… Unsettling to say the least! Ghost Stories the theatrical experience has recently been made into a film but still remains something unique in its ‘here and now’ form on the stage. This One Act production was written 15 years ago by Jeremy Dyson (Co-writer of the much acclaimed League of Gentlemen) and Award winning Actor/Director Andy Nyman and has played in eight different far flung countries and now Ghost Stories is once again currently touring the UK. Reviewers of Ghost Stories are asked not to divulge the plot or secrets of the show, and I will certainly adhere to that. Thus, Ghost Stories remains a rare thing; in a world of information technology; a modern experience you have to see ‘spoiler free’. ...

12Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

An Inspector Calls – Hull New Theatre

As curtain raisers go, there can’t be many more dramatic than that which I witnessed on Tuesday evening, when a National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller, An Inspector Calls, exploded on to the stage. Hull New Theatre seemed to be packed to the gills, especially after the arrival of hordes of school leavers and their teachers. All soon settled and then the fun began a few minutes after 7.30pm. The explosive start of a very stormy night, with real water falling as rain that little street urchins splashed in, took part outside the impressive home of the wealthy Birling family. This stage setting - a telephone box, street lamp, a distant urban backdrop and the house - changed very little throughout. But when it did, my goodness it was ear splitting. All the ac...

8Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Shellshocked – Leeds Playhouse

When a shellshocked army veteran walks into an artist’s studio it starts a dark game of cat and mouse that ends with a really neat twist. Wesley has survived the horrors of World War II and desperate for work as he recovers from his PTSD he seeks a job with local artist Mr Lupine, who seems determined to humiliate his wannabe apprentice at every turn. But just much abuse can damaged hero Wesley take? Philip Stokes directs his own words, setting his compelling two hander that has echoes of Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth in his native Leeds. Over a tense 70 minutes he offers a mediation on the nature of war, loss, honour and what it takes to be a great artist rather than a mediocrity like Lupine. Lee Bainbridge takes a break from his day job as the Playhouse’s Building Manager to pl...

Murder on The Orient Express – Sheffield Lyceum

6Feb

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Murder on The Orient Express – Sheffield Lyceum

Trains, tension and covered tracks! As Agatha Christie’s 1934, now famous novel steamed into the Sheffield Lyceum this week and it’s all aboard the Orient Express. Adapted by Ken Ludwig for the stage, this is the premier UK tour after its US launch in 2017. Directed by Lucy Bailey we travel with Christie’s famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on the luxurious Orient Express in the Winter of 1934, as he makes his way back to England. The journey is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift and an American Tycoon is found violently murdered in his cabin, with the door locked from the inside. A myriad of suspects happen to adorn the first class carriages. Using his ‘little grey cells’ and forensic evidence, Poirot must solve his most difficult crime but, there is more at stake than just the ...

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Hull New Theatre

5Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Hull New Theatre

Set in Birmingham, the Brummy tones in this new musical were a joy to listen to. Now That’s What I Call a Musical, written by Pippa Evans and directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, of Strictly Come Dancing fame, charts the lives of two best school friends, whose loves, hopes, dreams (shattered or otherwise) are played out to some of the greatest pop hits of the 1980s. It’s 1989, and April (Maia Hawkins) and Gemma (Nikita Johal) are typical schoolgirls - April is blonde, bubbly and dreams of stardom in Hollywood. Her bestie, the shorter, dark-haired Gemma, dreams only of marriage and having kids. Gemma’s family are a scream - that accent again. Dad (Christopher Glover) works in a car factory, while Mum (Poppy Tierney), seems to spend her time laying the kitchen table...

3Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Hamilton – Bradford Alhambra

Bradford’s historic Alhambra Theatres is certainly doing its bit to kick off the city’s stint as UK City of Culture by booking the world’s hottest musical in for a long run. I’ve always thought a hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, one of the more obscure members of the Founding Fathers who delivered democracy to America, was a concept that shouldn’t really work, but, boy, did this powerful touring version of a theatrical juggernaut prove me very wrong. If you think of the Founding Fathers as an intellectual boyband, then Hamilton born as a bastard into poverty in the Caribbean is the Jason Orange of the group. Quite why Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote the book, lyrics and music picked him to be the star of his show isn’t that obvious, but the rise and fall of this Icarus of the r...

Opera North’s The Flying Dutchman – Leeds Grand Theatre

2Feb

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North’s The Flying Dutchman – Leeds Grand Theatre

The Flying Dutchman, often regarded as Wagner’s first true Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), has a somewhat problematic yet refreshingly straightforward narrative – at least compared to most operas. There are no mistaken identities, hidden family ties, or scheming servants – just a simple, if slightly absurd, tale of love, obsession, and redemption. Oh, and death. Mustn’t forget the death. A sea captain, Daland, encounters the cursed Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail forever unless he finds true love. Offered treasure, Daland promises his daughter, Senta, in marriage. (What is she, some sort of chattel?) Senta, previously obsessed with the Dutchman’s legend and oft to be seen worshipping his picture, eagerly accepts. After their union, her former l...