COMEDY from Maddox, Thomas and Menopausal soap stars, Russian opera, Peppa Pig on a day out and Morrissey’s sole northern outing all make CHARLES HUTCHINSON’S list of shows not to miss
Talking point gig of the week
Morrissey, Live In Concert 2020, Leeds First Direct Arena, Friday, doors, 6pm
MORRISSEY previews his new album, I Am Not A Dog On A Chain, at Leeds First Direct Arena ahead of its March 20 release on BMG with such track titles as Darling, I Hug A Pillow and My Hurling Days Are Over. This will be one of only two gigs on a brief trip back to Blighty for the increasingly politically controversial Mancunian miserablist, now 60.
Home truths of the week
Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Jamali Maddix: Strip Club Epstein, The Crescent, York, Monday, 7.30pm
JAMALI Maddox, host of Vice’s Hate Thy Neighbour and Channel 4’s Adventures In Futureland, reflects on tales from the front line of social change and uncomfortable home truths. “Something to offend everyone,” recommends The Sunday Times.
Opera of the week
Russian State Opera in Aida, York Barbican, Tuesday, 7.30pm
RUSSIAN State Opera’s new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida brings a live orchestra, sumptuous set and new costumes to the love story of Ethiopian princess Aida and the equally besotted Egyptian general Radames.
Radames is chosen by his king to lead the war with Ethiopia; Aida must choose between her lover or her father and her country.
Children’s show of the week
Peppa Pig’s Best Day Ever, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday and Wednesday
PEPPA Pig, George, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig are off on a special road trip full of fun adventures, games, songs and laugher to mark ten years of live Peppa Pig shows.
Newcomer Miss Rabbit, Mr Bull, Suzy Sheep and Gerald Giraffe all will partake in the day out that takes in castles and caves, dragons and dinosaurs, ice creams and muddy puddles
Heavyweight play of the week
Alone In Berlin, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to March 21
BASED on true events, Hans Fallada’s portrait of life in wartime Berlin follows a quietly courageous couple, Otto and Anna Quangel.
In dealing with their own heartbreak, they stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime. Through the smallest of acts, they defy Hitler’s rule with extraordinary bravery, facing the gravest of consequences
State of the nation gig of the week
Burning Duck Comedy Club presents Mark Thomas: 50 Things About Us, The Crescent, York, Wednesday, 8pm
COMEDIAN Mark Thomas combines story-telling, stand-up and subversion to find out how we ended up in such a mess in a show about songs, gongs, loot, tradition, wigs, nicking, statues, art and identity. “A sort of funny national edition of Who Do You Think You Are?” he says.
“It’s another slightly odd show, a sort of sweary, History Channel with laughs and creative mischief.”
American drama of the week
Dogfight, John Cooper Studio, Theatre @41 Monkgate, York, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
ADAPTED from the 1991 film of the same name, Dogfght is a statement about the American military culture of the 1960s and the inevitable realisation that no-one is invincible.
Written by the composing team behind La La Land and The Greatest Showman, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have created a hauntingly beautiful score to go with Paul Duchan’s book. Anna Gallon directs this CHMS production.
Intimate gig of the week
Benjamin Francis Leftwich, The Band Room, Low Mill, Friday, 7.30pm
YORK troubadour Benjamin Francis Leftwich, now resident in North London, last played a North Yorkshire concert in the cavernous York Minster nave on March 29 last year.
“We’re delighted that Ben, such a peerless super-cool singer-songwriter, will be making his long-awaited debut here,” says Band Room promoter Nigel Burnham.
Love and friendship show of the week
Menopause The Musical 2: Cruising Through Menopause, York Barbican, Saturday, 7.30pm
SOAP stars Cheryl Fergison (EastEnders), Nicole Barber-Lane (Hollyoaks) and Rebecca Wheatley (Casualty) team up with 2000 Eurovision singer Nikki French for a comedy filled with parody songs about hot flushes, memory loss and ageing gracefully or not.
This sequel fast-forwards five years to catch up with the same four friends.
No Man’s Land finds a home gig of the week
Frank Turner, York Barbican, Sunday, 8pm
HAMPSHIRE punk and folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner showcases his August 2019 album, No Man’s Land, with its tales of the woman who invented rock’n’roll, a Deep South serial killer and a Wild West vaudeville star shot by a smalltown outlaw.
Turner donates £1 from each ticket sale to WAYout Arts, helping to change the lives of street, vulnerable and conflict-affected young people through the arts.
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