There’s an air of mischief and delinquency in Lloyd Griffith’s material. With a brand-new, fresh stand-up show for 2023, his latest offering (his biggest tour to date) is first class; a real breath of fresh air. Regaling tales from his formative years to adolescence right through to adulthood, this really is a laugh-a-minute from the start. Griffith takes so much pleasure in sharing with us life’s daft misapprehensions with gusto and is able to demonstrate his talents as a vocalist. Impressionable; he sings with an ardently dulcet quality and to the show’s benefit is able to weave this talent into…
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.
Writer: Robert Harling Director: Anthony Banks Steel Magnolias, based on the 1989 film starring Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts, is about storytelling. It’s about six women, who regularly gather in Truvy’s hairdressing salon, sharing life with each other. Although much of the action happens off stage as the women narrate their experiences to each other, the show keeps moving at a good pace with a superb cast at the helm. The script by Robert Harling is in equal parts funny and moving. Harling gives all the characters their moment to shine and for the spotlight to be on them and…
Conceiver and Director: Daniel Martinez Flamenco is a conversation. When dancers work together with singers and musicians the result can be exciting. The Daniel Martinez Company are deft performers with all the necessary elements of a traditionally organic and deep rooted national music troupe. With a current vibe that is darkly electrifying, its power springs from its absolute authenticity, reaching a wider demographic on its current tour where the art form aims to push boundaries and connect with a different audience. Fans of the more traditional flamenco music also will appreciate the show’s purpose. Gabriela Pouso attacks each Cuban heel beat with…
Writer: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Adaptor: NLP Ltd Choreographer and puppet director: Johnny Austin Director: Brad Fitt Musical Director: Miles Russell The world premiere stage production of Tales from Acorn Wood brings Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s entrancing characters from the best selling books to life in a glorious, colourful and entertaining production. Poor old fox has lost his socks! Are they in the kitchen or inside the clock? And rat-a-tat-tat! Who’s that keeping Rabbit awake? Rabbits Nap, Postman Bear, Foxes Socks and Hide and Seek Pig, are the 4 tales from acorn woods brought to life in this production…
Writer: Charlie Josephine Director: Rob Watt A show about the virality of explicit photos and four disparate Year 11 students exploring their attitudes towards sexuality, gender, consent and the failings of high school sex ed classes, aimed at age 14+ and set to tour with accompanying workshops and CPD? One that starts with unashamed beatboxing? Oh gosh, it’s Issues Based Theatre isn’t it… Birds and Bees started life over lockdown 2020, streamed remotely to over 500 schools across the UK. Following input from these Zoom trapped guinea pigs, amongst other young folk, the show has been reworked for a live…
Conductor: Antony Hermus It says much for the Orchestra of Opera North that it is able to attract soloists of the calibre of Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg and, indeed, has secured the services of Dutch maestro Antony Hermus as Principal Guest Conductor. Together they produced a concert of remarkable virtuosity (from orchestra as well as soloist) to enthral a Huddersfield Town Hall audience far bigger than might have been expected for the performance of two Russian 20th century heavyweights, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The programme note on Serge Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto points to the dichotomy in his musical personality between…
Writer: Steven Knight CBE Choreographer: Benoit Swan Pouffer Composer: Roman GianArthur Peaky Blinders in pointe shoes was likely not on many people’s 2023 Bingo Card, but Rambert Dance have brought this strange concept to reality in Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby. It’s even written by the original creator Steven Knight, meaning that fans of the critically acclaimed TV show don’t have to worry about what might be lost in translation; and newcomers can head home after a solid introduction to catch up on the rest of the story, should the ballet leave them wanting more. The tale told…
Music, Lyrics and Book: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe How to describe The Rocky Horror Show to a virgin? Part drag show, part homage to 50’s B-movie Sci-Fi, the decadent daydream of a stage show has been delighting fans since 1973, when writer and original Riff-Raff Richard O’Brien unleashed his manic creation onto an unsuspecting world, initially with little fanfare or acclaim, but building quickly into the very definition of a cult classic. The plot is really neither here nor there, as the audience are here for crass jokes, rock inspired sing-a-longs and the excuse to wear a corset regardless…