Brassed Off at Leeds Playhouse: inside rehearsals for a Yorkshire classic reborn

A beloved British story comes home to Yorkshire. We went behind the scenes of Leeds Playhouse’s major new staging of Brassed Off — and spoke to the company bringing it to life.

There are stories that belong to a place, and Brassed Off is one of them. Thirty years on from Mark Herman’s 1996 film, its portrait of a Yorkshire mining community fighting for its colliery, its brass band and its dignity still lands like a punch to the chest. Now, in a first for the city, it’s playing in the epic Quarry Theatre at Leeds Playhouse — close to the very communities and histories that shaped the original.

We went behind the scenes during rehearsals to meet the company and find out what it takes to bring this Northern classic roaring back to life, complete with two real Yorkshire brass bands playing live on stage.

For director Amy Leach — Olivier Award-nominated and a UK Theatre Awards winner — staging Brassed Off in Leeds has been a long time coming.

“I’ve loved Brassed Off since I first saw the film,” she says. “It’s just as moving and resonant now as it was then.” For all the story’s deep Yorkshire roots, it had never been staged at the Playhouse — something Amy was determined to put right. “So I’m thrilled that I get the chance to stage it in the epic Quarry Theatre.”

Set as the pit wheels stopped turning, Brassed Off captures a moment when whole towns built on shared labour and identity were forced to confront an uncertain future. For Amy, that’s not just history. “This is a story rooted in a period of British history whose aftershocks we’re still feeling,” she explains, pointing to the loss of industry across the UK and the ripple effects still shaping communities today. “We used to have thriving industries that gave people pride, purpose and identity. As those industries disappeared, communities were fundamentally changed.”

But if the show reckons with loss, it sings about resilience. “It’s about solidarity,” Amy says. “About people coming together in the face of an existential crisis. And that feels just as important now as ever.”

The heartbeat of the show

That collective spirit lives loudest in the music. In Brassed Off, the colliery band isn’t a backdrop — it’s the beating heart of the story, which is why Amy insisted the production feature real brass bands rather than recorded sound.

The Playhouse has partnered with two Yorkshire outfits — Horbury Victoria Brass Band and Wakefield Metropolitan Band — playing live alongside actor-musicians in the cast. “Brass music connects directly with people’s hearts,” Amy says. “Hearing it live, in the same space as the story, brings something you simply can’t replicate.”

The collaboration carries a deeper resonance, too. The bands’ involvement grew in part from the work of the late conductor Duncan Beckley MBE, who shaped earlier stage versions of the show and helped bring these musicians on board before his death in 2025. Continuing that work, Amy says, feels like an important legacy.

Meet the company

Leading the cast is David Birrell as Danny, returning to Leeds Playhouse after Wendy and Peter Pan and Sweeney Todd. He’s joined by Robin Morrissey as Phil — back at the Playhouse following the Olivier-nominated Animal Farm — and Danielle Henry as Sandra, whose extensive theatre work includes Twelfth Night, A Christmas Carol and The Hypocrite for the RSC.

The wider company features Maddie Hansen as Gloria, Frazer Hadfield as Andy (Better Man, Frayed), Wendy Albiston as Vera (Rivals), Andy Cryer as Jim, Ewen Cummins as Harry, Alasdair Linn as Callum, Pauline Tomlin as Rita, and ensemble members and covers Stacey Ghent and Pete Sowerby.

In our interview, we caught up with three of the people shaping the production from the inside — Assistant Director Verity Richards, and cast members Danielle Henry and Robin Morrissey — on what this story means to them and why it still resonates in 2026.

The next generation on stage

One of the most special elements of this staging is the involvement of Leeds Playhouse Youth Theatre. Four young performers share the roles of Shane and Melody: Senior Group members Oliver Bowman and Stuart Naylor alternate as Shane, while Aria Trijonyte (Playhouse Juniors) and Maari Kent — who attends the satellite youth theatre programme delivered with RJC Dance in Chapeltown — share the role of Melody.

For a show about community and continuity, handing part of the story to the city’s young performers feels exactly right.

Something to experience together

What Amy hopes audiences take from the show goes beyond nostalgia. “To understand the division and dissatisfaction we see today, we need to look at how we got here,” she reflects. But there’s hope in it too — in community, in music, in storytelling itself. “I hope people feel moved, uplifted, and part of something bigger. There’s something really special about experiencing that collectively in a theatre.”

And in Leeds, close to the communities that shaped the original story, that shared experience may feel more powerful than ever.