Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
When anyone mentions the name, The Drifters, two people spring to mind, no, not Johnny Moore, the longest serving member, or even Ben E. King, the most famous one, but Cliff Richard and Trigger from Only Fools and Horses. The reason is that the Shadows, the Peter Pan of Pop’s backing group, were originally called…
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This was a night to remember in so many different ways. First, I finally broke my duck, insofar as full-length ballets are concerned, after three hospital confinements coincided exactly with previous invitations from Northern Ballet to their productions of Nutcracker (twice) and The Great Gatsby. Thank you for sticking with me. Second, I met some…
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If you need any proof that David Souchet is one of the country’s finest actors , then you should get a ticket for this show to see his play, performed at Leeds Playhouse as part of a national tour. It is mostly written as a conversation between the actor and his close friend, Geoffrey Wansell,…
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Since its premier in February 1991, this production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Christopher Gable CBE and choreographed by Massimo Moricone, to the score by Prokofiev, has had more than its fair share of ups and downs, to say the least. On the up side it has become Northern Ballet’s greatest success, being performed…
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Why, I asked myself, would anybody want to organise a bear hunt in Leeds City Centre, where there seems to be a distinct lack of the creatures. It then struck me that this could probably prove how successful the pursuit has proven to be. It was then that the conspiracy theorist in me kicked in,…
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At a running time of an hour and twenty minutes, it has taken me longer to type the heading than to watch the show! I’m not complaining, mind, as this was an action-packed evening celebrating the achievements of some truly remarkable women who changed the world by varying degrees, some are household names, whilst others…
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As I have said before, dance is a language that has always been a mystery to me. When the beat hits my feet I am always the first on the floor and the last one off it, but that is a more primitive version of physical expression than the amazing performances I witnessed in this…
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imitating the dog have made their name by staging productions which do not conform to the norm, even their name has no upper case letters. I find that last fact extremely irritating but the first one usually compensates by stretching the audience’s intellectual boundaries. This piece was no different in that the telling of the…
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As a Yorkshireman I do like a bargain, and here we have a buy one, get one free from Opera North. Cavalleria rusticana is only a short opera, lasting just over an hour, so it is usually twinned with another concise work, normally Pagliacci, but tonight it was given a change of partner and performed…
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I think that I have found my favourite opera so far, and this is it! OK, the work itself is the usual bonkers story which is so daft as to make you wonder what exactly Mozart was on when he wrote it, but the music, staging, singing and acting were so amazing that I could…
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Tyke It To The Limit 