Brassed Off – Review – Leeds Playhouse
By Hazel Davis, June 2026
What a treat. Three of my favourite things in one place, the theatre, my 13-year-old daughter and brass bands. Marking 30 years since Mark Herman’s film, Paul Allen’s stage adaptation has landed at the Playhouse and we were there with bells on, several beats early, in fact.
Like the film, the play is set in the fictional mining town of Grimley in 1994 . To that end, as we took our seats the band (behind the scenes) played a selection of hits from Blur, Oasis, Supergrass and Pulp. Let’s face it, we were primed to love it. They had us at “Love in the nineties…”
The plot – Grimley is fighting to keep its colliery open. Conductor Danny (David Birrell) is fighting to keep his band afloat. His son, Phil (Robin Morrissey), is fighting to keep his marriage and family together. And Andy (Frazer Hadfield) is fighting for the heart of newly arrived flugel player Gloria (of “stits” fame), played by Maddie Hansen.
“Lovely chemistry”
And it’s acted impeccably. What could be a nostalgic nod to the original film is made new with some top-class performances. David Birrell is standout as Danny and his and Morrissey’s relationship is totally believable. Frazer Hadfield and Maddie Hansen have lovely chemistry and her flugel playing (yes we all didn’t breathe the entire time she was playing Concerto de Aranjuez) was an absolute triumph. I’m still a bit annoyed at how good she was.
The musicians from Horbury Victoria and Wakefield Metropolitan bands really hold the thing together. It’s no mean feat, being on stage for all that time and responding to the actors, though they’re probably used to being shouted at by a conductor at least. My daughter and I had fun identifying the pubs used at the infamous Whit Friday competition and marvelling that they got the results the same day. As seasoned brass banders ourselves (she: euphonium, me: cornet) we couldn’t help but hum along to the marches and point out the tricky bits. A low point was when Grimley band came 17th and she leaned over to me and said “your band’s definitely come lower than that before.”
“Final notes”
Katie Scott’s set is ingenious, managing to morph quickly and effortlessly from pit to bedroom to kitchen to bandroom and pub signs drop from the ceiling to demonstrate a shift in locality with minimal disruption. The lighting complements this beautifully, using miner’s helmet lights, industrial lights and a fantastic hillscape backdrop.
This is not a musical but it’s a glorious celebration of music, love and community and everything that music can do. As the band played its final notes – at the fictional Albert Hall no less (spoiler: they get through to the finals), there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. We had to wait for everyone to stop sniffing before we could erupt into applause, which was for the show, the band and the fake competition, such was our involvement in the plot.
As we left my daughter said, “I wanna see it again.” Yes please.
‘Brassed Off’ is at Leeds Playhouse until 11th July
images: Kerstan McTernan
Hazel Davis lives in West Yorkshire and has been a journalist for most of the UK national newspapers and many magazines, cutting her teeth on a classical music magazine. She’s the lead singer in a country band (Mustard County), plays trumpet in a wind band and big band and cornet in a brass band. When she’s not playing music or writing about it, she’s usually thinking about it.
