Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
I was looking forward to seeing this show, which I last saw in 2022, and wondered what someone else would do to it. As it happens it was basically the same production but with a few small changes. What hadn’t changed, however, was that the story is told in flashbacks, the opening scene depicting the…
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I don’t use a star system to grade the things I review. My reasoning for this is that the top rating would mean, should something come along which was palpably better than those to which I had allocated five stars, I could not do it justice. In 1999 the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab was so…
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The power of advertising never ceases to amaze me. There is a car dealership who used to, and maybe still does, run ads on TV, with an ear worm jingle which I can’t help but recall every time I see anything connected with this show. Their name is Evans Halshaw, so you too can suffer…
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What a brilliant way to get children into opera. My first experience of live classical music was back in the Sixties at grammar school, when the second form was herded into a building in Rossington Street, just opposite where the Merrion Centre stands today, and made to shut up and listen to a string quartet…
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Before I write this review I must admit to not being a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan. I was introduced to their work at school via The Pirates of Penzance and, even in my early teens, I thought that the humour was very childish. I realise that it was supposed to be satirical, but…
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Someone, far wittier than I, said that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Brilliant as this quip is, I must disagree as, once you reach a certain age, in some aspects of life nostalgia is all you have. This was illustrated brilliantly by Nathan Queeley-Dennis in this one-man show in Bramall Rock Void. The…
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It has been a long summer with very few productions at Leeds Playhouse and none at the Grand and so I have only been to the theatre once since the beginning of June! I saw the first Cluedo play a couple of years ago and thought it was awful, but, being an optimist, I approached…
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After a quiet summer, it is all systems go for the end of the year. Again, there is the mixture of classics, innovative new productions, one-nighters and, of course, the Christmas Spectacular. So why don’t I just get on with it then. We begin, from 3rd-7th September in the Quarry, with Cluedo 2 which, I…
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Continuing my previews for the rest of the year it is the turn of probably the most famous venue in Leeds, The City Varieties Music Hall. As usual, it is hosting some of the best live performers currently on tour. Everything from music, comedy, personal appearances by well known personalities and miscellaneous to events such…
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It is not as if we needed an excuse to go to the magnificent Leeds Grand Theatre, apart from the programme of events, but this September sees its reopening following a makeover, and I can’t wait to see how the place has changed. The re-opening date is 5th September with a series of one night…
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Tyke It To The Limit 