What's On at City Varieties Music Hall?: Traditional Variety Acts in Leeds, West Yorkshire

It does what it says on the tin – City Varieties Music Hall brings Leeds audiences the very best in traditional variety acts.

Here's what's on at the good old fashioned and fabulous City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds City Centre: 

Sunday 12 May 2019
MUSIC HALL TAVERN
The UK’s premier comedy drag show is back for its sixth year with a brand new hilarious, fabulous, glamorous show for 2019.


Whatever your age, come along and join Mrs T and the ‘girls’ from MHT for a truly magnificent night of dazzling costumes, side splitting laughter and a cast of unique characters singing and dancing all night long.


Thursday 16 May 2019
SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL
With 11 years as an Edinburgh Fringe must-see phenomenon, a BBC Radio 4 series, a critically acclaimed West End run and an Olivier Award to their name, The Showstoppers have delighted audiences across the globe with their ingenious blend of comedy, musical theatre and spontaneity.


A brand-new musical comedy is created from scratch at each performance as audience suggestions are transformed on the spot into all-singing, all-dancing productions with hilarious results. So, whether you fancy some Rodgers and Hammerstein or a little Sondheim – you suggest it and The Showstoppers will sing it!


Thursday 19 September & Sunday 13 October 2019
COUNT ARTHUR STRONG: IS ANYBODY OUT THERE
As well as being the all-round entertainer we all know and love from the telly, Count Arthur Strong is also a lifelong fan of astronomy, since having been given a microscope, or whatever it is they use, for Christmas when he was a small precocious baby. In fact, it’s said the first word he spoke was “Uranus”.


In this, his brand-new show, he seamlessly combines the very best showbiz entertainment you’ll currently find, in the world, possibly? As he wrestles with some of the big questions that other all-round entertainers shy away from, including:


Are we alone in the universe?
Is there life on Mars bars?
2lbs of potatoes
Packet of ginger nuts
Don’t lose this shopping list


Friday 20 & Saturday 21 and Friday 27 & Saturday 28 September 2019
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
The legendary variety stage spectacular returns featuring a different line-up each weekend on the very stage where BBC TV's The Good Old Days was originally filmed for 30 years.
 
Friday 18 & Saturday 19 October 2019
AUSTENTATIOUS
Austentatious is an improvised comedy play starring a cast of the country’s quickest comic performers. Every single show the cast conjures up a brand new ‘lost’ Jane Austen novel based on nothing more than a title suggested by the audience. Previous ‘lost’ masterpieces have included Sixth Sense & Sensibility, Double 0 Darcy and Mansfield Shark.


The show comes fresh from six sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, a weekly residency in London’s West End and a BBC Radio 4 special to mark the bicentenary of Austen’s death.


Performed in period costume with live musical accompaniment, this is a regency treat guaranteed to delight Austen novices and die-hard fans alike. Age guidance 12+.
 

Facts about City Varieties in Leeds, West Yorkshire:

• City Varieties Music Hall holds the record for the longest running music hall in the country. Hidden up a cobbled side street just off Briggate in the heart of Leeds City Centre, it began life in 1865 as a room above a pub called 'Thornton's New Music Hall and Fashionable Lounge'. Founded by landlord and benefactor Charles Thornton, it was originally established for the working people of Leeds to be entertained; its affluent sister venue, Leeds Grand Theatre, was meant only for the higher classes. The name subsequently changed to the ‘White Swan Varieties’, followed by the ‘Stansfield's Varieties’ before becoming the ‘City Palace of Varieties’.
• In its early years the Varieties welcomed many weird and wonderful acts including the world-renowned escapologist Harry Houdini and singer, comedian and musical theatre actress Marie Lloyd.
• In 1953 the City Varieties became home to the BBC TV Series The Good Old Days; a recreation of old-time music hall featuring Leonard Sachs as the alliterative Chairman and many well-known and less-well-known performers, including Les Dawson, Barbara Windsor, Bruce Forsyth, Eartha Kitt, John Inman, Ken Dodd and Barry Cryer. The TV programme ran for 30 years until 1983.

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