James Brining Archives - North West End UK

Dolly delights in Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse

8Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Dolly delights in Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse

For the first time ever all of Dolly Parton’s biggest hits can be heard together in a new musical comedy, Here You Come Again, which is then cornerstone of the Spring/Summer 2024 season at Leeds Playhouse before it heads off to the West End After a successful US tour, the show is packed with the country legend’s iconic songs, including Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You and Here You Come Again. It’s the story of a diehard fan whose fantasy version of international icon Dolly Parton gets him through trying times, but the wit, humour and charm in her songs teaches him a whole lot about life, love and how to pull yourself up by your sequinned bootstraps. It was originally written by two-time Emmy award-winning comedy writer and songw...

3Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Oliver! – Leeds Playhouse

Over the last few years Leeds Playhouse have offered all sorts of challenging festive spectaculars but this deliciously dark revival of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece Oliver! is the best yet. You need some nerve to take on such a beloved musical, and Oscar laden movie, so the Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining has cleverly placed his version in the round. Colin Richmond’s design leaves the cavernous Quarry space full of raised spaces and walkways, becoming the sort of dank and dark Victorian London that Charles Dickens painted teeming with all human life and plenty of menace. Brining is a great director of children, and when a well drilled junior ensemble sings and dances through a lively Food Glorious Food it’s clear a big and diverse cast have used their time in the rehearsal ...

Charlie Bucket comes to Leeds Playhouse this Christmas

11Feb

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Charlie Bucket comes to Leeds Playhouse this Christmas

Over the last few years Leeds Playhouse have staged on a series of family festive extravaganzas and this year they’re staging the musical version of the beloved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Their reinvention of the West End and Broadway hit will be directed by their Artistic Director James Brining, adapted from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel by David Greig, with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Generations of fans have loved the magical tale as young golden ticket winner Charlie Bucket ventures into a strange factor run by eccentric confectionary wizard Willy Wonka with five other winners for a wild ride through the imagination “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is such a special story, loved by generations of children and their paren...

Leeds Playhouse’s James Brining talks about staging A Little Night Music with Opera North

27Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Leeds Playhouse’s James Brining talks about staging A Little Night Music with Opera North

Most people have heard the haunting Send In The Clowns but how many could say which musical it is from? Well, it’s just one of a bunch of brilliant tunes penned by Oscar and multiple Tony winner Stephen Sondheim for A Little Night Music that traces the complicated and interlocking relationships of several Swedish couples at the dawn of the twentieth century. Inspired by Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night, Sondheim’s challenging score and an intelligent book by Hugh Wheeler offers genuine insights into the high and lows of human relationships. Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining was gearing up to direct A Little Night Music as his latest coalition with Opera North, but then the pandemic struck. Now the company including the legendary Dame Josephine Barstow ar...

Decades: 1970s/1980s/2000s – Leeds Playhouse

26May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Decades: 1970s/1980s/2000s – Leeds Playhouse

To kick off their delayed 50th birthday celebrations the Playhouse team commissioned both experienced and newer creatives to create short monologues boldly trying to meld the history of Leeds and events across the north over six decades since they opened their doors.. They are offering all six as the King Lear of monologues, or two lots of three like tonight’s offering spanning three decades. There may be some obscure artistic reasoning behind this but it seems odd to run them out of sequence as doing so might have added to their power. As a veteran of the eighties Leeds anarchist and squat scene it must have tempting for Alice Nutter to offer a sugar-coated version of that scene, but typically in Nicer Than Orange Squash she offers an often funny indictment of the hypocrisy a...

Amanda Huxtable talks about directing Decades which reopens Leeds Playhouse

13May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Amanda Huxtable talks about directing Decades which reopens Leeds Playhouse

Leeds Playhouse kick off their 50th anniversary celebrations and reopen the doors with six short monologues written by a mix of new and experienced writers. Decades: Stories From The City takes a particular decade from across the Playhouse’s lifespan covering the 1970s to the 2020s, tracing how their home city has changed over that time. As this is their first set of shows after lockdown the Playhouse have also recruited a strong cast of directors, including Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining who is joined in the rehearsal spaces by Associate Director Amy Leach and RTYDS Resident Assistant Director Sameena Hussain, Evie Manning of Common Wealth Theatre and Theatre State’s Tess Seddon. The hugely experienced Amanda Huxtable directs Leanna Benjamin’s The Unknow...

Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives

25Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives

Leeds Playhouse today has announced the use of free theatre space and guaranteed technical support for local artists in their intimate Bramall Rock Void space. The free use of the recently refurbed theatre is being offered as part of Playhouse Connect which their ongoing response to the pandemic supporting reconnection and recovery within the City. “The Playhouse is a community resource used by many different people throughout the year,” says Artistic Director James Brining. “We’re very conscious that throughout the pandemic, despite the brilliant work we have undertaken engaging with vulnerable and isolated people through our Playhouse Connect programme, apart from 5 weeks in the autumn, the building itself has been under used. “I’m delighted that we have put the safety proto...

Leeds Playhouse announce new community engagement programme

6Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce new community engagement programme

Leeds Playhouse have announced an extension to their Creative Engagement programme aimed at engaging with people who might feel an increased sense of isolation or vulnerability during the current lockdown. The new Playhouse Connect programme builds on work already carried out and aims to address four specific areas which are particularly critical in the current circumstances: • Isolation and Loneliness • Mental Health and Wellbeing • Reconnection and Recovery • Skills and Training for Young People All activities included in the programme are free and aimed at boost...

27Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse’s James Brining talks about staging work in a pandemic

Leeds Playhouse was one of the first big regional theatres to reopen their doors after lockdown offering some short works in partnership with Opera North and now they’re back with a more expansive winter season. The team used that short Connecting Voice season to test their safety measures which included temperature checks and rigorous social distancing in the spaces. The fact it was both safe and pretty much sold out made Playhouse Artistic Director James Brining even more determined to offer a bigger winter season to resume playing an active role in the city’s life during this pandemic. “Ultimately the way I feel is we get public money, and are here to give people in the city for lots of different reasons a focus, and some way of connecting and exploring the human predicament,” sa...