Last summer, I published a post about Alan Bennett’s The
History Boys and how much it means to me.
It is without a doubt my favourite play and when I saw that the
Altrincham Garrick Playhouse was hosting a production of it, I knew that I
couldn’t miss it. I saw it at the
Theatr Clwyd when I was a teenager and have since had to content myself with
rewatches of the film, so the chance to see the material come to life with new
vigour was an absolute joy.
Some of you may remember that a while ago, I
published a review of the Royal Exchange’s Little Shop of Horrors (if you’d
like a refresher, you can find that post here).
It was an absolutely spectacular rendering of the material and I
enthused endlessly about it to everyone I knew for weeks afterwards – in fact,
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally still bring it up to this
day. It was a truly outstanding
experience and really fuelled my passion for a musical which I hadn’t known an
awful lot about previously. So when I
saw that another production of Howard Ashton and Alan Menken’s cult classic was
coming to Manchester, this time to
the Palace Theatre, I was torn. Part of me was keen to revisit this wonderfully fun show, which features some great numbers, but I worried that it would never live up to that excellent Royal Exchange production.
Twelve years ago, a film was released which would define a generation, full of ideas that continue to resonate and dialogue which has since become a staple of the millenial vocabulary. It featured a stellar cast who would almost all go on to have successful careers, and razor-sharp writing courtesy of one of the best women of our time. That film was Mean Girls.
Yorkshire holds a very special place in my heart. As a child, I spent a lot of family summer holidays around Scarborough and Whitby, and I had a blast at the University of Hull. So when I was offered the opportunity to review the Ox Pasture Hall, a luxury country house hotel in the beautiful North Yorkshire moors, I certainly wasn't going to turn it down!
