Within 30 seconds of Joe McElderry hitting the Hull New Theatre stage on Monday night, as hotel entertainments manager and club rep, Garry, my worst nightmare came true … and I loved it.
Many people remain unware that when millions of Britons signed up to fight Hitler the volunteer army that formed included both men and women.
A few weeks ago, I found myself thinking the whole Brexit situation could make a very entertaining show only to find that the team at Blowfish Theatre thought the same thing. Boris the Musical 2: Brexit Harder is the second instalment in the series focusing on Boris Johnson’s role in Brexit.
This is an interesting and powerful comedy-drama from Jon Brittain (writer) and Donnacadh O’Briain (director) at York Theatre Royal, about what happens when a person decides to transition from one physical gender to another. More specifically, it’s also about the effects of that transformation on their loved ones, including their romantic partner.
Theatre requires constant suspension of disbelief but this uber meta adaptation of the Jules Verne classic requires you to believe four actors on a pretty bare stage can take us on a race round the world in 80 days.
Most of the musicals that come through the Grand are based on smash hit movies like Dirty Dancing or Mamma Mia but this show is based on a film that pretty much flopped.
As the lights dimmed on Monday night at the Hull New Theatre and a male voice boomed out, ordering us to “KEEP YOUR KNICKERS ON!”, I knew we were in for a fun night.
We were here for The Full Monty, but it wouldn’t be us in the packed audience taking our knickers off.
The award winning musical by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth is a warm, celebratory yet poignant tale heavily based on the inspiring story of the 12 members of the Rylstone and District Women's Institute in Yorkshire, who took off their clothes to produce an alternative calendar in memory of a friend and to raise money for Bloodwise, the blood cancer research charity.
Wheels within wheels, plays within plays. Who is really whom and what does it all mean? The answers to these questions lie in this stylish production of Edmond de Bergerac, a twist on the classic play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand first performed in 1897. Written by the French playwright Alexis Michalik (translated into English by Jeremy Sams) and directed by Roxana Silbert, the play is entertaining and technically impressive, though somewhat lacking in spontaneity and surprise.
Most companies just require actors to learn the lines and hit their marks but this time out Red Ladder have asked their cast to learn how to wrestle.
To make Nick Ahad’s play work all four actors have learnt complicated moves made popular by the likes of Yorkshire’s Big Daddy in yesteryear on ITV’s World of Sport, and more recently by the cartoon grapplers over the pond who populate the daft WWE.
It often seems provincial audiences aren’t sophisticated enough to take on Tom Stoppard’s undoubted gift for wordplay as his plays usually only plays in the capital so the great man’s fans were looking forward to this rarely toured piece.
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