Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East

Book, Music and Lyrics: Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe Director: Andy Fickman Heathers the Musical is never gone for long and it’s back on tour. Teen Veronica Sawyer is an outcast and she manages to make her way into the popular group, the Heathers, in an attempt to make it through high school. As she moves through life in the group and then falls in love with the mysterious and slightly sinister J.D., she discovers that popularity isn’t necessarily all it’s made out to be. It’s not a surprise that Heathers has gained such a strong fanbase, particularly from younger generations. The score…

Writer: Robert Bolt Director: Jonathan Church Many theatre goers will know this work from the highly acclaimed film version of 1966, now sixty years ago, which garnered no less than six Oscars including that for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). The huge success of that movie and the performances of its stars Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, John Hurt, Orson Welles Susannah York, Corin Redgrave, Leo McKern, Wendy Hillier and Nigel Davenport (a cast made in heaven) live long in the memory. This revival is thus long overdue and will delight the many fans of both the movie and Bolt’s body of…

Following last year’s immersive production of A Christmas Carol, Electric Press Productions take over East Riddlesden Hall, a historic National Trust house, to present Cinderella: An Immersive Pantomime Experience. We spoke to Samantha Creswick, Co-Founder of Electric Press Productions, about what makes this production so unique. Tell us about Cinderella: An Immersive Pantomime Experience – what makes it even more immersive than a typical pantomime? “In a word – the setting! We had been talking about doing a pantomime with an Electric Press “twist” – really repeating the formula of our wildly successful A Christmas Carol, and that completely crystallised for us…

Pretty Woman the Musical is heading back out on the road next year for another UK tour. A Big. Huge. UK tour some might say. Molly Rainford leads the cast in her stage debut as Vivian Ward. Rainford’s on screen credits include Anna Knight in EastEnders and the titular role in CBBC’s Nova Jones. She was a finalist on Britain’s Got Talent in 2012 and Strictly Come Dancing in 2022. Danny Walters takes on the role of Edward Lewis. He is best known for playing Keanu Taylor in EastEnders, a role for which he won numerous awards. He has also been seen in Benidorm, Call the Midwife and Our World War. On…

Following a sell-out tour and London run, ThickSkin’s production of It Walks Around The House At Night is back on tour. George Naylor reprises his role as Joe in the play written by Tim Foley. We caught up with him amidst the ongoing tour. What is It Walks Around The House At Night about and who do you play in it? “The play follows my character Joe, an out of work, gay, working class actor, who after being seduced by a handsome stranger at a bar, is offered a highly lucrative job to pretend to be a ghost and entertain the handsome stranger’s nieces…

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave Conductor: Patrick Lange Director: Femi Elufowoju jr The interview in the programme with Femi Elufowoju jr, the director of Opera North’s Rigoletto, first seen in January 2022, is headed, “Reimagining Rigoletto” – and so he has! First off is the removal of the jester’s humped back. Instead, as a black man in a white man’s world, he is always the potential victim. This builds in him, not a passive acceptance, but a paranoia that despite his joining in  the Duke’s mockery and cruelty of others (surprising how much theatre these days seems to reflect Trump),…

Writer and Director: Steve Gilroy Dramas about the golden age of clubland, and the turns that provided the entertainment in towns across the country are nothing new. But It’s a Wonderful Us, a new play from writer and director Steve Gilroy, in partnership with The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company, gives a powerful lease of life to an oft-told tale. Built around interviews and memories of a real County Durham family, the show puts people with learning difficulties front and centre. The narrative veers from Kafka to Capra; the bureaucratic challenges of securing the support Darren needs blending into the realisation that…

Writer: Lottie Burns Director: Connie Peel Rebel Roots Theatre Company is touring Aftermath, a warning about spiking of drinks, to various small venues, mostly without stages, in the vicinity of Leeds. This undeniably worthy production is undermined somewhat, however, by the fact that – over a period from Layla’s birth to the birth of her own child – it covers, briefly and often by means of a shouted argument followed by a walk-out, the multiple problems of parenting two wayward children turning into young adults. At the end everyone is apologising for their failures and the happy family is restored -…