Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
It had to happen, I have at last seen a modified version of a Shakespeare play that I actually enjoyed. Although I still feel that, if the Trade Descriptions Act applied to the theatre, saying that what we saw was written by the Bard of Avon would be pushing it to the limits, the way…
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RIOPY, birth name Jean-Phillippe Rio-Py, like a lot of the performers I have seen at Howard Assembly Room, was someone I had not heard of before my visit. He is a French pianist and composer who has the most amazing back story. He was raised in a secular cult in France and taught himself to…
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I think that I have discovered a new hero, Leoš Janáček, the man responsible for the work currently being performed by Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre. He has made my list of good guys on two counts; firstly he has broken the mould when it comes to the practice of anthropomorphism, and secondly, he…
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On Friday 27th January Phoenix Dance Theatre held a presentation to celebrate the first 40 years of the company. Being good Yorkshire folk they opted to get value for money by highlighting two brilliant announcements at once. Although the company was set up in 1981, the 40th Anniversary Tour began in November 2021 and so…
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Last year’s concert held to mark Holocaust Memorial Day was focussed on the works of three composers who perished in one of the most reviled concentration camps during the Second World War, this year the spotlight shifted to the lives of ‘ordinary’ people – the clue is in the title. Although the object was to…
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This was a very fitting title for the last show I will be covering before Christmas. Next Friday, strikes permitting, I am going into hospital for a knee replacement, so one week on I will be Stick Man, probably Two Stick Man, Crutch Man, but we won’t go there, or even Dylan, the real name…
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Three Prime Ministers, two Monarchs, strikes and a pending nuclear war. What do we want to end the year – PANTO! Oh yes we really do! If ever we needed to forget everything and revert to childhood for a couple of hours then the time is now. Simon Nock and his cohorts were back to…
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The nearest I have come to anything by the author of the book on which this musical was based is as a foodie. Pork Chops Victor Hugo was one of my specialities and always got a good reaction. The one afforded to Les Misérables was not too shabby either, with the audience in raptures at…
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Although this is a children’s classic, it is one of those books which I have never read, being first published in the UK in 1964 and, as a 15 year-old at the time, I had other things on my mind. Also, having no offspring, I didn’t get to read it as a parent. This show…
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It seems that the only sopranos I haven’t met this week are the ones who would fit me with a concrete overcoat and take me swimming in the Hudson River. Tonight it was the turn of Katherine Broderick to impress me with her vocal prowess, along with pianist Kathryn Scott and Paul Whittaker who translated…
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Tyke It To The Limit 