Leeds Playhouse Archives - North West End UK

The wicked White Witch rules over Leeds Playhouse’s festive extravaganza

20Nov

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

The wicked White Witch rules over Leeds Playhouse’s festive extravaganza

The extravagant festive shows at Leeds Playhouse have become the stuff of legend and this year they are bringing back The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. They last staged C.S. Lewis’ classic children’s book to packed houses back in 2017, as four young evacuees venture through a mysterious portal in a wardrobe finding themselves at the heart of a war in the permanently wintery land of Narnia. Katy Stephens has taken on starring Shakespearian roles with the RSC, the National Theatre and at London’s Globe Theatre, but has headed north to play the villainous White Witch, who rules Narnia with an icy iron fist. Our features Editor Paul Clarke caught up with Katy between rehearsals to talk about the challenges of playing such an iconic villain, and why live theatre is still the best nigh...

A Thousand Splendid Suns shine on Leeds Playhouse

8Oct

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

A Thousand Splendid Suns shine on Leeds Playhouse

A new stage version of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of the highlights of next year’s Spring/Summer season at Leeds Playhouse. The sequel to his bestselling book, The Kite Runner, is a tale of how love can grow and sustain the human spirit even during the bleakest of times under the oppressive Taliban. It opens in Birmingham ahead of transferring to the Quarry Theatre at Leeds Playhouse from 28th May – 14th June 2025 as part of a national tour. Directed by former Birmingham Rep and Hampstead Theatre Artistic Director Roxana Silbert, the production is set in 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war. Orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world, but her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home to take Laila as his second wife. ...

19Sep

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Raisin in the Sun – Leeds Playhouse

With confidence it can be assured that I was one of many who walked away from this show truly moved, in fact more than that. Inspired. A beautifully dedicated performance to the true beauty of culture and history was portrayed up on that stage, as eyes were opened to the struggles and prejudice that the black community faced in the 60’s. The story meets an aspirational family with finance as the root cause of all their problems, son, and father Walter Lee is power hungry and desperate for a change in funds. With his mother, sister, wife, and son all bundled into one home he feels the pressure to provide a better future for his family, although his chances seem slim the long-awaited cheque from his father’s passing is what keeps his hopes alive. Solomon Israel was truly fascinating in hi...

18Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Birdsong – Leeds Playhouse

There’s been plenty of novels about the First World War, but Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong was one of the best, blending a love story and the cost of that conflict’s carnage, so it was a natural for a stage adaptation. It’s now over a decade since Rachel Wagstaff’s first adaptation of Birdsong, and all the Tommies who fought in the so called war to end all wars are now dead. Ironically the world still seems intent on blowing itself up, so Wagstaff’s reworked revival with a stark new set by Richard Kent was a timely reminder that war is a terrible business that solves nothing. This three act - and rare two interval - version opened with callow Englishman Stephen Wraysford visiting France to view a struggling factory whereupon he fell helplessly in love with the owner’s wife Isabelle. De...

16Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Paranormal Activity – Leeds Playhouse

All of us have a personal deep, dark fear – mine is enclosed spaces – we’d run a million miles from, but it says something about human nature that most of us volunteer to be scared half to death watching horror movies. When the Courtyard theatre went totally dark there was a deep sense of both excitement and unease as we waited for this theatrical adaptation of the classic horror movie Paranormal Activity. There are two types of horror – splatter or psychological – and life long fan of the macabre Levi Holloway’s adaptation was most definitely on the creepy side, messing with our minds rather than splashing us with blood. Fans of the wildly successful Paranormal Activity franchise will enjoy this, but there’s plenty for people who never saw them at the flicks to enjoy as Holloway had...

Leeds Playhouse seek young stars as they launch an open casting for Coraline – A Musical

11Jun

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse seek young stars as they launch an open casting for Coraline – A Musical

Leeds Playhouse is working with leading casting directors Keston & Keston to find young stars to play the lead role in Coraline – A Musical which opens in 2025 Candidates who will be asked to supply a self-tape must be 9-13 years old at the date of audition and live within approximately an hour’s commute from Leeds or Manchester. This is a paid role, and the Playhouse welcomes female and female-identifying young people and with additional access requirements. The closing date for applications is 30th June 2024. “Coraline is a curious, brave and resourceful young person. She is an unlikely but inspiring hero whose curiosity about the world matches her courage to face her biggest fears,” says Leeds Playhouse Artistic Director James Brining, who will be directing the productio...

8Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

My Fair Lady – Leeds Playhouse

For many My Fair Lady is the ultimate big screen version of a musical, but famously the vocals of one of the leading actors was overdubbed and the other talked his way through the whole thing. This Leeds Playhouse co-production with Opera North offers a return to the original hit musical that featured a young Julie Andrews, and here both leads are great singers who do full justice to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s classic score packed with showstoppers. My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion that took its inspiration from a Greek myth where a sculptor fell in love with one of his creations. Lerner’s book turns it into a fable where an arrogant phonetician Henry Higgins takes on a bet he can turn any woman into a lady, so he plucks Cockney flower seller Eliza ...

21May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Here You Come Again – Leeds Playhouse

‘What would Dolly do?’ That’s the premise for the UK version of a musical comedy based on some of the greatest songs from country music’s undoubted queen Dolly Parton and one of the all-time great songwriters in any genre. Asking that question is fortysomething Kevin marooned in his parent’s attic during lockdown after splitting up with his boyfriend and his furlough pay is coming to an end. His boyhood room is a shrine to Dolly and as if by magic - or his subconscious - the relentlessly upbeat country and gay icon pops up to help her flamboyant, but secretly floundering, superfan find his way. This is not only a love letter to a big hearted philanthropist who has distributed 150 million free books to kids because her beloved daddy couldn’t read, but to a hall of fame songwriter w...

Comedy version of The Time Machine comes to Leeds Playhouse

18Mar

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NEWS

Comedy version of The Time Machine comes to Leeds Playhouse

H G Wells was not known for his comic genius but his Sci-fi masterpiece The Time Machine is played for laughs at Leeds Playhouse direct from a highly acclaimed season at London’s Park Theatre. The Time Machine - A Comedy stars Michael Dylan, Amy Revelle and George Kemp, and is produced by the team behind the hit comedy The Hound of the Baskervilles, Original Theatre. The trio take the audience on a journey of a lifetime as George tries to persuade the others to stick to the script he’s worked so hard on, as Michael attempts to explain time travel without the help of excessive props. Will Amy get to sing her Cher tribute and can these three clowns defeat the space time paradox If Amy was to somehow invent a time machine, she knows exactly which period she would go back to. “I would...

9Mar

By Phoebe Olivia Sian HobsonNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Macbeth – Leeds Playhouse

Mesmerising! This show had my full attention from start to finish, the sinister atmosphere took full control over the full theatre and it’s fair to say the performance was a triumph to the Shakespeare play. Director Amy Leach has taken this traditional tale and put a modern twist on it, the set design was extremely fascinating and a creative tactic for refreshing a well-known story. With real mud and puddles spread across the floor of the stage, beams in positions like trees and the wooden floor that raised to create different dimensions, the audience had no choice but to be immersed within the action. For a small cast the energy was at a high, the first battle was extremely upbeat and the decision to endure the war with a modern tune in the background was really enticing and fresh. ...