The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow: The Adorable 'Annie' is in Town This Week
Plus What's On Oct 21-26
Annie is a strange beast. Inspired by a 1920s political cartoon Little Orphan Annie, the saccharine-sweet musical which premiered on Broadway in 1977 is loaded with digs about the lack of political will to end poverty.
But it needn’t be played like that. Director Nikolai Foster has chosen instead to highlight the cartoonish aspects of this optimistic New York fairy tale. The result is an uplifting, family-friendly production loaded with well-loved songs from ‘It’s A Hard Knock Life’ to ‘Tomorrow’. Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood inhabits the role of scheming orphanage boss Miss Hannigan with Jodie Prenger doing the honours on his Saturday night off. Sheffield Lyceum Theatre Oct 21, £15-£57.50, limited availabilty, Hull New Theatre, Oct 23-28, £20-£53.50.
Other Family Friendly Shows
Freckle Productions have been touring an adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s popular children’s book Stick Man since, like, forever. But it doesn’t matter because there’s always a new generation to rediscover the charms of the tale. Aeron-Louis Cadogan stars as… the stick in this reassuring story of separation, adventure and safe return for ages three and over. Carriageworks, Leeds, Oct 24-26, £14.30 & £16.50, The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, Oct 31–Nov 2, £14.50 & £16.50 and York Theatre Royal, Nov 7 & 8.
And CAST theatre, Doncaster (Oct 21 & 22, £11-£17.50), play host to Tall Stories’ adaptation of another children’s book by the writer-illustrator duo — The Smeds And The Smoos. This time, it’s Romeo and Juliet in Outer Space and with a happy ending. Also, Leeds Playhouse, Nov 2-4, £15.
On a sadder note, there’s Glow. Even before Covid, the deterioration in children’s mental health was a cause for national concern. Then almost half of children saw their social and emotional skills worsen during the pandemic, with their parent’s financial instability a factor (Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies).
Kat Rose-Martin’s story of a glow worm who loses her glow for Buglight Theatre tours locally this Autumn with associated mental health resources, and will strike a chord with far too many people. CAST, Doncaster, Oct 25 & 26, £10, Leeds Playhouse, Nov 18, £3-£10, and nationally. Ages 3-7.
Now For Some Adult Themes:
Women’s Troubles
I embarked on adult life knowing quite a lot about the Chicago School and the quantity theory of money but almost nothing about my own body. First and second-wave feminism underplayed the physical aspects of being a women — perhaps understandably given the many faux-medical arguments that were advanced to avoid giving women the vote or full participation in public life.
Now biology is back with a bang. Meet Parveen, presented by Falling Star Theatre, is an honest tale of night sweats, mood swings and midnight trips to the loo. And how do you get your life back when your home is full of battling teenagers? Glusburn Institute and Community Arts Centre, Oct 21, Guisley Theatre, Oct 27, both nights £10 & £12.
A Sex Scandal
The 1963 Profumo scandal shattered the British Establishment. John Profumo, a Cabinet minister, was found to have consorted with a ‘callgirl’ (that is, an upmarket hooker) who was simultaneously carrying on with the Soviet naval attache.
We remember Christine Keeler, the callgirl, for her beauty. But there was another woman who was ripped apart — film actress Valerie Hobson, who was Profumo’s wife. Alan Stockdill’s two-handed drama for Talking Stock Company, Scandal & Redemption, tells the story of a marriage betrayed and then repaired, with his own wife, Catherine Pasek, in the starring role. Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, Oct 21, £15-£18, Hebdon Bridge Little Theatre, Oct 29, £12.
Computer Love
Alan Turing: A Musical Biography recounts how the brilliant mathematician and computer scientist — whose work shortened the Second World War and saved millions of lives — nonetheless, as a practising homosexual, fell foul of British indecency laws and paid the price. Joan Greening’s book is taken mostly from the Enigma codebreaker’s letters, with Joel Goodman’s songs providing an emotional interpretation in the face of that second enigma which was Turing’s odd death involving an apple. East Riding Theatre, Beverley, Oct 21, £16 & £17.
The Gods Are All Here
Phil Owkwedy was born to a Welsh mother and Nigerian father in the port city of Cardiff. Shortly afterwards, he was put up for adoption. His show, The Gods Are All Here, is inspired by the chance discovery of some letters from his father in Nigeria to his mother in Britain. His performance weaves myth, song, folktales and legends of the African diaspora with his experiences of growing up as a child of dual heritage in overwhelmingly white 1960 & 1970’s rural Wales. Carriageworks, Leeds, Oct 24, £10.50 & £12.50, touring nationally.
Tess
Finally, there are a clutch of interesting things on at Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre this week. The headline show is aerial theatre company Occam’s Razor’s fresh take on Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess Of The D’Urbervilles. They combine Hardy’s words and the extreme physicality of circus to tell a tale of power, loss and endurance in the West Country. Oct 21 & 22, £16.
I’m Muslamic Don’t Panic in the smaller Cellar Theatre is Bobak Champion’s solo show about growing up British-Iranian between Bristol and Tehran. Oct 26, £15.
LASH is a booze-filled portrait of post-Covid British youth. Part gig, part theatre, it stars the charismatic Jack Stokes as he embarks on a night out. Oct 25, £12.
And the multi-award-winning Afghanistan Is Not Funny is comedian Henry Naylor’s real-life account of how he blundered into a war zone in 2003 to research his darkly humorous play Finding Bin Laden. What he found there has haunted him ever since. Oct 25, £16
Liz x
Great precis and insight into all the local theatre events which makes me want to go and see them all.