Tag Archives: Sheffield

Review – Heathers the Musical, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 23rd October 2026

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I must confess, gentle reader, that I wasn’t at all sure about what I had let ourselves in for when I booked to see Heathers the Musical at the lovely Lyceum theatre in Sheffield, as part of its national tour. I’d not seen (or even heard of) the 1989 film which Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe had adapted to create this musical, which started life about twenty years ago in the USA and has reached all around the world with several productions and revivals, including winning Best New Musical in the 2019 What’s on Stage Awards. Frankly, I should be ashamed.

But in case you’re like me and need some background, three influential teenagers each named Heather rule the roost at Westerberg High School, bullying and victimising their way to the top. Get on their side and you might be protected; get on their wrong side and your life will be a misery. Veronica Sawyer thinks that sucking up to Chief Heather, Heather Chandler, will enable her to survive the course, even if that means being disloyal to her best friend, the unfashionable Martha Dunnstock. There’s a new boy in town too, Jason Dean, and he seems unimpressed by the Heatherocracy, exuding an attractive sense of cool that entrances Veronica. She and Jason become an item, but when JD starts to get – shall we say – original ideas on how to cope with the Heathers, things definitely start to get out of hand.

Heathers the Musical clearly attracts a cult following; Mrs Chrisparkle and I were almost certainly the oldest people in the Lyceum last Friday evening and my guess is that 95% of the audience was female. However, much to my surprise, the audience was extraordinarily attentive to the show and kept the ecstatic whooping to the end of each song rather than interrupting the performance. In fact, the show kept them absolutely gripped, which clearly shows that it’s doing something very right indeed.

David Shields’ set is full of character, throbbing with school life but also adapting cleverly into houses, bedrooms and so on. Ben Cracknell’s lighting and costume design is particularly effective, emphasising the show’s colour coding and the power of red; and Gary Lloyd’s choreography is energetic and entertaining, creating an excellent accompaniment to Will Joy’s seven-piece band who give full throttle to Murphy and O’Keefe’s enjoyable tunes. The songs are at their most effective when giving us unexpected insights into the anxieties and insecurities of some of the characters – Martha’s Kindergarten Boyfriend and Heather McNamara’s Lifeboat stand out for those reasons, as indeed does the predominant theme Seventeen, a plea for simply living life as an ordinary teenager without all the pressures and consequence of crime.

What really drives this show on is its fearless, unpredictable plot. Murder, attempted suicide and false suicide notes, attempted rape, ruthless bullying, body-shaming; you name it, Westerberg High’s got it. Borrowing an element of Sweeney’s Epiphany – they all deserve to die – from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and presaging some of the themes of Dear Evan Hansen, there’s not much point this show having trigger warnings because it simply contains everything. However, it’s written, directed and acted with such deft charm that – for the most part – it gets away with it.

This touring production has an excellent cast of actors, singers and dancers, headed by Gerardine Sacdalan as the likeable Veronica and Louis Hearsey as the enigmatic JD. They have good chemistry together and their terrific singing voices work well with the show’s more upbeat numbers, even if you yearn for a clearer sound quality so that you can catch all the words. Veronica Carabai as Ms Fleming brought the house down with her scene when she rounds on one of the few male members of the audience (“Steve”) and castigates him for his affair in front of his wife – kudos to the gentleman unwittingly chosen to be Steve in our performance who (in my opinion quite rightly) gave as good as he got – Heathers the Musical does maybe have to learn a few lessons about consent!

Liberty Stottor gives a great performance as Heather Chandler, exuding the kind of charisma that would demand obedience and self-abasement from her victims, whilst still strangely cutting an inspirational figure for the nobodies to admire. Lou Henry as Heather McNamara and, in our performance, understudy Tola Sokoya as Heather Duke effectively convey that pretence to bullying whilst being bullied themselves, revealing how they too are victims. In her professional debut Sophie Manners is superb as Martha, driven to despair when everything she has believed in is proven to have been false; and there’s another first-rate professional debut from Beau Jackson as Ram, who together with Markus Södergren as Kurt make a delightfully obnoxious pair of troublemakers. But the entire cast form a terrific ensemble with absolutely no weak links.

Heathers the Musical treads a very fine line between gallows humour and tastelessness, occasionally lurching on the wrong side of the balance but overall maintaining its ability to take some extremely dark subjects and illuminate them in the way that only musical theatre can. Anyway, your teenage daughter will love it, and that’s what it’s all about. The UK and Ireland tour continues to Blackpool, Cheltenham, Chichester, Dublin, Oxford, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, York, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bradford, Chelmsford, and Torquay until it reaches Cambridge next May.

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Twelfth Night, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 23rd October 2026

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Following on from last month’s fantastic King Lear, and with the same cast apart from a change of “star performer”, Jamie Glover’s Twelfth Night is nothing if not ecologically sound, keeping the same set as Lear except that they’ve shovelled up the pea shingle to adorn someone’s driveway. Why not? Consequently, the only hint of colour in the set is from the golden globe in the backdrop representing, I presume, the sun, which deftly switches to a very atmospheric moon during the early (and superbly realised) shipwreck scene.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for colour, you have to fall back on some of the costumes. The majority are in black and white, save Olivia’s stunning green dress, Orsino’s plush red outfit and, of course, Malvolio’s fabulous yellow cross-gartered stockings. For music, we have three strolling musicians who occasionally come on to accompany David Birrell’s Feste. I’m used to Feste being quite a young, jocund chap, but this Feste is middle-aged, tends towards the morose and is thoroughly cynical, and his songs very much echo Orsino’s dying fall observation. A fascinating and well-performed characterisation; but I felt that the music didn’t help the play along at all, and simply introduced a few lulls and longueurs, pausing the action when we really all just wanted to get on with it.

This is one of those awkward productions when the sum of all its parts didn’t add up to the whole. No question, it’s a fantastic cast, none more fantastic than Matthew Horne’s Malvolio, a performance of sheer quality. Prissy of speech and pedantic of gesture, you instantly get why everyone else in the household despises him; anyone would. Matthew Horne’s verbal delivery of the role is as exquisite as you hope for; if you only associate him with sitcom-land, this performance is a true revelation.

In particular, his cross-gartered scene is brilliant, with the character engaging in a newly found sexually charged identity, including just the right level of outrageous physical comedy. But the antics of his three onlookers, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian, with whom you usually laugh along, here just seem peripheral and, frankly, a bit of a nuisance. When Malvolio is duped and thrown into jail, and in his final scene where he swears vengeance on them all, it’s one of those occasions where you really identify with him and are truly uncomfortable about how badly he has been treated.

Other strong performances come from Katie Wimpenny as a very chirpy and believable Maria, James Chetwood as a genuinely funny (rather than slightly embarrassing) Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Harry Redding as Sebastian. Mark Holgate divests the character of Antonio with the same level of nobility that he displayed as Kent in Lear, and Bebe Sanders carries much of the play with a very intelligent portrayal of Viola. And Justina Kehinde really comes into her own once Olivia abandons her mourning and vivaciously begins fancying Cesario.

All these excellent performances, yet the feeling that overwhelms you about the whole production is that it’s a little bland, a little tame. Some cutting of the text means the show proceeds quite quickly (pausing for songs notwithstanding) but that also means scenes stop and start regularly and it doesn’t have a natural flow. A full Friday matinee audience didn’t laugh much, especially in the first Act; and, overall, I just wanted more.

3-starsThree-sy Does It!

Review – King Lear, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 5th September 2026

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The first of two Shakespeare plays to be staged at the Sheffield Crucible this autumn, Titas Halder’s production of King Lear boasts the must-see billing of Ian McDiarmid as the foolish fond old king. This is an intelligent, stark production, more cerebral than emotional, acted on a largely blank stage with just a round sunken pit in the centre, surrounded by earth. Nevertheless, it’s visually powerful, with an inventive and effective lighting design by Ryan Day, functional costumes by Richard Kent, and an eerie soundscape by Emma Laxton. Indeed, it’s remarkable what an atmosphere can be created by the right combination of smoke, light and pea shingle.

Despite its being five minutes short of three hours, the plot moves at a cracking pace, and the clarity of the storytelling is outstanding. The characterisations are, for the most part, strong and memorable, and the acting is superb. McDiarmid’s Lear is a sarcastic, entitled bighead, quick to ire, with a withering tone of voice that could make even the most virtuous of daughters flinch. When Cordelia refuses to play the adoration game (an assertive, no-nonsense performance from Bebe Sanders) this Lear isn’t merely disappointed and disapproving; he truly despises every inch of her being.

After being outwitted by a Goneril and Regan more power-hungry than he could have imagined, his descent into madness is structured, logical, and totally believable. His snide, mocking personality becomes pathetic and pitiful; but because he was such a difficult man when he had his wits about him, it’s hard to feel sorry for him. It’s much more of a study of how a fool can give away his power by trusting people who are not to be trusted. One’s sympathies are much more extended to Mark Holgate’s noble and faithful Kent, David Birrell’s easily duped Gloucester, and a truly upstanding Albany played by Milo Twomey.

Katie Wimpenny and Justina Kehinde are both exceptional as Goneril and Regan; in particular, Ms Kehinde’s unhinged glee at plucking out Gloucester’s eyes is a remarkable portrayal of the visceral pleasure by one ghoulish monster at the total domination of their victim. Both are keenly attracted to Fode Simbo’s Edmund, another intelligent, credible, and unsensational portrayal of a man who (as he sees it) is simply trying to get what he feels is rightly his – and not remotely concerned about who gets hurt in the process. There’s one more absolutely superb performance – Max Revell as the Fool, whose every move mimics and scorns Lear’s own movements, creating some extraordinary, contorted shapes in a remarkable physical performance.

Arresting from the start, this is a stunning, engrossing and totally lucid production, full of fine performances and intense atmosphere. You won’t shed a tear for Lear and Cordelia, but you will make the conscious decision never to give all to your daughters.

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – A Christmas Carol, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 3rd January 2026

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Ever the businessman, I reckon Charles Dickens today would be pretty satisfied with how his Christmas Carol franchise was performing, 183 years since it was first published. From Alastair Sim to the Muppets, from the musical Scrooge to the regular Old Vic production, old Ebenezer and those ghosts are never going to go away. One of the most influential books ever written, its legacy truly lives on. And now, Aisha Khan has adapted it with a unique Sheffield twist for the Crucible stage.

In this production, Jack – a kind of Artful Dodger, briskly played by Mel Lowe – tells three young scallywags about Scrooge’s extraordinary tale, creating a distancing framework and a setting for the story. Once the story starts to unfold, it’s told in a very traditional and straightforward manner, with the revelations of Scrooge’s humble beginnings and how he threw away his chance of happiness with Belle, how he mistreated his kindly boss Mr Fezziwig, and his encounters with those oh so important ghosts.

As an aficionado, rather than a native, of Sheffield, I wasn’t aware of the area’s carol tradition. Dickens saw his story of the redemption of Scrooge as the embodiment of a carol, hence his choice of title. What could be more relevant, then, to incorporate the local tradition of carols into this show? Every year come November, local pubs ring out with the informal singing of songs like Six Jolly Miners, Hail Smiling Morn or Sweet Chiming Bells, known by all so that everyone, unrehearsed, can join in – but totally unknown outside the local area. Aisha Khan’s adaptation includes many of these rousing numbers, helping to take Dickens’ original tale away from its traditional London setting and bring it to Sheffield. This local influence is also seen in the inspired decision to make the Ghost of Christmas Past a miner, leading Scrooge through his history with the aid of his torch-equipped helmet.

Rose Revitt and Kevin Jenkins’ alluring set combines a grim, rickety, upstairs office garret with a more comfortable room downstairs, contrasting Scrooge’s solitary workplace for one with a sociable space for the Cratchits to enjoy their meagre Christmas lunch or for Scrooge’s nephew Fred to host his Christmas party. Bob Cratchit’s desk is placed centre stage, virtually cut adrift from the rest of society, with no creature comforts; just a target for Scrooge to hurl his bundles of documents from a height above so that they come crashing down next to Cratchit to work on – a very nice touch to display the inhumanity of Scrooge’s treatment of his employee.

The costume design is perfect for its era, and the production requires over 100 costumes in all, so the Crucible’s Wardrobe department had its work cut out to recreate the times so credibly. Richard Howell’s lighting design is evocative and inventive, including an ominous creation of Scrooge’s grave, and John Bulleid’s illusion designs work very effectively, adding a touch of eerie magic to the proceedings. Trundling large and heavy elements of the set into place, however, was unfortunately noisy and distracting – just a minor quibble.

Director Elin Schofield created a superb ensemble feel to the entire production, with many cast members adopting several roles, as well as joining in with the songs and choreography. Everyone gave a great performance; stand-outs are Adam Price combining the roles of Fezziwig and the Ghost of Christmas Present, Nitai Levi as the Ghost of Christmas Past,  and Ryan O’Donnell and Kimberly Blake as Mr and Mrs Cratchit, the latter’s refusal to raise a toast to their employer sending a thrill of righteous indignation in agreement with her down all our backs. The a cappella singing is electric – and put me in mind of the production of One Big Blow at the Liverpool Everyman more than forty years ago, which gave rise to the successful group The Flying Pickets.

Ian Midlane is excellent as Scrooge; this is no pantomime villain but a believably complicated and self-deluding soul who fell back on his complacency and saw no need to treat the world kindly, when he thought money was the answer to everything. His change into a charitable chap is great fun to watch and gives the audience a feelgood pickup.

A well-constructed, innovative approach to a familiar story; sadly, now closed, but it is an excellent addition to the Crucible’s ever-growing list of successful Christmas shows.

4-stars

Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Aladdin, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 2nd January 2026

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AladdinWasn’t it Chicago who sang – and I think it was – you’re a Hard Habit to Break? That could have been written about our relationship with the Sheffield panto. And why wouldn’t you – like us – go back year after year for the nostalgically effervescent thrill of an iconic production in a glorious theatre, with music provided under the direction of the most enthusiastic man in show business James Harrison, plus great performers, and all fronted by a bloke in a dress?

The showcase production from Evolution Pantomimes, this year’s offering was Aladdin. Cue an opportunity to meet villagers, a genie, a spirit of the ring, a beautiful princess, a protective policeman, a lovesick local lad, his mates, an evil baddie and a Dame. I rather like the old characterisations of Wishee Washee, Widow Twankey and Abanazar, but this is the 21st century, so instead we have Charlie, Dame Dolly and – you have to give them a lot of credit for this name – Kevin Clifton as Ivan Tochacha.

Having seen the Palladium panto a few days earlier, with all its talent and – let’s not beat about the bush, financial resources – it’s truly impressive how exciting the Sheffield panto remains. The set is a joy to behold, the lighting is exhilarating and the music is impossibly good for just four musicians. Not only that, but the script always treads the perfect balance of giving plenty for both the kids and the adults to laugh at – a balance that few other pantos manage – and is genuinely funny.

It’s no surprise that the recently widowed Dame Dolly is after a new boyfriend, and for our show it was third row Chris who was her lucky suitor. This year his duties were not restricted to his seat, and he sportingly joined the cast on stage for a bit of banter – always irresistible fun. There was some terrific stage magic with Aladdin’s flight on the magic carpet – from our position in Row E, with Aladdin performing aerial somersaults not that far from our heads, we couldn’t work out how it operated. And I’m happy about that – you don’t always want the magic spoiled! And of course, it isn’t the Lyceum Panto without the legendary Lyceum Panto bench, which this year featured a group of mummies (Egyptian, not scrummy) terrorising the decent citizens of the village until they flee at the sight of the Dame. Charming!

The villagers were an exceptional ensemble as always – I particularly liked Dance Captain Charlotte Ross Gower’s turn as “Lorraine” in one of the comedy routines. Joey Wilby was perfect as our gang leader Charlie, George Akid a delightfully frenetic PC World, and Elliot Broadfoot showed off his terrific voice and stage presence as the Genie. Sario Solomon and Lauren Chia made a convincing couple as Aladdin and his beloved Princess Jasmine; to be honest, never has it been so easy for a young lad to win the hand of a princess, but I’m sure they’ll be very happy together.

Evie Pickerill (that’s Evie from CBeebies, as we heard many a time) was outstanding as the Spirit of the Ring, conveying just the right amount of upbeat enthusiasm to keep the story moving for the kids – who loved her – whilst always having a little knowing glint in her eye for the adults. And hats off to Kevin Clifton, who really ran with the role of Mr Tochacha, playing the baddie for all he was worth, giving us plenty of dance moves (he hasn’t lost it yet) and providing the best moments in the show as he led the ensemble in a thrilling rendition of I Predict A Riot.

Finale of AladdinBut the star of the show was, as always, Damian Williams, returning to the Sheffield panto for his 18th year in the role of the Dame – I guess that means he has now reached adulthood. There’s no one quite like him, with his amusingly ungainly presence, larger than life in all directions, tremendous versatility in physical comedy, and a true understanding of what makes panto tick. He celebrated his 1000th performance as the Dame during this run – which kind of says it all.

Next year – Cinderella, and we’re already booked in. So should you!

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – Little Shop of Horrors, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 19th December 2024

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When I saw that the Sheffield Crucible were staging Little Shop of Horrors as their Christmas musical this year my heart leapt. One of my favourite memories from ever watching a show was the first time I saw LSOH in 1984 at the then named Comedy Theatre in London; I still recall the genuinely terrifying moment at the end when unseen tendrils descended from the roof and gently touched my face and hair without my knowing where they had come from – they gave me the fright of my life!

Forty years on, Amy Hodge brings a new production to the Crucible with its wide open spaces and new challenges as to how to present the show; and the whole team has done a fine job in updating it, with some bold staging decisions which certainly pleased a large percentage of the audience at Thursday’s matinee, but didn’t always sit quite right with me.

But let’s not run before we can walk. I’m sure you know the concept behind Little Shop of Horrors, but just in case… Mushnik’s flower shop on Skid Row is down on its uppers; a dead beat location, an unmotivated staff and Mr Mushnik is just about ready to shut up shop for good, when his assistant Seymour shows him a new plant he’s been cultivating. Its creation coincided with an unexpected total eclipse, which seems to have given it a life of its own. Unfortunately for Seymour, it thrives on blood, and, because it’s his protégé, he feels obliged to feed it a few of his own red drops every day. He calls the plant Audrey II, in honour of his much admired colleague Audrey who doesn’t seem to notice him – she only has time for her sadistic boyfriend who assaults her. However, Audrey II grows, and grows – and becomes celebrated in the neighbourhood, transforming the fortunes of the shop and Mushnik’s income. What could possibly go wrong? You’ll have to come and see the show if you don’t know!

Georgia Lowe has created a very inventive set that combines the destitution of Skid Row with modern digital interfaces as well as the traditional florist shop. I love how the refuse bins at the side of the stage become their own acting spaces – extremely clever! Of course, the big challenge is how to create Audrey II. In the past it has been brought to life purely by means of puppetry and an offstage actor’s voice. But in this production, Audrey II is now performed by an actor, who gradually increases in power and vocality by means of additional mouths and stems, separately animated by other actors.

Despite Sam Buttery’s excellent vocal performance, I simply couldn’t believe in this presentation. Separating the different elements of Audrey II’s body (for want of a better word) so clearly stops us from believing in its being one plant and not several; and seeing Sam Buttery’s face at a relatively early stage in the performance also prevents our own imaginations from working to imagine the increasingly horrific appearance of the plant. Once seen, Audrey II’s identity is fixed in our brains, so there’s no route for her to get scarier, and, despite all the other actors lugging around enormous green shoots and tendrils, you never really get the impression of Audrey II’s overwhelming growth.

The show is clearly set on Skid Row; a distinctly American term for a down-at-heel environment, and the Americanisms of the original show are all still there in full force – prices are given in dollars, and when we see money being handled, it’s undoubtedly American greenbacks. However, Seymour has a pure strong Brummie accent, Orin speaks the Full King’s English, and the chorus of street girls are as London as you can get; in fact, there’s not an American accent anywhere to be heard. Don’t get me wrong; I found it rather refreshing to witness a very British Little Shop of Horrors, but it reveals a huge disconnect between the performance and the material, which just doesn’t feel right.

Fortunately, the performances are extremely good, with some outstanding vocals and characterisations. Wilf Scolding does a terrific job of portraying just how vile Orin is, and he mines all the humour out of the excellent Be a Dentist. Lizzy Rose Esin Kelly, Paige Fenlon and Charlotte Jaconelli give us great harmonies as the Ronette/Chiffon/Crystal girls, and there’s great support from Michael Matus’ Mushnik and indeed the whole talented ensemble.

In the lead roles, Sam Buttery’s powerful voice leaves us in no doubt as to the menace of Audrey II’s appetite, and Colin Ryan’s Seymour is nicely nerdy, like a green-fingered IT specialist. Georgina Onuorah is sensational as Audrey, with a stunning voice and a powerful, emotional delivery. It says a lot for their performances that, despite all the high energy, flashy dancing and big rocky numbers, the two stand-out moments were Ms Onuorah’s fantastic Somewhere That’s Green in the first Act and her shared Suddenly Seymour with Mr Ryan in the second. For me, these heartfelt, plaintive performances really blew the rest of the show out of the water.

One can only admire the creativity and inventiveness that went into bringing this show to the stage, and the audience went wild for it. Remember – always stick to regular plant food, much the safest way. Little Shop of Horrors is on at the Crucible until 18th January.

 

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Snow White, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 18th December 2024

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Whilst there are ravens at the Tower of London, a debate about whether it’s cream or jam first, and leaves on the line bring the country to a standstill, you know that Damian Williams will appear as the Dame at the Sheffield Lyceum panto. This year his Nurse Nellie crops up in Snow White, a fairytale known for its important role of a fat bloke in a dress. (It isn’t really, but when did that matter?)

There’s always a huge buzz of anticipation for this annual treat as the packed audience look forward to ticking off each of the elements that they love and know will entertain them throughout the show. From the Bring Me Sunshine introduction, to selecting Nellie’s new boyfriend from the audience, to becoming a member of Muddles’ gang, to the ghost/bench scene, to Damian trying to make Prince Charming corpse, and of course ending up with a big wedding celebration, Snow White is full of the usual joys of the Christmas season, delivered with heart and commitment, and always extremely funny.

Heading the cast this year is Coronation Street’s Catherine Tyldesley, bringing a rather elegant villainy to the role of the Wicked Queen, and astounding us all with her sensational voice. Marc Pickering also returns as Henchman Herman, having given us his Luke Backinanger in Jack and the Beanstalk two years ago.His dream (this year) is to perform as Elton John; no surprises then, as to the nature of the big finale number. Matthew Croke and Aoife Kenny provide a terrific musical pairing as Prince Charming and Snow White, George Akid’s Muddles keeps us all shouting at him on his every appearance, and there’s some unexpected fun in the form of Quang Luong’s Henchman Viper – the Gladiator hero of the same name.

Dean Whatton’s Sarge leads a very entertaining and musical “Seven”; I particularly liked Binde Singh Johal’s rather cynical Kevin, who, at the realisation that Snow White has died (she hasn’t really, kids) just says “ah well, takeaway tonight lads”.There’s an additional member of the cast when the irrepressibly energetic musical director James Harrison – I’ll have what he’s having – joins the regulars for the bench sketch.

But it’s Damian Williams whom we’re all here to see, and once again he comes up trumps with a hilarious and punchy performance, outrageously dressed throughout, never missing an opportunity to plug this year’s sponsors, Henderson’s Relish – there are even special Damian bottles of Hendo’s with his face on, that’s how established in the Sheffield scene he is. My favourite gag this year mentioned Yakult as part of the punchline, but I won’t spoil it for everyone else.

My only quibble with this year’s production is that the amplification of the superb four-piece band was so powerful that there was a little distortion and I couldn’t always make out the lyrics to the big songs. But rest assured we have already secured our tickets for Aladdin next year. I think you should too!

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Beauty and the Beast, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 16th December 2023

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There’s something about the Sheffield pantomime that simply beats the competition. Whether it’s the presence of the redoubtable Damian Williams as the dame, or the uniquely excited audience who know precisely what is expected of them, or the history of variety that seeps through the very brick of the theatre itself, I haven’t a clue. What’s je ne sais quoi in South Yorkshire speak? Summat in t’watter?

This year’s Evolution Productions show is Beauty and the Beast, not a story I particularly associate with panto, but it works very well despite some obvious differences with most other examples of the genre. There’s no wicked queen; Nightshade has cast her evil spell long before Curtain Up. There’s no vulnerable, put-upon sad young princess; our Belle is a fighter who knows her own mind and no Beast is going to scare her. In a twist to the usual panto ending where a Prince Charming has to kiss a sleeping princess to break the spell, in Beauty and the Beast it’s the young girl who has to profess love to the man to get the same result. Sexual equality in Pantoland?

As you would expect, the production is full of top quality elements that make your fingertips tingle with pleasure. Great music from Uncle Alex Turney and his band scattered around all four of the Lyceum boxes, lively costumes and sets, enjoyable choreography from Sarah Langley, and a script by Paul Hendy that is jam-packed with humour.

There are – of course – the barrow of puns, the haunted bench, and Madame Fillop’s search for a new boyfriend in the audience. For our performance that special honour went to Jim, who played along with the fun perfectly, and who donned the required blonde wig and pink outfit to make him look like Ken to La Fillop’s Barbie. When he came up to the front to do the final routine with Philippe, he looked for all the world like Rod Stewart.

And then there are the performances, each of which bring their own special magic to the proceedings. Bessy Ewa is Belle, full of courage and a sense of fun; she’s also terrific at the song and dance, and really brings the character to life. Jennie Dale plays Cupid – the equivalent of the Fairy Godmother in this show – an ebullient presence of kindness and mischief. Max Fulham is superb as Phillipe, with his sidekick monkey, Gordon; as well as getting himself absolutely soaked with sloppy cake ingredients, he proves himself to be a pretty versatile ventriloquist too.

Damian Williams is, as always, the embodiment of the fat bloke in a dress, outrageously sending up every scene and everyone he shares the stage with, and flagrantly exploiting his matchless connection with the audience. It just wouldn’t be the same without him. Duncan James nails the sexual arrogance of Danton, every girl’s dream, not to mention some of the chaps’; fobbing off implications that he’s H from Steps, or that all Blue’s songs sound the same.As you would expect, he carries off many of the big numbers in the show with his terrific presence and voice, and brings a lot of humour to the proceedings. For the adults, there’s an unexpected and very amusing nod to bi-visibility at the end of the show that had me in hysterics. The six members of the ensemble all give excellent support as disparate villagers, marauding wolves and the Beast’s household.

But I had no idea that I would be so moved by the performance of Aidan Banyard as the Beast/Prince Henri. Singing Queen’s Somebody to Love with existential anguish, bemoaning his fortune in the drenching rain,pouring his heart into You Will Be Found, he has a superb presence and an astounding voice. Mr Banyard is going places – or he should be.

This panto is the crème de la crème. You’ve got till 7th January to see it; and we’re already booked for Snow White next December.

 

 

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – White Christmas, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 16th December 2023

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Our regular Christmas visit to the Sheffield Theatres has already come upon us, as Mrs Chrisparkle and I took Lord and Lady Prosecco up the M1 for the usual two-show feast of fun. The panto would have to wait until the evening but at 2pm we were part of a sold out audience to see Paul Foster’s production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.

Yes, this old war horse comes around every Christmas, and everyone knows it off by heart. Everyone, that is, except me, who had never seen it before and knew nothing about it apart from its rather well known title song.  Because it’s such a hardy perennial, I have always thought there’d be another opportunity to catch it next year; and therefore still haven’t. So don’t ask me how similar it is to the film because I haven’t a clue.

Although the plot is wafer-thin, the show itself radiates feelgood warmth, and I’m not surprised people keep coming back to it year after year. Bob and Phil are talented military entertainers during the war and enjoy a successful showbiz career afterwards. After auditioning the Haynes sisters to join their act, Phil falls head over heels with Judy Haynes but Bob and Betty Haynes don’t have that initial chemistry. The boys follow the girls to an engagement in a hotel in Vermont, which they are amazed to discover is owned by General Waverly who was their commanding officer during the war. The hotel is losing money fast, but can the talents of Phil, Bob, Judy and Betty turn its fortunes around? And will Bob and Betty find the same love that Phil and Judy seem to have?

Like Kiss Me Kate, much of the show is based on preparing and rehearsing another show; they didn’t quite use the phrase hey why don’t we do the show right here in the barn, but it was a close thing. A side effect of this structure is that you can insert songs into the show that don’t have anything to do with its natural flow. That’s one of my pet hates, because it tends towards creating a stop-start show, rather than flowing organically.

However, unlike Kiss Me Kate, which must be one of the world’s best ever musicals, although White Christmas has a few fantastic songs, there are also some numbers that are slightly underpowered. In addition,  Let Me Sing and I’m Happy and How Deep is the Ocean were both originally written for Al Jolson in the 1930s; Let Yourself Go is from the musical Follow the Fleet, Happy Holiday from Holiday Inn, and I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm is from On the Avenue. Of the great songs in the show, only Sisters is originally from White Christmas, so there’s been a fair deal of pilfering and plundering from the Irving Berlin songbook of other shows to create this production.

When I saw that the choreography was by Alistair David, I knew we would be in for a dancing treat as his is the safest pair of jazz hands regularly contributing to the Crucible shows. Exhilarating, expressive and always using the maximum space that the stage allows, there are some terrific set piece dance sequences, probably none finer than the opening to the second act with I Love a Piano. Alex Parker’s richly proportioned orchestra whacks out the tunes with gusto and enthusiasm, and Janet Bird’s designs have a splendid period feel.

George Blagden and Stuart Neal are superb as the two army hoofers; Mr Neal in particular steals the show with his ebullient tap routine. Natasha Mould and Grace Mouat give fine performances as the two “devoted sisters” Judy and Betty, and there is solid support from the always fantastic Danny Collins as Sheldrake and Ewen Cummins as Waverly. At our performance,young Susan was played by ten-years-old Renee Elliott-Latif and she was fantastic. But it’s Sandra Marvin whose performance as Martha leaves you wanting more, with her wonderful comic timing and powerfully emotional voice.

I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed by the show itself, but it’s a top quality production and performed to the highest standard throughout. And it’s going to pack out the Crucible right up until its final performances on 13th January!

 

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – The Hypochondriac, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 3rd October 2023

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A new production of Moliere’s final play, translated and adapted by Roger McGough, with a rhyming script like the original? Sounds a complete hoot. And at times, it is! And at times, it isn’t. Of course, Tuesday night’s performance was a preview, so one must make all sorts of allowances. In fact the first person to enter the stage was Sheffield Theatres’ Associate Artistic Director, Anthony Lau, who reminded us that this was indeed a preview and that things were still taking shape; as well as the fact that Oliver Birch, the show’s composer, had stepped in to play Cléante at the last minute due to company sickness, script in hand, so that the show could go on. This made me very worried as to what I was about to receive. However, let me state here and now that Mr Birch is indeed one of the show’s highlights with a delightfully funny and confident performance, and were it not for the fact that he had to occasionally check the script you’d never know he was an understudy.

There’s quite a Moliere-shaped gap in my theatre experience, which was one of the reasons I was keen to see this production. Tartuffe, of course, reappears everywhere, most successfully recently with that brilliant RSC adaptation set in Birmingham. I had to read Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme as part of my French A Level; I don’t think I enjoyed it much. Moliere’s Wikipedia page lists 36 plays under the heading Major Works, so you can think of him as being pretty much level pegging with Shakespeare as far as output is concerned. Le Malade Imaginaire (1673) was his final play; largely because, one night whilst playing Argan, the eponymous hypochondriac, he had a coughing fit during the performance and died later that night of a haemorrhage. You couldn’t make it up.

Moliere’s original is a sprawling, unfocussed play.  Argan argues with his maid Toinette, his doctor Purgeon, his wife Béline, and his brother Beralde; he arranges for his daughter Angélique to marry a man she doesn’t like without knowing that she wants to pursue another suitor (Cléante). Eventually he becomes convinced that there is nothing wrong with him, and celebrates this fact by wanting to become a doctor himself. All this is broken up with little songs and dances (such was the way of Moliere’s comedies-ballet). There’s little pretence to making any serious points – it’s all done for the comedy. And Roger McGough’s adaptation is largely faithful to the original storyline and to the concept of rhyming, singing and primarily doing it for the laughs.

Colin Richmond has created a tremendous set, reflecting Argan’s salon, piled high with receipts and notes, with stacks of paperwork tumbling almost out of the sky. The costumes are classic 17th century French bourgeoisie; the harpsichord compositions feel like they could be lost works by Charpentier who wrote the original music for the play. However, McGough’s translations are distinctly 20th century, if not 21st; and whilst the enforced corny rhymes amuse at first, it doesn’t take long for them to pall. The trouble is, your ears get so used to expecting the rhymes that your brain starts to disengage from the words themselves and their meanings. And as soon as you recognise a rhyme, you’re waiting for the next one, and so on; becoming obsessed with the speech rhythm but not the content.

Consequently, it quickly becomes tiring, especially as there is no depth to any of it. The triteness of the lyrics was a major problem with the recent production of The Third Man at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In The Hypochondriac, that triteness is taken to a new level. McGough manages the musical element of Moliere’s original by creating his own little passages of originality, such as the speech all about the benefits of having an interval – cue time for the Interval; or indeed what would Moliere do here? or a verbal reference to the Scaffold’s very own Lily the Pink, at which everyone laughs in I see what you did there kind of recognition, but is as far away from the 17th century setting as you can get. A little bit knowing and clever-clever for my liking.

Edward Hogg is a wily, wiry, whiny Argan, a self-obsessed wretch who likes to manipulate but is easily manipulated himself. It’s not a domineering performance; even though the play revolves completely around Argan, it doesn’t feel like the production sets Mr Hogg up as its main source of energy. That comes more from the other members of the household: Jessica Ransom’s insincere Béline, Saroja-Lily Ratnavel’s flustered Angélique, Zweyla Mitchell dos Santos’ irrepressible Toinette, and perhaps best of all Chris Hannon’s boisterous Beralde. Garmon Rhys steals the show with his beautifully over-the-top performance as unsuitable suitor Thomas Diaforius, reciting his compliments from memory and flourishing his ostentatious bow like a stampeding rhino.

If you’re expecting anything subtle or poised, I think I’d recommend booking for a different show. It’s certainly fast and furious; but on Tuesday night it felt rather ragged and a little over-hectic; hopefully it will gain a little more slickness over time. I have to say the audience gave it a massive cheer at the end. Some good performances, some overplayed enthusiasm and some tiresome language creates something of a mixed prescription for me. I can only be grateful that doggerel doesn’t quite rhyme with b*gger all.

 

3-starsThree-sy Does It!