North West Archives - Page 75 of 128

<strong>Bugsy Malone – Opera House, Manchester</strong>

9Nov

By Alison BainesNo Comments

North West

Bugsy Malone – Opera House, Manchester

Grab your sequins, pin-striped suits and splurge guns because Bugsy Malone is in town! This sparkling revival is packed with glamour, amazing choreography and a cast of future musical theatre stars. If you weren’t already aware, the show is performed by a complete cast of young people, however this is no school nativity, far from it in fact. The plot, light though it may be, follows the much-loved Bugsy Malone (Gabriel Payne) a penniless past boxer who just wants to take his new love, Blousey (Delilah Bennet-Cardy) to the shining lights of Hollywood to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a star. Bugsy gets mixed up in the New York gangster war of Fat Sam (Albie Snelson) and Dandy Dan (Desmond Cole). Custard pies are flung as rivalries flourish, but things get serious as the gangs b...

<strong>Seascapes and Mountains: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic</strong>

9Nov

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Seascapes and Mountains: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

On a grey, drizzly day in the city, a packed Philharmonic Hall is ready to escape the gloom outside for an aural expedition that will take us from the wilds of the Scottish Hebrides to the heights of Swiss Alps. Conductor Laureate (and ‘honorary Scouser’ as of 2009) Vasily Petrenko is greeted like an all-conquering hero and doesn’t hesitate to whisk us off on the first part of our journey as the familiar strains of Mendelssohn’ Hebrides overture, ‘Fingal’s Cave’ fill the hall. Petrenko is so ‘at one’ with his orchestra, it’s as if he never left. The magnificent harmonies swell together to bring the vast arches and columns of Staffa’s famous sea cave, and Mendelssohn’s musical inspiration, to life. The swaying of conductor and orchestra alike mirrors the waves that one can picture cra...

<strong>The Mousetrap – Liverpool Empire</strong>

9Nov

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

The Mousetrap – Liverpool Empire

There's been a murder within the community. Now when you think of murder mystery shows you either get a 3-course meal or your gathered around a Cluedo board wondering if it was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the knife. But this, however, was a full-scale production at the Liverpool Empire theatre. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap directed by Ian Talbot OBE and Denise Silvey. A new guest house has opened, and the hosts Mollie Ralston (Joelle Dyson) and Giles Ralston (Laurence Pears) are ready and waiting to welcome their guests. However, all is not as it seems, a murder has been committed by someone in a long coat, light scarf and a velvet hat. Everyone is a suspect. The first guest to arrive is Christopher Wren (Elliot Clay) an architect who loves to cook and find every person...

<strong>The Haunting of Blaine Manor – Epstein Theatre</strong>

5Nov

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Haunting of Blaine Manor – Epstein Theatre

Halloween may have passed, with thoughts turning towards mince pies and Maria Carey, but our ensemble tonight is not quite ready for us to completely escape all things that go bump in the night. Written and directed by award-winning writer Joe O’Byrne, ‘…Blaine Manor’ takes us back to the 1950s, introducing us to renowned American parapsychologist Doctor Roy Earle, (Peter Slater) famous for discrediting hauntings and exposing fake mediums. He has been invited to a séance at the most haunted building in England, but it soon becomes clear that there are more demons lurking than just the ones that Blaine Manor claims to house. As a storm sets in, secrets and lies are ripe for revealing, as well as the manor’s more unearthly inhabitants. The Epstein is an excellent choice for tonight’...

<strong>The Addams Family – Crewe Lyceum</strong>

4Nov

By Grace AnnabelNo Comments

North West

The Addams Family – Crewe Lyceum

Acton Operatic Society’s ‘Addams Family’, which marks the end of their two-year hiatus from performing full-scale musicals, is being staged in the grandeur of Crewe Lyceum Theatre from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th November, including a Saturday matinee. This quirky, comical musical has recently done the rounds with several amateur theatre groups in the North West recently. Therefore, I was intrigued to see how this society might put their own unique stamp on this production. Despite expecting to witness some ‘first night nerves’ on opening night, this certainly was not the case, and it was obvious from the outset that this was going to be a very slick performance. Ingeniously, on entering the theatre foyer, the audience members found themselves rubbing shoulders with an...

<strong>Strange Tale – Shakespeare North Playhouse</strong>

3Nov

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

Strange Tale – Shakespeare North Playhouse

Continuing with the opening season at Shakespeare North Playhouse, this tale explores the link between the 16th century poet and playwright to the Merseyside town of Prescot, in a fun, imaginative and engaging way. The production team “Imaginarium” is aptly named and as an award-winning ensemble, took us effortlessly and with enviable talent, through their “Strange Tale” of worm holes, eccentric lords, brassy landladies, besotted girls and tattooed thugs, to their adored town Prescot were somehow the bard had appeared. The Cockpit Theatre was a very fitting place to share with us the tale of how the bard transported from Stratford upon Avon in Tudor times to this pub in the centre of the Liverpudlian town. The links to the original Prescot Playhouse (where now stands a barber shop) w...

2Nov

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Disney’s The Lion King – Palace Theatre

There was a palpable sense of excitement in Manchester last night as the crowds made their way down Oxford Road to watch 'The Lion King' start its mammoth run at the venerable old Palace Theatre. Some in the audience have been waiting over two years, the original booking falling victim to the pandemic back in 2020, indeed such was the demand for tickets (over 200,000 sold for the initial weeks of performance), that the run has been further extended to the middle of March next year. I saw this production on its last visit to Manchester in 2012 and will admit to being slightly underwhelmed on that occasion, so I was interested to see if this time round it would live up to the hype. Should you be spending your hard earned money in the company of Simba and Pumba in the Pride Lands, rather t...

1Nov

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Shawshank Redemption – The Lowry

The 1994 screen version of 'The Shawshank Redemption' consistently tops the IMDB rankings as their most popular movie of all time, but this tale of Andy Dufresne, a banker wrongly convicted of killing his wife was a slow burner on its initial release, only achieving the preeminence it now enjoys in cinematic history over the ensuing thirty years. A similar glacial timeframe forms the backdrop to the story, being set over a two decades in the hellish surroundings of Shawshank prison in Maine and following Dufresne through his suffering and eventual vindication; a story of hope and a triumph of positivity under the most trying of circumstances. The film, based on the 1982 novella by Stephen King has become so pervasive in modern culture, that there will have been few attending the caverno...

31Oct

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Doing Whodunnit – Hope Street Theatre

The souvenir programme should have been the first clue of how tonight’s proceedings were going to go. Stretched headshot pictures and typos hint at the lack of finesse that has undone what could have been an excellent concept for a parody of the classic ‘Whodunnit’. Developed from what was a very well-received online piece during lockdown, tonight’s show from the Northern Comedy Theatre is based around the premise of a world-weary acting troupe whose schtick of putting on murder mysteries for corporate teams and parties is starting to test everyone’s patience, especially when 28 of the expected 30 punters from a local conservatory installation firm have failed to show for the latest outing. Soon a genuine murder occurs and anyone and everyone is a suspect. Unfortunately, the transiti...

28Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Friday the 13th – Rainhill Village Hall

Having set up Individuality Youth some eighteen months ago, producer Samantha Moores turns her attention to an older audience with this tragi-comedy from renowned French playwright Jean-Pierre Martinez, translated by Anne-Christine Gasc, and directed by Michèle Martin. John (Phil Halfpenny) and Christine (Moores) have invited two of their friends for dinner in their Liverpool home. Natalie (Lisa Mogan) arrives without her husband, distraught, having just heard that the plane bringing him home crashed at sea. With the potential widow they wait with bated breath for news confirming whether her husband is among the survivors, before discovering that they are the winners of that evening’s super jackpot lottery draw. From then on, the operative words are “controlling emotions”. And that is j...