Feature: Love Teesside This April
By Mark Grainger on April 6, 2012 in Stage, Uncategorized
It’s shaping up to be a rather busy month on Teesside. Truth be told, the region’s favourite parmo fancying urban conurbation is doing all right for itself in the culture stakes, with some pretty bloody tasty events set to hit the stages of Middlesbrough and beyond.
This has all been a bit food orientated so far, what with all this talk of parmos, st(e)aks and tasty events, so without further waffling (sorry) it’s time to stop chewing the fat (double sorry) and to lead you south of Newcastle. Don’t be scared, you’ll like it. Because we’re a free-wheeling, maverick kind of website, and I’m a lazy writer, we’re just going to dive into these events chronologically. Ready? All right then.
First up, 8 Out Of 10 Cats stalwart and semi-professional lonely heart Jon Richardson pops to Middlesbrough’s Town Hall for the third date of his new national tour, Funny Magnet. Jon plays on Sunday April 15th. Better tempered than some of his contemporaries but less offensively inoffensive than the today’s arena comedians, Richardson usually straddles broad, anecdotal comedy rather well so it’d be hard to not recommend seeing him at his only announced show in the region so far.
Seguing wildly towards the musical end of the cultural spectrum, jumping to the end of the month and stumbling across the metaphorical road, Middlesbrough’s Empire boasts an impressive trio of gigs for the April/May transition period. Local boys The Chapman Family start the unofficial festivities on the 28th before The Subways jump around in a sweaty mess on the 2nd of May and Alkaline Trio try to get their crowd do the same the next night.
Going back to comedy now(do try and keep up) and Alun Cochrane, who’s face you’ll probably recognise, is dropping in to Stockton Arc on May 3rd, whilst Darlington Civic Theatre plays host to the fifth year of Hilarity Bites’ new act competition. The latter runs throughout may and sees a host of hungry comedians battle it out for the top prize before last year’s winner, the implausibly named Matt Winning, rounds off the event with a headline spot.
Finally the stage revival of Yes, Prime Minister comes to Darlington off the back of several west end seasons and a national tour for a four night residency at the Civic Theatre starting on May 8th. Having seen the show in Newcastle last year with a different cast as well as every single episode of the TV series, I feel a recommendation is suitable, especially since the beyond satirical government we seem to be lumbered with for the next few years is busy fucking everything up and you could probably do with a laugh.
Oh and Paul Daniels is playing Middlesbrough Theatre on April 21st if you like that sort of thing. We won’t judge you.
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