1. Platform 9,The York Stars,
Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.
today at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box
office: 01904 623568 REVIEW
“I CAN’T get everyone on stage at the
Railway Institute any more,” said
Charlotte Gray, director of the York Rising
Stars for the past 13 years, explaining
why the resident company had decided
to move out of the Queen Street building.
PLATFORM 9, a new musical play by
Newcastle playwright Dennis Westgate,
marks a new beginning for the renamed
York Stars, whose cast of 68 fills the
Joseph Rowntree Theatre to the gills, as
if to re-emphasise the need for these
community players to find bigger
premises.
Dennis Westgate, a former printer
by trade and now in his 70s, has long
championed such community shows
and having established links with York
Rising Stars two years ago, gave
Charlotte carte blanche to “do what you
want” with PLATFORM 9.
He has seven or eight musicals to his
name, this one dating back 20 years but
never performed until now, and the York
stars do him proud with a premiere that
opened to a near full house on Thursday.
Westgate predicts a day in the life of
the staff, passengers and rushing daily
traffic on a 1950s train station, where one
young love, Laura, The Waiting Girl
(Claire Pulpher) waits and waits and
waits beneath the station clock for her
boyfriend (James Noble).
All around her move the station’s
regulars: the Tea Lady (Alice Norman);
the cheeky Porter (Dajve Howard Green);
the Ticket Collector (Ben Tanguay); the
Cupid-playing Engine Driver (Rob
Davies); and the Beggar Girl (Holly
Batten, who sings particularly well).
To enhance the sense of nostalgia, the
scenery and costumes and indeed the
steam train are monochrome, a sight as
impressive in its own way as Cecil
Beaton’s costume design for the Ascot
Gavotte in My Fair Lady. Even the
programme maintains the theme,
presented to you like a rolled up
newspaper,while a sudden change of
colour to sepia tones for dancing at a ball
is very striking too.
Westgate’s story combines romance,
humour, emotional drama and horse
racing and his compositions are similarly
broad-ranging, taking in beautiful ballads,
big choruses and a little rock’n’roll, much
enjoyed by Craig Brown’s band.
One or two dance scenes go on too
long, here and there the acting could be
more expressive and it must be hoped
the sound system filters the voices with
more volume and clarity today, but
PLATFORM 9 affirms that York Stars are
on the right track for a bigger future.
Charles Hutchinson