Writer: Tina Fey Music: Jeff Richmond Lyrics: Nell Benjamin Director: Casey Nicholaw For better and for worse, the plot of Mean Girls has become increasingly relevant since the film was released in 2004. On the negative side, in the past 22 years, the world has got a lot meaner. However, the themes of female empowerment and celebrating individuality also resonate more today than ever before. This musical adaptation by the ever-excellent Tina Fey of her own movie screenplay manages to subtly incorporate newer technology such as smartphones and social media while retaining the original’s spirit (both mean and otherwise). Teenager Cady Heron moves to Chicago…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East
The Reviews Hub - Yorkshire & North East
The Yorkshire & North East team is under the editorship of Jacob Bush. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Writers: Ben Ward and Claire Wetton Music: Richie Webb Director: Neal Foster History has rarely felt this alive – or this cheeky. Horrible Histories Live (and Dead)!: The Concert storms the stage with a swagger that feels less like a traditional theatre outing and more like being dropped into a brilliantly chaotic history lesson where the teachers have completely lost control (in the best way possible). Framed around a flustered William Shakespeare attempting to assemble the “greatest show on earth,” the production quickly spirals into delightful anarchy as famous figures hijack proceedings. Before long, the likes of Henry VIII, Elizabeth…
Writer/Lyricist: Maeve Larkin Composer: Robert Cooper Director: Marianne McNamara In its 54th year of touring Mikron Theatre Company took the first of their two plays into the company’s headquarters, a packed Marsden Mechanics Hall. This year both its productions have a distinctly regional flavour, Top of the Wold being a tribute to the East Riding Mobile Library, the culmination of a four-year relationship. The mix was the same as punters have grown to love with Mikron: a fictional contemporary story with bits of history, often comically told, breaking in at every opportunity, the whole thing interspersed with comically pointed songs expertly…
As family outings go, this was something a bit different. Newcastle Racecourse celebrated the All-Weather Championships Finals Day with a family fun day. Top-class racing on the track, and a wealth of child-friendly entertainment alongside. It seemed odds-on for a good day out. Admittedly, there were some question marks. In pre-parenting days, trips to the races revolved around drinking and gambling. Not the most child-friendly activities. And dropping into the crowded Grandstand Hall for an early meet-and-greet with Spiderman, Rapunzel and a free Easter Egg meant coping with a large and noisy crowd thronging the bars and bookies. For a…
Tickets are now on general sale for The Pantomime Awards 2026 which will take place on Sunday 19 April at 5pm at Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe, staged in partnership with Trafalgar Entertainment and ATG Entertainment. In addition to celebrating the winners, The Pantomime Awards 2026 will feature special guest performances from some of pantomime’s biggest stars, alongside other exceptional talent from across the industry. The line-up includes Steve Royle, the stand-up comedian, ITV Britain’s Got Talent finalist and presenter who last year won Best Comic for his performance in Cinderella at Blackpool Grand Theatre, pantomime dame Michael J Bachelor…
Book/Music: Joe Kinosian Book/Lyrics: Kellen Blair Director: Caroline Leslie Murder for Two has become an international phenomenon in the last decade and a half, but it’s doubtful if any production has been as totally crazy (or as long) as this or witnessed such gloriously virtuosic (not to say, over the top) acting. The decision by director Caroline Leslie and designer Jess Curtis to set the whole thing in a BBC studio in 1959, with a live broadcast scheduled at the last minute, explains why two hapless actors are faced with the problem of doing the play with minimum preparation. It also…
Mark Simmons is riding a wave. King of the algorithm, he seems to be one of those comedians that come pre-clipped on every swipe of a social media reel. A regular in the list of best jokes at the Edinburgh Festival, a podcaster and panelist on Mock the Week, he has stepped up from circuit act to being able to sell out a 400+ seater venue like the Lawrence Batley Theatre. As a one-liner comedian he is excellent content for the thumb-heavy scroller with a severe deficit in attention. Hot on the heels of his last sixty-minute show, Quip Off the Mark, comes Jest to Impress and it is more of the same quick-fire jokebook fodder with an impressive gags per minute ratio. As a one…
Writer: Torben Betts Director: Philip Franks Despite its title, and the fact that it is a spiritual sequel to Original Theatre’s serious thriller Murder in the Dark from a few years ago, Murder at Midnight is surprisingly a comedic farce. It contains lots of elements of the thriller and murder mystery genres but first and foremost clearly wants to deliver laughs. Writer Torben Betts states in the programme that he was aiming for something in the spirit of (TV show and subsequent play) Inside No. 9 and although it doesn’t quite hit the heights of that genius collaboration between Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Murder by Midnight certainly sits comfortably in that wheelhouse and delivers enough shocks and chuckles for it to be…