Friday, March 29

Tag: Leeds Grand Theatre

Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Peter Pan Goes Wrong – Leeds Grand Theatre

The Mischief comedy juggernaut just keeps on rolling with another version of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society’s chaotic take on Peter Pan where everything that can go wrong does. It is at heart a knowing tribute to all those am dram groups who gamely put on productions every week across the country, and the gag is that none are as likely to be so badly written or performed as Cornley’s unique take on JM Barrie’s tale of a boy who never grows up. Mischief founders Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayers and Henry Shields know what works for their brand, so have cunningly crafting dialogue so wooden you could make a table out of it, and ironically most critics have sat though productions almost as risible, but also as blissfully unself-aware as this bunch of talentless chumps. Noises Off wil...
Life of Pi – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Life of Pi – Leeds Grand Theatre

Life of Pi is one of those blockbuster books that seemed impossible to make work on stage, but Lolita Chakrabarti’s pacey adaptation keeps in Jann Martel’s mediation on the power of faith along with all the dramatic set pieces that make it such a good yarn. It opens in a Mexican hospital room as an Indian teenager Pi recounts his 200 plus day battle for survival after the ship transporting his father’s zoo animals to a new home in Canada goes down in the Pacific.  According to Pi he shared his life raft and battle to live with a 200 pound Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker…or did he? Chakrabarti doesn’t flinch from the spiritual nature of Mantel’s text that namechecks most of the major religions, but cleverly weaves in the darker side of our psyche in a fable that is much about...
The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre

After enduring endless plays of Merry Xmas Everyone trundling round the shops you know the festive season is finally here when Northern Ballet stage their annual extravaganza. This year The Nutcracker is back, and once again you have that feeling they’ve run into the props store and gone a bit mad to produce a lavish winter wonderland. David Nixon’s colourful and stylish costumes probably caused a national shortage of sequins and taffeta. It’s a wonderfully bonkers fairy tale as a mysterious magician sends ingénue Clara off on a surreal journey where she survives a battle between giant mice and life size toy soldiers, before being magically transported to a wintery wonderland where meets her Nutcracker Prince. It’s all beautifully realised by designer Charles Cusick Smith who works ...
The King and I – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

The King and I – Leeds Grand Theatre

The King and I is without doubt one of the great musicals with a sensational score but has been in recent years a problematic piece as the original play and movie had something of a white saviour narrative to them. This intelligent and sumptuous revival directed by Bartlett Sher is now much more about the repercussions of culture clashes as widowed British teacher Anna and her son travel to Siam to teach the many children of an autocratic king. He is keen to embrace western values to protect his country from the imperialist vultures circling around his small kingdom as civil war rages in America. The King gambles that western values will make him stronger, but he soon discovers through smart and feisty Anna that what he hopes to import into a centuries old Siamese culture brings une...
The Nutcracker dances his way to Leeds Grand for a feast of dance
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The Nutcracker dances his way to Leeds Grand for a feast of dance

Northern Ballet’s acclaimed version of The Nutcracker returns home to Leeds Grand Theatre this November after its hugely successful run last year. It’s the classic tale of Clara and her wooden Nutcracker doll that is much more than it seems. As the clock strikes midnight Clara finds herself being whisked away on a magical adventure through a winter wonderland filled with dancing snowflakes and a whole host of colourful characters. Photo: Kyle Baines The Nutcracker is the perfect introduction to classical ballet that has something for everyone, from the iconic dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy to an epic battle between the Nutcracker Prince and the villainous Mouse King.   The ballet is set to Tchaikovsky's iconic music that is played live by the Northern Ballet Sinfonia. &nbs...
The Mousetrap – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

The Mousetrap – Leeds Grand Theatre

North West End UK has a strict no spoilers policy. That’s handy as giving away the twist at the end of this theatrical warhorse would break a solemn pledge made by generations of Agatha Christie fans over the last seven decades. The Mousetrap has been pulling in tourists to its West End production since 1952 just after our late Queen was finding her feet as a monarch, and now it’s out on a national tour celebrating its 70th anniversary. Its record-breaking longevity is even more remarkable as it doesn’t feature Christie’s supersleuths Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, but it is the classic Christie set up where a group of strangers assemble on a boat or a train and - shock horror - one of them is a murderer. In The Mousetrap our cast of strangers assemble in a rambling country house...
Strictly Ballroom the Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Strictly Ballroom the Musical – Leeds Grand Theatre

Craig Revell Harwood. He must have been the only serious candidate to direct this fab-u-lous musical version of the cult movie bringing a direct understanding of Aussie machismo and the bitchiness of competitive ballroom dancing as he also impeccably choreographed Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce’s book.  The opening number, Strictly Ballroom, is full of flamboyant partnerships opening up the dark, backstabbing world of competition dancing, and you shudder to think how long it took to sew the sequins on Mark Walters’ suitably over the top costumes. This smart reworking of Strictly Ballroom - The Musical with new songs is the age-old tale of a rebel like young gun Scott Hastings determined to shake up the staid dance world, and by chance he teams up with ducking ugly duckling novic...
Dirty Dancing – Leeds Grand Theatre
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...
Pride & Prejudice *(*sort of) – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Pride & Prejudice *(*sort of) – Leeds Grand Theatre

There have been plenty of versions in every medium of Jane Austen’s biting satire on the absurd manners in 19th century England, but none quite like this irrelevant romp through one of the greatest novels ever written. This is a world where women had less rights than children, sadly still true in some parts of the world, but Austen lays down a subtle challenge to that established order. That’s the trigger for a hard-working, five strong female cast to let rip as the ludicrous Mrs Bennet ruthlessly tries to marry off one of her five daughters before they end up in the poor house, as none of them can legally inherit their father’s estate. The distinctive thing about this part farce, part panto, but always on point, production is we hear from the servants who are bit players in the nov...
<strong>The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre</strong>
Yorkshire & Humber

The Nutcracker – Leeds Grand Theatre

Northern Ballet’s festive spectacular is their annual thank you to the city which they call home and has supported them to become a world class company. It’s also had the feel of an onstage office Xmas do where the dancers, creatives, musicians and technical teams really let rip in a production that is always epic in scale, and often gloriously over the top.  The Nutcracker with its surreal, dreamy narrative, and Tchaikovsky’s familiar score, is the perfect vehicle as naïve young rich girl Clara is given an introduction into another world by a mysterious magician Drosselmeyer, who gives her a toy nutcracker that in classic fairy tale fashion turns into a handsome prince. Charles Cusick Smith’s massive sets from an opulent country house to a wonderfully realised winter fantas...