Paul Wilcox, Author at North West End UK

8Jul

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Much Ado About Nothing – Victoria Baths

For one night only, the stunning Victoria Baths in Manchester is converted into the Messina Holiday Camp, as the Time & Again Theatre Company bring their touring production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' indoors into this stunning Edwardian water palace. Substituting the location of Shakespeare's most performed comedy from 16th Century Sicily to a 1950's British seaside resort may seem incongruous, but it allows the deck chair and parasol props to be placed in an idealised fantasy world, utilising the sumptuous fabric of the building to create a convincing whole. In addition to the relocation, the company made the decision to cast some of the leading roles as female to represent the existence of same sex relationships in every period of history, even buttoned up post-war Britain. This ...

Calendar Girls – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

21Jun

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Calendar Girls – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The traditional view of that redoubtable British institution, The Women’s Institute (or WI to its friends), is one of middle-class ladies of a certain age baking and knitting in a cosy village environment, far from the struggles of the real world. Subverting this stereotype, a branch from Yorkshire decided to produce an ‘Alternative WI Calendar’ to raise money for a new sofa in the wait room of a local hospital, following the cancer diagnosis of a friend. The twist was that all the ladies appeared in various states of undress whilst posing in a variety of mundane activities. The idea was a runaway success, eventually raising over £3,000,000 for Leukaemia Research and subsequently spawning a successful play, film and this stage musical in 2015. Penned by Tim Firth (Kinky Boots, Neville’s...

19May

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Cher Show – Opera House, Manchester

After six decades of a career encompassing pop and film stardom, political activism and television success, it was a no-brainer that the life of Cherilyn Sarkasian, aka Cher, would eventually make the transition to a stage musical. Now, the 2018 Broadway show (with a significant overhaul courtesy of Leicester Curve Theatre) lands at Opera House in Manchester to a rapturous reception on press night. The audience here is knowledgeable and primed (unlike at Sunderland Empire, where people left the theatre when they realised it wasn't Cher performing!) and they were not to be disappointed in the depth of detail with which the show represents her early life. Cher has long been a spokesperson for LGBTQ+ rights and her story of early marginalisation, mistreatment and oppression is a story that...

Singin’ in the Rain – Manchester Opera House

11May

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Singin’ in the Rain – Manchester Opera House

We all know that Manchester has a reputation for enjoying a drop of rain and we've also been known to dance on tables and belt out a few songs on an evening out. So, it came as no surprise to see the venerable old Opera House packed to the rafters on a Tuesday night, with an audience eagerly anticipating this touring version of the 'golden age' classic musical. They were not to be disappointed with the high quality production values, a great ensemble, superb leads and a beautifully orchestrated score that left me walking up Quay Street hanging off lamp posts singing 'do de do do,do de do de do do do, I'm singin' in the rain, just.......'. The plot, charting the demise of silent pictures and the rise of the 'Golden Age' of 1920's Hollywood 'talkies', is well known, less so is the fact th...

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice – Theatr Clwyd

19Apr

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Wales

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice – Theatr Clwyd

North Wales on an Easter Bank Holiday Monday conjures images of fish & chips by the sea, sandcastles on the beach and maybe even some weak Spring sunshine peaking through the rain clouds. However, we at North West End UK are prepared to sacrifice these dubious pleasures in pursuit of theatrical excellence, drawing me to Flintshire for the chance to catch a touring revival of ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’, at the lovely Theatre Clwyd. Since bursting onto the theatrical landscape like a blazing northern star in the late 1980’s, Jim Cartwright’s work has demonstrated a heady mix of heart, humour, cruelty and pathos in an accessible and pacy form. ‘Little Voice’ examines the failed dreams and aspirations of the working classes, managing to do this without the mawkish sentimentalit...

2Apr

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Les Misérables – The Lowry

Reviewing 'Les Misérables' is in some ways a useless task. The show is entering its thirty seventh (!) year in production and has been seen by well over seventy million (!!) people during that time. It was famously panned by the critics at the opening but has subsequently proved to be one of the most popular 'critic proof' musicals with sell out audiences all over the world, Now, Boublil and Schonberg's iconic show lands at The Lowry for six weeks having already sold virtually every ticket, once again those visitors will not be disappointed with this fresh staging of a spellbinding masterpiece. The titanic struggle between Javert (Nic Greenshields) and Jean Valjean (Dean Chisnall), set against the backdrop of post revolutionary France, culminating in the Paris Uprising of 1832, forms th...

17Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Bedknobs & Broomsticks – The Lowry

Musical theatre in Britain is currently heavily influenced by Disney, with three shows (The Lion King, Mary Poppins and Frozen) playing in the West End at present, and 'Beauty and the Beast' arriving in Manchester next month as part of a national tour. Whether you think this is a good or bad thing, it shows no sign of dissipating with the next one off the production line, an adaptation of the much beloved 1971 film musical 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks'. It is fair to say that with a few minor tweaks, the House of Mouse could have another big hit on its hands. The original stories by Mary Norton, author of The Borrowers, were written in the immediate period after the Second World War and the story of the Rawlins children, Charlie (Conor O'Hara), Carrie (Isabella Bucknall) and Paul (Aidan Ot...

15Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Kes – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

The most frequent responses to my reviewing this new adaptation of 'Kes' at the newly refurbished Octagon Theatre in Bolton a co-production with Theatre by the Lake, were ' Ooh, I read that at school' or 'I love the film' (often followed by an impersonation of Brian Glover as the PE teacher). Any of the audience attending last night expecting a faithful rendition of the novel, or wanting a staged version of the film, would have been disappointed. What they got instead was an intensely theatrical experience; a story of 'a boy, not a bird', that should be appreciated for its own considerable merits. This northern story of Billy Casper (Jake Dunn) finding and training a kestrel is so embedded in the psyche, that the initial moments of this new adaptation by Robert Alan Evans are disorienta...

Nora: A Doll’s House – Royal Exchange Theatre

10Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Nora: A Doll’s House – Royal Exchange Theatre

Even though he resembled everyone's idea of a Victorian gentleman, Ibsen's radical 1879 study of a woman's place in a patriarchal, middle class Norwegian society, is often cited as a crucial accelerant to the nascent female emancipation movement at the end of the 19th century. It is therefore fitting that in the week we celebrate International Women's Day, that writer Stef Smith has adapted it to ' Nora: A Doll's House', examining how one of the most famous characters in theatre would have fared in three different time periods. The result is complex, confusing and frustrating in equal measure. We meet Nora as three separate entities simultaneously on stage. Nora 1918 (Kirsty Rider) cuts a frustrated figure, married and caged at the end of World War One as the suffrage movement is reachi...

Made in Dagenham – Riley Smith Theatre, Leeds

3Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Made in Dagenham – Riley Smith Theatre, Leeds

A successful west end musical can have the most unlikely source material. Who would have thought that the story of 19th Century French politics (Les Misérables) or a book of T.S. Eliot poems (Cats) would be in the top ten list of most successful shows ever? Given this, it is less than surprising that a musical based on the seemingly dry subject of equal pay in a car factory in grey, late 1960's industrial Britain, became a surprise hit back in 2014. Now LUU Music Theatre Society brings their considerable talent and energy to this revival at Leeds University for the next four nights. The story follows Rita O'Grady (Ellen Corbett) and her rise from a modest sewing machine operator at the Ford factory in Dagenham, to spokeswoman for her gender, striking when asked to do the equivalent job ...